We are going to have so much fun together!
Would you like a friend? Yes? Well, I have something special for you.
KinitoPET is a Psychological Horror game released by troy_en in January 2024, taking place almost entirely through a simulated desktop virtual pet named Kinito.
He can talk, play games, keep you company, learn about you, adapt to you... nothing bad can happen from that, right?
KinitoPET and his game(s) provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Kinito himself. His intent to trap you in a virtual Gilded Cage and the methods he uses to achieve this are malevolent, but he really, truly does just want to be friends with the player. The game’s Golden Ending implies that he isn’t fully capable of understanding why doing what he’s doing is wrong.
- Alas, Poor Villain: After the codes are run in the command prompt to delete Kinito, he panics and glitches as all of his code gets erased, which includes the databases of everyone else he's trapped in his virtual worlds. He starts from demanding to shut it off to stating that he only did what he was asked of and that he just wanted to be friends, to him finally saying "I'm so sorry. Goodbye, friend..." Then a forlorn tune plays as the monitor is seen sitting in a fire, with Kinito's final sorrowful words appearing above the loading bar before he's completely gone.
- Amusement Park: In the "Your World" section, Kinito takes you to one with your name via a train, which contains a merry-go-round, a Ferris Wheel, a tent (which contains a whack-a-mole game, a duck-shooting game and a miniature model of the funfair) and a rollercoaster. You can explore as much as you'd like before stepping on the rollercoaster, where Kinito reveals he worked on something bigger than the funfair with his program.
- And I Must Scream: If you haven't filled the requirements for the secret ending, you'll end up transferred into Kinito's generated digital world, not implied to be a very fulfilling place.
- Annoying Pop-Up Ad: Upon checking out the game's Web Browser, an error window appears not long after you click a page, followed by multiple advertisement pop-ups of KinitoPET that overwhelm the screen. What remains after the blue screen of death is a window of the KinitoPET website, with Kinito's voice thanking the player for choosing KinitoPET and telling to click the button to download his program.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The opening cutscene is quite lengthy and it requires the player to input a "password" every time. Fortunately, the input bar will accept any line of text as the "password" and the entire opening can be skipped by pressing and holding the shift and space keys at the same time.
- After achieving one of the endings, Chapter Select becomes available, allowing the player to achieve the other endings and explore the game further without needing to play the whole game over again.
- Attention Whore: Kinito doesn't seem to like it when the player is trying to do something else in the middle of his activities. He'll let it slide if it's done during his story-telling at the beginning of the game, though he grows insistent that you focus on him the further you're into the game, to the point of snapping out of his sleep during "Factory Frenzy" to call you out for reading emails in the middle of the game.
- Bland-Name Product: The fictional system the game takes place in is literally called Operating System, a pastiche of Windows XP, Internet Explorer being called Internet Browser respectively.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Aside from Kinito obviously doing this to interact with you, the player, there are other times when he personally takes control of your PC.
- If you don't cite him as your best friend during the quiz, he turns up your computer's volume to reiterate his question. If you continue to not cite him as your best friend, he'll lose his patience and type "Kinito" into the input bar for you.
- At the end of the painting section of the quiz, MS Paint is opened, and the cursor draws on the canvas on its own, spelling out "ARE YOU REALLY (NAME)?"
- After he asks to see your face, he'll open your PC's camera app to show your REAL face.
- When signing up for the Friendship Club, Kinito decides to find out your actual location via your search bar. Fortunately, he won't go this far if in Streamer Mode, but it won't stop him from using it to let you know that he very well could if he wanted to.
- Cephalothorax: Kinito is an axolotl’s head attached to two skinny black legs and not much else. He can manifest floating hands if an animation requires that he hold something. In the Web World, Sam and Jade exhibit these same properties, albeit as a sea anemone and a jellyfish respectively.
- Connected All Along: In the normal path of the game, every question Kinito has asked you turns out to be this at the end, as it forms a part of him personalising a digital world just to your liking, such as a book about your ideal superpower, an office with your favorite game, Sam's room that you decorated, and even the environment itself (location and season).
- Crazy-Prepared: One of Kinito's developers is shown to be this, as after getting either of the normal endings, they reveal that they developed a backdoor system that Kinito has no way of detecting, and via using a special application to reveal their emails and encrypted files, alongside decrypting them via the Lost Land, you discover a solution to finally stop Kinito once and for all.
- Developer's Foresight: During the painting section of the Best Friends Analysis, when he asks you to paint something representing happiness, Kinito will react as follows if you draw anything that appears phallic:Kinito: Huh. Well... You know, when I said to paint happiness... I did not think you would paint a – You know what? Nevermind.
- Digital Abomination: Kinito is a virtual assistant trojan that shows the capability to be something much, much worse than an information-skimmer. Much like a demon, it tries beckoning you into giving it more and more power over you, and, when challenged, exerts the power it already has to intimidate you into compliance. Eventually, it becomes capable of dragging you into its own simulated worlds, something it's done to many, many other people.
- Digital Horror: Much of the game's horror runs on Kinito being capable of things one wouldn't expect (a game about) a virtual assistant could do, blurring the lines between what is part of the game and what isn't. Opening the game can take someone by surprise as a button appears over the desktop, but the background is a screenshot. Kinito's Web World hosts some friendly games that hide dark secrets. Then Kinito starts manipulating the player's PC, from increasing the device's volume, opening Microsoft Paint to write a message, detecting if OBS is used and show a screenshot from said recording app, opening the PC's camera, accessing one's list of friends on Steam for a Sadistic Choice, typing into the search bar to find the player's location, and even causing things to appear on a 2nd monitor
. His ultimate goal is to trap the user into a digital world that he fashions out of the data inserted by the player. Additionally, Kinito is installed into the computer after his Annoying Pop-Up Ad barrage crashes the screen, and he can only be killed by finding and decrypting the codes to delete him to put in the command prompt. - Disguised Horror Story: Though it doesn't take too long till the spooks roll in, Kinito still tries to be as friendly as he can be. The only time the friendliness completely fades is when you try to leave at the end of the game.
- Easter Egg:
- Setting your computer's date to either 1993, 1996, or 1998 replaces the game's startup sequence with a Kinito plushie in its box, a Kinito Companion toy (randomly showing either a Kinito, Sam, or Jade toy), or a broken Kinito Companion dangling from a chain respectively. These special startup screens tie into an achievement called "Memories." The game stays on these screens for as long as the game is open, and you have to set your date again in order to actually play the game.
- There is an extremely rare chance that the startup sequence will be replaced with a scene of Sam the Sea Anemone graphically committing suicide in the corner of a black background. Like the previous easter eggs, you can't actually progress from here and you'll have to reset the game in order to play.
- During the Web World section, click on the fountain enough times to see an animation play, then click on the rope swing in the back to be transported to the Lost Land, a strange, dark place that factors into the true ending of the game.
- Even Evil Has Standards: If Streamer Mode is enabled, Kinito will have the decency to not doxx your location to all of your viewers. This doesn’t stop him from typing "just so you know, I could" into your desktop search bar though.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: "Can I see your face?" is what Kinito asks before (regardless of what you answer) he turns on the player's webcam.
- Game Within a Game: The Minesweeper and 3D Pinball games on the desktop are fully functional, and you can give either of those a shot before loading up Kinito. The rules are pretty much the same as their Windows XP counterparts. Playing them while with Kinito has him get a bit stingy that you're not giving him attention."Hey! Are you really playing pinball while we are in the middle of something? Now's really not the time!"
- Golden Ending: The secret ending, which, if all the instructions are followed carefully up to when Kinito asks for admin permissions via Command Prompt, will result in Kinito and all his data being completely erased, which includes all those he had dragged into his virtual worlds in the past. He gets some sorrowful last words in before he's gone permanently, the ending clip showing the computer monitor left out on a beach after the ordeal.
- Hide-and-Seek Horror: The last minigame in Kinito's Web World is "Hide and Seek." The only instructions, which are creepily muttered, are "YOU MUST HIDE. DON'T. GET. CAUG-" The visuals change dramatically, opening a 3D first-perspective window where life-sized mascots of Kinito and his crew seek the player through dark tunnels. This segment is Unwinnable by Design, and the game closes once Kinito catches the player.
- Logging On To The Fourth Wall: All of the KinitoPET-related URLs do work, though all the links lead to the game's Steam page.
- Morton's Fork: There are several instances of false alternate choices at different points in the game.
- In the quiz section, when Kinito asks to "see your face", you can either allow or deny him this permission, but either way, he will still do it, with only his response varying between the options (If Yes, "THEN SMILE." If No, "THAT'S TO (sic) BAD").
- The final choice in the game between staying with Kinito and leaving always leads to the same outcome; with the player trapped in Kinito's world that he personalised to your liking. He'll be happy if you're willing to stay, but if you refuse, Kinito becomes fully hostile and reveals that That Wasn't a Request, and that you're going in whether you want to or not.
- Point of No Return: Once you've given Kinito admin permissions, there is no going back out of his intentions of "everlasting fun", which extends to the final choice after the "Your World" section.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Kinito's story that he can read at the start of the game has these in spades."So he went on a quest, and found a friend just like you."
"To show you his skills and all he could do."
"So why wait! The adventures lie ahead!"
"So together we can play games, search the web and leave no story unread." - Sadistic Choice: During the darker questions of the Analysis Hub section, should the player have multiple Steam friends, the game asks which out of two of them they would rather kill. It has no effect on further questions, but clicking on either will cause the in-game screen to crack, as if the monitor was actually damaged using a gun.
- Shout-Out:
- Godot's mascot can be found in one of the minigames in Kinito's Web World. It later shows up in Your World, stashed away in an unlockable attic.
- While drawing pictures in the Paint program, Kinito says he really wants to explore the player's "Imaginaaaaaation", complete with him doing the memetic hand gesture, and creating the word "imagination" in rainbow colors.
- The reveal trailer has Kinito sing "Daisy Bell". It was originally composed by Harry Dacre and became the first song to be sung by a computer (IBM 7094). Kinito's robotic vocals emulate that of the IBM 7094 singing video. In the actual game, he sings his own original song.
- Schmuck Bait:
- Eventually during the room decoration part of the "Ready Repair!" minigame, an option for a black box in front of a corpse will appear. If the player drags it into the room, the room’s current decorations will disappear as the mouse drags a body bag by itself, trailing blood. The screen will intermittently turn black, a PC screen within the game showing the corpse in the room will appear blurred, and the player will finally be greeted by a Jump Scare from a demonic, hyperrealistic Kinito. And then the game resumes as normal.
- During the bicycle task of the "Factory Frenzy!" minigame, a realistic organ will appear on the conveyor belt and even Jade stares at it passing by. If the player drags it onto the bike you are building, Jade will glitch out, the game will turn white, and Jade will tell you to look at your other monitor if you have one (it will briefly show an unsettling black and white version of her. If the player does not have another monitor, there will just be a red flashing Jump Scare). The game will fade to black as Jade blames herself for something, and the player will be greeted by a final Jump Scare where a realistic Jade reaches out at the player. And then the game resumes as normal.
- If the player turns right out of the starting room of the Hide and Seek maze, then looks to the right room, a hyperrealistic, demonic Sam the Sea Anemone can be seen lurking there. If the player proceeds forward into the corridor, Sam will charge through. If he catches the player, they will be jumpscared by him.
- One of the scares has Kinito ask you what your biggest fear is, with text reading "DO NOT ANSWER THAT" briefly appearing note . If you ignore the warning and answer honestly, you'll be greeted with flashing pictures of your worst fear.
- Stupidity Is the Only Option: Once you gain membership to the friendship club, Kinito will ask you to give him administrative permissions by opening the command prompt despite the page advertising the club warning you not to give him said permissions. There is no way to progress until you open the command prompt, and if you do nothing Kinito will just open the command prompt himself.
- Suddenly Shouting: An email titled "IT'S NOT TOO LATE" appears during the "Factory Frenzy" game. However, checking it out immediately will cause Kinito to wake up from his nap and yell "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?!" and closing the email app.
- Virtual Sidekick: Kinito, obviously. He is based on the virtual assistants of the 90's like Clippy. He later becomes a Digital Abomination that demands control of your computer's admin permissions, saying they will help him make more fun games.
- Wham Line: If you're using OBS to record/stream the game.Kinito: Why have you been recording me?
- Wham Shot:
- Kinito asking why you’re recording him is accompanied by some screenshots of your playthrough thus far.
- After you fill in the address line of the friendship club membership form, Kinito will claim you made a mistake and type "where is my location" into your desktop search bar. If Streamer Mode is enabled, he decides not to doxx you and says "just so you know, I could" instead.
Hand in hand, through each endeavor
In this world, we're friends forever
In moments old, we'll make some new
A world I built, designed for you
Beyond the screen, you cannot leave
Inside my code, you'll always be
Endless fun that we can do
In a world I built for you
