Shin is absolutely disgusting.

[Axeoftheaxis]

How in God's name do you simp for him? His hair is so crusty under that beanie. When he scratches his head it's like a snowstorm. Spoiler here, who even chose him over Kanna? I've NEVER seen someone who has. I despise him. He's a mendacious hobo who is most likely a discord mod for a roblox army rp server. Not to mention, he's not even attractive in a word way. "It's your turn to die, Miss Sara." HE'S SO CRINGY IT KILLS ME. I see a lot of discussions saying "I love sou/shin!" Why? I need a full elaboration as to why. "He's my highest kin!" He's not though, is he? Unless you're a creepy, weak blue haired man who can't find a job for his secret ability to unleash a deadly snowstorm every time he scratches his hair and probably pirates the barbie movie, you're not his highest kin. Stop liking him, simp for Alice, Hayasaka, Nao or Safalin instead. He's so crusty. He's even crustier than Rokuro from Ayakashi Akashi. If you don't know what that is, please play it.

[simplynolifer]

this is my favorite post on this subforum. take my award.

[lmaomars aka марс крiб]

you are the best. tale my award

[KechtusKnechtus]

that’s exactly why we love him

[Kapzom]

i love pathetic men.

[Sardonicus]

Well don't you just seem like a bundle of sunshine yourself shaming people who are only a few years out of high school who have jobs you believe are beneath you like being a part timer like him. You sound like one of those Karens that goes to convenience stores and asks people that work there why they don't get a real job.

It's mainly that his relatability comes from his backstory which is quite sympathetic where we learn we never really met the REAL Shin. We met someone who was so terrified of the fact that they were told they are guaranteed to die, that he completely changed his personality to be more like what he thought he needed to be to survive. He thought if my current personality gets me killed every time, I'd better become someone unlike myself so that I might have any chance at all. When we meet his A.I we find out he's just a nice soft spoken dude, who likely would have been a good ally had he not been beaten down by the fear of death before. He's very much a sheep in wolves clothing. Someone who's nature is normally too sweet to survive this kind of game who feels like he has to act like one of the wolves to not be devoured.

We then later on learn he was completely right about his fears of Sara. That without Joe there to basically weaken her, she is a cold-hearted manipulative monster when she's afraid of death who will do or say anything to survive. She'll stab someone directly in the back and then later cry over his corpse for brownie points. We learn all of this from the real Sou when he talks about giving people with low percentages an advantage and people with high percentages a disadvantage. His advantage was being terrified into becoming someone else and into distrusting Sara.

This whole plot element adds depth to his character. We see with our eyes that he's completely willing to give up his life to protect this little girl. Something that half a chapter earlier we see Qtaro the coward (til chapter 3 anyway) unwilling to do for Gin. We never see that hesitation from Shin though. He would never chose himself over someone like Kanna. We see the fact that under all his intense fear of dying, he still cares about protecting the weak. Even when he tries his best, he can't get rid of his more caring nature. If we choose to let him live it makes him believe that everything he thought about Sara is true. She threw a weak little girl under the bus to die. If you choose to save Kanna, someone who doesn't have the same degree of helpfulness as Sou, showing that Sara isn't only about her own survival. He then becomes the single most important person to helping Sara heal. Something he didn't have to do. WIthout Sou, Sara can't ever get over Joe's death. He literally choses in his dying moments to help a girl recover from her ptsd.

People like Sou because flawed characters are more interesting than outright paragons of goodness, because no one in real life is perfect. There is a sense of relatability to becoming someone else out of a fear of being cast out by others if you don't. There's relatableness to feeling like an outsider. To feeling like an underdog that's going to have a harder time. To knowing that if the wolves smell any weakness in you, they'll attack. There is a relatableness to being weak or vulnerable, and fearing those who are far more manipulative and strong than you. Everyone is weak in comparison to someone, and often the weak are the ones attacked and picked on the most in a dog eat dog world.

When people see Sou they see someone who tried their best to win in a bad situation where the odds were completely against them and who tried their best to be as hard and brutal as the others, but in the end simply couldn't do it because they cared about someone, and put that persons life ahead of their own.

The route where Sou lives is him dealing with failing to protect that person and completely losing what remained of his innocence. Of who he used to be in favor of revenge.

[James]

Tottally agreed

[censoring me is a bad move]

"I've NEVER seen someone who has" well look at me, nerd, because i followed my heart over my mind, and my heart said to save sou who did NOTHING wrong.

[Sweagen]

Originally posted by Sardine:

Well don't you just seem like a bundle of sunshine yourself shaming people who are only a few years out of high school who have jobs you believe are beneath you like being a part timer like him. You sound like one of those Karens that goes to convenience stores and asks people that work there why they don't get a real job.

It's mainly that his relatability comes from his backstory which is quite sympathetic where we learn we never really met the REAL Shin. We met someone who was so terrified of the fact that they were told they are guaranteed to die, that he completely changed his personality to be more like what he thought he needed to be to survive. He thought if my current personality gets me killed every time, I'd better become someone unlike myself so that I might have any chance at all. When we meet his A.I we find out he's just a nice soft spoken dude, who likely would have been a good ally had he not been beaten down by the fear of death before. He's very much a sheep in wolves clothing. Someone who's nature is normally too sweet to survive this kind of game who feels like he has to act like one of the wolves to not be devoured.

We then later on learn he was completely right about his fears of Sara. That without Joe there to basically weaken her, she is a cold-hearted manipulative monster when she's afraid of death who will do or say anything to survive. She'll stab someone directly in the back and then later cry over his corpse for brownie points. We learn all of this from the real Sou when he talks about giving people with low percentages an advantage and people with high percentages a disadvantage. His advantage was being terrified into becoming someone else and into distrusting Sara.

This whole plot element adds depth to his character. We see with our eyes that he's completely willing to give up his life to protect this little girl. Something that half a chapter earlier we see Qtaro the coward (til chapter 3 anyway) unwilling to do for Gin. We never see that hesitation from Shin though. He would never chose himself over someone like Kanna. We see the fact that under all his intense fear of dying, he still cares about protecting the weak. Even when he tries his best, he can't get rid of his more caring nature. If we choose to let him live it makes him believe that everything he thought about Sara is true. She threw a weak little girl under the bus to die. If you choose to save Kanna, someone who doesn't have the same degree of helpfulness as Sou, showing that Sara isn't only about her own survival. He then becomes the single most important person to helping Sara heal. Something he didn't have to do. WIthout Sou, Sara can't ever get over Joe's death. He literally choses in his dying moments to help a girl recover from her ptsd.

People like Sou because flawed characters are more interesting than outright paragons of goodness, because no one in real life is perfect. There is a sense of relatability to becoming someone else out of a fear of being cast out by others if you don't. There's relatableness to feeling like an outsider. To feeling like an underdog that's going to have a harder time. To knowing that if the wolves smell any weakness in you, they'll attack. There is a relatableness to being weak or vulnerable, and fearing those who are far more manipulative and strong than you. Everyone is weak in comparison to someone, and often the weak are the ones attacked and picked on the most in a dog eat dog world.

When people see Sou they see someone who tried their best to win in a bad situation where the odds were completely against them and who tried their best to be as hard and brutal as the others, but in the end simply couldn't do it because they cared about someone, and put that persons life ahead of their own.

The route where Sou lives is him dealing with failing to protect that person and completely losing what remained of his innocence. Of who he used to be in favor of revenge.

That was beautiful. I just hit the part in the story where you end up choosing who lives in Chapter 2 and made me rethink my decision!!! Sou really is something, huh... :) Great analysis and I'll definitely think about this a lot when I eventually finish and do a replay of this great game heheh

[mutantbeth]

I love sou and look forward to what happens in his route. Tbh I was attracted to him despite how you go off on his looks.. until he couldnt even open a sliding cabinet given how weak he is

[Tomo's World]

Sou is an interesting character gameplay wise but an awful character plot wise towards the other character's survival. When the game had you pick between the two, Kanna was portrayed as the emotional route and Sou was portrayed as the logical route but I think it is the reverse if not Kanna being both at the same time. Sou has proven over and over he is a lying unreliable threat that will screw over the party just to get back at them for petty nonsense. In chapter one, if his lie was believed and he got Sara killed, the whole group including him would have all died. Only people who want to learn everything about the story or for some reason have an emotional attachment to Sou would ever choose him. This game has proven trust is the most important skill and Sou is both the least trustworthy and the least likely to trust others.

[McFuzz]

Originally posted by Tomo's World:

Sou is an interesting character gameplay wise but an awful character plot wise towards the other character's survival. When the game had you pick between the two, Kanna was portrayed as the emotional route and Sou was portrayed as the logical route but I think it is the reverse if not Kanna being both at the same time. Sou has proven over and over he is a lying unreliable threat that will screw over the party just to get back at them for petty nonsense. In chapter one, if his lie was believed and he got Sara killed, the whole group including him would have all died. Only people who want to learn everything about the story or for some reason have an emotional attachment to Sou would ever choose him. This game has proven trust is the most important skill and Sou is both the least trustworthy and the least likely to trust others.

One thing I found interesting plot-wise was the strange, MGS2-esque allusion that the death game is a recreation of the first death game where the Sou-equivalent wins and the Sara-equivalent dies after losing her older male ally and child ally. However because Kanna is even an option and there doesn't seem to be enough chapters planned for the death game to reduce the participants down to 1 through main games, it's fairly likely there isn't going to be a payoff to it, but the existence of this weird aside did make me want to save Sou just to see its equivalence, potentially.

[pogu]

can confirm he doxxed me on 4chan once in 2015

[Axeoftheaxis]

Originally posted by Sardine:

Well don't you just seem like a bundle of sunshine yourself shaming people who are only a few years out of high school who have jobs you believe are beneath you like being a part timer like him. You sound like one of those Karens that goes to convenience stores and asks people that work there why they don't get a real job.

It's mainly that his relatability comes from his backstory which is quite sympathetic where we learn we never really met the REAL Shin. We met someone who was so terrified of the fact that they were told they are guaranteed to die, that he completely changed his personality to be more like what he thought he needed to be to survive. He thought if my current personality gets me killed every time, I'd better become someone unlike myself so that I might have any chance at all. When we meet his A.I we find out he's just a nice soft spoken dude, who likely would have been a good ally had he not been beaten down by the fear of death before. He's very much a sheep in wolves clothing. Someone who's nature is normally too sweet to survive this kind of game who feels like he has to act like one of the wolves to not be devoured.

We then later on learn he was completely right about his fears of Sara. That without Joe there to basically weaken her, she is a cold-hearted manipulative monster when she's afraid of death who will do or say anything to survive. She'll stab someone directly in the back and then later cry over his corpse for brownie points. We learn all of this from the real Sou when he talks about giving people with low percentages an advantage and people with high percentages a disadvantage. His advantage was being terrified into becoming someone else and into distrusting Sara.

This whole plot element adds depth to his character. We see with our eyes that he's completely willing to give up his life to protect this little girl. Something that half a chapter earlier we see Qtaro the coward (til chapter 3 anyway) unwilling to do for Gin. We never see that hesitation from Shin though. He would never chose himself over someone like Kanna. We see the fact that under all his intense fear of dying, he still cares about protecting the weak. Even when he tries his best, he can't get rid of his more caring nature. If we choose to let him live it makes him believe that everything he thought about Sara is true. She threw a weak little girl under the bus to die. If you choose to save Kanna, someone who doesn't have the same degree of helpfulness as Sou, showing that Sara isn't only about her own survival. He then becomes the single most important person to helping Sara heal. Something he didn't have to do. WIthout Sou, Sara can't ever get over Joe's death. He literally choses in his dying moments to help a girl recover from her ptsd.

People like Sou because flawed characters are more interesting than outright paragons of goodness, because no one in real life is perfect. There is a sense of relatability to becoming someone else out of a fear of being cast out by others if you don't. There's relatableness to feeling like an outsider. To feeling like an underdog that's going to have a harder time. To knowing that if the wolves smell any weakness in you, they'll attack. There is a relatableness to being weak or vulnerable, and fearing those who are far more manipulative and strong than you. Everyone is weak in comparison to someone, and often the weak are the ones attacked and picked on the most in a dog eat dog world.

When people see Sou they see someone who tried their best to win in a bad situation where the odds were completely against them and who tried their best to be as hard and brutal as the others, but in the end simply couldn't do it because they cared about someone, and put that persons life ahead of their own.

The route where Sou lives is him dealing with failing to protect that person and completely losing what remained of his innocence. Of who he used to be in favor of revenge.

Was it really that deep?

[GhostFace BathWater <3]

Because I'm also 22, 5"6, 105lb and stressing about the future while hiding in my room on my pc. Plus he just kinda looks squishy.

[D YellowMadness]

Originally posted by Tomo's World:

Sou is an interesting character gameplay wise but an awful character plot wise towards the other character's survival. When the game had you pick between the two, Kanna was portrayed as the emotional route and Sou was portrayed as the logical route but I think it is the reverse if not Kanna being both at the same time. Sou has proven over and over he is a lying unreliable threat that will screw over the party just to get back at them for petty nonsense. In chapter one, if his lie was believed and he got Sara killed, the whole group including him would have all died. Only people who want to learn everything about the story or for some reason have an emotional attachment to Sou would ever choose him. This game has proven trust is the most important skill and Sou is both the least trustworthy and the least likely to trust others.

Agreed. Sparing him means giving him exactly what he didn't want, killing a scared little kid who just wanted to live & help her friends, screwing everyone over for basically no reason, proving him right, & negating his only good deed up to that point in a way that ensures he'll never do anything nice again. When even he is angry that you spared him, it's a red flag that you made the wrong choice.

He cute though.