From left to right: Risa, Mio, and Kayoko.
Friendship is a short RPG Maker horror game. In it, you play a middle school girl named Risa who, after talking with her friend Kayoko, goes to visit her other friend Mio at her house. When she gets there, she hears Mio calling out for help, and must save her while discovering a dark truth about her life.
The game can be found here
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Not to be confused with the film or the web animation.
WARNING: Given that the game is at most an hour long, all spoilers will be unmarked.
This game provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Mio's mom would often beat her and do things like locking her in the closet, and actively refers to her as a parasite. It's also mentioned that one of her mom's boyfriends hit her as well.
- Asshole Victim: Mio's mom was murdered by Kayoko in the backstory for all the abuse she inflicted upon Mio.
- Awful Truth: Kayoko killed Mio's mother and ended killing up Mio in the struggle, but deluded herself into thinking she was still with her. When Risa tells her to confront the truth, her sanity breaks down.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Kayoko, friend of Risa and Mio, is the one responsible for Mio's disappearance, as she killed both her and her mom and is hiding Mio's body for herself; meanwhile, Mio's abusive mom haunts their house as a spirit, and is the most direct danger to Risa.
- Chick Magnet: Kayoko is the prettiest girl in class and very popular between the boys. She's not interested though.
- Chromatic Arrangement: The colors of Risa's, Kayoko's, and Mio's hair accessories are red, blue, and yellow, respectively.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: It's implied Kayoko considered Risa a third wheel between her friendship with Mio, as Risa later finds a photo of the three with her own face marked.
- Creepy Basement: Played With, as the basement is where Kayoko is hiding with Mio's body, but it's the only area in the game with no supernatural elements.
- Commonality Connection: Mio and Kayoko became friends over their shared love of classical music.
- Dead All Along: Mio. Risa spends the whole game looking for her, going through her Haunted House to rescue her... only to find her already killed by Kayoko.
- Evolving Title Screen: At first, the title screen is a blurry picture, with only the word 'FRIENDSHIP' visible. It initially seems to just be the title of the game, but getting the Golden Ending reveals that it is actually part of a newspaper headline, the full title saying 'A FRIENDSHIP GONE AWRY'. The article, naturally, is about the events of the game.
- Haunted House: What Mio's house has become thanks to her mom being killed and returning as a vengeful spirit.
- Multiple Endings: Depending on what tape you play when confronting Kayoko:
- Game Over: Not an official ending, but a game over. If Risa plays tape 1, Kayoko tells her she does not want to hear it and kills her.
- End 1: Companionship: Risa plays tape 2. Kayoko hears Mio's voice and, in her insanity, mistakes Risa for Mio. She then forces Risa to replace Mio forever, playing nurse to her.
- End 2: Relationship: Risa plays tape 3. The same thing happens as in End 2, but instead of playing nurse, Kayoko sticks Risa in the bathtub, drowning Risa.
- End 3: Stewardship: Risa plays tape 4. Kayoko hears the voice of Mio's mom and, in her insanity, mistakes Risa for Mio's mom. She kills Risa and promises Mio that they will be together forever.
- End 4: Worship: Risa plays tape 5. Kayoko regrets killing Mio and her mom and kills herself with the knife. Risa has gone insane herself upon returning to school, deluding herself into believing that Mio and Kayoko are still alive and right there with her.
- End 5: Friendship: To get this ending, Risa must aquire the music player from the locked drawer (in the room with the body of Mio's mom) before confronting Kayoko, then play tape 5. Kayoko hears Mio on the tape sing happy birthday to her. Kayoko tearfully regrets killing Mio and her mom and turns herself in to the police. Risa sets out to make new friends, but still promises to visit Kayoko one day and trade stories about Mio.
- Never My Fault: After Risa forces Kayoko to remember that she killed Mio, Kayoko declares that she would've never done it, and that it must somehow all be Risa' fault.
- Shmuck Bait: In one room on the second floor, Risa can hear Mio's voice out the window and can jump out the window to follow the voice, with predictable results.
- Yandere: Kayoko turns out to be this towards Mio, killing Mio's mom for abusing her before killing Mio herself to 'protect' her.
