Jishogi is a Puzzle Game and Visual Novel hybrid indie game developed by Lab Rabbit Games and released on Steam on June 23rd, 2022. Despite its Japanese theming, the game is only available in English.
The plot centers around Mayu Otonashi, a bullied, weird girl. She's a shogi prodigy, but also a meek, quiet girl who has been abused and mocked her entire life. One night, her dreams are invaded by Fifield, a young witch with a bone to pick with Mayu. She begins to go through Mayu's memories, hopes, and desires in order to extract blackmail, but her inexperience with the spell might result in both of them getting far more than they bargained for...
Gameplay takes on the form of a unique puzzle game. Though it uses shogi and chess as aesthetics, it has little to with either. Mayu must use a number of pieces to capture all of the enemy pieces on the other side of the board. Every piece moves in a unique way and she only has a small number of them at her disposal, but capturing a piece allows her to use it as her own. Careful consideration of positioning and which order you use your pieces in is vital.
Jishogi contains examples of the following:
- Abusive Parents:
- While Mayu's parents aren't physically abusive, they're guilty of extreme Parental Neglect. Mayu's dad accuses her of being a Crying Wolf when she tries to tell him about her uncle's abuse. While he does eventually wise up, it's far too little and too late, requiring Mayu to get beaten to a pulp first.
- Fifield's mother isn't quite as bad, but she subjects Fifield to extremely invasive mind-linking whenever her daughter acts out of line. Fifield obviously resents her for it, to the point that she daydreams about becoming the matriarch of the family and forcing her mother to live in a dungeon.
- Aerith and Bob: The ordinary Japanese name Mayu is contrasted by the highly odd-sounding Fifield. Justified, given that Fifield is a witch.
- Alpha Bitch: Fifield, to the extreme. Not only does she bully and mock Mayu, but she goes as far as to invade the poor girl's mind.
- Ambiguously Bi: While Fifield seems to be straight, her sexuality and relationships doors in the mindscape raises some eyebrows. Her attraction towards Mayu is at 10%, and her sexuality is only 75% weighted towards boys, meaning she's at least somewhat attracted to women.
- Brutal Bonus Level: The secret puzzle in Mayu's memories is both the hardest and longest single puzzle in the game. Beating it earns you an extra flashback and an achievement.
- Central Theme: Vengeance. Fifield wants to enact vengeance on Mayu for a "betrayal," and Mayu gets the ability to enact vengeance on her in turn later in the game. The game also examines the cycle of abuse, as both Mayu and Fifield's abusers were abused by their own relatives in turn. Neither feels that it makes the abuse they suffered any easier to swallow. Ultimately, though, the best ending can only be achieved by having Mayu let go of her vengeance and forgive Fifield, whereas the worst ones are achieved by having Mayu fully embrace vengeance.
- Cure Your Gays: Mayu can do this to herself in the final act, using Fifield's spell to alter her own mind and forcibly make herself straight.
- Disproportionate Retribution: While it fortunately doesn't come to pass, Mayu's delinquent figment worries that Fifield's response to finding out that Mayu is in love with her will be to kill her.
- Evil Uncle: Mayu's Uncle Ken. While he presents himself as affable and kind, he's really a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who physically abuses Mayu when she doesn't do her shogi practice.
- Forced Out of the Closet: As much as she tries to hide it, Mayu is forcibly outed when Fifield uncovers the painting that reveals Mayu is in love with her.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: While not literal angels, Mayu's figments play the part. Her delinquent figment encourages her to do risky, often illegal things, while the other tries to get her to be complacent and bear with it. Neither is strictly bad or good, though.
- Inept Mage: Downplayed. Fifield is a legitimate prodigy and has a bright future as a witch, but it's clear that she isn't quite as good as she thinks. This allows Mayu to get the upper hand on her halfway through the game, invading Fifield's mind instead.
- Magic Is Evil: While not a belief held by everybody, witches are feared in the setting as their incredible abilities make them almost immune to "mundi" (non-magical) law. Considering what Fifield does with her magic, their fears aren't entirely misplaced.
- Maybe Ever After: In the better endings, it's heavily implied that Fifield might be developing genuine feelings for Mayu, or already has and just hasn't admitted it to herself yet.
- Mind Rape: Literally referred to as such by one of Mayu's figments. Mayu can later turn this against Fifield, altering her anger towards Mayu, her sexuality, and her desires for Mayu as a whole.
- Multiple Endings: Depending on the actions Mayu takes and how she converses with Fifield, several different endings can play out.
- Best: Mayu fully patches up her relationship with Fifield and forgives her. Fifield finally stops caring about what others think and openly becomes friends with Mayu again.
- Good: Mayu patches things up with Fifield, but fails to forgive her. Fifield asks for them to reunite in college, so they can be friends without worrying about her mother.
- Neutral: Mayu asks Fifield to end the spell without changing anything or understanding her. Fifield agrees to stop her bullying, but otherwise remains indifferent on Mayu.
- Indifferent: Mayu does something to make Fifield extremely angry at her before leaving. Fifield wants nothing to do with her afterwards, and Mayu ends up feeling dissatisfied.
- Dark Love: Mayu changes Fifield's sexuality and desires, forcibly making her attracted to Mayu. This ends up turning Fifield into a complete Yandere, who threatens Mayu with violence should she try to leave. Mayu sees it as a necessary sacrifice.
- Passion: Mayu takes the camera from Fifield by force and uses the shackle on her. Afterwards, she forces Fifield to have sex with her repeatedly while using the camera as blackmail. They stop once Fifield leaves for college.
- Bad: Mayu makes Fifield gay and attracted to her... and then makes herself straight. Fifield goes mad with rage and destroys the mindscape. This drives the both of them completely insane, and they spend the rest of their lives in a padded cell.
- New Game Plus: After beating the game for the first time, you get the ability to speed through text and skip puzzles you've already beaten to expedite the process of getting the other endings.
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Nintendo Hard: While they start out relatively simple, the puzzles get very hard, very fast. The final segments can easily take upwards of an hour to complete. - Psycho Lesbian: Mayu can become one if you so choose, forcibly changing Fifield's personality, desires, and sexuality to make her love Mayu.
- Talking to Themself: Both Mayu and Fifield frequently converse with their "figments," aspects of their personalities that act as the angel and devil on their shoulders.
- Tsundere: As much venom as she spits, it's clear that Fifield still holds some lingering affection for Mayu from their childhood friendship, and her invasion of Mayu's mind isn't entirely motivated by blackmail.
- We Used to Be Friends: Mayu and Fifield were childhood friends, but Fifield moving away in middle school drove them apart. Now that they've reunited, there's nothing but animosity between them.
