Alter Ego
[Contents] Music Player; A Brief Introduction; The Official Website; Other Links
[Contents] Music Player; A Brief Introduction; The Official Website; Other Links
Music Player
A Brief Introduction
Alter Ego
A soul-searching clicker game spent wandering an endless hallway. Meet Es and Ego Rex. Think about the quotations and examine yourself.
A fantastic game, easy to fall in love; explorations of Freud's Theory of Ego (Id, Ego, and Superego) and its connections to following society's expectations or completely disregarding them, are there really any true answers or will you have to decide for yourself? What messages have you taken in without even realizing?
Alter Ego is a simple game, but can stay with you for a long time. I believe it also illustrates how one can relate to literature on a more personal level rather than an academic one, and I think that maybe one can more easily understand a book's message if it resonates with you.
Since the whole game is centered around Id, Ego, and Superego, these themes are reflected in the characters and the story; Ego Rex's values take on the role of the prison warden, desiring for Es to follow society's rules and expectations--"conform to order." Strangely enough, the standards he sets for Es do not seem to be as prevalent towards the player-- whilst he does attempt to nudge you towards Superego ending (conformity), he nonetheless respects your choices if you act differently, and he even seems to encourage you to "walk the road unbending" of whichever path you choose (please forgive me if this is inaccurate, I haven't played the game in forever and do not have basically any space on my phone for it as of now). Es, the main character with whom the player interacts, appears to calm and stoic--yet, underneath the surface, she admits that she has incredibly strong intrusive thoughts of, for example, "wringing your neck," and it takes great internal strength for her to push these urges down. Es as a character is unsure of herself, and whilst she is the one administering quizzes to the player to help figure our where their patterns of behavior and emotion lie, she is questioning of who she herself even is. The relationship between Es and the player is one of mutual discovery, as neither one knows who they are. Es's route in the game is the Id ending, where the player encourages her to be completely herself even if it means disrespecting or ignoring society at large. It comes from telling her that she is always correct. The true ending is the Alter Ego ending, wherein the true answer is neither conforming to society nor playing completely by your own rules; the answer lies inbetween, and it is up to you to decide for yourself.
here is a goodreads list of some of the books mentioned
The Official Website
Now, this website works in very strange and mysterious ways--in the top-left corner is an option to switch between English and Japanese. One would imagine that it would only change the language, but instead the contents of the website between both languages differs greatly.
The English site has:
The Japanese site has:
I believe that many of these items were omitted from the English site due to location availability and social media norms (Line isn't really a huge thing here, but Facebook is). However, it is strange that they would not include much of this content on the English version of the site, likewise with the trailer not on the Japanese site; if you click "English" on any page which is not available in English then it just brings you back to the main page.
There are several types of merchandise available.
Original soundtracks for Alter Ego Complex and Alter Ego
Alter Ego Complex
Alter Ego
