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conchelle · 2 years

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This game, I have a lot of thoughts. Like a lot of lot of thoughts.

I managed to find an unfinished translation of Warau Warawau and of course I immediately downloaded it. Supposedly this one is low quality but honestly I didn't feel like it was any worse than Towelket 1's translation. Yeah the grammar is a bit off and there's tons of spelling errors but I was able to follow through with the story regardless. But who knows! I'm not a translation expert and I'm not really picky.

But to the game itself!

Uhh, in terms of visuals the game looks really nice and it's very much its own thing. I'm really not sure how else to describe but it's something I've honestly never seen in another RPGmaker game. I can easily see other people a little off put with how cluttered everything is but I genuinely appreciate it just for the aesthetic alone. Thankfully the game gives you the ability to remove the I guess...screen decorations once a certain character joins your party which is pretty early on.

There are these really weird but fun interactables throughout each area. I'm really not sure how else to describe them but they're honestly a really cute touch. There are some points in the game where they're necessary to progress and I enjoyed that a lot as well. It managed to keep each area interesting and spiced up the typical move from point A to point B RPGmaker format.

Surprisingly enough this game has different outfits you can make Warawau wear. They're only a cosmetic thing but again it's a super cute and nice touch. I think the only other RPGmaker game I've seen attempt this was Mogeko Castle and those were only available in the bonus room which I always thought was a little disappointing.

But uhh now time for like the actual story that somehow ruined me

Big spoilers time:

I'm not even sure where to start with this one. Admittedly, I don't have the full story since there's what I assume to be an epilogue at the very end that's untranslated but regardless I'm just going to speak my thoughts on the whole thing.

Now I'm really not too fond of the whole "It was all a dream" type twists in any media. Yet this game managed to pull it off in a way that honestly wasn't awful. It didn't even end abruptly unlike some of the other games.

The whole twist definitely doesn't just come out of nowhere too. When Warawau first finds herself in the Laughing World she immediately expresses desire in wanting to wake up from it all. The story itself is also very very loosely based off of Alice in Wonderland which does end up just being a dream by the end of the book.

But of course with all twists and story elements, simple foreshadowing doesn't automatically make it good. Yet the game managed to avoid leaving me with such a meh feeling after the ending.

Now before I go on I will say that I'm not sure if these interpretations are anything close to the experiences of those with disability. I'm not disabled and I am simply pulling from the material this story is offering to me.

At the end of the game it's revealed that Warawau is suffering from Locked-In Syndrome and this whole game, even the few bits of what we assume is normalcy to her at the start of the story, was all just a dream she was having while in this state. The friends that accompanied her journey along the way were just dolls her mother (Pucchi) gave to her and frequently uses as characters in the stories she tells.

So like what does this mean? Are all the events that occurred in this game just obsolete now because it was all in her head? This is honestly the biggest flaw with this kind of ending. It often comes off as the author just going "Yep nothing in this story actually mattered goodbye!" but it's not like that in Warau.

Throughout the game, her companions (Chihedo and Nyanyamo) constantly torment her. Nyanyamo is more direct, outright belittling her at every chance she gets while Chihedo refuses to stand up for Warawau despite being her "guide" and often throws her under the bus in order to save her own skin. Warawau reacts accordingly but still expresses a desire to be friends with them despite all that. She's not an outright people pleaser yet there is never a point where she attempts to remove herself from the situation.

I can't help but feel like this is meant to show just how desperate Warawau is for contact with literally anyone who's willing to stand by her. Being in this state making friends is likely something she never got to do. This story could have very easily made these characters an idealized version of what friendship is like but I honestly feel like it wouldn't be as impactful. After all dreams in real life aren't always lucid nor are they are one-to-one reflection of our lives. You can't always have your ideal life presented to you but you can still voice your own desires just as you do in real life. Even if the people in her dreams aren't ideal she still desires to make a connection with them.

There is only one character who is portrayed as "ideal" in Warawau's dream and it's Minpo who is given the "Hero" title. Her introduction to the story is rather bizarre and sudden yet it makes sense, especially after playing Towelket 6 (even though they're technically not the same characters). We don't see her enough to get a good feel for her personality and I'm sure it was intentional. Her only concern is protecting the Princess (Warawau) and seemingly has no other goals of herself beyond that. The only time she actively rejects Warawau, she quite literally changes her mind the next morning and is shown to be eager to fulfill her desires once again.

In Towelket 6 a similar situation was shown where Warawau projected her deceased sister's image onto Minpo and often disregarded Minpo's own feelings and issues for the sake of seeing her as nothing more than an object that she has some twisted duty to "protect". In TK6 Warawau will gladly try to lie and deceive Minpo if it means getting her way.

The only character Warawau shows active contempt for in her dreams is Pucchi who acts as an abusive maid in her dream. When it was revealed she was actually her mother in the real world and clearly caring one at that I was confused by this weird choice. At first it felt like shock value for the sake of it but looking back at the moments leading up to the ending I can almost make sense of this as well.

One of the first scenes we're shown at the start of the game is Maid Pucchi going out of her way to humiliate Warawau by giving her a pink tricycle to ride to school even though she's 17 years old. Even Minpo questions it later in the game, wondering why she would have such a childish thing at her age.

I feel like Warawau resent Pucchi deep down. Not because she's a bad mother but because she feels humiliated and infantilized in her current state. Her room in the real world shares a similar shade of pink with the tricycle that's used to humiliate her. In the dream world, her room has an opposite vibe where it's full of monochromatic greys and dull green. It's not necessarily depressing but gives off a much more "gothic" and mature look.

Even then, Pucchi's personality is not consistent in the dream world. While she's cruel towards Warawau in the false real world, she's much more helpful during the few times we see her in the Laughing World. The other characters often reiterate how much of a good person Pucchi is in the dream world. Warawau often disagrees or simply doesn't understand. This makes me believe that Warawau's feelings towards her mother are rather complicated and constantly fluctuating. On one hand she sees her as nothing more than a maid who takes pleasure in humiliating her and on the other she sees her mother as a genuinely helpful figure- but overall she still desires to be away from her.

Towards the end of the game, it definitely feels like the characters have softened a bit, becoming a little closer to a more ideal version of themselves. Minpo marries Warawau practically on the spot. Nyanyamo's tormenting softens a bit, the other characters even point it out. Chihedo outright admits that she loves Warawau and they're all ready to join Warawau's false reality and attend her school despite having no reason to. In her introduction, Nyanyamo even mentions going to her own school. However the plot stops them from doing this.

I suppose the only thing that amounts to nothing in the story is the initial conflict itself though I'm sure there could be more to it. I'll definitely revisit the game and read into that more closely but even with my limited ideas on what it really means- if it means anything at all, it certainly adds a sense of dread.

Even in her dream, Warawau doesn't get a happy ending. Her ideal life is abruptly interrupted and she's plunged into even more confusion before she finally wakes up at the end. She wakes up to her mother taking care of her as always and she goes on to think about how she's incapable of doing anything in this state. She can't even laugh. Pucchi does the best that she can to cheer her daughter up by making her feel more comfortable but she is unable to read her daughter's thoughts- there's a permanent disconnection between the two.

Perhaps the purpose of the conflict was simply to serve as a reminder to Warawau. When she wakes up, everything that she gained and learned and developed disappears and there's nothing she'll be able to do about it. She can visit the Laughing World a thousand times in her dreams but she'll never be able to laugh in real life.

--Spoilers End--

Phew that was a lot but this game made me think a lot! Moreso than any previous Towelket title I've played. This is definitely my favorite game out of the ones I've played now. I expected a lot and I wasn't disappointed. At first I thought the game was a little too short but after attempting to replay it in the same day I realized it's a decent length.

I hope someday it's properly translated, perhaps I'll be able to understand the story much more.

Warau Warawau > 1 > Fury > 6 > 4 > 3

#towelket #yeah i had a lot to say #i love this game so much it's insane #probably one of my most favorite rpgmaker games of all time #towelket diary

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