The first thing that hits you is how deliberately rough the whole thing feels, like someone sc*** it together in a basement with a cracked screen and a grudge. Mysterious Ways doesn't care if you're comfortable. Anon walks the same road every day, same time, watching her. You click through his routine, the point and click bits are janky but that's the charm, right? Then one day she doesn't look back and everything tilts. The split into exploration and encounter routes happens fast, no hand holding. I went encounter first because obviously. The power dynamic stuff gets weird quick, she's not just a victim, she's pushing back, and the vaginal sex scene with the toy comes out of nowhere but fits the whole obsession spiral. The writing has this broken English quality that actually works for the psychological mess, like the narrator can't keep his thoughts straight either.

The exploration route is where the occult symbolism lives, you click on trees and old stones and get these fragmented memory flashes. Some of them are horny, some are just unsettling. I spent way too long on one puzzle with a locked box that never opens, and I'm still annoyed about it. The game teases explicit content but holds back in weird places, like it wants you to beg. Which, given the themes, might be the point.

The animated bits are minimal but effective, mostly during the encounter scenes. The male protagonist is a creep and the game knows it, doesn't apologize. I wish the toy mechanic was more interactive instead of just a click and watch thing, but whatever. The visual novel parts drag sometimes, then suddenly you're in a forest with glowing symbols and a woman who might be a witch or might be his imagination. The line between fantasy and reality dissolves, and honestly so did my patience at one point, but then the next scene pulled me back. It's messy, unfinished, and kind of brilliant in its refusal to be polished.