Ise-Shima, its mermaid legends, and an investigation that refuses to say what it is hiding.

The criterion by criterion profile traces a very clean line. Art direction is what the community holds onto most, landing ahead of roughly 40% of games, which is modest but towers over the rest of the profile. Fun follows at 35%. Then everything drops: desert island and soundtrack around 18%, connection at 11%. And controller feel crashes to the very bottom of the ranking, nearly last. That is the real tension here: the atmosphere grabs people, while the act of playing barely registers for voters. On few votes these numbers are still to be confirmed, but the shape is already there.

Which is no surprise for a horror visual novel. The genre is played by reading, clicking, cross-referencing. Pitting it against action games on a question about controller feel is judging it on something it never set out to do.

So, who is it for? For you if you love twisted Japanese storytelling, heavy atmosphere, reveals that reshuffle everything you thought you knew. Much less so if you need to feel your hands playing.