Farethere City (Japanese: Minoniyoku City) is a freeware RPG Maker 2000 game made by Segawa. It is about a one-eyed creature named Pigula who moves into an idyllic town called Farethere City to fulfill his dream of opening a general store. The city's acting mayor Hopopo is quick to offer him a property costing only 5000 yen to renovate into a store, and the city's inhabitants are happy to welcome him.
This is the perfect opportunity for Pigula to make his dream come true and find new friends and a home in the process... if he can ignore these ominous dreams he's been having or the items in his room that he can't recall having put there. Not to mention the fact that the property is supposedly haunted.
The original Japanese game can be downloaded here.
An English translation of the game by vgperson can be found here.
Also see End Roll and Walking on a Star Unknown, another RPG Maker game from the same creator.
This game contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The backstory of the property ghost, who may be Izanai herself.
- Awful Truth: Becoming "aware" means remembering your past and death. Some are able to accept it and move on, but others can't and either fall into despair or go mad.
- Big Brother Worship: While they're not actual brothers, Hiro absolutely worships Jekyll and treats him as a cooler older brother.
- Blatant Lies: After you fetch Michibiki some Umi-Basho for a sidequest, he says that if you prepare it a certain way, it can help you sleep, and that he can't really sleep because it gets really cold. However earlier, Michibiki mentions that he doesn't really feel heat or cold...
- Book Ends: The game begins with Pigula moving to Farethere City and if you got a certain ending, you can walk around for an extra day, and greet a new resident who has just moved to Farethere City.
- Crapsaccharine World: Downplayed in that Farethere was built for a genuinely benevolent purpose and the city never becomes fully dark, but it's still a city where at least one person has gone mad upon realizing that they're dead and been retgonned out of the city as a result, the library has disturbing stories on the same shelves as more pleasant ones, and several of the cheerful inhabitants have troubled pasts or are haunted by vague but persistent feelings of not quite remembering something important. There are also other afterlife cities that skip the 'saccharine' part entirely like Redshade Town where everyone is either depressed, angry, or waiting for a train that will never come or the Otherworld where souls become corrupted into nightmares for eternity.
- Creepy Good: Several characters, like the nurse who's a little too enthusiastic about delivering shots, the doctor who has a cardiograph for a head and No Indoor Voice, and even Farethere's actual mayor who looks like a dark-haired ghost with an X obscuring his face have disconcerting appearances and/or mannerisms but are genuinely friendly and helpful.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Several of Farethere's inhabitants. Karakoro/Shouta was a terminally ill child who was hanged in his hospital room by his mother when she could no longer bear to take care of him, Luna and Sana were abused by their father and died either at the hands of their mother or by accidentally running off a cliff just after they finally escaped him, Gemini suffered from schizophrenia and killed herself by trying to reach her "other self" in the mirror, and Jekyll died in prison hating the people who implicitly falsely accused him of committing a crime. Noticeably averted by Pigula/Yuuya and Gilbert, however, who appear to have led relatively happy lives before dying.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The dark-haired spirits with hidden faces are called Temanekis or Omens but many of them are not evil. Even Izanai, the only one of them who could be called "evil", can be interpreted as just having a different philosophical view on life than Michibiki and the secret area of Forgotnot's Crescent reveals that she's helped out at least one lost soul.
- Dark World: The Otherworld you occasionally get sent to instead of the Grove Club Village resembles a Minus World version of Farethere City with shadowy souls crying out in torment and buildings in ruin.
- Dead All Along: Everyone in the game, including you.
- Dreaming the Truth: Pigula's dreams start out rather cryptic, but eventually become full-fledged flashbacks.
- Evil Counterpart: Izanai seems to be this to Michibiki.
- Eye Motifs: Eyes pop up a lot in this game. They most likely represent awareness/perception.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Izanai is responsible for the Otherworld, and abducts Karakoro on the bad route. However, she doesn't affect hardly anything on the good route and you can never confront her.
- Green-Eyed Monster: At least part of the reason why Izanai despises Farethere City/Michibiki so much is because she's jealous. If you talk to her in the Otherworld after she steals away Karakoro, she says that it's unfair how pretty it is.
- Laughing Mad: Izanai. All the time.
- Multiple Endings: Three of them. One if you didn't befriend Karakoro or complete the music box, one if you befriended Karakoro, completed the music box, and chose to stay in Farethere, and one if you befriended Karakoro and completed the music box but chose to take the Path of Rebirth. The second ending is the only one that gives you the Playable Epilogue and bonus gallery content.
- Mushroom Samba: Some of the food you can eat give you rather strange visions. The note in your bedroom claims that they're just illusions, but they're actually people's memories. Additionally, the Umi-Basho you can pick for a sidequest gives you hallucinations when you touch it.
- Playable Epilogue: Getting the first true ending lets you play a bonus day where you can walk around, talk to almost everyone in the game with new dialogue, and even play as other characters to learn more about them.
- Plot Coupon: The odd screws and other miscellaneous parts you can find in certain places at the right times. They're the parts of a music box.
- The Power of Friendship: Befriending Karakoro is essential to convincing him to stay in Farethere and getting the true endings.
- The Reveal: Farethere City is an Afterlife Antechamber and Pigula is actually a human boy named Yuuya who was killed when he was hit by a car while running to greet his father.
- Ret-Gone: Anyone who chooses to leave Farethere or a similar afterlife city is permanently forgotten by their former neighbors/friends. In addition, even if they do choose to stay after becoming aware, their previous form and name will be similarly forgotten by everyone, including themselves.
- Secret Level: Four areas (Eater Island, Shoal Shore, Rorschach Hospital, and Forgotnot's Crescent) can be accessed only if you eat certain foods and the four Path of Rebirth areas plus Omen Capital require you to go even further out of your way to obtain a number of passwords.
- Sidequest: Lots of them. One of them is required to unlock the true endings; the others give you money or outfits.
- Significant Anagram: Farethere = Hereafter. The Japanese name, Minoniyoku, is an anagram of "yomi no kuni" which means "land of the dead".
- Single-Minded Twins: Gemini. Subverted; she's a single person who thought her reflection was another self when she was alive.
- Teru-Teru Bōzu: Karakoro seems to be designed to invoke one of these. This takes on a dark double meaning when you learn the way he died.
- Wistful Amnesia: Some souls have only a vague awareness that they've forgotten something, like Garuru who comes out on some nights to sit on the cliff and try to remember.
