A foreword: I ramble a lot, and I write about massive spoilers for what else the game has to offer if you play past the initial seven nights. Bear with me, but I so want to pour my heart out about this game.

Short review: I highly recommend playing through this game for everything it has to offer, -blind-. I played through it blind, my friends played through it blind, and it was worth diving into it headfirst without truly knowing what else it had to offer. I highly suggest this game to my fellows, to the point that when I finished it, I immediately sent it to my friends. The message it sends is worth the initial discomfort. (Of course, please do not force yourself to play if you cannot stomach it.)

Now, for a thorough review:

I don't know what my political standing is, and I don't think I'm the type to put a label on it. Whether out of cowardice or ignorance, I don't even know that. But whatever "stance" it is I believe in, Duloga showed me a reality in the world that I cannot stand.

I can watch little crosshair-faced men kill each other without batting an eye. I can shoot down countless enemies in other video games just fine. But watching Duloga's 8-bit people get killed, yellow or not, put me through so much discomfort, further enhanced by how the game puts names and social standings to them. And before the "ang arte mo naman, laro lang yan"— put succinctly by my best friend while I watched her play through this: "This is actually happening. It's real."

It built up to an ending I somewhat knew was coming, but what the game does after the ending stole my heart. Such a creative use of "Insert your name" that video games ask for in order to immortalize your accomplishment on a scoreboard. I absolutely loved that detail. A single word that tells a long tale.

But the completionist in me wondered, "what if I do this?" and so I went through the nights without reaching quotas. And I am so glad I did. I'll try not to spoil it too much since it's worth dodging bullets for, but I loved it. It gave me a little more hope for our country.

There was a glitch in the game, of which I cannot detail the exact circumstances to trigger it. But I will try: starting a game quickly may have it jumping immediately to the scoreboard while still playing the game in the background. Not only that, but no matter how many people you DID save, it would automatically give you 10. This was how I reached a score of hundreds quickly. Despite this flaw (which, while it helped me reach the "true ending," still may dampen the story somewhat), I highly enjoyed what this game had to offer.

Until it could offer no more. The "breaking" of the game's UI finally made sense to me. From a black background to white, jarring red text turning into kinder blues— eventually, the system was broken, and I could no longer play. The sense of peace was overwhelming.

I pray that we find the serenity of Duloga's ending screen one day.