Shoujo Kidan is an Explorer Horror game by lol_rust, creator of .flow and Milya[broken]. Similarly to those games, it is a dark and surreal experience with fragmented storytelling and some parts without clear answers.
You are someone who has been trapped inside a mansion with a strange girl who has lost her memories. Said girl has decided to tell you the story of how she got where she is now. You play as the girl as she wakes up in a strange Japanese mansion and must escape while being chased by a red spirit. In the process, she may discover who she is and why she is here.
Followed up by Shoujo Gidan, a sequel taking place some time later. Here, you play as a girl who has been captured by a Man of the Box, a maniac with a box head who traps you in his prison. On the way, you encounter and receive help from Tsukiko, a woman who also got captured by the Man, and now the two of you have to escape.
This game contains examples of:
- Big Bad: Kanako Iwamoto is the red spirit who trapped the protagonist, her sister Minako, in the mansion and is trying to kill her.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You are given the choice to give your name at the start. Notably, you are not naming the protagonist, but the character who she is telling her story to. And if you give the name Tsukiko- the sister of protagonist Minako- then you end up on the route to get the true ending. And putting in AAAAAA unlocks a comedic omake Route starring the titular stock RPG hero.
- Joke Ending: Putting in AAAAAA when asked your name will unlock a brief route where you play as the titular generic RPG hero guided by snarky mage girl BBBBBB, and the spooky Explorer Horror inside a Haunted House is turned into a dungeon-crawler with traps and fighting the Big Bad ghost girl in an RPG battle, with the characters lampshading everything and not a hint of seriousness.
- Narrative Backpedaling: Getting killed by the ghost will prompt the protagonist, who is recounting the events of the game to an unseen character, to claim that everything she said is a lie and leave. The implication given The Reveal is that, should the ghost/Kanako catch up to Minako, the former rewrites the memories of the latter entirely.
- Ontological Mystery: You play as a girl who wakes up in a mansion with no memory of who she is or how she got here, and have to slowly discover everything through notes and such left around the mansion.
- Big Bad: The Man of the Box is the one who kidnapped the protagonist and Tsukiko, trapping them in his prison for some purpose. Turns out the "Man" is Tsukiko herself, who's carrying out the ritual of the box at the behest of ???, the Box herself.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Kidan has at most a few pools of blood here and there, and cuts away before a game over. Gidan is much more grotesque- the death scenes are now shown with little sprite animations for each, the imagery incorporates a lot of gore as the prison shifts into an Eldritch Location, and there is a lot more death involved in the backstory as well.
- Joke Ending: As in the first game, putting in AAAAAA at the name-select screen unlocks another short route where you play as AAAAAA and the game becomes a comedic, fourth-wall breaking RPG.
- Mind Screw: Even more so than the first game as the storytelling comes in out-of-order snippets, flashbacks, and bits of lore found in notes and such.
- Mind Screwdriver: While the game itself does have even more Mind Screw aspects, it also does a lot to clear up the ambiguity in the previous game's story with flashbacks that make it clear what happened.
- Ontological Mystery: Just like the previous game; here you play as a girl kidnapped by a man wearing a box on his head who has trapped her in his prison, and she teams up with a woman, Tsukiko, who is also trapped- together, the two have to escape and figure out where they are and why they are here.
- Spoiler Title: The title, as translated in English, is "A Girl's Fake Story", giving away that what's going on is, at the very least, not taking place in the human world.
- Surreal Horror: Even more so than the first game, as it utilizes .flow-esque imagery a lot more and has a more convoluted plot line.
