Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis review

Denpa songs music emerged from one of Japan’s counter-cultural movements, with the term dating back to a real-world killing that the perpetrator blamed on electromagnetic waves (known in Japanese as denpa). The subgenre’s trademark quality is a push toward sensory overload, as unhinged lyrics, earworm riffs, and videos filled clashing colors all compete for your attention. Essentially, denpa uses incongruent aesthetics and chaotic energy to capture the feeling of being alienated from the world around you. As such, it’s often associated the tenaciously reclusive and perceptually online and group often referred to as hikikomori.

Developers Alliance Arts and WHO YOU’s Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis is a game built entirely around this niche culture. And for a certain kind of profoundly internet-corrupted player, this might be exactly the kind of brain-rot you’re looking for. I expect everyone else to be scratching their head, trying to make sense of it all, before hopping back into their favorite battle royale title. Rhythm Psychosis is for us (and maybe our dakimakura).

Qtie, yes! Delulu? Maybe!

The game stars Qtie, a high school dropout turned hikikomori, who lives in her cluttered, purple-hued bedroom that’s surrounded by merch of her beloved anime character, Yunyun. Like many teens, Qtie is fueled by energy drinks, spends as much time as she can online, and a little time as possible interacting with her concerned mother. Qtie’s posting about here parasocial devotions to Yunyun seems driven by the driving BPM of denpa. Best of all, the script balances empathy with self-awareness. The developers don’t chastise a troubled Qtie or even justify her lifestyle, instead attempting to show the world from her perspective.

As such, they means a bit of ambiguity with the game’s script. Playfully, we’re not sure if YunYun is a real character or just a figment of Qtie’s imagination, justifying her anti-social actions. So, when she first appears on Qtie’s monitor and tells her to generate enough “dokidoki” for her “kokoro” through otaku veneration and conspiratorial shit-posting, Rhythm Psychosis opens things up to multiple readings. Spreading bullshit, she’s told, is the only way to transcend her toxic existence. Given that most rhythm games don’t have a plot, I have to commend Alliance Arts and WHO YOU for holding my attention and satirizing the current state of the internet. Best of all, the game’s localization is great, with interactions between Qtie and YunYun filled with slang and the kind of observations that a real teen might have.

When it comes to actual gameplay, Rhythm Psychosis’ goal is to raise a denpa meter to 100%. You’ll accomplish this playing through songs and uploading in-game social media posts assembled from conspiracy cards that combine phrases into absurdity. After each song, you pick cards from categories like Dokidoki, Yunyun, and Hype, which all feed into a roulette wheel that pumps out Qtie’s latest shitpost. And the results are often hilarious. The posts read as obsessively online conspiracy theories, poking fun of the kind of crap posted by extremists, clickbaiters, and other online aggitators. What I really enjoyed in watching Qtie’s increasingly deranging ramblings grow an audience, who begin to dissect every new post.

For better or worse, the rhythm game is fairly straightforward. It’s a four-lane note highway where blocks fall from the top, and incorporates elements like holds and multiple notes. Largely, the tracks are accessible enough for newcomers on normal mode, while DJMAX-heads might want to bump the difficulty up to ‘Degenerate’. The base game offers a select of 30 songs, with 25 licensed ones from artists like Touhou’s ZUN and KOTOKO’s “It’s a cherry kissing explosion”. Expectedly, there are plenty of additional DLC tracks at launch. The good news is that they are reasonably priced, at less than a dollar per song.

Stalk-home Syndrome

Unfortunately, some of Rhythm Psychosis’ brainrot brilliance is challenged by one structural flaw. Progress is gated behind regular benchmarks. With only around 30 songs in the core tracklist, players are forced to replay songs over and over again, stretching the library a bit too thin as you unlock new story beats. While the unlocks are plentiful at first, the rate slows around the game’s midpoint. When that happened, I felt a bit trapped in Qtie’s room. The developers seems to know this and the last few hours can shift things toward a clicker-style experience.

Before the game’s final hours test your patience Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis is a wonderfully strange and brilliant experince that captures an always-online zeitgist. As a snapshot of denpa culture, conspiracy theories that spread like wildfire, and a character study of a isolated women, it’s a game with much more to say that you average rhythm games. If you have an kind of affinity for this kind of peculiar internet culture, Rhythm Psychosis justifies its price, if only for its first few hours with Qtie.

Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.