After playing for a while, Furukawa Hirozawa still put the TV back upright.
He mainly felt that playing game like this was too disrespectful to the game developers.
Shinji Mikami and Urobuchi Gen designed it this way precisely because they wanted you to experience the inverted world.
If you didn't get to experience both different sensations, it would be a great pity.
So Furukawa Hirozawa stood up from the tatami mat and flipped the TV back over.
This process was truly exhausting.
Furukawa Hirozawa felt like all his energy for the day had been used up.
His daily exercise quota should be met, right?
As he thought this, Furukawa Hirozawa looked up at the clock on the wall; it was already past 2 AM.
No, no, he couldn't keep pushing himself like this.
Furukawa Hirozawa thought.
He was no longer the young man he was a few years ago; now he had quite a few subordinates at the company.
Although his job title hadn't been promoted much, his Eiji was constantly increasing, and his physical strength had also declined significantly, so he couldn't pull all-nighters anymore.
However, fortunately, tomorrow was Sunday, and Furukawa Hirozawa was still confident he could clear the game.
The duration of Pokeni game is generally around 10 to 20 hours, but there are some special cases, such as The Witcher with multiple endings, which requires playing a second playthrough, a third playthrough, or even longer.
For players like Furukawa Hirozawa, within 20 hours is actually quite good; he can enjoy it to the fullest over a weekend.
If it's too long, people can't take it.
So he put down the controller, turned off the TV and game console, and went back to bed.
...
That night, Furukawa Hirozawa had a strange dream. He dreamed that he was flying headfirst, then falling into the endless sky.
White clouds floated around him.
It was strange; he was clearly a three-dimensional human, yet he inexplicably lived in a two-dimensional world, and when he looked down, the ground showed Patema's lovely appearance.
Patema looked up at Furukawa Hirozawa, then quickly became a small dot in his line of sight.
Furukawa Hirozawa felt as if he was suddenly pulled by a rope, and his whole body plunged downwards.
Falling.
Falling endlessly!
Ah~!
Furukawa Hirozawa shouted, sitting up from his bed.
He was gasping for breath, frightened by the nightmare he had just had.
By the time he came to his senses, his back was completely soaked.
It was too terrifying...
Furukawa Hirozawa covered his face with his hands. The sense of weightlessness was too real, and the endless fall was like hell; he didn't even know if he would float into outer space.
He took a long time to calm down before finally exhaling.
"My goodness, Patema's experience is actually like this."
Furukawa Hirozawa even felt some sympathy for the female protagonist in the game. If he were in her situation, running on the ground and falling straight up into the sky once he left a building with a ceiling...
He could hardly imagine his mental state not collapsing.
...
He looked up at the time; it was already past 8 AM.
It was strange; the dream felt so short, yet a long time had passed.
But sometimes it was the other way around.
Furukawa Hirozawa struggled to go to the bathroom to wash his face, then sat back down in front of the TV.
Good!
He clenched his fist, aiming to clear this game today.
To be honest, patema inverted was much more addictive than typical side-scrolling game. Besides the rich game experience, it also had a strong storyline.
The setting where the plot and levels naturally merged made people particularly enjoy it and wonder what would happen next.
Not only the game itself, Furukawa Hirozawa really wanted to know what Patema's fate would turn out to be.
...
Continuing the game, he quickly reached the end of the fourth act.
Evade the guards, open the door to freedom.
Just as she was about to reach the exit, Patema suddenly flew upwards.
Outside was the endless sky, and at that moment, the chain on Patema's hand was suddenly yanked, preventing her from flying straight up.
It turned out to be Aihe Leader who had caught her.
[Hehe]
The man in a Japanese-European military uniform revealed a cold smile at the corner of his mouth.
End of Act Four.
Ah!
Damn it!
She had just managed to escape.
Furukawa Hirozawa thought. He had originally thought he would soon meet the male protagonist or return to the underground city, but he didn't expect her to be caught at the last moment.
Urobuchi Gen always likes to cause trouble, giving you hope only to quickly snatch that faint hope away.
However, judging from the plot at the end of Act Four just now, if she hadn't been caught in time, would Patema have fallen into the sky?
...
[Act Five: Inverted Eiji]
Patema was imprisoned in Aiga's management center.
The management center was an observatory-like building with a huge circular glass dome.
Patema hung upside down above, squatting on the glass ceiling. When she looked down, below was an endless starry sky.
Beautiful and splendid, yet fatal to her.
Furukawa Hirozawa had already experienced this feeling in his dream last night.
The screen suddenly went black, and when it lit up again, the scene had switched.
On the ground, the male protagonist, Eiji, was anxious to death because Patema had been captured. Just then, from that huge pit (which was actually the entrance to the underground world), a young boy slowly climbed out headfirst via a straight rope.
This perspective was strange and amusing, because from the other person's perspective, he should be equivalent to rappelling down from a cliff.
The newly appeared boy's name was Porta. He had risked his life to rappel down from the cave to find the chief's daughter, Patema.
As soon as he appeared, just like Patema at the time, he encountered the male protagonist. The two looked at each other, then Porta attacked Eiji, wanting to force this hateful Aiga person to reveal Patema's whereabouts.
After some conversation, Porta finally learned that Patema was imprisoned in the management center.
So Porta took Eiji back to the underground city to discuss how to rescue Patema.
The elders of the tribe took out a map, depicting the paths between Aiga City and the underground city.
After all, the underground city was built beneath the entire city of Aiga, with various interconnected pipes, meaning Eiji could go through the underground to Patema's room.
...
At this point, the transition ended, and the game restarted.
In this act, the male protagonist is the main perspective, so the entire underground city is inverted. From this perspective, the Underground People appear to be running on the ceiling to the male protagonist, but in reality, the male protagonist himself is standing on the ceiling.
To rescue Patema, this time it's the male protagonist Eiji and the second male protagonist Porta working together.
Since Porta is heavier, he will basically walk on the upper part of the screen without additional counterweight.
Playing to this point, Furukawa Hirozawa couldn't help but reveal a charmingly evil smile.
The designers of this game are simply too talented. At first, it was the male protagonist and female protagonist combining, with Eiji clearly being heavier. Now with Porta, the situation is different again.
The experience always feels fresh.
...
Since it's a two-person combined mode, the game controls are quite similar to those in Act Two. When the two people's gravities cancel each other out, the height and distance of jumps will greatly increase.
At the same time, Porta is different from Patema; he is a boy with great strength. In the levels, he occasionally takes on tasks like moving rubble and clearing the path to the next level.
This means that different characters in the game have different skills.
This also aligns with the characters' own settings.
Furukawa Hirozawa wasn't playing an underground maze for the first time, but experiencing it in this way truly had a unique kind of fun.
In the underground city, the deeper you go, the more likely you are to encounter fierce beasts hiding underground. At such times, you must be especially careful not to be caught by them.
The game's level design is very creative, with mazes of gradually increasing difficulty and complexity, as well as more challenging enemies...
There are also many elevators in the underground world. Of course, for the male protagonist, he sits headfirst in reverse.
Furukawa Hirozawa felt the Japanese cyberpunk style in this game.
The worldview and art style are truly amazing!
...
The end of Act Five was a very deep vertical shaft.
This vertical shaft connected directly to the bottom of the Aiga Management Center, and when looking down, it was a bottomless darkness.
In the game, Eiji and Porta hugged each other, standing on the edge of the vertical shaft, while the Elder NPC stood at the far right of the level, guiding them.
"Jump down from here, keep falling, and when you hit the bottom, you'll see Aiga."
Hmm.
Furukawa Hirozawa nodded, indicating that from the perspective of the Elder standing on the ceiling, this was clearly the case.
But from his perspective, it should be flying upwards all the way.
There were many similar [inducements] in the game, which could be said to be full of Shinji Mikami and Gen Urobuchi's mischievous tastes:
If you couldn't understand these words from the other person's perspective, you might go completely astray.
Furukawa Hirozawa initially fell to his death many times because the other party said [down], and when the NPC said [up], he flew up and also fell to his death.
Now he was already used to it.
When you get used to this set of narrative logic, you will actually have a deeper understanding of the entire game's worldview.
Although Furukawa Hirozawa had once cursed Gen Urobuchi's entire family, he was now somewhat grateful.
What a screenwriter with such a sense of conviction, willing to give players [wrong] guidance to achieve his story and worldview.
...
Alright, I understand, Elder.
Aiga is on the ground, so you have to fly up.
Inverted people, we're all the same.
Furukawa Hirozawa muttered to himself as he manipulated the controller and jumped into the vertical shaft.
After discarding the counterweight, Porta carried Eiji and flew up.
The surrounding scenery changed, in the dark, rust-colored metal aisle, there were only some faint blue lights.
Making the whole scene eerie and quiet.
Furukawa Hirozawa couldn't help but hold his breath.
He didn't relax until he flew to the ceiling and landed firmly.
[Act Six: To the Starry Sky]
After Porta and Eiji entered Aiga's Management Center, their next task was to find Patema, who was imprisoned in the top-floor glass tower.
In this process, they had to avoid Aiga's guards and also find various keys to open doors.
There were some places where they could take the [upper shortcut]. If Porta had a higher counterweight, he could pull the male protagonist up, flying upwards like a hydrogen balloon.
After a series of twists and difficult efforts, the male protagonist finally reached the top floor.
Porta parted ways with the male protagonist here. Next, the male protagonist would go alone to the hemispherical glass tower in the center of the rooftop to rescue Patema.
...
He opened the door with the key and immediately saw Patema floating in the center.
Furukawa Hirozawa quickly jumped and ran onto the high platform.
End of Act Six.
Next, the transition animation for Act Seven began:
The male protagonist, Eiji, walked over and embraced Patema, both crying tears of joy.
Only the posture was a bit strange; Patema was hanging upside down, held by the male protagonist's waist.
Both their heads were at the other's chest.
But even so, Furukawa Hirozawa still found it quite touching.
"Let's go, let's fly out." Eiji said, holding Patema and preparing to jump off the rooftop.
However, when they tried, they found that both of them flew up:
Because Patema had a counterweight handcuff that made her fly upwards, Patema's weight plus the handcuff was already greater than the male protagonist's. If they continued like this, they would only fly into the endless sky.
Just then, Aihe Leader arrived upon hearing the news. He grabbed Patema's hand and kicked Eiji away.
Eiji tumbled on the rooftop, almost falling off.
Between the edges of the rooftop, there were dense tiny dots below. The entire building was at least a dozen meters high.
Although it was just an illustration, Furukawa Hirozawa felt his acrophobia acting up.
"How unsightly." Aihe Leader said, "Those who disrupt order, even Aiga's own people, deserve death. Just like this inverted person."
Eiji angrily retorted: "What's wrong with flying into the sky?!"
"You don't need to see unnecessary things!" Aihe Leader said.
"You're afraid!" The male protagonist saw through his inner weakness and said, staring into his eyes, "My father once said that when you look down at the earth from the sky, you'll realize what a tiny country Aiga is.
You're just afraid of that fact!"
Aihe Leader was enraged. He tightly grasped Patema with one hand to prevent her from flying into the sky, then pulled out a gun from his Pregnant and handed it to his attendant, telling him to shoot the male protagonist.
And just as this person aimed the gun at Eiji, Patema suddenly kicked hard with both legs, using Aihe Leader's body to lunge towards Eiji.
Eiji also reacted instantly, pouncing forward and embracing Patema.
Whoosh!
The two of them flew up.
Directly soaring over everyone's heads, like a balloon.
The people below watched in disbelief, their mouths agape and eyes wide with astonishment.
...
My goodness...
Furukawa Hirozawa's reaction was similar to theirs, his heart filled with extreme shock.
To do something like that, how much courage must Patema have?
One had to know that this was equivalent to letting go of one's hands from the top of a cliff and jumping into the air.
If Eiji hadn't caught her, Patema would have faced only death.
Although he knew she would definitely be caught by the male protagonist in the end, Furukawa Hirozawa still held his breath for her.
Pokeni has really been creating better and better female protagonist characters recently.
Patema's courage is comparable to Miyazaki's female protagonist, and such a brave and cute girl is truly likable.
...
The transition animation ended.
The next segment was in-game footage, but the camera was pulled back very far. In the cross-section, two small figures hugged each other and flew upwards.
Oh my, where are they flying to?
Although Furukawa Hirozawa wanted to find something that could increase the male protagonist's counterweight to descend, the sky was empty.
And there was no death; they just kept flying upwards.
At first, Furukawa Hirozawa thought it was a bug, but the background image kept changing, indicating that the two were indeed rising higher and higher, but he didn't know when it would end.
Clouds constantly swept past, while the starry sky above gradually became clearer.
...
My goodness!
That's...
Furukawa Hirozawa's eyes widened, because that wasn't a starry sky at all; it was — the lights of a city.
The two floated slowly, and above them, a row of huge cities appeared.
Tall buildings, like swords, stood straight up, their tips pointing downwards.
Nani?!
What's going on?!
Aiga's starry sky, is it actually another city?!
Furukawa Hirozawa was shocked to the point of a tingling scalp.
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