Heta Oni

Uninstall, uninstall,
I know longer have a choice but to pretend,
I am brave,
For a soldier has to be brave.

I don't watch people playing games. I either play the games myself, or participate in other ways (ie distracting the player). I think I watched one 'Let's Play' vid on Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but that was because the voice overs were hilarious.
Anyway, I have discovered an RPG that I am very happy to sit back and watch. Heta Oni is based off of Ao Oni which is a Japanese horror game. While Ao Oni is (obviously) an RPG, Heta Oni isn't actually playable. You just have to watch the videos of the 'gameplay' on Youtube. Which sounds boring. It's not. Trust me. It takes the original story but uses the characters from Axis Powers Hetalia (which is what got me interested in the first place). You don't really need to be familiar with the show to watch the RPG though.

You know, it's kind of like a fusion between Hetalia and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Weird mix, that... strangely enough, it does work. Obviously Heta Oni isn't as violent (in fact, you see no gore whatsoever, it's just described... well, except for the white room covered in bloody handprints... that's it, though) but it seems to tug at the heartstrings more than Higurashi did.

It starts when Italy hears of a haunted house. He tells America, who convinces everyone else to go along. You soon find out it's not haunted with ghosts, but aliens. So obviously it's not going to be that scary. Aliens are overrated.
The first few episodes are really dull. As it goes on, the plot becomes more warped and twisted. Watching it is emotionally draining; you find yourself attached to these characters, and while the aliens truly aren't scary, you do feel scared for the characters. In episode 16 my heart was racing and I caught myself mouthing for the characters to stop and run and to be honest, I've never really reacted that badly to something.

If you're familiar with Higurashi, you'll find many similarities. I'm not sure how to describe this without adding spoilers... basically, it's a time loop. [Epic spoiler here]: If not everyone gets out alive, Italy or England will reverse time and they have to start all over again. This explains the OoC-ness at the beginning. Italy isn't terrified because he's been through it already. There are many plot spins and things that just make you go what. They don't feel like they were thrown in to get a reaction though, because everything has (so far) linked together perfectly.

The underlying points the game seems to make are
- You should rely on your friends (and allow them to rely on you)
- Trust those around you.
- Be brave in the face of danger, but don't put on an act for your friends.
- Yeah, trust, again. That can't be driven home enough.
- Don't be afraid to ask for help.
- But hey, even if you do all that, sometimes you're totally screwed anyway. (That's probably not meant to be one of the points, but that's how I viewed the last two episodes...)

And look, anything this horrific and dark is going to draw us in. It's easier to relate to a characters pain than it is to react to a happy plot, and there's enough darkness in this storyline to keep you on your toes. That said, there's still a dash of hope in everything the characters do which will keep you interested and praying that things turn out well. There's still a chance they'll survive, and, in my case, at least, I'm holding onto that slim chance as much as I can.

The 'game' has a pretty strong following. There are hours of gameplay and, once you get to episode 7 or so, you're not going to want to stop watching it.
Honestly, I almost cried when I reached the end of episode 17 p1. I need part 2. Now. O_O
There's a lot of fanart and MAD/AMV'S to watch once you've finished with Heta Oni, so it's hard not to get hooked.

I do have one bad thing to say about it though. At the beginning, the character portraits are hilariously bad. They get better.
Um, this also has one of the greatest soundtracks. One of the greatest.

This vid here isn't from the game. It was drawn by one of the fans, but it's hella good so I'll share it. This is the English fandub of the song, btw. The original is better vocally, but it's good being able to understand the lyrics. Skip to 16 seconds in if you want to ignore the intro.


There is a lot of emphasis on clocks and time. Not much I can say about that here without it being spoiler-filled though.
There are some lines you'd only get if you had watched Hetalia (like America calling his glasses Texas or Italy being able to tie his shoelaces...) but it's not too heavy on the references. So regardless of whether you've watched Hetalia or not, I suggest you go watch this RPG. You won't regret it.

Well, you might. I regret it because I am desperate to know what happens next and I can't stop obsessing xD
Currently two characters are stuck in a time loop they don't belong in, one character has gone completely blind, one seems to have died (well, his heart has stopped beating, God knows if that means he's dead or not) and now they can't go back and restart another time loop because the only two characters that can do that are unable to. What the hell are they going to do? Fffff- I need the next episode =/