Community Visual Novel Book Club - Raging Loop

[Exzyleph]

Welcome to the 16th MetaCouncil visual novel book club!

For this book club we will be reading KEMCO's Raging Loop, a time-loop mystery visual novel about a village trapped in the mist, in which ancient gods hunt the living. Bookclub participants can obtain Raging Loop on Steam, on the Nindento Switch, and on PS4. Raging Loop is a 'Long' visual novel according to VNDB and is expected to take around 40 hours according to HLTB.​

This is an informal book club, so there is no fixed schedule; you simply read a visual novel at your own pace, and share your thoughts along the way or when you are done reading. Just remember to use spoiler tags liberally. For general information about past and future book clubs, please see the main MetaCouncil Book Club thread.​

The Story

​

"After breaking up with his girlfriend, grad student Haruaki Fusaishi goes on a motorcycle trip to forget her, only to end up stranded in the remote settlement of Yasumizu. The next day, as he is repairing his bike, a mysterious mist drifts in, and all the villagers shelter inside their homes. Confused, Haruaki sees a mysterious figure with the body of a human and the head of a wolf that kills him.

Haruaki finds that instead of dying, however, he has instead looped back in time. After managing to hide from the creature this time, he discovers the village must engage in a ritual known as a "feast." Several of them have been replaced with spirits of ancient "wolves" that will kill one villager each night, and it is up to the villagers to discover who amongst them are the wolves, and execute them. Caught in an all-out war of doubt and trust, can Haruaki survive and discover the mysteries behind the feast and his looping...?"

[Taken from VNDB]​

Walkthroughs

A walkthrough is not needed to play Raging Loop.​

Next Month

The bookclub will going on an indefinite hiatus for personal reasons starting next year, but I hope to resume within a few months.​

 

[Theswweet]

Oh shit! A VN that I own that I haven't read yet!

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

I know I say this every time, but I really want to participate in this one. The game has been in my backlog for sometime and by all accounts, its well received.

 

[Exzyleph]

I finished reading up until the first death so I think that'll be a good place for a first-impressions post.

So far I am quite enjoying what I am seeing: The premise is interesting, as are the characters, and it has an unusual, but nice-looking artstyle. And it has a built-in flowchart, which is always a big plus in my book. My only complaint so far is that the game comes off as not quite trusting the reader. The tutorial/info-dump in the beginning is an example of this, as is the fact that locked choices are always visible. I think I'd have preferred if those choices were only revealed once you met the preconditions to unlock them, instead of being hit over the head with the fact that here is a choice you'll unlock later. However, those are relatively minor complaints, all things considered.

Up until first death

To briefly summarize, Haruaki gets lost on an impromptu bike-trip, ends up wrecking his bike near Yasumizu village, and discovers that it is a village that harbors some strange residents and stranger secrets. This read ended with a strange mist descending upon the village, everyone seeking shelter, and Haruaki seemingly being torn apart by a three-eyed werewolf when he dared to leave his shelter.

So far we have not learned a lot of concrete facts, but it is notable just how superstitious Yasumizu is. Apparently this was a village that at one point disposed of strangers by throwing them off a cliff and into the river that they believe to be connected to the land of the dead. There is also the question of the purpose of the strange musical broadcast that Haruaki hears the first time he enters the village. I think the implication was that it was similar to the jingle from the minimart, but I am not entirely sure.

One major question is whether or not this is a supernatural tale outside of the time-loop element: Is the werewolf real or just somebody who escaped an episode of Scooby-Doo? Current events and their presentation definitely point towards the supernatural, but I think it is too early to exclude mundane explanations. The superstitious nature of the village would certainly allow for somebody to capitalize on those beliefs, for reasons yet unknown, and present themselves as something supernatural. There is of course the nature of the mist: Just before it first appears, when Haruaki sees an unidentified girl near the holy site/graveyard, Haruaki seems to almost go into a trance, which makes me wonder if that was a side effect of the mist or of something else. Could the mist be hallucinogenic in nature?

I also noted that Haruaki counted the silver-haired priestess (Rikako according to the tutorial) among the villagers, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not the case. Instead I suspect that the unmotivated shop-keeper that we saw early in the game is the 13th villager. The events near the holy site clearly establishes Rikako as being connected to the "feast", since she straight up tried to warn Haruaki about what was about to occur. Additionally, the early sighting by Haruaki suggests that she might not actually be physically present, but that's about all we know

Finally, one part that stood out to me was the prefab building that Haruaki came across while following Rikako the first time he saw her, after the night of drinking with Cheimi. IIRC, is suggested that some sort of construction had been going on before it was interrupted by a land-slide. If so, that seems likely to connect with whatever is going on in the village. Could somebody be trying to prevent that construction or perhaps be trying to recover something from the site?

As a final note, do view the tip once you reach the first death.

 

[Exzyleph]

I jumped straight back into Raging Loop and it really got its hooks into me by now.

The following covers "Yomi", from the 11th upto and including the 14th:

Yomi: 5/11 - 5/14

5/11 - 5/12

The first thing I noticed was that the foreknowledge that we obtains, the key, apparently has no effect until we actually make a choice using that key. To be honest, that is a bit disappointing as I'd have like the protagonist to reflect on this knowledge up to that point, but it does make sense considering that the flowchart is designed to allow you to skip to any point at any time.

This time Haruaki stays inside the outhouse, where he observes somebody/something trying to forcefully open the door (literally shaking the entire structure). It seems odd that the being (wolf?) is unable to break open the door, esp. considering that the seeming feats of strength that we later see performed in the context of the murders.

5/13
The next day we learn that the two journalists (Mimiya and Yudai) were the first victims. Notably, both corpses have been completely mangled, with Mimiya seemingly being crushed before being torn apart. We also learn that two wolves have entered the village, communicated by the presence of two of the diamond symbols also found in the game's cover (see the OP). All means of communication and transport have been destroyed and the village is supposedly cut off by the mist.

Interestingly, it is suggested that Haruaki should not have been able to stay awake during the night, and indeed he is unable to do so during the second night. This suggests that the mist or something relating to the mist serves as a sedative, which would also explain how the wolves are able to overpower their prey (e.g. Kanzo). There is possibly a connection to the food in the village being a trigger or prerequisite, as this happens after he drank water from the communal area, something that Cheimi also touches upon and why she tries to prevent Haruaki from eating food from the village.

At this point the first ritual meeting/trial takes place, but Haruaki is excluded on grounds of not being subject to the rules, since he apparently survived despite not having followed the rules. However, we also know that he would have been dead if not for foreknowledge.

We learn that two people have been "replaced" by wolves. Taken at face value, this means that we cannot assume that the two reporters are actually dead; maybe the big guy, due to the mountain of flesh, but the dead woman was possibly one of the women from the village rather than the female reporter. However, as I am also inclined to believe so far, Haruaki will later treat the "wolves" as roles taken on by people in the village. If so, then the journalists are most likely dead, as nobody (dead or alive) seems unaccounted for, except for the woman from the minimart.

We also learn of the four guardians, snake, monkey, crow, and spider, and Takumi claims to be the snake, having the power to identify one person as human or wolf per night. Everyone instantly believes him, but weirdly he kinda stumbles when asked not to lie about what he finds. His first tasks is to check Kiyonosuke, who is subsequently identified as human. Taken at face valve, that would mark them both as "human", but that is predicated on Takumi actually being the snake. It is possible that he is lying about that, though that does come with the risk of somebody calling him out. However, if non-villagers can be guardians (see Meiko being a monkey), then it is possible that one of the journalists was the snake or even that Haruaki was the snake, none of whom would be likely to call out Takumi (being dead or excluded from the trial).

5/14
We learn that two more people have been killed during the night: Kanzo was killed in his sleep, possibly while sedated, and Yoshitsuge was killed after a struggle while outside. While the death of Kanzo would not nessesarily involve any feats of strength, that is not the case for Yoshitsuge. Not only did he might back, but he was also dismembered, something that is not easy to do. The reason why I keep bringing up feats of strength is that it naturally limits who could be involved in a given murder. Meiko could not, for example, have killed Yoshitsuge, even if we ignore that she is a monkey.

Haru is also acting strangely, making Haruaki question whether or not she could be a wolf, and eventually tries to flee the village towards Kamifujiyoshi. Haruaki justifies this behavior as her seeking the school, but it could also relate to who might be running the "game", see below.

During the feast the old man is chosen, but he and Mocchi are killed by somebody before the old man can be hanged. This immediately brings to mind Cheimi, whom Haruaki finds outside his door holding a (Chekhov's?) knife when he wakes. She claims that it is for self defense, but as Mocchi and the old man were seemingly killed with a sharp instrument, one has to wonder if it is not Cheimi's doing, even if Haruaki seemingly does not make that connection.

Misc
It is kinda interesting that Haruaki remains an hardened skeptic, despite realizing that he remembered the "future". He is even aware of the game structure in some way: "if I died, I'd just go back to the starting point". I'm not quite sure how he squares the two, but it'll be interesting to see where that goes.

Going into wild speculation territory, the ritual seems to be intentionally designed game, as pointed out by Haruaki. Assuming that there is nothing supernatural going on, then the obvious questions are as follows: Who designed this game and who is running it? How are the wolves chosen and made to murder if they are just regular villagers? Why is the game being run at this point, seemingly after 70+ years of no feasts?

My wild speculation so far is that the ritual was designed by the heads of the main families in Kamifujiyoshi, either as a sport or as a means of disposing of ostracized individuals that were a threat or inconvenient to the main families. If the family heads are involved, this may also explain how the "wolves" can be controlled, namely under the threat of close relatives of the wolves being themselves ostracized, or perhaps even with the promise that they wolves would be allowed to return from exile if they succeeded. As to why the game is being run now, I suspect that the abandoned construction site has something to do with this, though the details are of course unclear at this point. I wonder if Kiyonosuke's exile is related to that project, as the project was run by his family.

If the main families are running the game, then that might also explain a point I have been wondering about: Who is preventing the wolves from just killing everyone? And what would happen if the wolves broke the rules? If the game main families run the game, then they would be able to pushing the wolves who broke the rules of the game.

 

[Exzyleph]

Finished the rest of Yomi, so I'm rushing to write a post so that I can continue reading.

Yomi - 5/15 to end

5/15
The victim of the third night is Takumi, who is thus confirmed to have been human and probably the snake, as he claimed. However, for whatever reason Rikako has gone insane and has to be locked inside her home. The reason for this is unclear, though it is suggested that she was responsible for the killing of Mocchi and the Old Man, and that her insanity was punishment for breaking the rules. To be honest, that doesn't really sit well with me, but we'll see.

Later on Cheimi is shown to have lost the knife that we first saw her brandishing, and instead offers Haruaki something that he describes as a hunting knife, though it looked more like a miltary knife to me (see below why that is relevant). In any case, the fact that we have a missing knife and two people with their stomacs cut open raises some major flags, but it is not addressed.

Interestingly, no sound of water is heard when Takumi's corpse is thrown into the river. Corpses were disposed of like that because of Tae, one of the wolves, which makes me wonder if something has been setup to collect the corpses. Supposedly there is nothing unusual about corpses in that river, but it could have been done to cover up the ritual.

We also learn that Meiko seems to have been involved in one feast already: She claims to have fled from the wolf, and that the "horse", one of several animals, was eaten by the wolf. Could there be more villages like this one in the area, subject to the kinds of purges?

The day ends with Kaori trying to murder the other villagers (except possibly Yasu and Haru) and her being put to death following a vote at the feast.

But before they go to sleep, Haruaki presses Cheimi for details about the "god" she is afraid of. Notably, we learn that god is "visible", "a human", and why "we can't attain happiness". All of this makes me suspect one or more of the family heads in Kamifujiyoshi. At that point, somebody clad in sutra scrolls show up and tells them that "The wolf commeth .. To the smell of Yomi .. Cleanse, shelter, and dream .. Daughter of Fushiyoshi", before vanishing again. The person is described as a "smallish boy - or girl", but I did not recognize their voice (I'm terrible at that anyway). The name seems similar to the name of the main village, Kamifujiyoshi, but that's just guesswork.

5/16
The next day Kiyonosuke is supposedly dead (we never see the corpse) and Yasu and Tae shortly reveal themselves to be the wolves.

They have somehow been convinced beyond all doubt that the villagers were the actual Yomi, and that they had to be slain. The myth that we heard was supposedly an inversion of the true myth, where the guardians are the yomi and the wolves are the faithful servants of god. How they became convinced of this is unclear, but we do learn that Haru learned the same thing in a dream during the first night. As such, I suspect that the wolves are chosen and brainwashed during the night, possibly during the first night of the mist (when the reporters were killed by the "corruption").

First Haru and then Cheimi is revealed to also be vulnerable to this brainwashing, offering yet another hint that the food or water in the village is somehow contaminated, as Cheimi herself explicitly fears. This will likely be answered in the next route, since Haruaki explicitly stated that he wanted to see what happened if he didn't eat the food all the way to the end of this loop.

Eventually Haruaki realizes that Yasu is giving him and Cheimi a chance to run away and they take it. However, the mist traps them, Cheimi dies inexplicably, and both Meiko and Haruaki are killed by (three!) wolves.

Misc
The biggest question is probably whether or not there are natural or supernatural explanations to what we've seen. Most of the killings can be explained through mundane means, though there are obviously unanswered questions about the exact methods. However, that leaves Cheimi's death, where she literally falls apart while trying to run away. There is also the entity that showed up to warn Cheimi and Haruaki before the last night.

However, it is possible that details in both of those scenes are induced via hallucinogenic agents. You could also theorize some sort of poison gas that only affects those who have eaten the food and drunk the water in the village, but I am not too keen on introducing elements like that.

One thing that suddenly stuck me was that the wolves eyes are reminiscent of military low-light/infrared goggles with three lenses. That could potentially explain how the wolves are able to hunt in the middle of the mist. And similarly, the wolf-suits could cover for gas-masks to keep out whatever is inducing sleep during the nights when the wolves hunt. There is of course a major limitation to this conjecture, in that the ritual appears to have been going on for much longer than than the availability of such gear.

I was also surprised to find the wolves revealed themselves at the end of Yomi and I'm looking forward to seeing if the wolves will be the same people the next time around or if the roles will change in each "route". If I am correct in guessing when the roles are assigned, namely during the first mist, then that is a possibility.

From everything we've learned, I'm still leaning heavily towards the ritual being a method for the village heads of Kamifujiyoshi to eliminate undesirable people, and I am also still leaning towards my initial guess that this has something to do with the Nosato construction site.

Finally, I am increasingly becoming interested in who or what Haruaki is. His behavior is surprisingly for a student, as is pointed out by multiple people, and there is the obvious question as to how he can remember events that happened in previous routes and how he even seems to be somewhat aware of the structure of the VN itself. Interestingly, the sheep refers to him (or to YOU) as "wanderer" ("Just a dream, wanderer") and I kinda doubt that it is merely because of the way that Haruaki arrived at the village.

One meta possibility is that Haruaki is the unwitting agent or tool of some entity that we, the readers, either represent or are observing the story through the eyes of. Another possibility is that his power is that of an as of yet unknown guardian. But that is all pure speculation.

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

My potato PC will never run Cyberpunk so I've started playing this instead. Solid start. The intro where they explain what a visual novel is was kinda weird but I loved the humour.

 

[Exzyleph]

My potato PC will never run Cyberpunk so I've started playing this instead. Solid start. The intro where they explain what a visual novel is was kinda weird but I loved the humour.

Yeah, it felt like they don't trust the player to know/understand what a VN is. But at least it was funny.

Anyway, my progressed slowed down a bit for real-life reasons, but the following covers Infiltration up until just after the first Feast:

Infiltration - First Feast

At the start of this route we learn that something is preventing Haruaki from escaping, regardless of what he does. That's not too surprising (otherwise it would be a short game), but the question is who/what/why. We also get some more hints that something weird is up with minimart. Why does it seemingly stash everything that Haruki needed? This, and the fact that the attendant intentionally led Haruki to Yasumizu, makes me wonder if that place/attendant is tied to who/what is orchestrating all of this. Alternatively, the attendant may be connected to Shoji Higuchi, see below.

While attempting to get to Yasumizu, we learn several interesting facts. Firstly that Cheimi has quite the reputation in Fujiyoshi. Secondly, that the use of fire is forbidden outside of specific locations on the mountain, and that a single family controls fire and access to food. There are also more hints that food is used to control the population, and not just in terms of access, with Haruaki describing Fujiyoshi villagers as something like sleepwalkers (I forget the exact term used) when he first sees them, behavior that seemingly ends after they've eaten.

We also get strong hints that Shoji Higuchi, one of the family heads is involved in the Feast. It is because of him that the journalists ended up in Yasumizu and he is also quite eager to send Haruaki there as well once he shows up in Fuijiyoshi. Was the feast triggered because of those two (and possibility because of Haruaki, if the minimart attendant was involved with Shoji)? Additionally, we learn that Fujiyoshi is "strangely rich for a mountain village", suggesting that Shoji and company have some illicit sources of income that he may wish to cover up, or which may even be tied to the feast itself.

The first suggestion that it is not just Haruaki that is looping occurs when he meets Cheimi again for the first time, after he returns to Yasumizu, at which point she breaks into tears. However, she either does not remember actual details of the previous loop or is hiding the fact that she does remember, as she states that she does not know why she is crying, and has yet to act based on knowledge from the last loop.

After a bunch of re-introductions and running about, Haruaki managers to secure shelter for both himself and the reporters. While doing this, we learn that the disaster at the construction site occurred due to the mists, and (later) that Haru's parents were among the casualties there, explaining why she is pitied by other villagers in Yasumizu. This time around, Haruaki also intentionally partakes in the village food, which will likely have consequences down the line, though that is the second time in this route considering that he also ate at Fujiyoshi.

Eventually the mists show up and Haruaki is incapacitated again. The next day he discovers that he is the 'snake' this time around, immediately confirming that roles are not static. That is not too surprising, all things considered, but I kinda expected the game to drag out that reveal. In that case, our knowledge about roles from the Yomi route won't be helpful here. Additionally, we learn that there are three wolves rather than two this time around, possibly as a consequence of there being one more person alive. We also learn from Rikako that Fujiyoshi relies on Yasumizu, supposedly as the front-line against the creatures from Yomi, though our knowledge from the previous route casts doubt on the official story.

The first victim is Yudai, who is found dead due to him having attempted to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, thus triggering the Feast. I kinda expected that discovery to unlock the choice where you could ask him to swap places, but I guess keys are only unlocked by deaths. Rikako intends to cleanse the corpse of corruption in some way, implied to involve literally consuming parts of it, but is stopped by Takumi. That may relate to why she went mad in the previous routes, rather than it being due to her murdering Mocchi and the Old Man.

During the feast we learn that the wolves are two parents and one child. It is unclear if that is reflected in who can be wolves, but it does fit the roles the lat time around (ie. at most two adults and at most one child). It also seems that the feast occurred 8 years ago, during which Kanzo participated. Strangely he seems to be the only one that participated. In terms of roles, Haruaki is the snake, Kanzo and Yasu are monkeys, and Rikako claims to not have a guardian.

While discussing this, Rikako at one point says that she had a feeling that "god would rise again", causing both Haru and Cheimi to panic. This suggests to me that whatever "god" is, it is connected to the landslide where Haru lost her parents. I expect this "god" to be the sutra clad figure we save near the end of Yomi, probably being a controlling figure from Fujiyoshi.

One thing that came up is the distinction between the villagers as wolves and whoever is running around in wolf costumes (assuming that this is a Scooby-Doo story and not actual supernatural horror). It seems that the latter are the ones who are controlling the game and enforcing the rules, and I would suspect that those are people from Fujiyoshi.

 

[Exzyleph]

The following covers Infiltration up until the second choice in the third feast, but before making a choice.
That choice is quite interesting, so I decided to pen down my thoughts before picking an option.

The Snake investigated the following characters: Muro and Nosato

Infiltration - Third feast, before making second choice

Tuesday, 5/13, continued ..

In this reading, Hisako points out some interesting details about the myth of the Ookami, though I am not sure if this leads to anything. We also learn of the Badger, a traitor human that helps the wolves, the role played by Haru in the first route. In this route, my suspicion is that Hisako was assigned this role, see below, possibly believing that she could would be spared if she helped the wolves "win" the game.

Haruaki also makes the mistake of giving away that he is looping, when he tells Yoshi that "I already tried it [fighting the wolves]", which was seemingly overheard by half the village. Most notably is Haru's later reaction, in which she exhibits a second personality that is seemingly familiar with this phenomena, suggesting some sort of possession. Alternatively, that personality simply believes Haruaki to be a Yomibito that was killed in a previous feast, presumably some years ago. Later we learn that this behavior followed the death of her parents during the last(?) feast, eight years ago, and that the Uemetso somehow mitigated this behavior or supposed mental illness.

Interestingly, Rikako also hints at the looping phenomena, as she tells Haruki "goodbye" and expresses a desire to meet in another life. This is likely spurned by her trying to take the fall for Meiko, whom Rikako seems to believe to have a guardian (the spider).

At this point I choose to investigate Takumi. I didn't think a whole lot about this choice, to be honest, he was simply first on the list. Nobody dies during that night, bringing us swiftly to the next feast.

Wednesday, 5/14

During the feast Hisako claims to be the snake, which we know to be false. It also becomes apparent that she is a terrible liar. The purpose of her revealing herself like this seems to be to draw out the real snake. She is thought to be a wolf, but I suspect that she is actually the badger and is merely being used by the wolves. Her subsequent death while outside adds to this, as wolves would not normally be killed for being outside at night, while humans would be. The feast eventually ends with the death of Tae, as Harauki cannot reveal himself as the snake by voting for Hisako.

Sometime afterwards, Rikako makes a comment that suggest some knowledge of previous loops, namely when she refers to when Haruaki saw her from the dorms, the first time they saw each other: "After seeing you .. through the shadow of the leaves that day". It is possible that I am misremembering, but considering that Cheimi also seemed to have some memories of the previous loop, it is worth keeping in mind.

Thursday, 5/15
Haru and Hisako dies this night, with Hisako likely having been lured outside and killed off due to the fact that she realized that she was being taken advantage of by the wolves (assuming that she was a badger). Haru's death is particularly cruel and seems to specifically target Kanzo, but there is no obvious culprit.

Interestingly, Haruaki describes the construction site as "(supposedly) empty" while passing it, which hints at something going on there. Foreshadowing for a different loop?

Kanzo is missing, and is eventually found in the ritual hall where he is disarmed. During this, Haruaki reveals that he already knows that Cheimi knows about guns, something that he had not learned during this loop, and hence the second slip-up that reveals that he is looping. Likely this will come back to haunt him, though most likely due to the fact that it is suspicious that he would have such knowledge.

During the feast, we learn that Kaori is supposedly the Crow and that Tae was human (unsurprising). We also learn that Kanzo and the Old Man have participated in two feasts, one being during the mist that ended the construction project. Gen, whose house Haruaki inherited, seemingly died in the most recent feast, along with Kaori's husband (died during the first night).

Having picked Takumi and Kiuonosuke to investiate, I revealed that these two were humans (after trying the non-reveal route, of course). At this point Rikako identifies herself as the spider and points to Kanzo and then Yasu as having been the beneficiaries of her protection. Haruaki concludes that she is acting as "representative" for Meiko, who is the actual Spider, thereby drawing the wolves towards herself instead of them targeting Meiko.

However, the Old Man also identifies as the Spider, having supposedly protected Yasu twice. Haruaki concludes that the Old Man is the Badger and that he is trying to signal to the Wolves that he is the Badger by lying in a way that the wolves would be able to tell (only they know their actual target on the first night).

This puts both Rikako and the Old Man under suspicion and the choice I stopped at asks us to vote for either Rikako or the Old Man. However, I think this is a false choice, which is why I decided to put down my thoughts.

Haruaki's position is reasonable. He has concluded that Meiko is the spider and that Rikako is trying to protect her, which naturally makes the Old Man a lier and hence extremely suspicious. The alternative is that it is in fact Rikako who is lying, which Haruaki does not believe. However, there is also a third option, namely that neither the Old Man nor Rikako are wolves or badgers: In this scenario, the Old Man is the actual Spider and Rikako is a human. However, Meiko is either the badger or a wolf, who has deceived Rikako into believing that she is the Spider.

We actually have some circumstantial evidence suggesting that this is the case, namely the fact that Haruaki is killed if he confronts Hisako about being the spider during the second feast. It is reasonable to suppose that Rikako would ask Meiko to protect the Haruaki in that situation, but that did not happen and Haruaki is slain. If the Old Man is the actual spider, then it seems likely that he would vote for somebody other than Harukai, considering that he constantly votes against Haruaki. The wolves (including Meiko) would know that Haruaki was unlikely to be protected and target him.

That is my prediction, but I am actually not sure what the outcome of voting against Rikako would be. It is possible that Haruaki has come to the same conclusion and is trying to make Rikako come clean, which would expose Meiko. I also expect that voting for the Old Man results in Haruaki being slain the next night. So I am going to vote Old man, which I expect to be a short branch, and then vote Rikako.

As a side-note, I was reading the hints after each death up until the final death mentioned in the above. The tips so far only covered how to avoid a specific death, which I never had any issue with, but I didn't want to risk getting spoiled on the actual mysteries.

Well, that's enough for this time! Let's die another hearty death next time!

 

[Exzyleph]

The following covers Infiltration (actually "Wit", looking at the flowchart) from the second feast and until the end.

Infiltration END

So as anyone can tell, my brilliant deduction was completely wrong. The Old Man was the badger and voting for Rikako merely results in both her and Haruaki's death. However, it is unclear to me what the Old Man actually hoped to accomplish, since naming himself such would obviously mark him as suspicious, regardless of whether his message got across to the wolves.

We don't actually see his death, only Kanzo does, but nothing came of that despite being an obvious setup for the Old Man to return at a later point. While trying to follow, he is reminded of what happened the last time (Mocchi and the Old Man both dying) and hears a voice (Haru's other voice?) asking "What do you believe will happen?". This voice also tells him to "loop again" at the end of this route, suggesting that something has taken notice of Haruaki, assuming that he isn't just going mad.

That day Haruaki is poisoned during his meal, which we later learn was a gamble by the wolves to get rid of any one human. Rikako (if she is alive) tries to use a very smexy ritual to heal Haraku, though he turns her down, and instead somehow saves him by stabbing him in the shoulder. It is revealed that the Uemetsu are a group of holy prostitutes, which explains why they are ostracized even among the head families.

That night we also learn several details from the last feast from Cheimi(!), including that Takumi returned to the village to help clean up after the last feast eight years ago, and that Haru was found near Yasumizu, and is suspected of having seen something during that feast. As a result, the villagers believe her to have been possessed. Kanzo did not mention her taking part in that feast, but it is possible that he is covering for her.

At this point the route branches into two distinct ends. During the first branch it is revealed that Mocchi and Cheimi are the wolves, who then proceed to gun down the remaining villagers. On the other branch, Haruaki manages to sabotage the guns using his looping, making it possible for the villagers to overpower the two wolves.

On the first branch, after Haruaki and then Rikako is fatally wounded, Rikako notices that Cheimi is carrying some sort pedant that apparently signifies an extraordinary corruption, at which point Cheimi rambles about "god" and runs off. Presumably this is the same necklace that Haruaki finds on the second branch, after he looks in the river for the bodies of those that were killed, and it appears to be the pedant on the title screen. Its significance is unclear, but if it is the same necklace then it is obviously tied to the wolves.

We also reach a point where Haruaki is clearly breaking down from the repeated trauma, as he offers the horrifying suggestion that the villagers maim one of the wolves. This is to prevent the remaining wolf from murdering somebody before they can both be hanged. Before she kills herself, Cheimi even describes Haruaki as "the scariest thing here". This despite her claiming that she only came back to the village because she wanted to to kill someone (it felt a bit unclear if a specific person or just a general desire to kill, though she did express a desire to kill Haruaki as a wolf).

Something like this first happened with the "Berserk" ending and has since been reflected in Haruaki acting increasingly cold and calculating. It'll be interesting to see where this ends up. Shades of a certain other visual novel featuring a time-loop during bike-trip.

One thing I don't understand is why Haruaki would be killed in his sleep if he outs Mocchi as a wolf or if he outs himself as the snake earlier. With Meiko confirmed as the spider, an adorable spider at that, it seems odd that Rikako would not ask Meiko to protect him the next night. But that might just have been a matter of convenience, for the sake of the plot on the right track.

For anyone reading along, the next open lock(s) are in Infiltration, when trying to convince Yudai to swap places with Haraki.

 

[Exzyleph]

I ended up reading the entirety of the next route, so this post covers that. What a ride!

Darkness

This route felt like hard-mode after the last two routes, with just about everything stacked against Haruaki. Granted, the game needs to be stacked for it not to be too easy for Haruaki (given his looping), but I could sympathize with his "I felt like I was playing a troll game designed to be impossible to win" statement. By the point where Meiko was revealed as the badger, I could only laugh at Haruaki's plight.

Yudai ended up being somebody who is very similar to Haruaki, both in terms of his ability to approach the game as a kind of neutral outsider, and also in terms of being much more cold and calculating that you'd initially think. While he played an important role, he himself did not help unravel the underlying mystery.

As a general note, if there was still any doubt left, then this route soon makes it abundantly clear that this is a supernatural mystery. However, Haruaki himself keeps denying this until the very end, where not even he can deny it any longer.


Haruaki
One of the first things Haruki notes is that his behavior in the last route (Rikako's route) was out of character. My initial guess was the local food, which Haruaki also partakes in during this route, but there are also two other alternatives presented to us: Firstly, the Badger God states that Haruaki has "breathed so much of the mountain's energy", which likely refers to the mist. Considering that his experiences (and trauma) have been accumulating over the routes, it also seems possible that any effects on his personality would accumulate as well. Secondly, we learn that Haruaki according to himself lacks a strong foundation for his personality and that he tends to mold himself after his surroundings, meaning that he could have been influenced by the close bonds of the Yasumizu villagers, but that seems less likely.

Speaking of experiences and trauma, it seems clear that Haruaki is becoming increasingly disassociated by his repeated looping. We've gone from him being treating death as something to be avoided to it being a convenient way to solve problems, so much so that he starts considering suicide the moment things go wrong. Similarly, he starts to get almost petulant when things don't go his way and become resentful at other people when they don't act according to his plans, even if doing so would cost them their lives. Not to mention that he slips into the role of a Wolf with little friction.

I am reminded of another VN (that shall remain nameless) with a similar plot point, involving a bike-trip in a never-ending loop. However, where it is a relatively short scene in that VN, Raging Loop has been gradually wearing down Haruaki's humanity over a much longer period of time, which makes it feel a lot more unsettling.

At the end of the route Haruaki suddenly produces the sawed-off shotgun and uses it to kill Mocchi. However, I am pretty sure that we never saw Haruaki securing this weapon and seem to remember it being treated as missing until the end. So either I overlooked something significant or this strongly suggests that Haruaki is not a reliable narrator, at least on this route.


Wolves
This route naturally gives us a lot of information about how the wolves operate at night, including the previously unknown rule that wolves must kill every night. If not, then they will die instead. But for whatever reason this rule is not mentioned again, not even in the context of Haruaki trying to convince the other wolves not to kill.

We also see how the wolves dress, which ends up being in a ritual garb that serves to obscure their identity and to catch any bloodspatter from the killings (a point I had wondered about). The 3 glowing eyes were not, as I supposed, infrared cameras, but markings drawn on a wooden mask. These suits match up with the wolves we saw at the end of Yomi, but they do not look anything like the creature that Haruki saw the first time he died. Haruaki supposes that he just mistook the costumes for something else, but considering everything else that happened in this chapter it doesn't seem unreasonable to suppose that there are more than just people in costumes out during the first night.


Cheimi
Cheimi dies almost immediately in this route, but it is strongly suggested she too is remembering the previous loops. Her act of self sacrifice makes sense if you treat her as a player of a game (like Haruaki) rather than an actual participant, but it doesn't really sit well with me given her personality and supposed knowledge at the time in the story.

Considering also her last words upon seeing the Wolves, namely "Haruaki, don't become ...", it seemed likely to me that she was acting to stop Haruaki from going down this path based on her knowledge (and feelings) from previous loops. It is, however, not clear how she knew that Haruaki was a wolf this time.

We never do learn what the blood came from that the Wolves smelt when they met her the last time, but it is possible that she was shooting at the dogs.


Haru
Haru also expresses some sense of familiarity when she meets Haruaki for the first time (again), suggesting that more and more people are starting to remember. Another hint is given when Haruaki calls her formidable for having stabbed him when he tried to not kill anyone, for which she apologizes. But she shouldn't even be aware of what he was talking about. Her arch in this chapter was also quite interesting, though I am not sure I buy the way Haruaki manages to get her on his side.

We also learn who Haru's other personality is, namely the Badger God, who have been possessing Haru since the last feast. It was Haru that spoke to Cheimi and Haruaki the last night during Yomi, wearing a costume made by Yasu/Mocchi/Haru. According to the Badger, Shin'nai consists of three goods, one as good as dead, and one that is an enemy to Haruaki. It seems as if the Badger is the god that is as good as dead, but it was not entirely clear to me, and it may refer to a different entity altogether (see below). At one point it also refers to the wild dogs as "the snake's dogs", which may be a reference to one of the three gods, but may also just be an insult (possibly referring to an act of betrayal).

The Badger God itself is a bit enigmatic, in that it presents as hostile to humans (when Haruki offers to help it), but it also seems to assist Haru in helping Haruaki when needed. Haruaki does seem to be right that Haru can switch at will, as also evidenced earlier on during the kiss scene, but he also thought the Badger to be a mere secondary personality. That is quickly disproven and I also wonder if he was wrong about the Badger not wanting Haru to sacrifice herself to save Haruaki. That said, the Badger straight up attempts to take over Haruaki, so it is a threat even if it has some interest in (helping) Haruaki.


Kanzo
Kanzo acts very surprising in this route. More specifically, he is unusually trusting of Haruaki, which leads him to falsely suspect Yasu and subsequently be hanged after he loses his temper. Perhaps it is merely a plot contrivance, but it certainly stood out to me. It is also suspected that he has unfinished business with the Old Man or possibly that he knows that the Old Man might try to kill to escape being hanged, since he also punches the Old Man in this route, seemingly without provocation, and hangs the Old Man himself.


Hisako
While talking about local myth, Hisako brings up that Shin'nai and Ookami are the same, evidenced some sort of kanji pun or switcharoo. This makes sense based on what the Badger God tells us, namely that Shin'nai is a mashup of three gods. If so, then we have Shin'nai, a useless god (who may or may not be the Badger), and the Ookami, who are presumably the one(s) the Badger described as Haruaki's enemy.

Hisako also points out that Fujiyoshi seemingly had an older name, Fushiyoshi, which was something that caused me to trip up a bit early on when reading this VN. I suspect that this will be important to understand the truth of the village, in the same way that Ookami ended up being the same as Shin'nai, but no explanation yet.


Meiko
The sheer comedy of Meiko being the Badger was one of the highlights of this route, as was the turnabout employed by the humans in the "bad" end (where you don't listen to the Badger God). About midway through the route I also realized that Meiko had so far been on of the only people who survived all the way to the end every time, something that Haruaki also caught onto near the end. While he considered her the possible cause of the looping, I considered if she could be one of the other gods. However, the fact that the Badger possesses her seems to speaks against her being one of the gods.

However, she is very obviously connected to the mystery in some manner. Firstly, there's the fact we don't even know her name (Meiko being given to her by the villagers), which is obviously odd. Secondly, she arrived by way of the river, which we have good reason to believe to actually be connected to the mystery. Thirdly, she doesn't even flinch when Haruaki guns down Mocchi in front of her. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, she strongly implies that she has been in one or more feasts before.

Or rather, she described having fled from the wolves who ate the "horse", which I originally interpreted as a feast like the one at Yasumizu. However, knowing what we now know, there is another possible interpretation, namely that she is describing the killing by the Ookami of an as of yet unnamed god or guardian. If so, that would likely make Meiko either a god or a guardian herself, or at least one such possessing a child.


The Corruption
The Corruption turns out to be a large number of wild dogs roaming the village. Somehow the Wolves are able to keep them at by splashing themselves and their surroundings by water, but the water itself does not seem to be special, considering that they were able to just refill their supply from a tap in the dinning hall. Possibly the container or instrument (a bucket and a ladle) are special, or there is something about the water in Yasumizu.

The dogs also explain the source of all the animals corpses found in the village square, but the dogs do not explain everything about the deaths by corruption. For example, Hisako is described as having been crushed in Cheimi's route, which doesn't really fit if she was torn apart by wild dogs. However, we can probably conclude that Hisako was presumably prevented from purifying during Rikako's route, and was subsequently torn apart while out at night with the other wolves.


The Dream
The Sheep came out of left field, but it was also heavily foreshadowed. After all, this is the game that told you "Just a dream, wanderer" every time you died. Still, I did not expect that character to actually play a role in the story. I briefly considered if the Sheep could be one of the three gods, but it doesn't really fit into that model.

So now we know that the looping is due to the region being put into a "dream", with Haruaki only being able to perceive it thanks to the Sheep preserving his memories. Presumably the dreamer is the God we saw awaken at the end of this route, though the cause of the dreaming ending is unclear. My initial thought was that it was due to the wolves winning, but that has happened before, in the first route, so I am at a loss here.

The Sheep warns you not to cause that end again, which obviously made me curious to immediately try it. However, nothing changes during the second replay of that end.

To be honest, I am a bit ambivalent on the Sheep so far. It was fine as a mascot/tutorial character, but I'm not sure how I feel about it being an actual character in the game. It does, however, fit neatly with the game's theme of animal guardians, despite it's cutesy appearance.


The Mini-mart attendant
I refuse to accept that this woman has nothing to do with the mystery, which makes me reach for any possible explanations for who she could be. One possible answer is could be that she is one of the three gods, but that does seem like a stretch. I guess we'll see.


What's next
At this point we seem to have two open branches: The first choice in Cheimi's route (Dense Mist: Her Objective) and the first choice in Rikako's route (Wit: How to pass time). Out of curiosity I read the hint this time, to see if the Sheep had anything else to say, and while it didn't it have any new information it did suggested doing Cheimi's choice, so I'll start with that.

 

[Exzyleph]

The following covers everything from the end of 'Darkness' up to and including the first couple of lines of 'Myth'.

Spoiler

Cheimi
The first choice on Cheimi's route reveals that she has been looping for much longer than Haruaki, and consequently almost broken down completely. I liked that there were a lot of solid clues that she was mixing up routes, but sadly I didn't catch most of them.

The main question is her reason for looping. Initially I guessed it had to do with her "corruption", but that seems to be purely a contrivance manufactured by her original family after she stumbled over something she shouldn't have. The second option is that whoever is controlling the dream brought her in as a way to explore different outcomes and her memories of the loops is a means to that end. If so, then it seems likely that Meiko would also retain her memories, but I do not recall her dropping hints of that nature other than the suggestion that she has been in a feast before.

At this point it does not seem entirely out of the question to suppose that more characters are retaining their memories, which may explain Rikako's behavior (and beliefs about) towards Haruaki. It may also explain what I thought to be a surprising degree of trust shown by Kanzo towards Haruaki in the last route.

Another point is that Cheimi apparently sees "God" on everyone, including on Haru. However, "God" is unclear on Meiko, though she describes whatever she sees as "big". It is unclear to me at this point whether this refers to the seemingly real, supernatural entities in this game, or some phenomena related to the feast.

Finally, Cheimi points out that Haruaki goes "Umm" every time he lies, something that I had not really been cognizant of. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to read through the story again once it is all over, and see how many clues have been sprinkled around that I missed the first time. It is at least clear that we know very little about Haruaki's background at this point.


The Feast and Miguruma
At this point it seems like the game is going for the feast as a purely human invention, even if some of the explanations are a bit ridiculous. The main question is why they would go to such lengths to subjugate an extremely small number of people (less than 20 vs the about 1,000 living in Fujiyoshi). We do get a hint that the Miguruma are involved in real-estate, which goes some way to explain their surprising wealth, but I wouldn't be surprised if the feast ends up turning out to be some sort of money-making scheme as well.

However, it is worth noting that at least two of the feasts took place shortly after events that could cause resentment in Yasumizu, namely the landslide eight years ago and the much older cholera outbreak. I am not sure about the first and the current feast, but it is possible that the current feast was meant to silence the reporters.

The Old Man turns out to be a serial killer in hiding and a former wolf, whom Kanzo already suspected, as well as directly involved in the operation of the feast, and from him we learn that they are engaging in human trafficking and that the victims are never seen. While this could be religious in nature, that explanation does not seem quite sufficient to me.

I am also interested in the "werewolves", who seem to be what Haruaki saw in the first route. From Cheimi's mini-route we know that the two of them are seemingly unable to fight these, even with foreknowledge, which makes me wonder what kind entity those are. Though to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they just turn out to be dudes in costumes armed with guns or something like that.

We also learned that Rikako somehow took the "corruption" from Cheimi after she killed the Old Man. Since the corruption is just the Miguruma fucking around, it seems weird that they'd allow something like that. Or perhaps they allowed it exactly to give the feast a stronger air of the supernatural.

Finally, the fact that Miguruma dabble in human trafficking may explain where Meiko came from and where her feast-like story came from. Possibly, the Miguruma used people like her to train the dogs, but she somehow escaped from confinement and found her way to Yasumizu. That could also explain why she wasn't fazed by Haruaki killing Mocchi in Darkness, as she may already have seen much worse.


Hisako and the Uemetsu
Hisako provides a lot of information about myths relating to spider gods, among other things, but I am not quite sure what to make of this. One possibility is that the one of the gods around here (possibly the "useless" god) is a spider god, but that's just a wild guess.

It is, however, probably not a coincidence that Hisako points to the parallels between dreamcatchers, spider webs, and the Uemetsu. The Uemetsu's role certainly speaks to it and I think I recall that Rikako mentioned something like watching over the dreams of the villagers, which would make it seem likely that there is a connection between her (or at least her "family") and the Dream that they are trapped in.

It is perhaps also notable that Rikako survives every feast we've seen, even if she did go mad in the first one. In addition, she shows powers similar to those of the Badger God, who was also able to heal Haruaki's injuries (cf. the end where you don't follows the God's advice). Considering that all this takes place in a dream, this may mean that both Rikako and the Badger are "dream-wielders" like the Sheep.


Misc
Haruaki also discovers that the convenience store is selling bullet proof vests, if there was still any doubt that something was up with that place, but Haruaki has yet to comment on it in a serious capacity. And I myself have yet to figured it out.

Finally, Kiyonosuke being an otaku was an amusing twist.

 

[Exzyleph]

This post covers the rest of the game from the very start of Myth, including every optional bit of content.

Spoiler

This is probably going to be a bit more disorganized than past comments, as it is largely just my thoughts on how the game wrapped up and on information revealed after the end of the game.

I obviously didn't see it coming that the mini-mart attendant was Haruaki's ex, but I'm kicking myself for not making the connection between her and the Sheep. After all, her constantly producing blatantly ridiculous items from storage was a rather obvious give-away once we knew that the loops took place in a dream. That and the fact they those two were the only ones in the games who smoked cigarettes.

Similarly, I didn't manage to really connect the dots between Rikako and the master of the loop, though I did connect her to the dream through Hisako's info dump. On the other hand, the healing (or taking in corruption) ended up being an actual (supernatural) phenomena outside of the dream and Mujina (the Badger god) was not a dream-wielder.

In terms of the overarching plot, I was on one hand pleased that they actually addressed every major plot point in the story, but on the other hand I found the way two of these were wrapped to be a bit unsatisfying.

This applies firstly to the way the ritual was ended, namely by appealing to the former Miguruma head who happened to already be opposed to the ritual. Obviously we couldn't know how the that person was feeling about the ritual before that point, since showing that would be giving away a lot of things, but it also made their sudden face turn rather unconvincing. However, it ultimately still felt contrived after seeing a few scenes from their point of view, largely as a consequence of this being sprung on us so late in the game. We are also just suppose to accept that this person somehow managed to cause the fall of the Miguruma.

The second relates to the destruction of the Tsuchigumo of Dreams, which happens quite inexplicably in the main story. Afterwards we learn that it was eaten by The Black Goat of a Thousand Hells aka. Meiko, which both greatly amused and annoyed me. I did think that the background story we learn in Sheep's extra chapter was quite interesting and would make a good setting. If this reveal was the culmination of a (shorter) first arc in a longer story then I'd easily be able to accept it, but here it felt very much like the authors pulled a deus ex machina .. or goat in the machine, as it were, since it was introduced so late.

The game also ends with blatant sequel bait involving Meiko, who seems to be a character (Miya) in the older and recently re-released Death Match Love Comedy (Steam). Hopefully that gets a translation sooner or later.

The other extra stories were a bit mixed. The Hisako/Yasu story in particular stood out, not only for setting up a bit of an questionable romance, but also from the fact that it wholesale imported the Cthulhu Mythos into the setting. It honestly ended up feeling a bit tacked on and it is hard to see how it fits in with Sheep's chapter, where such gods are seemingly unknown to those studying Jinxes.

While reading the Yasu/Hisako chapter, after I had cleared the revelation scenes, I initially guessed that Meiko might actually be Shub-Niggurath/Shub-Niggurath's servant, the Black Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young, and while Meiko's title was clearly based on that figure (being The Black Goat With a Thousand Hells) she was a distinct entity altogether. That was mildly disappointing.

Sheep's chapter was probably the most interesting, but as noted above it didn't feel satisfying to have it all revealed at this point, long after the main game was over. However, one interesting wrinkle to this chapter was the supposition that Haruaki's 'Jinx' was the ability make real his explanations for the inexplicable, no mater how ridiculous. Which could suggest that the ritual of the feast was at one point a supernatural event, until Haruaki managed to fit it into a convoluted explanation involving the Miguruma going to absurd lengths to run it by mundane means.

The revelation scenes were neat, but not really worth the effort and it felt like a lot of the them could easily have fit into the main story, without giving away any mysteries. I am also not really happy with the fact that Mujina hiding Cheimi's gun took place wholly in revelation scenes, which resulted in Haruaki inexplicably having a gun at the end of Darkness.

The joke endings, on the other hand, were quite amusing. I particularly liked the joke Haru end for utterly ridiculous it was. For anyone having trouble finding these, they are found by picking the new choice at the last two sets of choices in Darkness ('Answer God' and 'Dispair?' on the flowchart).

To wrap it all up this was a fantastic read, as my arduously long posts should make clear, though I am somewhat lukewarm on the ending due to the issues discussed above.

For anyone who has read to this point, I'd suggest taking a look at the Visual Novel Book Club's take on this game (link), which I have just started listening to myself. Unlike me, the hosts of this podcast are very familiar with the game Werewolf and have a lot of interesting discussion about the strategies involved.

That's it for me this time.

As noted in the OP, the book club will be going on indefinite hiatus starting next months. But I hope to be back before too long.