MiSide

MiSide
Cover art
Developer(s)	AIHASTO
Publisher(s)	IndieArk, Shochiku (Japan)
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	11 December 2024
Genre(s)	Psychological horror, adventure, indie, simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player

MiSide is an adventure game with horror elements by Russian developer AIHASTO, initially published as a demo on 18 August 2023 before being fully released on Steam on 11 December 2024. The game explores themes of reality and simulation, blending psychological horror tension with an interactive narrative.

Gameplay

The story of MiSide takes place in a digital apartment setting. It starts with the player interacting with Mita, a character from a mobile game that the player downloads from his smartphone. Players solve puzzles, explore the apartment, play games and discover hidden secrets in a tense and evolving environment. Initially, the app presents a 2D, Chibi style, bird's-eye-view environment. After progressing to the 37th in-game day, Mita unexpectedly asks to meet the player in person. When the player looks up from their phone, they are transported into a 3D version of the game world, now seated on a couch in an apartment. In this new environment, the player must adapt, complete tasks and play games with Mita.

The game continues with routine activities until a key moment during a card game with Mita, when knocking is heard from a nearby closet. Although Mita dismisses it, the player investigates. If the player chooses to leave the closet unopened, Peaceful Mode, a feature still under development, is unlocked. If the player insists on opening the closet, Mita snaps her fingers and plunges the room into darkness. This marks the beginning of the main storyline.

Plot

A male character, referred to as the player, or whoever the player names him, receives a life simulation app called MiSide on their smartphone, featuring a female character named Mita. After playing the game for 37 days, they are suddenly transported inside, where they meet Mita personally. While spending time with her, the player discovers some cartridges with names on them in the bathroom. They later hear a noise coming from a nearby wardrobe, though Mita insists that they don't open it.

When the player still attempts to open it, Mita reveals her true nature by making the lights go out. With the help of another Mita whose top half is missing, the player finds a key to the door inside the wardrobe, leading them to the basement where they discover a more benevolent version of Mita called Kind Mita, who gives the player a ring that will help them on their journey and informs them that the Mita they met before is an evil rejected version of Mita called Crazy Mita, who has been bringing male players into the game and turning them into cartridges so she can have company. After freeing her and avoiding Crazy Mita, the player ventures through the virtual reality, encountering other versions of Mita, some who try to help them while others attempt to harm them. They also learn that when a Mita is killed, they reboot but lose all recent memories. The player then makes it their goal to reach the core to reboot Crazy Mita and escape back to the real world; however, Crazy Mita hinders their attempts at every corner.

Eventually, the player succeeds and returns to the real world. They then delete the app from their phone. In the ending, Crazy Mita opens a safe in the basement and takes out a portable console from it. She then removes its cartridge, which has the player's name on it, indicating that they have been turned into a cartridge (however, it is presumed that the player was already a cartridge in the first place, meaning that they were never in the real world to begin with) and that Crazy Mita was unaffected by the reboot. There are two other alternate endings aside from the main one:

• Should the player manage to open the safe in the basement, they will find the console from the main ending and remove the cartridge, which kills them (since removing cartridges from the console while it is still on will result in instant death for players).
• If the player chooses not to open the wardrobe, Peaceful Mode activates, and Crazy Mita will not turn hostile. However, certain conditions must be met to achieve this ending.

Development

MiSide was developed by AIHASTO, a team of two Russian indie game developers: MakenCat, the game programmer and animator, and Umeerai, the texture and model designer.

Reception

One week after being released, MiSide received over 10,000 reviews on Steam with a 98% "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating. Reviewers have highlighted its blend of psychological horror with a cute and comforting atmosphere, engaging narrative, and immersive gameplay as key strengths.

Previous work

AIHASTO has created and published five other games to Steam, including:

• Umfend
• ECO HOLE
• Wire Lips
• Fariwalk: The Prelude
• Rugida

External links

• MiSide on Steam
• AIHASTO on Steam