Nevertheless, I shan't forget about this experience any time soon. The aesthetic, the strong characterization, the sound, the music, the *scent* of it, the fact that RINNE DESERVED BETTER, are going to be lodged inside my brain meat for a long, long time.
...
My tummy hurts.
#Euphoria

I truly believe that, looking past (or, rather, THROUGH) the various atrocities placed in front of my eyes, this game had earned its tragedy, its sadness, its sincere yet ultimately doomed romance. The true ending doesn't fully commit to that vibe, methinks.
#Euphoria peaked with Rinne's scenario.

I seriously did not need to have all my questions answered and I certainly did not need a prolonged conclusion that ties everything up in a neat bow whilst still being weirdly dissatisfying. It just kept going and going until the pathos was sucked out of its anal cavity.
#Euphoria

Unfortunately, it could not stick the landing. The finale committed the carnal sin of simultaneously over-explaining its own plot and overburdening its length, leaving no room for rumination. I wish it had the courage to leave us off with a more vague, open-ended and bitter resolution.
#Euphoria

In that sense, this game would be brilliant as a psychological horror. It starts from a place of obvious commentary about misogyny and female objectification only to flip itself over, multiple times, and whiplash you across the face as roles are subverted and realities are altered.
#Euphoria

It finds many ways to metaphorically rape you. As such, the question of Agency inevitably becomes muddier, more confusing and confounding when the environment itself forces you (both the player and the protagonist, that is) to doubt the validity of every event that took place at any point.
#Euphoria

That is the violence of living under an oppressing system: one that turns women into "keyholes" to open the door to "Paradise", one where the difference between assailant and victim is determined by chromosome count, one built on the sufferance of many for the BLISS of the few.
#Euphoria

#Euphoria is also a story about Violation. Not just the literal violation observed throughout the game but the more insidious, manipulative kind that messes with your mind, your sense of reality, to the point you can no longer be assured of your own choices.

#Euphoria is a story about Agency. It interrogates what it means to have free will and whether or not that is applicable in a given situation. How much do our personal feelings matter and how the environment may influence them. Where does said influence ends and our true selves begin?

Great things are going down at the *anal birth* segment!
#Euphoria

There's a special place in Hell for sinners such as myself.
#Euphoria #Pokemon

The line between abuser and abused becoming blurrier, more complicated, more traumatic, as the violence escalates with each new cycle... Again, if you play #Euphoria in the *correct* order.
Hence why the regular Eroge structure could potentially do more harm than good to the narrative.

Characterizations, in general, tend to be insidious and clever, lulling the main character (and you) into a false sense of security, an illusion of control literally and figuratively bestowed upon him by the environment, only to dramatically disrupt the status quo when the time is ripe.
#Euphoria

There is, however, a meaningful depth to her behaviour, a hidden darkness, that gets exposed in Rinne's route. It shall re-contextualize the nature of her childish nature all throughout the game.
#Euphoria

The resolution to her arc is, by far, the weakest as it attempts to speedrun through a simultaneous heroic redemption for her willingly unwilling rapist and a romantic relationship between the two that has absolutely no business existing. It basically hand-waves all the pain away.
#Euphoria

Every heroine reacts in a different manner to what they are forced to endure, leading to uniquely *flavoured* dynamics with the protagonist. Rika is the most *victim-coded* out of all of them, which paints her abuser in the scariest light. So, she's the logical starting point.
#Euphoria

That will happen if you read through Natsuki's route before her own. On the other hand, the quality between these scenarios is uneven. Rika and Natsuki's stories are clearly meant to be played first, and I am going to insist that they should be played first.
#Euphoria

This runs the risk of diminishing the impact of these very same twists when they eventually become relevant. For example: it's slightly dissatisfying to be clued in on what Rinne's role is before actually seeing what her story entails - and how utterly INSANE it all is.
#Euphoria

The visual novel styled fragmentation of the overarching narrative through multiple scenarios is more of a detriment than a boon, I noted. Each route is divided in two halves, the "Death Game" and the world outside of it. The latter halves always tease or outright reveal key plot twists.
#Euphoria