ALTER EGO (2018)

ALTER EGO: Self-Discovery Clicker Game is a Japanese mobile freemieum game by Maki Ono and Caramel Column Inc, released in 2018 for iPhone and Android.

Unlike most idle games, it's story-driven, and also can be completed in about a week. It stands out by being more of a philosophical discussion than a game. It also has the most impressive stylization I've seen for this genre.

Premise

"I've been waiting for you, my lost child. What you will find here with me is you, yourself."
—Ego Rex

Note that the recap includes my interpretation and the narrative is interpretative anyway.

You are trapped in an empty infinite corridor, and a stone face on the wall called Ego Rex tells you to basically keep searching for self-realization, while nudging you to be utilitarian.

The gameplay loop is relatively simplistic. As the walking animation plays, thought bubbles appear. Clicking on them grants EGO points as a standard idle currency. You spend them on book pages, which act like standard idle factories and generate more EGO passively. You spend to gain more.

The books are quite unusual, as they are real world classic literature and buying enough pages adds some quotes from them to the pile of thought bubbles that can appear (with a disclaimer that the author refers to the prints by their local publishers) along with income multiplier.

For the sake of demonstrating the game's tone, I'll quote all of them directly.

• No Longer Human: A novella by Osamu Dazai featuring a guilt-ridden and self-conscious protagonist eventually led to ruin by his afflictions. A month after its completion, Dazai committed suicide, drowning himself in the Tarnagawa Aqueduct. -- "Mine has been a life of such shame.", "Society? Don't you mean yourself?", "What's the antonym of crime?", "No longer human."
• Demian: A novel by Herman Hesse in which protagonist Emil Sinclair, motivated by his mysterious friend Max Demian and his mother, engages in self-discovery. This novel stems from from Hesse's introduction to the philosophy of Carl Jung. -- "I have always been a seeker.", "Further torments and slavery.", "Struggling out of the egg.", "Only yourself, only your own fate."
• The Moon Over The Mountain: A novella by Atsushi Nakajima in which a failed poet, Li Zheng, comes to terms with his transformation into a cognizant tiger. Unlike the fable upon which it is based, the novella focuses on Zheng's internal distress at his transformation. -- "This low rank chafed his pride.", "No one understands this feeling.", "My cowardly pride and haughty shame.", "I've degraded into such a beast."
• The Metamorphosis: A novella by Franz Kafka. Upon waking, Gregor Samsa finds himself metamorphosed into a dreadful insect, a "monstrous vermin." Kafka's three novels (The Missing Man, The Trial, The Castle) remain incomplete. -- "Transformed into a horrible vermin.", "In a difficult situation.", "Lack of human communication.", "So thoughtless about the others."
• Strait is the Gate: A novel by André Gide featuring protagonist Jerome, whose love interest, Alissa, abandons all worldly joy before finding from this world, altogether. Gide uses this piece to comment on the idea of self-sacrifice. -- "My sensibility-- over-stimulated.", "Enter ye in at the strait gate.", "To Him I offered my trouble.", "Holiness is an obligation."
• First Love: A novel by Ivan Turgenev. Even as he is strung along by the noble Zinaida who lives next door, the storyteller, Vladmir, falls in love. According to Turgenev, this story is almost auto-biographical in nature. -- "The history of his first love.", "I thought nothing. How can I?", "Seize what thou canst thyself.", "I was still a child."
• Somokuto: A collection of haiku poetry by Santoka Taneda. Santoka composed free-verse haiku to more accurately portray his emotions. After failing in business, he drank heavily and cast off society, living as a beggar. -- "The straight road, Loneliness.", "Me-- Helpless and good for nothing.", "I search as I walk through the wind.", "I feel withered by the loneliness."
• The Miner: A full-length novel by Natsume Soseki following a heartbroken 19 year old from a well-to-do family who runs away from home and is led to work in a coal mine. This novel is a somewhat faithful memoir of an actual miner's story. -- "I must go somewhere dark.", "To live and die over and over.", "As though I myself am not myself.", "Both defeated and triumphant."
• The Myth of Sisyphus: In this essay written by Albert Camus, the attempt is made to introduce the author's philosophy of the absurd through the allegorical absurdity of Greek mythology and the story of Sisyphus. Camus made an effort to depict the world subjectively rather than objectively. -- "One philosophical problem, suicide.", "The absurd is sin without God.", "Hasten toward some hope.", "Hope cannot be eluded forever."
• Frankenstein: A novel by Mrs Mary Shelley. Cursed with loneliness, a man-made monster cobbled together of the parts of various corpses contemplates the meaning of its life. The original title of the novel was Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. -- "I have no friend.", "Whence did life proceed?", "Misery made me a fiend.", "I am alone and miserable."
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A children's book by Lewis Carroll in which a young girl named Alice follows a white rabbit and winds up lost in a fantastical world. The story was originally an improvised tale for a young girl of the author's acquaintance, one Alice Lidell. -- "Oh dear! I shall be late!", "Who am I then?", "I'm mad. You're mad.", "Take care of the sense."
• The Little Prince: In this novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, having crash-landed in the Sahara Desert, the narrator encounters a prince hailing from a certain tiny planet. The real-life plane crash the story references is discussed in more detail in Wind, Sand and Stars by the same author. -- "Grown-ups always need explanations.", "Somewhere, my flower is there.", "The grown-ups are very odd.", "What is essential is invisible."
• The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A collection of the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe dedicated to works dabbling in illusion, such as the popular narrative poem, The Raven. Many of the poems found in The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire were heavily inspired by Poe's work. -- "Darkness there and nothing more.", "But a dream within a dream?", "The play is the tradegy, "Man." ", "I dwelt alone, In a world of moan."
• Dogra Magra: Why, this novel is a fascinating work expressing the mystery that is a mentally ill state of mind. Those who are able to read this work from start to finish must surely question their sanity at least once. -- "O fetus, O fetus, Why do you squirm?", "Gong...gong...", "Beyond comprehension.", "Ichiro Kure is... me. I am..."

Aside of that, you have to talk to Es in the library (I have no idea how you transition to it from the corridor). She is supposed to act as your guide, but has identity issues of her own. She often monologues in a manner that includes Greek, Freudian, or Nietzsche philosophy. Each interaction has an EGO requirement, and at the end provides more EGO multipliers, so you're pressed by the game's balance to visit her from time to time.

Story

Conversations with Es fall into two types:

1. Personality tests, which are various quizzes that are mainly for your sake and don't affect the ending:

• Answering 12 questions to determine your type between: Avoidant/Stubborn/Idealist, Aggressive/Dominant/Manic, Projecting/Dependent, Solitary/Reclusive, Absolutist/Domineering, Selfish/Independent, Indecisive/Perfectionist, Pessimist/Reluctant/Contemporist, Fatalist/Delusional. Es will give you some advice for each and more thought bubbles appear in the random pool.
• You're asked to look at a picture book depicting a crying prince, a panicking king, and a maid hiding behind a corner, and have to interpret the scene between authoritarian and rebellious suggestions.
• You have to pick between 8 words from a random selection 20 times, which tells what kind of mood you gravitate to.
• Basically a MBTI test compressed into 12 questions.
• You have to decide how a picture book story about twin girls who encounter a bottle of poison ends, which tells what you think on the nature of evil and trust.
• You can type about your anxieties in free form. The game only really checks for length and some key phrases, so Es can comment on your ability express your issues.

2. The plot. Which is mainly composed of Es (representing Id and impulsiveness) complaining about Ego Rex (representing Superego and conformity) who she calls a Façade and asks the player about existentialism and morality. You can agree with either or neither. The interactions are split into three acts and by the third you get locked into an ending.

Depending on your replies, Act 3 changes drastically and all thought bubbles get replaced accordingly:

• You agree with Façade that humans should act with restraint, logic, and obey the community. Es starts thinking that you're a product of her nightmares. Despite telling her about love, she thinks it's synonymous with dependence. She concludes that there's no place for herself in the world and she vanishes (suicide?).
• You agree with Es that humans should be individualistic and follow their surface-level desires. Es starts treating you as an obedient imaginary friend. She progressively gets more hostile and prone to swearing. At the end, she goes on an endless monologue how she decides what's real and becomes unresponsive, while the world looks broken.

After which Ego Rex offers a reset. You keep your EGO multipliers, so you can come back in about an hour and do the other ending. After doing both, a third outcome unlocks.

This is actually my one big complaint. Despite being a game about self-discovery, you are forced into either of two bad endings, then have to deliberately do the other, then stay neutral to get the real ending. You can't answer how you really feel.

• You remain indecisive and defer to Es to answer own questions. Es admits that she's as much of a wanderer as you are and some guilt has prevented her from moving on. She tells that personality evaluations aren't useful because you should do such introspections on your own. She's afraid of losing her identity between two absolutes, but realizes that desires require compromises. She asserts that the world has no answers and decides to read more, while telling that your journey isn't meant to have a destination. Ego Rex then tells you that deciding own path was the real answer he expected.

"The wanderer, who has lost their way in the world, keeps on asking: "Who am I? What defines the world?" The girl, who is guiding the poor wanderer, asks... "Who are you? What defines the world?" Through her interaction with the wanderer, she finally realizes... The girl continues searching, for herself, and the wanderer. Putting denial behind her, the girl continues on her travels."
—ALTER EGO, the last book

Ads

Despite having optional ads, they really are optional aside of a banner at the bottom. You can click on blue butterflies to watch a video for a brief EGO boost, but due to the game's short length this is completely unnecessary. You can also watch a video to redo a quiz, but after getting an ending you have a choice to reset those for free as well anyway.

Side-content

There is paid DLC that adds a bonus Act 4. Façade is no more and Es becomes nihilistic/aggressive/romantic depending on the choices, and the room has almost a limitless pool of random topics, like the impostor syndrome and acting. She apologizes for how she's acted and talks about searching for purpose and acceptance. You can ask for book suggestions, which are locked by a timer so you can actually go buy them and she asks you questions about them afterwards. She gets dependent on the player for validating her existence and wonders if that's why anyone talks to anyone. She struggles with the idea of having any relationship with someone else even if it's to help her own escape. She gains a toggle to wear glasses and comments if appearances matter. Regardless, she admits of just being lonely and how you can't use dreams for escapism.

A Nintendo Switch port was announced, but it appears to be canceled.

There's also a sequel called ALTER EGO COMPLEX that isn't free. In a Chibi style, Es explores the worlds of the books by walking through the corridor. You have to tap on quotes from it to progress and she comments on them. Also features some side-scrolling minigames. Meanwhile, she has dreams that inlcude some themes of egoism vs socialization, where she's a girl on a shopping spree who and has lost friends, where she's a vampire playing with a victim, where she struggles to pet a cat, the one that shows how she is seemingly born in the infinite library and thinks what the wanderer can do for her, where she's a schoolgirl who can't decide on career choices, where she dances with someone. She decides to write those down, and discovers a new book which describe the library being created "for" her, and the last note pretty much suggests to the player to come up with the implication on their own, which I take as her being a real human being stuck in a labyrinth of her own escapism.

"Are you here in my dream? Am I there in yours? I'm beyond caring. That's enough for me. It's a dream, so why won't it go the way I want it to? If it's my dream, should I be able to control it? Could this dream be... shared between us?"
—Es

What else

The music isn't much varied, but it fits the tone. In both games it's a haunting piano refrain with ambient humming.

The selling point is definitely the artstyle, which has some feeling of a pencil drawing.

Final thoughts

The books brought up really did cause me to think some more, thought not too much since I consider myself an adult. The personality quizzes didn't offer me much what I didn't already know, though the snarky comments are more helpful than what you can find online.

I feel the wall's character isn't really explored despite him being the administrator and the ending leaves his characterization contradictory. I like Es, you can really sympathize with her, and when you finish the story she provides a lot of chatting topics.

I can recommend it if you want to learn about various philosophy literature in a relatively quick manner but can only afford to check your phone a couple of times a day.

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