Video Game / Mogeko Castle

Where there is Mogeko, there is nightmare.

Mogeko Castle is a surreal horror game created by Deep-Sea Prisoner (aka Mogeko) in RPG Maker. The main creatures are based off of the Geko cat. The game was originally made in RPG Maker 2000 and released on April 1st, 2012. A remake made in RPG Maker VX Ace was released on early 2014.

Yonaka Kurai, an ordinary high school girl, is taking the bus home. Her dearly beloved brother has finally come home, and she's looking forward to seeing him again. During the ride back, she drifts off, and reawakens to find the bus has stopped at an unfamiliar station.

While looking around, she encounters some strange yellow, cat-like creatures: the Mogeko. These odd little creatures appear to be disturbingly obsessed with high school girls, and want to 'play with her'... Soon, Yonaka finds herself trapped inside the titular Mogeko Castle, searching for a way to escape back home.

Along her journey to the seventh floor, she encounters various Mogeko, which help her out. One of them, after she sets him free, joins her on her quest. Can she escape the castle with her sanity intact or will the Mogeko succeed with their perverted plans for her?

This game was translated by vgperson. Those interested in playing can find it over here. Be forewarned, however, that the game contains some potentially triggering content, mainly violence and implied rape. The author rated the game 'ages 15 and up', but acknowledges this may be too low from a non-Japanese perspective.

Mogeko's other works are The Gray Garden and Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea.

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Mogeko Castle provides examples of:

• All Just a Dream: Yonaka wonders if the castle was just this upon finding herself on a bus back home. However, she realizes otherwise after noticing the blood on her hands.
• all lowercase letters: King mogeko is distinguished from the usual Mogeko by the fact his name is in lowercase. This extends so far that somebody screams his name as "KING mOGEKO!"
• All Mogekos Are Perverts: Almost every single Mogeko Yonaka meets are after Yonaka because they want to have sex with her. They actually confess that they love high school girls, which might imply that they've abducted countless girls before Yonaka and either raped and/or murdered them. They also have a wide collection of porn and record their masturbation sessions.
• Almost Dead Guy: Hasu has been tortured and crucified by Moge-ko by the time you find them, yet hangs on long enough to explain how they were caught and about the castle's history before slowly succumbing to their injuries.
• Ambiguous Situation: Comes into play in the Happy Ending, which leaves Yonaka's status deliberately unclear. Is she trapped back in Mogeko Castle, or is she back home and the final scene just symbolic of her mental state? Is King mogeko drugging her or is she on antipsychotics/antidepressants?
• Animalistic Abomination: The fifth floor has one of these that eats Mofukos. Moge-ko lets it out of its cage to help chase Yonaka and Defect Mogeko.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Moge-ko asks Yonaka if she really wants to return home and she stumbles over her answer for a moment.
• Attempted Rape: The majority of the dialogue between Yonaka and the Mogekos is the latter alluding to what they're about to do to her, then Zerg Rushing her to try and make it happen. The first Bad End and most instances of a standard Game Over comprises of them getting exactly what they're after.
• Ax-Crazy: Several Mogekos qualify for this trope, but Moge-ko is in a league of her own.
• BFG: Yonaka and Defect Mogeko find a RPG in the hospital and puts it to use later. The first time Defect Mogeko uses it he tries to kill Moge-ko and the giant man eating monster with it, only for Moge-ko to No-Sell it with a force field. The second time he uses it on King mogeko, which catches him off guard and blows up the throne room.
• Big Bad Ensemble: There are three antagonists Yonaka Kurai faces in her quest to escape the titular castle:
  • King mogeko created the titular castle and the Mogeko species and is trapping Yonaka inside so they can rape her.
  • Moge-ko, a sadistic Mogeko girl who is the king's enforcer but terrifies even him and wants Yonaka to herself.
  • Shinya Kurai, Yonaka's brother, killed their parents and wants to kill Yonaka herself, but is otherwise unrelated to the main plot.
• Big Brother Worship: Yonaka thinks very highly of her brother.
  • In the bonus room, one of the characters is bold enough to ask if this borders on Brother–Sister Incest. Yonaka denies this idea, of course.
• Bittersweet Ending: Regardless of if you get the Normal or Happy Ending, Defect Mogeko and Shinya are dead.
• Black Comedy: This is one way to look at the game, hidden among all of the perverted nature of the Mogeko and the homicidal behavior of Moge-ko.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents: Yonaka ends up this way after Nega-Mogeko is shot.
• Book Ends: The game's Framing Device is a Mogeko telling a bedtime story. In the Happy End, we return to this scene and learn it's King mogeko speaking to Yonaka.
• Break the Cutie: Yonaka, at an approximate rate of once every 10 minutes. It starts with a very clear rape threat, and somehow manages to get worse.
  • By the normal end, she snaps and becomes a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
• Broken Aesop: While Yonaka comes to the conclusion that running away won't solve her problems, the two endings she can get after coming to this conclusion are both unpleasant: her happiest ending comes from running away with Defect Mogeko.
• But Thou Must!:
  • Given that Yonaka's already met and is running from the perverted Mogeko, and the castle has a giant Mogeko head forming one of the roofs, you'd think that heading inside would be the last thing she wants to do. However, choosing not to enter leads to the first Bad Ending.
  • A few 'choices' ask if you want to take a certain action, with your options being 'Yes', 'Hai', or 'OK!'
• The Caligula: Moge-ko and King mogeko.
• Cap: Any item you can repeatedly acquire, has a limit of 99 of that item in your inventory.
• Chekhov's Gun: The rocket launcher doubles as a bit of a boomerang; the first time it's used, it appears to be wasted with little effect. However, when King mogeko appears, Defect Mogeko whips it out again and uses it more effectively.
• Content Warnings: The game starts with a warning about its violence and sexual themes.
• Cruel Twist Ending: The "Happy End" initially seems like just that, but then reveals that King mogeko was the one reading the story, he's reading it to Yonaka, and will continue to torture her for all eternity.
• Culture Police: Mogeko who deviate from Mogeko Castle's social norms are rounded up and executed. Social deviants include, but are not limited to, Mogeko who have qualms about sexual assault or just don't like prosciutto that much. Only the Seven Special Mogeko are exempt to a degree.
• Cute and Psycho: The Mogekos may look like Cute Kittens with curly tails, but are disturbingly obsessive and casual about violence and rape. Moge-ko is even worse about the violence.
• Did They or Didn't They?: One Mogeko sleeping in a bed asks Yonaka to sleep with him. She can accept. Nothing is shown and nothing horrific occurs, leaving what happened ambiguous. Maybe they just cuddled...?
  • Though it's worth mentioning that after the scene, Yonaka's Student ID changes from 'Female Student' to 'Woman'.
• Double Entendre: The fifth bad ending sounds almost... sexual. Compared to what the game offers, it wouldn't be too surprising.
• Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Averted. Moge-ko's violent lust for Yonaka is played for horror, just like every other Mogeko.
• Downer Ending: The so-called Happy End leaves Yonaka with a dead brother and a broken mind, either Trapped in Another World or just haunted by King mogeko as one of her personal demons.
• The Dragon: Moge-ko.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Even King mogeko is terrified of Moge-ko.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: When Yonaka is hiding from a Mogeko in the storage room, he mentions that he'd be able to track her down by her scent much easier if not for his pesky hay fever.
• Eldritch Location: The titular castle has normal-looking architecture at first, but its environments get increasingly weird while going through its floors.
• Emotionless Girl: Yonaka. She definitely has When She Smiles moments in the game.
• Escape Sequence: At several points, Yonaka must flee from oncoming hordes of Mogeko. Hope you don't take a wrong turn—!
  • Moge-ko joins in on the fun twice, once with a horde of Mogekos and again with a giant maneating monster.
• Evil Counterpart: Inverted with Nega-Mogeko, who is explictedly a Good Counterpart of King mogeko. As his complete opposite, they don't share any of the usual Mogeko traits with him, meaning they aren't a selfish, Psychopathic Man Child.
• Evil Gloating: Moge-ko and King mogeko both engage in this whenever they get the upper hand.
• Eviler than Thou: King mogeko is obsessed with high school girls, sex, killing, and prosciutto. Moge-ko is feared even by King mogeko for her split personality, unpredictable nature, and being brutally sadistic in her tortures. It says something when the King wants her dead.
  • In the normal ending, Yonaka usurps all three of the major villains to become Lord Prosciutto, the new Mogeko ruler, and the sequel's trailer implies that she will be the main villain.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Several horrific elements involve unnaturally realistic eyes in contrast with the usual art style. For instance, the cover of the "Scary Book" found in Moge-ko's room.
• The Fatalist: Defect Mogeko is initially resigned to his fate when he meets Yonaka, but becomes convinced while helping her that it's possible to Screw Destiny and help her escape.
• Fisher Kingdom: Mogeko Castle is implied to be one; many of the Special Mogeko mention that it was originally a much nicer place to live before King mogeko arrived and started reshaping it to their will.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Various portraits show Mogeko with either completely blank faces or a single creepy eye in the middle of their face. Both of these are depicting King mogeko after he Turns Red.
  • One Mogeko mentions that he'd have an easier time tracking down Yonaka by her scent if he wasn't suffering from hay fever. Near the end of the game, this comes up again when Nega-Mogeko tells Yonaka that the stench of his blood should cover her scent and make it easier for her to escape unnoticed.
  • Several times, Yonaka is asked if she really wants to escape. Neither of the two "true" endings are particularly happy.
  • When Mofurru tells Yonaka about the symptoms of blancfluff parasite infection, Defect Mogeko tells her that it doesn't affect humans or the Seven Special Mogekos. Defect Mogeko is actually Nega-Mogeko, the seventh special Mogeko.
  • The choice leading to the Happy Ending is labeled "On the Path to Falsehood".
  • Despite generally being a Nice Girl, Yonaka can do some cruel things to certain Mogekos, none of which actually do anything to harm her. In certain choices, she will not allow you to say no to killing. She can even kill the ones that help her. The title screen shows her with creepy red eyes, and a late-game Interface Screw gives her pause menu picture red eyes and a Psychotic Smirk. She's also an Emotionless Girl; worryingly, she doesn't seem the least bit surprised with what her brother has done to their parents, and is perfectly willing to forgive him and stay with him. All this hints at the sweet little girl having a hidden violent side. Come the normal ending, and she effortlessly defeats Shinya, King mogeko, and Moge-ko, then usurps power and becomes the new Mogeko leader — and will presumably be the sequel's villain and an even worse tyrant than her predecessors! Seems Ax-craziness is genetic for the Kurai family.
• Four Is Death: Yonaka and Shinya. Relatedly, Shinya just so happens to be an Ax-Crazy Torture Technician bent on making Yonaka his next victim.
• Gag Dub: One exists in the form of the fan creation: 'Mogeko Castle With Voices,' by The With Voices Project.
• Gratuitous Italian
• Happy Place: There's vague hints that at least some of the Happy End may take place in this instead of reality. The choice for it is called the Path to Falsehood, the Bad End you can get as part of it is called Fictitious Truth, and King mogeko makes reference to Yonaka being trapped in a happy dream. Nothing's remotely conlusive though.
• Heroic BSoD: Yonaka teeters on the edge of a full breakdown after Nega-Mogeko's death, and remains touch-and-go for the rest of the game.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Nega-Mogeko makes a Last Stand after being shot to give Yonaka time to reach the seventh floor.
• Infinite Supplies: If you can collect an item by inspecting part of the scenery, you can farm that item endlessly if you please. One wonders how a single trash can can hold infinite amounts of garbage, a bookshelf contain infinite amounts of porn, or Moge-ko's drawers contain infinite amounts of her panties.
• Karma Houdini: The happy ending has the terrible King mogeko continuing his tormenting of Yonaka. Moge-ko survives in either ending, though the normal ending implies that she serves Yonaka.
• Kleptomaniac Hero Found Underwear: In Moge-ko's room and Yonaka's room, you can find their respective underwear. Although the Kleptomananiac part is subverted in Yonaka's case, as they're her panties.
• Klingon Promotion: In one ending, Yonaka takes over the castle by murdering the king, scalping him, and wearing the top of his head as a hat.
• Laughing Mad: Moge-ko. She tends to giggle madly when she gets excited about killing or torturing someone. Once Yonaka kills the king in the normal ending, then she also gets a laughing fit.
• Morton's Fork: Yonaka has to deal with this near the ending: go back home and face her murderous brother, or return to Mogeko Castle, which is as about as far from a safe haven as you can get?
• Multiple Endings:
  • Bad End 0: Everlasting Dream: If Yonaka decides not to go into the castle, a swarm of Mogekos will appear behind her and, after admitting what they know about her, they will gang-rape her, presumably to death (actually, make that "hopefully to death", since the alternative is considerably worse).
  • Bad End 1: Assimilation: If Yonaka decides to unleash the madness of the first Mad Mogeko, it will consume her and she will ask many questions about herself, including who she is. She will then "become one with the darkness of Mogeko Castle"; whether this means that she's dead, insane, or something else is left ambiguous.
  • Bad End 2: Insects: If Yonaka goes in the room with Mogeko larva, she gets swarmed and becomes a host for Mogeko Eggs, which presumably have been laid inside of Yonaka by the larva.
  • Bad End 3: Meat Party: If Yonaka decides to lift the cage filled with Mad Mogeko, they run towards her and Defect Mogeko and attack them, eating them alive.
  • Bad End 4: Toy: If Yonaka and Defect Mogeko leave Moge-ko's room instead of going for her bed, Moge-ko will corner the duo, drag them to her torture chamber, kill Defect Mogeko, and make Yonaka her new toy. She will hang her on one of the many crosses in her torture room and torture (and presumably rape) her for a long time.^note In earlier versions of the game, Moge-ko just straight-up killed Yonaka. The RPG Maker VX version of the game extended this ending, resulting in the version described above. Her followers will then spy on them during one of their sessions and see the worn-out Yonaka.
  • Bad End 5: Parasite: If Yonaka decides to touch the blancfluff parasite, it will jump in her mouth and works its way to her stomach. While it's doing that, Yonaka is screaming as it squirms around in her body. Eventually, Yonaka will turn into a Yonafluff.
  • Bad End? 6: Elopement (Prosciutto Love Affair: Vows on the Sunset Hill): If Yonaka chooses to elope with Defect Mogeko and abandon her quest to return home, she and Defect Mogeko will run away together and presumably get married. Actually the real happiest ending in the game.
  • Bad End 7: Fictitious Truth: If Yonaka gets caught by her brother, he will pull out a knife and stab her multiple times while she screams in pain.
  • Normal End: Yonaka Castle: If Yonaka kills any or all of the Special Mogeko^note including Hasu; he may be dead by the time you get to interact with him, but you can still stab his corpse for no good reason and kills her brother, she will return to Mogeko Castle, knock out Moge-ko, and kill King mogeko. She will scalp King mogeko and wear his scalp like a crown; then, just as the other Mogeko are ready to attack her, she turns into Lord Prosciutto. She renames the castle after herself and decides to use her powers to resurrect her brother, though we don't get to see whether or not she succeeds…
  • Happy End: If Yonaka doesn't kill any special Mogeko and kills her brother, he will momentarily return to his senses and give her one more smile before passing on. After the credits, King mogeko will be by someone's bedside. He will initially start by talking about happiness. Then, he will reveal that he's by Yonaka's beside and that because she is either comatose or on an anti-psychotic/antidepressant medication, she is unable to see or hear him. Meaning, he will continue to haunt her and never leave her alone.
• Mummies at the Dinner Table: One frustrated Mogeko declares that if he can't find Yonaka, he'll blow up the whole castle and sift through the rubble to find her body — "A corpse is fine, too!"
• Mythology Gag: The RPG Maker VX remake of the game includes several references to the author's past work, particularly The Gray Garden, which is an anime in the Mogeko world if the Yosafire figurines and TV broadcast are any indication. Wadanohara figurines are also seen, and Kurotsuno makes a couple of cameo appearances.
• Not What It Looks Like: Averted when Yonaka comes home to find her parents dead and her brother with a knife. "It's exactly what you think."
• Optional Sexual Encounter: Yonaka can "spend a sweet night" with one non-rapey Mogeko. It doesn't have any bearing on the plot; the only difference is that the title of Yonaka's character sheet changes from "Female Student" to "Woman".
• Pay Evil unto Evil: The vast majority of Mogeko are hedonistic rapists, but the game throws some pretty awful things at them. Moge-ko, for one, and even Yonaka herself; she can run about stealing their precious prosciutto, trap some in a cage to starve to death, and straight-up murder a few.
• Press X to Die: Most of the choices leading to a bad ending are explicitly labeled as such, with the game even outright stating something along the lines of "If you do this, you'll die! Do you still want to?"
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Considering that the Gaiden Trailer reveals the Normal End is (seemingly) canon, Yonaka has seemingly usurped King mogeko… only to become a cruel tyrant that surpasses Moge-ko herself. In fact, she's possibly even worse than the King, as she has no fear of asserting herself to Moge-ko and makes it dreadfully clear she's in charge by sitting on her.
• Psychopathic Manchild:
  • King mogeko leads by example. Unfortunately, the example he sets is that of a Spoiled Brat with no sense of morality and a disturbing obsession with high school girls.
  • Moge-ko is even more of a Spoiled Brat who treats her Mogeko followers as an endless supply of living 'toys' that she enjoys breaking.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Yonaka has these on the title screen. Moge-ko also switches between normal black eyes to slit-pupiled red eyes when talking about her cruel intentions or going into a rage. Also seen on Shinya; they turn black after Yonaka stabs him in the Happy End. Yonaka herself gains these once she's "On the Path to Falsehood" in said ending.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Mofuko. Yeah, they have a tragic story, but they're sooooooo cute.
• Self-Made Orphan: Shinya kills Yonaka's parents while waiting for her to get back.
• Sequel Hook:
  • The Happy End contains a pretty obvious hook, and leads into the trailer for Mogeko Castle Gaiden: General Hashasky's Great Adventure.
  • One of the bonus room features is an in-character interview, where the host gleefully mentions that the sequel's going to take EVEN MORE from Yonaka.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • During a scene where Yonaka is hiding from a Mogeko, cheerful piano music plays while he's crying over his High School Girl Radar being broken.
    • The scene was likely intended to be humorous, so it makes sense.
  • The same cheerful piano music plays in Bad End 5 and when Defect Mogeko tries and fails to use a rocket launcher against Moge-ko.
• Split Personality:
  • Moge-ko might have this. She easily goes back and forth between an almost nice facade to a bloodthirsty monster.
  • This may also be the case for Yonaka's brother, Shinya. While waiting for his sister to return, he tortured, murdered, and mutilated their parents. His red eyes should be proof of this terrifying behavior.
• Stylistic Suck: The game sometimes uses the sound of a bad-quality speech synthesis for the Mogekos. It may have been deliberately chosen for its creepiness.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Yonaka develops one when Nega-Mogeko is shot, and subsequently burnt at the stake.
• Too Dumb to Live: The cause of the bad endings.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Prosciutto. There are a few other foods mentioned, like peppers and sea-salt chips, but this is the primary obsession of the Mogekos, to the point that they have an entire religion revolving around it.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: Yonaka can steal prosciutto from a few Mogekos and leave them in tears, destroy a switch trapping some in a cage forever to starve to death, and kill quite a few of them. None of these Mogekos do anything to hurt her — she can even kill the ones that helped her!
• You Can't Fight Fate: King mogeko taunts Yonaka and Defect Mogeko by claiming they can't escape the castle no matter how hard they try, and should just give up and submit already. And he's right.
• Zerg Rush: Individually, your average Mogeko isn't very strong, and can easily be dispatched by, say… a knife to the face. However, they have a tendency to swarm, and in the various Escape Sequences, Yonaka has to keep ahead of hordes of the little yellow beasts.

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