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Raging Loop is a slow burning game of Werewolf

by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Raging Loop
• Developer: Kemco
• Publisher: PQube
• Switch, PC, PS4

It must have been hour two before I met my demise the first time. An unavoidable bad ending where my character, Haruaki, was mauled with no choices you could make to escape it. Turns out death is the only way to make progress. By dying and returning to the beginning, Haruaki gains new knowledge he can use to avoid his fate next time. Several more hours in and I’ve only unlocked a few other choices, and the true game has only just begun. The game’s first “good” ending is a melancholy one, and has Haruaki searching for a new path that will give him more agency in influence the story’s events. 

Raging Loop is a slow, slow burn, even by the usual visual novel standards. It draws out the tension and weaves a complicated web that implicates everyone in its murder mystery, and holds back plenty of information to keep you in the dark. Despite that Raging Loop manages to, at least so far, avoid a lot of the pacing issues that other visual novels suffer from. Many end up repeating redundant information and spinning around the same plot points, but here, even when information repeats it feels purposeful and the murder plot gives the story a constant momentum. 

It helps that Raging Loop has a well defined main character. A lot of visual novels use audience stand ins, who even when named or given an appearance, tend to play within the writers’ ideas of an everyman. Haruaki has his own personality and strong interactions with the cast, and it’s clear he’s there less for me to relate to, but to guide through the story. There’s even a few mysteries surrounding what caused Haruaki to end up in this village, and who he was on the outside that give him as much interest as the rest of the cast. 

As intrigued as I am, there’s no getting around the fact that is a long game. I prepared for a visual novel, but even reading at a fast pace it’s clear that this isn’t a game that I can hurry through. I’ve been carrying it around on my Switch, fitting it into little moments when I can, hoping to get a review out by now, but that’s just not going to happen. For now, let me go die a few more times and return to let you know if Raging Loop earns your time.