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Review of Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk

SubjectMilk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk
ByHelpfulness: 1
Vote: 8
BizzareDream on 2022-12-10
ReviewEven day-to-day life can be disturbing.
In this VN whit the strange, yet fitting title "milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk", we follow our nameless protagonist (in her character sheet, she is called "milk" or "milk-chan", but as far as I remember, her actual name is never given in the VN) as she goes to the shop to buy a bag of milk. Whit a premise as mundane as this, there's no way this game could be unsetteling, right? Wrong.

There might be no monsters or killers in this game, unlike in most horror VN's, but the horror comes from inside our protagonists head. She suffers from severe mental health problemes, and while she doesn't want to tell the player her diagnosis, it's clear she has a severe mental illness.

This simple premise- a girl whit psychological problems goes to buy a bag of milk- is executed quite well. First of, the art style. It's surreal, dimly lit and pixelated. This evoces a suffocating athmosphere. While it's overally dark, some of the colors are strangly bright against the darkness. This makes the game seem oppressive, and sells the point of the protagonist being disturbed by her surroundings.

Secondly, the music. I am a noob when it comes to music, so I can't really say much about it, outside of the fact that it sells the aforementioned athmosphere- suffocating, yet surreal- quite well. The static in the background, the reapeated sounds, and the bleeping whenever the protagonist talks to you, the player, all make you feel trapped in an unreal reality.

Talking about the story, well, there isn't much going on outside of the basic premise. However, this is actually great, because this VN is very short and wastes none of your time, getting straight to the main story whitout any dead weight. Because it's so short, I don't want to spoil anything, but I found the portrayal of mental illness to be quite convincing. First of, our main character isn't portrayed as some "crazy" person who is nothing like a real human being, but instead, she feels like a somewhat plausible depiction of a teen girl, just one whit bad mental health. She's moody and would certainly be considerd strange by her peers, but she's also aware that she has psychological issues and appears to have low self esteem because of this. As a fellow teen girl currently in diagnosis for a mental illness, she feels strangly relatable.
Furthermore, the seeminigly mundane happenings are portrayed in a surrealist way that makes them seem unsetteling. One scene in particular left me feel weirded out and disturbed. In this scene, ["Milk-chan" is walking home and suddenly get's attacked by a "bear", the animals red eyes fearsomely glowing in the darkness. However, afterwards, it turns out that the "bear" was actually a truck and "Milk-chan" was walking on the street the whole time.] It's small details like this that give the game it's unique athmosphere.

The gameplay itself also adds to your experience, as you, the player are able to communicate whit "Milk-chan" directly. You are like an imaginary friend to her. This is fascinating because, as you play this VN, she could also be seen as some sort of imaginary friend to you, if you will. You are "interacting" whit her, after all, while knowing she is not real, but she is also "interacting" whit you while knowing that you are not real (in her world). I really love this aspect of the game!

I highly recommend you to play this VN if you haven't already. I recommend it to people who:
-want to play something short
-enjoy denpa VN's and stories that most people would consider to be weird
-want a horror story that focuses on internal problems instead of external ones.

Have a nice day/night, and if you choose to play this VN, I hopeyou have fun.
1 point