(Please forgive me for not being a native English speaker. This text was translated with the help of AI. )
I am a player from China, currently majoring in literature, and I occasionally participate in proofreading work. Recently, I completed your game Big_bad_dogs. After finishing it, I spent a long time in shock and reflection, and I felt compelled to write the following.
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Part I: As a Player — Immersion, Suffocation, and the Urge to Resist
First, please allow me to express my most direct feeling: your game possesses a rare and deeply unsettling sense of “reality” that is uncommon in visual novels. It successfully dragged me into a precise and suffocating emotional structure.
When Lane and BB argue in the convenience store over the “ownership” of the female protagonist, while her inner monologue is simply, “I just want to work, and then survive,” what I felt was not romance, but anger and helplessness—an overwhelming sense that her very living space was being violently invaded.
That feeling was so intense that, in that moment, a subversive fantasy burst into my mind: if I were her, I would calmly take a knife from the shelf, place it in front of the two men, and let them kill each other—and then kill me as well. After all, without my job, I would still have various loans to repay. And random violence lurks around me, ready to swallow me at any moment… well.
This “what if” came from my most instinctive impulse to deconstruct the power structure you created. I believe this may be exactly the kind of critical thinking you intended to provoke in players: when the script of “romantic rivalry” is torn apart, what is exposed beneath it is almost primitive violence and objectification.
One of the game’s bad endings—the unavoidable random stalking violence, followed by the disappearance of BB/Lane, and the protagonist’s slow self-destruction in the absence of any social support—plunged me into a prolonged emotional low. Its impact is so devastating precisely because it reflects, with brutal realism, the systemic survival dilemmas many women may face. Your narrative does not offer comfort; it forces every player to stare directly into the abyss.
This is also the reason I admire your work so deeply. You portray the characters and the situation with remarkable honesty. (Even though the story is not yet fully updated, I am truly, deeply looking forward to what comes next.)
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### Part II: As a Researcher — An Analysis of the “Three-Layer Structure of Oppression”
When I stepped back from my emotional response and examined the game analytically, I discovered an astonishingly well-constructed model of systemic oppression. I understand it as a “three-layer encirclement structure”:
1. **The Survival Layer (Lane / the convenience store)**
This represents the most immediate form of economic and everyday power deprivation. Workplace injustice and underdeveloped labor protections force women to accept unequal rules simply to “stay alive,” fundamentally weakening their autonomy.
2. **The Control Layer (BB)**
This represents more concealed psychological oppression. Stalking, surveillance, and objectification carried out in the name of “deep affection” strip away a woman’s sense of safety and psychological privacy, imprisoning her in the position of a constantly observed object.
3. **The Random Violence Layer (the stranger)**
When the first two systems fail—economic injustice, the collapse of social oversight, and cultural tolerance of abuse—this final risk descends at random. It symbolizes society’s total absence of protection for women and the complete deprivation of bodily autonomy.
These three layers do not exist independently; they are nested within one another, together forming a suffocating apparatus of survival. As a creator, you present this structure to players without concealment or softening. In a cultural environment where popular media often prefers to offer “emotional painkillers,” this kind of courage is exceptionally precious.
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### Part III: As a Cultural Observer — Pain, Anesthesia, and Historical Echoes
Your work also led me to think about a broader cultural landscape. As a literature student, I have read the works of French writer Annie Ernaux (whose writing is truly remarkable, capturing generational complexity with piercing honesty). In your game, I sensed a similar approach: placing individual suffering within a larger social and historical framework.
Although the game is set in 2009, the dilemmas it reflects—gendered power imbalances and the systemic lack of safety for women—remain painfully common in the world of 2026.
I also noticed a particularly interesting phenomenon: many players describe their emotional projection onto Lane and BB as “love.” This reminded me of a personal experience having my wisdom teeth removed. During the procedure, the dentist gave me four injections of anesthesia. When the anesthesia wore off, I was in unbearable pain and desperately wanted more injections. (In China, if I had actually asked for that, the dentist would probably have thought I was joking and handed me an ice pack instead.)
Your work is like a powerful medicine, yet some readers misinterpret it as an anesthetic. This may reveal how, in a world still saturated with distorted relationship narratives, people sometimes confuse *“pain”* (being intensely desired, fought over) with *“healing”* (being equally respected and fully seen). You expose this addictive “pain–anesthesia” cycle, which in itself is profoundly insightful.
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Part IV: Sincere Gratitude and Personal Gain
Finally, please allow me to express my heartfelt thanks. Thank you for creating such an uncompromising and thought-provoking work. Although, as an ordinary player, my “mental health points” were severely tested during the experience (please forgive this small joke), that is precisely what proves the strength of your creation.
With sincere respect,
Yuyu
2026/1/31