Community:YasuYoshida/Life of an Otaku

Life of an Otaku is an art graphic adventure game built by YasuYoshida. It was initially a showcase of a simple house with anime posters plastered over walls, but the game was revamped in July 2016 with a new house, exploration gameplay, and a small story. In July 2018, it received more drastic changes including more acts in the plot, new areas, and new features. The game has been praised for its relaxing gameplay, beautiful art, and thoughtful story.

Taking place in rural Japan, the game follows an unnamed man who has moved into and must fix his parents' house, while reflecting his childhood and regrets.



Gameplay
Since the place is mainly an interactive showcase, the gameplay consists of exploring the protagonist's home while completing objectives to progress through the story. At the start, the player must locate the breaker box since some of the power in the home is not working. Once the player finds the breaker box outside, the player then needs to go take a look at the storage room which is nearby. When they enter the storage room, they notice a decent sized hole which they need to repair.

To the repair the hole, the player has to go to the storage room and find some boards, nails, and a hammer to use. Once they find them, they must return to the home and cover the hole with the boards. After they finish fixing the floor, it is night time and they must go to bed.

Other than performing tasks around the house, the player has the ability to interact with different objects around the house and find secrets hidden by the developer.

Act I: A New Life
In the opening, it can be seen that the protagonist is attending his mother's funeral with those who seem to be the residents of where his parents live. It is mentioned that the protagonist regrets a decision which he made when he was younger, but the player doesn't know what the decision was until Act III. A week after the funeral takes place, the protagonist moves into his parents' home because he doesn't want to let go of what he grew up with.

After the protagonist moves into his parents' home, he notices many repairs that he must make around the house. The reason for this is because the protagonist's father had died a few years before his mother, and his mother didn't have enough strength to make repairs.

The protagonist also mentions that he wasn't on great terms with his father and didn't attend his funeral.

Act II: My Childhood
The beginning of the act starts off with a view of a river, which is presumably located near the protagonist's house. It is here that the protagonist would spend his childhood days drawing with his crayons after going to school. The protagonist's mother would come looking for him on rainy days and when she found him, he would beg her to read his favorite story book.

The cutscene for this act is a flashback and it gives the player an idea of the protagonist's relationship with his mother.

Act III: Our Last Farewell
In this act, the protagonist visits his parents' graves and thinks about the cause of his mother's death. The protagonist mentions that he regrets moving away and not keeping in contact with his mother. Then there is a scene where there appears to be tire marks that lead of the road. From this it can inferred that the protagonist's mother died of a car accident while on her way to visit him. At the end of the cutscene, the protagonist finally decides to move on with his life.

Easter Eggs

 * There are three bulletin boards around the home that have some sticky notes which contain some lore to the place. One of them is located next to the protagonist's bed, another in the corner nearest to the plants, and the other one is located near the entrance of the storage room.
 * In the protagonist's bedroom, there is a cell phone that contains some text messages on it. If the player zooms in on the cell phone, they are able to see an interesting conversation.
 * If the player goes to the kitchen and interacts with an object found underneath the floor, a UFO will crash near the protagonist's home.
 * After the player wakes up in Act II, the garden outside appears to be ruined by some sort of rodent.
 * In the storage room, there are two boxes which appear to contain the protagonist's hat and backpack from the Act II cutscene.
 * Once the player arranges the levers found around the home correctly, a secret room next to the laundry room is revealed. In this room there are bulletin boards filled with notes by the developer.
 * In the protagonist's bedroom, there is a bulletin board which has sticky notes that form the Big Dipper constellation.
 * There are references to various anime that can be found in the game. A majority were removed before the 2016 revamp because of copyright reasons. Here are a few that remain:
 * The sticky notes on the bulletin board in the protagonist's bedroom quotes from a few different anime.
 * Turnip Head from Howl's Moving Castle can be found located in the storage room near the circular window.
 * In front of the protagonist's bed, a figurine of Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro can be seen.
 * In the protagonist's bedroom, a book can be found in his dresser with the title, "Friend Note.", a reference to Death Note.
 * Around the protagonist's home the player can find many dango plushies from Clannad.
 * The bulletin board in the storage room has a sticky note which says: "Marathon Lucky Start for the the third time in a row at night." Whether the developer intended for it to say "start" instead of "star" or not is unknown.
 * The bulletin board in the storage room has a sticky note which says: "Read vol. 2 of Log Horizon when you find time to do it. I really need to catch up on them!"

Trivia

 * Two users, YasuYoshida himself and Chitobae, that appear in the game have Roblox Toy figures of themselves.