Guys is innocent. He knows he is innocent. YOU know he is innocent. Unfortunately, no one else thinks so. Thus, he is charged as guilty of a murder he did not commit and is thrown into Hell for life. The only thing that’s certain is that he’s never going to steal again… and that he has to get out of there... fast …before that conniving detective touches him again… or that sadistic prison guard… or that other controlling prisoner… or that guy… and that guy…
The scene is set right after the French Revolution, where terror and dissent has risen among the people. You control the character of Guys, a young street urchin guilty of shoplifting but ultimately accused of killing a man. Like most simulation games, the story unfolds more like a movie with little external participation. However, you decide upon each decision that Guys makes. Each choice is crucial, but each choice is also a gamble. Making a choice as nonchalant as holding a box with his left hand or right hand can cause shifts in the storyline in completely different ways. Or sometimes, it doesn’t matter which choice you make. No character is to be trusted, you will learn that early on.
Although Enzai is not a very hands-on game, it is an extremely graphic game. Instead of beautiful cut-scenes of romance, each full-screen cut-scene is of rape, brutality, violence, and cruelty. The Japanese seiyuu (voice actors) are amazing in conveying the characters’ pain and even their cruelty. Some passages from Japanese are not translated, or are not translated the best way, but unless you know Japanese, you will hardly notice it.
A main problem with the game is that like normal adventure games, only a static picture and the characters’ voices convey their emotions. However, the scenes can soon become repetitive and the characters’ dialogue quickly became redundant. Also, other than a few tracks, the music is good, but not unforgettable. Don’t expect to constantly be on your toes with this game, but those intense scenes come unannounced and are made more extreme because they are unexpected.
The game can be finished within a few hours, but with the promise of multiple endings and countless situational choices, the replay value of this game is extremely high. One thing I recommend is to save often. Although you may try to return and change a choice you had before, unlike other simulation games, you will be unable to do so.
There is no free ride in this game, you must go through the storyline again to change Guys’ fate. That’s why I say save often. If you must start from the beginning, there is also the choice to fast forward and skip through scenes you have already seen.
This is not a game for the light-hearted yaoi fan. Rather than the heroic seme characters that save the young uke, the men of the game would like nothing more than to see Guys suffer. There are scenes of voyeurism, rape, S/M, bondage, pedophilia, and death. It’s an adult-oriented game in every sense of the word and should be explored and recommended only to those with an extremely open mind.
The atmosphere is dark. The characters’ personalities and secrets are dark. But it is a dark game to begin with. It has shown me the most sinister depths of the human heart and the hopelessness of the falsely accused. The question is, will you see it?