That was the day a colleague at work recommended a game to me.
It was a new title called Kite a Lise. A fantasy world you could play casually on a mobile device—beyond that, the details were a total mystery.
The key visual at the URL they sent through our chat app showed a saintly girl clutching a staff, her hands clasped in prayer. I frowned at how incredibly shady the whole thing looked.
“I mean, there are plenty of other games out there. Why on earth did you dig up something this suspicious?”
『It’s a buy-to-play social game—a total rarity these days, da-o! Not an MMO, but a social game. Details are under wraps, though! It launches tonight! Whaddya think, da-o? Doesn't a title like this just scream mystery, da-o?』
“Huh? Wait, wait. Common sense says a game like that is bound to shut down immediately. It’s obviously one of those 'cash-and-dash' schemes where they grab the initial sales and run.”
『If it does, it’ll become a legend, and then you can brag about having been one of the original players, so there’s no real loss, da-o!』
True, that kind of thing does make for good conversation among friends. I had to give them that much.
The real reason they were dragging me into it was likely because talking about a game nobody else knows isn't very exciting. Plus, we could share gameplay info to progress faster. It made sense.
『Well, da-o? Isn't it a bargain to be able to call yourself a legend for the price of five convenience store rice balls, da-o?』
“Using convenience store rice balls as a metric, lol. That’s actually a decent chunk of change... though maybe they’ll add microtransactions in an update. Or paid DLC.”
『If that means the game keeps going, then there’s no problem, da-o!』
That was also a fair point. If it lasted, it lasted; the players just had to keep going until they got bored.
『Besides, these kinds of games usually get an offline patch when the service ends, da-o... probably... most likely... surely! So your progress won't go to waste, da-o!』
“I hope so.”
『It'll definitely be fine, da-o!』
They were probably trying to convince themselves more than me. Or since it was a chat, should I say they were trying to convince me in writing? Oh well.
“Alright, alright. I'll give it a shot too. Pre-order, click.”
『Ooh! THX, da-o! Honestly, the more people I drag down with me when it crashes and burns, the better!』
“Hey, colleague.”
『Ahahaha, just kidding, da-o! If you want to play as soon as it releases, I recommend pre-downloading it, da-o!』
“I know. That’s common sense these days.”
In any case, I ended up playing that game—Kite a Lise.
As I started the pre-download... at that time, I still thought it was just a game.
9:00 PM—the game's launch time. After finishing work, I booted it up in my room.
None of the usual issues with these kinds of games cropped up—no maintenance hell right after launch, no struggle just to reach the login screen. I was able to log into the account I'd created during the pre-download without a hitch.
The opening movie played. In a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world, a spirit resembling a glowing orb saved a girl and confronted powerful monsters. They uncovered and destroyed an evil organization lurking in a town. The movie concluded with a scene of the spirit facing off against a black, demon-king-like dragon with a massive sword.
Then, against the backdrop of an Earth-like planet, text appeared: ‘Spirits overturn the fate of death and bring salvation—’ followed by the logo for the game title, Kite a Lise.
Well, since I had zero prior info, I watched the whole opening without skipping... but there wasn't even a glimpse of the actual gameplay; it really was just a cinematic fantasy movie.
If I hadn't already dropped the price of five convenience store rice balls on this thing, I might have quietly closed the app and uninstalled it right then. But I was going to play it. Since I’d paid for it.
“Oh? Scenario selection—I see, I see.”
Several options appeared: Prey of the Bandits, Fertilizer for the Great Tree, Sacrifice for the Great Turtle, In the Monster's Sight—there were about ten choices in total. Each one presumably represented someone facing their ‘fate of death.’ Long-pressing the screen displayed details, revealing that each person was in a critical situation. Some looked like they had just died.
Timers were ticking down next to each choice. The shortest one, In the Monster's Sight, had only ten seconds left. 9, 8... the numbers ticked away. While I was busy agonizing over which to pick, the time ran out. The option vanished, replaced instantly by a new one: Villainess of the Guillotine.
...Crap, was that a rare one? No use crying over spilled milk. For now, I'd just tap the top one, Prey of the Bandits—or so I thought, but ‘Taken by another player’ flashed for a moment, and it too vanished from the list, replaced by another new scenario.
“Wait, are these scenarios unique? Is it a competition between players!?”
If so, I could only call this a total piece of trash game. If I hadn't bought it, I'd seriously be uninstalling it. To begin with, it’s a fundamental flaw for a game to prevent players from experiencing the same story. ...No, wait, the world seems to be shared, so is it designed to make us share info in a realistic way, like ‘this town is a good starting point’?
“In that case, maybe the stories only differ at the start, and we all converge later? ...Yeah, surely no matter which one I pick, I'll end up in the same town... so any of them should be fine!”
With that logic, I tapped one at random. The scenario I chose was Sacrifice for the Great Turtle.
Flavor text flowed across the screen.
—‘A remote, impoverished village. It has not rained for over two months; the river has narrowed, and the wells are drying up. An orphaned girl was chosen as a sacrifice for the Great Turtle, a monster said to bring rain. Her limbs were crushed with rocks to prevent her from escaping, and now she only waits for death. Will you save her?’
“Yeah, yeah. Of course I'll save her.”
I tapped YES and entered character customization. It seemed I could set the appearance and skills, managing them with a total of 100 SP.
By default, the character looked like a simple village girl. She was a stylized, deformed-style character, but her appearance stayed true to the scenario. Specifically, since her limbs were supposed to be crushed, they faded into a dark blur midway down...
“Oh, you can change quite a lot. ...Hm? Wait, I can actually set her limbs back to normal if I spend SP. If I start without them, I'll probably get hit with some massive debuffs, right? I've seen games like that before.”
That one had been a game about creating living creatures; if you didn't give them eyes, their field of vision was almost zero, and if they didn't have legs, they were reduced to crawling. I wanted to avoid that, so limbs were a must.
Hmm, since I had to allocate SP to limbs just because of the scenario, maybe this was a ‘loss’ pick? Well, I couldn't cancel now, so I had to push forward. The countdown that had appeared when I selected the scenario showed three hours left... Ah, so if I didn't finish character customization within that time, it would reset and I’d have to pick a scenario all over again?
Some people spend an entire day obsessing over character creation, so maybe having a limit was for the best.
“Wait? Then for that one with ten seconds left, even if I'd picked it, I wouldn't have made it unless I skipped customization and started immediately. That's brutal. Is this really a trash game after all?”
But I already paid for those five rice balls... and it would give me something to talk about with my colleague, so I might as well play. Honestly, at this point, maybe I should just lean in and enjoy how much of a mess it was.
For now, since I was playing on launch day, I intended to keep the customization moderate and just get on with the story.
“...Huh, so when a spirit is attached, a Halo appears behind the head. And I can design that too? And it costs zero SP? Now I'm torn on whether to give it a joke design...”
...I intended to keep the customization moderate and just get on with the story!!
I then spent the next hour on character customization before the game finally began.