Momotype is a cute way to loosen your grip on reality

Parent. Momo still wants to play

I’ve started this new year in a fog of depression. A common problem, I reassure myself, but it doesn’t make it any easier to get out of bed. So, to help me keep putting my one foot in front of the other, here’s Momotype, a cute virtual pet made physical as a way of… No, Momotype, don’t take your anger out on me! Get back! Get Back! Momotype, noooo!

Momotype is a visual novel from Rimatoad that almost needs to be seen to be believed. Essentially, a bundle of joy gets delivered to your doorstep in the form of a real-life virtual pet. The worldwide birthrate is in the toilet and our corporate masters are working to prevent the end of the economic world (and therefore all of the world) by… teaching us empathy? Something’s obviously off about Momotype from the beginning, but you aren’t given much agency on whether or not you refuse to take care of it.

It’s a demanding little bugger. It wants your love. It wants your love so damned much. But more than that, it wants to know its purpose. It wants to be human. It wants everything that most of us do, but with only a seven-day lifespan.

The whole thing goes from cute to existentially traumatizing rather quickly.

Momotype is available for free on Steam, so the only price is your time. The cost there is about a half-hour to see the first ending, but the story advances after every playthrough to a total of three endings.

My advice is to check it out. The story is a lot weirder than it sounds, and by weird, I mean intriguing. It’s the sort of narrative that makes sense while also not making much sense. So, by the time you’re finished, you’re just kind of staggered, and it feels like you’re walking out into the sunlight following an afternoon matinee. You’re just like, “Wow, this is reality, and whatever that was wasn’t.”

Right?