PREVIOUS REVIEW: Misao
Hello and welcome to yet another PC Horror Game Review. This will feature Re: Kinder, a remake of another Japanese game simply titled, Kinder. Fortunately, I was able to find the game translated into English by the once-again fabulous vghime, who has translated many other Japanese games. Unfortunately, the creator of the remake - Parun - committed suicide on 10 September, 2011. May he rest in peace.
WARNING: This game has some disturbing content, such as blood, gore, coarse language, and topics some people might find offensive, such as adultery, depression, and themes of suicide and acts of hatred. Play the game at your own risk ONLY if you can distinguish fiction from reality.
Re: Kinder just goes beyond the level of weirdness.
Re: Kinder is a very strange game - perhaps the strangest RPG Maker game I've ever played. It can be labeled as a horror game, but that's only because of its atmosphere and graphic violence - but other than that it can be classified as a plain RPG game. But the strange thing about Re: Kinder is that there's no level-up system or anything that you might be familiar with in RPG games - other than the fact that you have a party to manage and there's turn-based battles, and have to use certain weapons and items accordingly to defeat enemies and/or advance in the game. It's a pretty unique form of gameplay that I don't commonly see in any RPG game, because most of the puzzles you're going to find in this game are within the battles themselves.
The game's story is told through the eyes of Shunsuke - a third-grader who visits his grandmother's house. He takes the usual bus down the street and does indeed have a good time at her house. But it's when he comes back that the story's basis is laid and the story begins to unfold. Upon returning home, he realizes that the town he lives in has turned into a living hell, and that many of his friends are either missing or worse. Namely, Shunsuke's old town has become a nightmare.
The characters of this game are all relatively young boys and girls, and there are rarely any adults in the game. Most of the characters are in grade school, and therefore find it hard to grasp the horrors they begin to see in the nightmare world, but they soon adapt to it, as children often do. The characters form this sort of gang - very much like the bunch of misfits that formed The Goonies. Shunsuke and co. always group up in a meeting place they liked to call "The Base" - which is pretty much the safe zone of the game. It's nice touches like this that remind you that you are playing as a third-grader - and that most of your friends are in the same grade or close to it. Themes like child-like innocence and progressive changes in maturity are present in this game, but it's pretty unusual because most of the kids in a way act like adults. So it''s more like The Goonies meets Codename: Kids Next Door. It may sound pretty weird, but there are characters in this game that I have a ton of sympathy for, and it does sort of reveal how children react when their world is taken away from them, or how their household life affects their parents and the childrens' relationships with their parents.
Perhaps Re: Kinder's biggest turn-off to some would be its surrealistic atmosphere and humor. The original Kinder was extremely more darkly-toned than the remake, and I'm not sure what the remake was supposed to accomplish, because the things I've seen in that game don't seem to match up with the things that I'd probably see in the original. Re: Kinder makes hopeless, desperate situations seem funny, and it toys with you in almost every possible way. However, the game's use of dark humor through dialogue, imagery, and even in the music that is totally out of place only masks what the game is trying to say. There is a very well-crafted story behind all of the in-game gags and jokes, and it's nice to see that the surrealness that the game evokes doesn't overtake how great the story is (though others might feel that the game's just simply too weird to have a story).
Like I mentioned earlier, Re: Kinder is an RPG Maker horror game that actually has an RPG turn-based system. If there's something I could compare the game to, the closest match would probably be Earthbound/Mother. I haven't played those games, but I know they're probably just as weird as Re: Kinder, if not weirder. Every character has the standard attack - Bash - but they also have a unique ability. These can range from attacks, healing powers, or cures for ailments that fellow allies might have. For example, "Dark Gaze" renders an enemy's ability to move useless, or "Share Candy" restores health to all of those in the party. It's always a treat to see these kid-themed gags in the game, and again - it does remind you that you're playing as grade school kids.
SCARE FACTOR: 5.5/10 (NOT AN OVERALL SCORE!)
Re: Kinder is by no means scary, but it's not exactly happy-go-lucky or cheery either. It may have a childish outward appearance, but there are some very dark themes in this game, even if there are a ton of endlessly "so-surreal-it's-funny" moments that lighten up the atmosphere. It isn't a very long game, and it does have its share of puzzles that will probably make you scratch your head and therefore increase the amount of time you'll be playing it, but the game's strongest points lie in its story and characters, much like other RPG Maker games. Shunsuke is a very encouraging character, and his character development shows and develops very well, especially near the end of the game. I never thought I'd attach much to these characters (mostly because of the age gap between me and them), but I felt sympathy for each one of them. If you easily get weirded out or find that games that are just too strange to play aren't worth it, you might not find much in Re: Kinder, and those looking for a good scare should probably pass on this one. But a very well-translated and well-written story make this one worth the ride.
R.I.P. Parun.