Irisu Syndrome (Darth Wiki)



Probably the creepiest puzzle game ever, starring Irisu Kyouko, an asthmatic, mentally unstable university student with an obsession with rabbits, having gotten attached to one at school when she was young. She always had trouble socializing with others, and felt the class rabbit was her only friend. Unfortunately, it was horrifically killed one day, something that was discovered when Irisu found a cat licking the bunny's decapitated head, traumatizing her and causing her to hate cats.

The game also features three university students out on a camping trip: Edogawa, a Genki Boy, Age Hatori (Ageha), a cat obsessed Genki Girl, and their friend, the perpetually dopey looking Uujima (Uuji). Edogawa tells his friends of a witch that lives in the forest, although the other two don't believe him. Later that day, he does not return after going out to fish. Uujima and Ageha search the forest to look for him, when Uuji hears something. He goes by himself to examine it, but he does not return, leaving Ageha alone, possibly with a witch preying on her.

The updated rerelease, Irisu Syndrome: Metsu, expands on the story and explains the motivations.

This is where the story breaks apart depending on your score.

The game you are playing is one Irisu uses to keep herself sane. If you consistently score under a certain number of points,

The nightmare continues here. A fan-made translation patch was produced by the /jp/ board of 4chan, now completed at version 2.03.

See also Ai to Yuuki To Kashiwamochi for a Lighter And Softer entry by the same creator.

This game within a game provides an example of:
 * All There in the Manual - Many, many things can only be read in the text files the game creates in your game folder as you continue to play the game. One, called irisu.txt, consists of A couple of the text files, including full profiles of all four characters, can only be found by extracting them from the data library (see Dummied Out below).
 * Anti-Poopsocking - Inverted. Go ahead, try to click away from the program and see what happens...but only when the game feels like it.
 * It's not nice to break Irisu's focus.
 * Ax Crazy - Irisu.
 * Batter Up -
 * Fridge Brilliance -
 * Bullying a Dragon -  accidentally done by Ageha (she tells Irisu off during the good ending for basically stalking Uuji).
 * Break the Cutie - Irisu.
 * Death Seeker -
 * : Heavily, heavily implied to be the source of the above images and the ultimate cause of everything.
 * Driven to Madness - A horrifically realistic portrayal.
 * Dummied Out - Several hidden text files and images were included in the game's data files but never referenced or unlocked. These include profiles, character design sketches, and
 * Dysfunction Junction - Irisu is seriously messed up, but you find out later that
 * Earn Your Happy Ending - The game is something Irisu plays with herself to keep calm. Score below 20k, and
 * Arguably, also the case when you reach level 100 in Metsu.
 * Ear Worm - The music is extremely catchy even as it's Nightmare Fuel in and of itself. The author has placed high bitrate versions (suitable for the worlds creepiest weeaboo iPod) here.
 * Epileptic Trees -
 * Evil Albino - Irisu.
 * Falling Blocks - And rising blocks. And in Metsu, bubbles.
 * Fan Translation - It now has one. Being able to understand the game only makes it worse.
 * Flashback Cut -
 * Fridge Horror - Evidence of Irisu appears in the background of some pictures - her ears are in the background of the first CG, and her sock is laying next to the group in the second.
 * The main menu's Irisu picture. Notice how she's only wearing one sock, carrying the other, and the heel and toes are blood-red? With no explanation whatsoever (until you unlock Metsu)?
 * The 100k Stinger has one.
 * It Got Worse:
 * In fact, just look at the title. The very last character has a bunny with unnervingly red eyes.
 * For some more fun, look at what happens when you mouse over the bunny in Metsu Mode's menu. Now look at
 * Now that the English fan translation is out, just about everything. Bonus points for the normal-mode song titles, which are all descriptions of things that someone who is well, WELL past the Despair Event Horizon might say. "About 10 Hours Looking at the Ceiling," "I Didn't Talk to Anyone Again Today" and "Zero Communication".
 * Game Full Of Crazy - Even without being able to read the story, you can still get a vibe that there's something just not... right about everything. The background has an albino bunnygirl who is never mentioned in the cutscenes, there are horrific pictures of suicidal cats in the background, the music is downright haunting, and in certain situations, the background of the main menu is replaced with millions of lines of Madness Mantra.... And god forbid you get the "good" ending without understanding it.
 * Girl with Psycho Weapon - Irisu and her nail bat
 * Guilt Based Gaming - See the Anti-Poopsocking example above. It's not nice to break Irisu's focus.
 * High Octane Nightmare Fuel - The first part of the normal ending. I'm not going to spoil it for you. It has to be seen to be believed.
 * Those. Damned. Eyes. They will haunt you in your dreams.
 * Hikikomori - It's insinuated that Irisu was this between middle school and college, to the point that
 * Just One More Level - Gone Horribly Wrong. If you reach 40,000 points or higher and then finish the round, you get the crowner image above. With no warning. It's even worse if you alt-tab due to the
 * Insane Troll Logic - The worst part of  descriptions of his decisions is that you can almost... almost see the logic. It's almost... almost logical.
 * Interface Screw - See the Anti-Poopsocking example above. Also, the first part of the normal ending.
 * It Gets Worse -
 * It Gets Even WORSE -
 * Loners Are Freaks - As explained in Metsu mode,
 * Love Makes You Crazy and Evil - The events of the game were touched off when.
 * Love Triangle - Edogawa has a crush on Ageha, who is hinted at having a crush on Uuji
 * Meaningful Name - "Irisu", though it's her last name, is just one syllable off from, and a slight mispronunciation for, "Alice". You know, white rabbit? There is also a real disease called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. (Automated translators such as Babelfish and Google Translate even change "Irisu" to "Alice".)
 * Are you sure that "Irisu" isn't pronounced as iris, as in those fucking eyes?!
 * Both meanings are probably perfectly valid.
 * Irisu's name is actually composed of the characters for "enter" and "a nest". Kind of fitting for all the insanity that takes place.
 * Mind Screw - Subtle, but it's there. Text files appearing, pictures being modified, background wallpapers changing...
 * Multiple Endings:
 * Bad Ending (Lose 6 times in a row):
 * Good ending (20,000+ points):
 * Original Stinger:.
 * Extra Stinger (100,000 points in normal mode before playing Metsu):
 * Metsu ending (Get all of the journal entries on Metsu's title screen, then get 50,000 points in Metsu):
 * Murder the Hypotenuse -
 * New Game+ - Beating the game unlocks Metsu (aka Destruction, Ruin, Doom...) mode, which plays hell with the rules. New bubbles float up from the bottom, which supplement the rubble on the ground. In addition, you can no longer launch trash out of the screen to get rid of it. Major story explanations are also given as you play through Metsu Mode.
 * Nightmare Fuel - That cute, bunny obsessed Shrinking Violet? Actually just one bad day away from a murderous rampage.
 * Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book - Uuji's suicide drawings, even though he's in college.
 * No Medication for Me -
 * Nothing Is Scarier - The only thing more pants-wettingly terrifying than the music during the good ending is when the music stops.
 * Irisu.txt, the text file describing her.
 * Oblivious to Love -
 * Oh Crap - The Stinger.
 * When you see what it really is you will excrete building materials.
 * Fridge Horror
 * Out, Damned Spot! -
 * Painting the Fourth Wall -
 * Pair the Spares -
 * Prophetic Fallacy -
 * Puzzle Game: Really, really HARD, at that.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning / Black Eyes of Evil / Glowing Eyes of Doom - Oh boy, just look at that screenshot up there.
 * The Reveal - Let's explain just how Metsu altered everything players thought they knew. In the original game we learn that Uujima is the unfortunate victim of  When we see the 100k picture we assume that.
 * Now then, once Metsu came out, it revealed that  Did anyone expect this?
 * Scary Surprise Party -
 * Scoring Points - Needed for Unlockable Content.
 * Secret Level -
 * Sequel Hook -
 * Mentions of Irisu Syndrome Kai (aka Irisu Syndrome: Solution) are sometimes thought to be confirmation of a sequel, but it turns out Kai was just the working name for Metsu.
 * Slasher Smile - If you look closely at the top of this page, Irisu seems to have one. It's actually her chin, but since it certainly looks like a smile with that coloring...
 * Stalker with a Crush -
 * Start of Darkness - Metsu mode serves as this for Irisu, explaining what happened with the bunny and the "plan", and so on.
 * The Stinger - Multiple. All creepy as fuck.
 * After getting the good ending of the original game, the background of the main menu is replaced with Madness Mantra scrawl after a certain amount of time has passed. (Randomly, approx one in 2 chance. Can be forced by holding down spacebar, which causes the game to run at max speed.)
 * After the good ending, get 40k points on normal mode and  -- oh, and you get that lovely picture at the top of the screen when the game ends, implying that even with the day going perfect, she snapped later anyway.
 * Get 100,000 points in normal mode before playing Metsu
 * Getting to level 100 in Metsu Mode, and the round to end immediately   Two fan theories on that --
 * Shout-Out - Edogawa always wears a shirt with a design on it, each design referring to another game by the same creator. The one he wears during the camping trip is a rendition of the Mother2 logo reading Ma Mo Mo (short for Maou Monogatari Monogatari). In the "photo" in the game folder, his shirt shows the characters from Ototsukai, while another shirt in the Metsu ending references Ai to Yuuki to Kashiwa Mochi.
 * There are a surprising amount of these hidden throughout the game - in fact, a couple of the cat suicide pictures in the background make no sense until you have played Ma Mo Mo.
 * Shrinking Violet - Irisu. An attempt to cure her of this  causes the events depicted in the game.
 * Spooky Photographs - The game comes with a picture of the three amigos in the game folder, completely unexplained.
 * Worse is The Stinger.
 * Surprise Creepy
 * There Are No Therapists - It's unknown if Irisu got therapy after what happened, but given the fact that the game takes place in Japan... she was probably left to her own devices instead.
 * Three Amigos - Edogawa, Ageha, and Uuji.
 * Visible Silence - Irisu.txt.
 * Widget Series - Of the "OH GOD WHY" variety.
 * Wham! Episode - Metsu. Just Metsu. Before its release, the game had very little explanation, just that Irisu was staring at the screen, occasionally went batshit insane, and  Metsu unveiled the rest of the story.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? -
 * The Woobie / Broken Bird -
 * Yandere - A rare two-way example. Both are, at first glance, perfectly normal, albeit somewhat shy.
 * /  - The best endings.
 * Three Amigos - Edogawa, Ageha, and Uuji.
 * Visible Silence - Irisu.txt.
 * Widget Series - Of the "OH GOD WHY" variety.
 * Wham! Episode - Metsu. Just Metsu. Before its release, the game had very little explanation, just that Irisu was staring at the screen, occasionally went batshit insane, and  Metsu unveiled the rest of the story.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? -
 * The Woobie / Broken Bird -
 * Yandere - A rare two-way example. Both are, at first glance, perfectly normal, albeit somewhat shy.
 * /  - The best endings.
 * /  - The best endings.

I wonder where everyone went...