Don't talk to strangers...
The Kidnap is a 2023 psychological horror video game created by Chilla's Art.
You play as Renya, an elementary school boy living with his sister, Sakiko. Their mother walked out several months ago, leaving both children to fend for themselves. One rainy night, Renya discovers his sister has mysteriously disappeared as well. He pretends that everything is fine at school, but with rumors of a clown breaking into houses and a man following Renya wherever he goes, Renya grows paranoid that something may have gotten his sister and is coming for him too...
This game contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Renya and Sakiko's mother can hardly be even called a parent, to the point where she is easily considered the true villain of the game.
- Sarao's mother is established to be this to him early in the game. She was emotionally and physically abusive to him because he reminded her of her ex-husband. Eventually, Sarao snapped and killed his mother for her treatment of him.
- Adults Are Useless: Renya's teacher asks him if his sister is okay, but doesn't infer more even as days go by without any word from her. If you stay at Sarao's house or run to any house that isn't Kohime's, then the police will arrest Sarao but will not listen to the children's explanations and call the children's mom to get them.
- Anti-Villain: Sarao is the antagonist behind the kidnapping, but it's hard to call him evil, as he was just working alongside Sakiko to carry out her plan, and also due to his mentally troubled state and his own traumatic past. The children's mother is far more evil and villainous despite having much less screen time than him.
- Asshole Victim: Renya and Sakiko's mother is killed by Sarao in the true ending. It's very hard to argue that she didn't deserve it after all the evil she's committed against her own children.
- Book Smart: Sakiko performs very well in school, having a full set of test papers with perfect scores. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean she can't also come up with a truly awful plan to get their mother to return.
- Big Sister Instinct: Initially played straight, but later heavily subverted as it turns out that Sakiko isn't above ochestrating an entire false kidnapping, thereby traumatising her brother, all to ensure that it would be enough to garner her mother's attention.
- Cool Big Sis: Sakiko loves and cares for Renya, even if she doesn't always show it to him over her desire for their mother's love. He does get disillusioned when he finds out Sakiko orchestrated the whole kidnapping scheme, but you can get Renya to go along with it for her sake as one of the endings.
- Harmful to Minors: One of the things Renya can find in Sarao's attic is the rotting, butchered corpse of a woman, who is implied to be Sarao's abusive mother.
- Hate Sink: The kids' mother is an evil, abusive, and despicable woman who abandons them for months for seemingly no reason at all, and is up there with the Gym Coach and the Monk as one of the most disgustingly evil and repulsive characters in a Chilla's Art game.
- Hates Their Parent: Sakiko notes that Renya seems to be afraid of their mother, but judging by how happy Renya is after Sarao kills his mother, his feelings towards his mother lean more towards "hatred" than fear.
- Heel Realization: After being taken into foster care, Sakiko realizes she didn't consider her brother's feelings in her fake kidnapping plan, as she remembers that Renya was afraid of their mother. Or rather, he hated their mother.
- Jerkass:
- Renya and Sakiko's mother, obviously. She yells at and berates them, even wishing she never gave birth to them. Soon after, she callously abandons them. When she comes back after the kidnapping incident is resolved she either, A: abandons them again, or B: self-righteously confronts the kidnapper and provokes him.
- Sarao's mother physically and emotionally abused him for most of his life. It's implied she's a Troubled Abuser and deeply regrets what she's done, but it is still no excuse.
- Karmic Death: The good ending has the childrens' mother provoke and verbally abuse a man who was also abused in the past, and is rightfully killed by him for her trouble.
- Karma Houdini: In the bad ending, the children's mother never faces the consequences of abandoning them, and by all appearances, just drops them off at home and leaves them again immediately.
- Mature Work, Child Protagonists: Our Kid Hero Renya is a normal boy who goes to school and plays with his friends but is hiding the fact that he and his sister are living alone without their mom and that his sister just went missing as well.
- The Mentally Disturbed: A notebook you can find in Sarao's house reveals that Sarao was also abused by his mother, and it's heavily implied that he eventually snapped and killed her after her abuse went too far, butchering her corpse and stuffing it in the attic, resulting in his current mental state. His killing of the children's mother after she confronts him was likely triggered by his trauma.
- Missing Child: The plot begins when Renya discovers his sister is missing. Three days go by without any word from Sakiko, and Renya begins to fear the worst. Turns out that Sakiko faked her own kidnapping with the help of Sarao in order to get their mother to notice and come home.
- Monster Clown: Rumors are going around that a clown has been seen watching children and breaking into people's homes. There are a couple of times Renya thinks he sees a clown lurking nearby, and even has nightmares about it. This turns out to be a red herring as the true "antagonist" is Sarao, who's actually just a mentally disturbed man, helping Sakiko with her kidnapping plan.
- Multiple Endings: There are three endings depending on what you do at Sarao's house:
- If you try to flee from Sarao by tricking him into swerving off the road and continuing on foot, he will eventually catch up to you, ending with a Game Over.
- If you try to go to anyone else's house other than Kohime's, or you obediently stay at Sarao's house, then the police will arrest him and take you and Sakiko to the station where the mother will pick you up. However, she will then drop you off at the house and abandon you two once again, while Sakiko tries to stop her from leaving.
- If you run to Kohime's house, her mother (who turns out to be a social worker) will let you and your sister stay at their home before sending you to foster care, where you are much happier. Unfortunately, the mother comes to the foster center and forcibly takes you both home. When she finds out about Sarao's involvement, she marches over to his house and confronts him, only for Sarao to slash her neck with a sickle, killing her. While Sakiko screams over her body, Renya is smiling, happy their mother is finally dead.
- Never My Fault: The mother of Renya and Sakiko is angered that Sarao would dare to kidnap her children, despite her leaving them to fend for themselves, vulnerable and unprotected, for who knows how long.
- Parental Neglect: Renya and Sakiko's mom is a downright awful parent, berating her kids for being born and leaving them for months to fend for themselves. Even if the kidnapping plan succeeds and the mother comes to get the kids, she will leave them at the house again after yelling at them for disturbing her.
- Promotion to Parent: Sakiko is the one who takes care of Renya rather than their neglectful mother. It's shown early in the game that she's the one who cooks and teaches Renya how to do the laundry.
- Psychopathic Manchild: A tragic example with Sarao, who mentally regressed to a child-like frame of mind as a result of his mother's abuse.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Kohime's mother is a social worker and is the only adult whom Renya and Sakiko can trust in the ending to take them to safety. She also seemingly knows what Sarao went through, and warns the kids to leave him alone and give him space.
- Red Herring: The beginning part of the game builds up the evil clown that's been sighted throughout town. Renya believes the clown is following him from school and peeping at him in his room. However, it's All Just a Dream or Renya's imagination playing tricks on him.
- Resentful Guardian: What Renya and Sakiko's mom is all but explicitly stated to be, as she constantly rants about how she wishes they were never born and doesn't want them to disturb her when Sakiko pulls her fake kidnapping scheme.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Sakiko's plan to fake getting kidnapped to get her mother's attention was already boneheaded enough, but she never thought about the possibility that Sarao might be more dangerous than he seemed. During his escape, Renya discovers the rotting corpse of Sarao's mother, whom he killed at the beginning of the game. One misstep and Sarao might have killed Sakiko and Renya.
- The children's mother provokes Sarao, a mentally unstable man, who was holding a sharp weapon. Naturally, it leads to her completely deserved demise.
- Troubled Child: Renya and Sakiko have to survive on their own after their mother leaves home for several months, with Renya having to steal food from the store after Sakiko disappears as well. Their issues run deeper than that as Sakiko plans a Faked Kidnapping to get their mother's attention and Renya is shown to be happy about his mother getting brutally killed in front of him.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Renya sports a downright maniacal grin over his mother being killed by Sarao in the ending.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Sakiko desperately wants her mother's love and approval. Said mother makes it clear she's not interested.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Asked by Renya to his sister about their mom. Sakiko staunchly believes their mother loves them and will return home soon, even though it's obvious their mother wants nothing to do with them.
