Krypteia

"Krypteia" is the story of a young girl (at least, I assume it's a young girl) who escapes the confines of her over-protective enclave, to find adventure in the woods. Or is it...?

There are actually two realities overlayed with one another here. On the one hand, the surface story is a dark fantasy, the heroine exploring a dangerous forest; on the other hand ... the heroine appears to be a girl who's just slipped out of home into a dangerous area of modern urban decay. Of course, it's assumed that the reality is the "urban decay" milieu, and that the surface descriptions are seen through the eyes of madness. Mousing over various words in the descriptions will change them for their modern, urban counterparts, reinforcing this idea. But then, there are certain things -- the reaction of the "ranger" (policeman?) for example -- which are a little more difficult to explain away. And, if you take the "Wolf" road -- fight rather than flight -- you have to wonder, just what is our heroine really doing? Is she really killing these "monsters", who are probably simply vagrants and innocent strangers? When she killed a dying monster and skinned it, did she actually off a sleeping hobo for his jacket?

It might be worth comparing this with "Raik", which also overlays a mundane reality with a fantasy adventure.

The "fight vs flight" mechanic deserves a mention, as well. Throughout the game, depending on your choices, you can lean increasingly towards one direction or the other, and you can augment your dependence on one or the other tactic by equipping yourself with various "treasures" found throughout the "forest". What with the sense of everything being a delusion, it becomes very much a deliberate critique of RPG sensibilities. Killing and looting are standard operating procedure in an RPG, but doing that in real life will get you locked up as a menace to society.

As breakfast, this would be turkey bacon and margarine on toasted wonderbread, with a stein of Horlicks.