Mouthwashing

• Genre: Horror Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah. 
• Time Played: 3 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It might actually be too short. I feel like not enough of the story is presented. As part of how they present the narrative, there are significant jumps in time, but... why? It doesn't feel necessary and the characters aren't fleshed out enough.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: No? If there was music in this game I don't remember.
• Why I played: I was once again not really feeling motivated to play anything but thought I could find the motivation to take interest in something my wife loves, as I did with Resident Evil and Silent Hill. 
• Jank: At first I thought it was part of the game, but it definitely did some weird stuff during scene transitions where it made an annoying repetitive sounds for a solid moment before the actual transition that I don't think is the usual experience. Otherwise, it's just a little obtuse at time but you could excuse the theming and genre.
• Difficulty: None - very little? There are only a few brief scenes that require you to perform any kind of skill challenge, and the general area to traverse isn't all that big - if a little confusing visually, so it usually only takes a moment to get wherever you need.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine. I'm more or less neutral. I didn't go in with any kind of expectations, just thought I'd play a game Alice likes.
• Recommend to others: I wouldn't really, personally, but despite playing a few games in the genre this year and liking at least one more than I thought I would, horror games aren't a genre I typically enjoy.

Mouthwashing feels like a project lost in time, and it's not just due to it's PSX graphics. Or perhaps it's all part of the intent and so the PSX-esque visuals were more than just a visual style choice.

To be clear it doesn't feel like an original PlayStation game - it feels like a game that would have been someones weird little free download on PC before "indie games" were a super recognized thing. I mean it is more equivalent to something you see on itch now, sure, but there is a specific vibe I'm talking about that predates current game distribution.

It's the kind of thing that as a teenager I may have thought was the deepest thing ever. Looking at some of my favorite movies and even other types of media from the era of "It's so deep". I'm not saying that in a bad way. It's just that you have a hard time not falling into that kind of narrative when you're playing from the perspective of someone else's psychosis, but those are exactly the things that an edgy teen is drawn to and I would say it differs little in that sense from what I would consider some of my most formative anime and film interests. Such presentation of the genre wasn't exactly as prevalent in the games industry - at least not in any mainstream capacity, at the time, because there was a much bigger buy in to games, and even though there were definitely weirdo and experimental games - they were usually more robust of product.

All things considered, while I don't think it's bad, I don't understand why it's gained such popularity and isn't a bit more niche. I think the unique visual identity is doing a lot of work, and I will give credit to some of the interesting imagery and effort in making you have a such a good idea of the dystopia the characters exist within in just a couple hours, without even leaving the ship, but that said you're barely provided with much of a look into those characters who are present. What you see feels like mostly caricaturizations, and arguably some of the most important characters have the least dialog and leave the most up for interpretation. So it felt lacking.