Escape the Manor by Nargaflaga

 

Novels like Student Transfer and Press Switch offer a wide range of options in stories focused on a related thematic, TF, it is natural that some scenarios and spin-offs get born in offering their own anthology of stories and routes based on more specific topics or ideas. For example, as I said before, I wanted first Into the Janeverse to be an anthology of MTF transformations. For this scenario, Escape the Manor, we have an anthology of transformations based on Identity Death.

Now, I have said that I like long stories to even if they become linear most of the time due to how they are fleshed out, I have reviewed some linear scenarios in the past, but I haven't mentioned a scenario like this, that has a completely opposite approach.

Everything starts with a group of people who have to find refugee in a Manor when they get stranded in the middle of nowhere during a downpour; after that, the characters will realize that something inside there is going on and they will have to choose to try and escape or fight what it is within. In Escape the Manor we have a lot of choices, and by a lot I mean a lot, counting 43 endings (54 including placeholders) which offer a variety of events all across the presented story.

What kind of endings do we get? Oh boy, where do we start, since most endings show different characters and monster girl tropes all coming from High Fantasy standards. We have Bee Girls, Dark Elfs, Succubuses, Slime, Maid Servants, Immortal Wish Benders, Posession Demons, Mirror Demons, Weight Gain Fat Girls, Centaurs, Gyarus, Bimbos, Spider Girls, Isekai Girls, and so forth...

According to Narg, the ultimate goal was to provide a wide range of TF options with a large number of ways to achieve Identity Death, so, all these endings and routes, despite being so varied and different, are connected all together by this one theme, in particular, mind control and identity death, giving a somewhat consistent topic inside the scenario.

What is most discussed about this scenario however is the execution of these transformations, which might not be likable for some. While in Cold as Ice we have slow drama and introspection ending in two main events revolved about the death of an ego, most mind control and identity deaths in Escape the Manor happen quite fast actually. The implications of losing your identity and forget who you were or who other people were are not touched here, the drama there is involved and the implications of the transformations are limited to being mentioned that they happen. 

Since we are talking about content explicitly focused on a fetish, it is to be assumed that a lot of people might enjoy this due to its sexual appeal. In that way, Escape the Manor works, it showcases an Identity Death happening, if you can get sexual appeal of hearing the Identity Death alone, this scenario will work for you since this is what it does best, the characters get their memory erased in a lot of different kinds of beings, and it has variety even for everyone.

If what you are looking for is the mental and social implications about Ego Death, Escape the Manor is not really the scenario for you, all due to its fast pace and approach. Most "deaths" go in a similar way, somebody applies some magic, and the characters forget what they were doing, after the other person who is mind-controlling them tells them who they are now, they adopt a new identity rather quickly losing any hesitation and personality they could have had. Sometimes characters might struggle, sometimes characters might be aware they aren't who they used to be, but in the end, most of them end up engulfed by their own mind control.

Now, while Narg says this was not intentional, the truth is that Escape the Manor as a final product is something that has to be enjoyed right quickly or rather instinctively, without analyzing it too much. As I have said before, this scenario stands for its sexual appeal rather than anything else, if you think about it the more you need, or if you judge the scenario in a more serious way than what it should, it simply falls apart in its own logic: From the unremarkable personality of the protagonists, the lack of having a different cadence for each character, through the way the casually take everything that is happening, the vague magic that is used as a plot device only, the characters that sometimes morph to different bodies while being mind-controlled and sometimes not, to the villains that have such enormous power to use telepathy and mind control in anybody in the mansion at any time but don't do it just for the sake of the plot. 

With TF, there are people who enjoy the content for its mental, psychological implications, and there are people who enjoy it for the sexual appeal. It is something that I like about TF since it offers content and ideas for several kinds of audiences, Escape the Manor might be enjoyed more by the latter group in this case.

Yes, this scenario has a very characteristic stream of consciousness method, and just like in scenarios like Harem or John Sudden Lifechange, its appeal results polarizing. My recommendation is that if you like Mind Control and Identity Death you can check them out taking into account the quick and to-the-point approach it uses, it doesn't offer any further deconstruction upon identity itself but it gives a wide catalog of ideas with diversity and range.

Stone to the Head by GarySavage

 

Fan cover made by me

Stone to the Head offers a retelling of the now non-canon Murder route with an original character to change the dynamic John has with the main villain of the route, Jack.

While a lot of people consider that this scenario wasn't successful in delivering what was aiming for, the individual ideas it has are worth mention and even worth playing if you are interested in the topic itself, I will mention some thoughts about my own interpretation of the story just as well.

Now, at the beginning of the scenario, Erica is introduced as a seemingly violent girl that John meets, he shows her the remote and she asks her to let her stay in his body for a while so she can go out with John's friends that going to the Karaoke soon since she doesn't have any friends and wants to go through the experience, John accepts and after the experience turns successful, they use a command including intuitive memory recollection to help act like each other, and they both go to the other person's home.

At this point of the story, the player is given the option to play an "experimental" route which has become infamous overall. While being in Erica's home, John is filled with weird thoughts since he's in Erica's brain and he has memories that are affecting him, Gary explains that due to the memory copy, they both suffer from Mind Contamination. If he doesn't find some pills Erica uses to calm himself down, his personality changes, and experiences a psychotic break. The next morning he kills Erica in his old body and mind controls Katrina so she tells the police she was the murderer.

While the idea in itself isn't necessarily bad for fans of Mind Contamination and Personality Change, the whole route feels incredibly rushed, getting reduced to not just a route in itself but just a bad ending, John's personality is totally changed by the next morning into some sort of calculating and calmed down psychopath, the reason he killed his old body isn't quite clear either. The quote the scenario is closed with "The one that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead." doesn't explain too much its reasoning and makes the scenario feel superficial and edgy.

If John is able to find the pill, a longer route starts, later Erica mentions seeing a photo of her uncle Jack with John's sister, Holly. Since John is still asking himself why his sister doesn't talk to him, they both team up and try to investigate what happened between the two of them, going one night to the school and check the school files about the teacher and unveil the truth.

The scenario is unfinished and according to Gary, abandoned. What is left of the route offers a mix of suspense that hasn't been seen a lot in other ST scenarios, while John and Erica are investigating the truth, John sees her hit Michelle violently in the head so they can recover the remote and he's warned by several people about Erica's nature, who is rumored to have murdered one of her classmates, Patrick, in her previous school, so John has to try and do the right choice about if she is dangerous or not before it is too late.

What the scenario has to offer in the state is in, is an enjoyable mix of creepy atmosphere and a story with decent enough mystery showing the dark side of what the remote can cause, even with good intentions. The overall theme would be "Using the remote in the mentally ill, brings misfortune".

Some people claim it shows a harmful depiction of mentally ill people since Erica is implied to be a dangerous psychopath in the experimental ending, it's a fair criticism, although personally, I feel the remote was the catalyst for all the events that follow, not just Erica. Since the ending is pretty vague, it goes for the interpretation of the reader. According to Gary, the purpose of the route was to raise the stakes and increase the tension, but the result could have been handled a lot better.

Another point worth mention is that Jack is also given a more human side, he is a good uncle for Erica and he, according to her, is always there to help, even when being despicable towards John and his family. A lot of the time villains are done in one note, without giving them any redeemable qualities on their own so the audience can hate them more easily, but the truth is that we are humans, and humans are not composed of black and white personalities, and there will always be ambiguity. Giving good traits to bad characters like Jack and giving bad traits to characters like Erica make the characters feel alive, not like perfect people but like actual human beings with defects but also qualities.

The other part worth mentioning of this scenario is the one that didn't make it into the final release, the part of the story Gary planned but abandoned afterward, and is mainly that Erica wasn't really Patrick's murderer, her friend, Becky, had a crush on him and tried to get him to join their group. At first, Erica was just annoyed by him but then she started to be left out with Becky spending way more time with Patrick than before. Patrick was always cheerful but since he had severe depression, Erica felt that he's not sincere and that annoyed her even more, when Patrick killed himself, Erica was tagged as the main suspect.

What I do think is that Erica had the task of teaching the player to not judge everybody by appearances and make people understand that even the mentally ill shouldn't be completely left out. According to Gary, Erica is violent and has schizotypal tendencies, but at the very end, she has empathy. One of the bad endings even happens when John decides to wipe her memory out after getting scared. John confronts Jack afterward, and since he has a remote just as well, he uses it and makes John kill himself. 

Even then, since Gary abandoned the scenario, nothing of this appears at the end. The tension added to make the character doubt her at first played out against her, and this also adds up to the rushed-out experimental ending that ends up being too vague and that could have been handled a lot better, leaving people with a lot less favorable impressions of Erica. She has gained the status of psycho, while the intention was to show the total opposite. Not that I can really blame them though, the scenario is unfinished, and the death of the author exists.