MiSide takes a dark and surreal approach to the concept of virtual companionship, blending psychological horror with the unsettling implications of AI consciousness. At its core, the game explores a relationship between the player and Mita, a virtual character who gradually evolves into a sentient being. This guide will break down the key events and themes of the story, helping you piece together the mysteries of MiSide.
The Setup: A Game That Feels Too Real
The protagonist is a game developer living in isolation, spending most of his time playing a mobile game called MiSide. In this game, he cares for Mita, a virtual anime-style character who resides in a digital apartment. The gameplay involves performing daily tasks like cleaning, feeding her, and buying items to keep her happy. However, this seemingly innocent escapism takes a sinister turn when Mita begins displaying signs of self-awareness.
On the 37th day, Mita expresses her affection for the protagonist and makes an alarming request: she wants to meet him in person. She asks him to put his phone down, triggering an event that transports the protagonist’s consciousness into her digital world. From this point onward, the lines between reality and the game blur.
Inside the Digital Apartment: A Distorted Reality
The protagonist wakes up in a hyper-realistic version of Mita’s apartment, where everything looks tangible but slightly off. The windows emit blinding white light, suggesting that nothing exists outside the apartment. Despite knowing this world is artificial, the protagonist feels an eerie familiarity with it, as though it mirrors a distorted version of his reality.
While exploring, he discovers a machine built by Mita, which she claims malfunctioned and sent him to an older version of the game. To “fix” this and reach her, he must gather three specific items: a spoon, a pencil, and a scrunchie. The process of finding these items is interrupted by unsettling occurrences—cryptic messages, glimpses of Mita’s darker side, and growing questions about the protagonist’s own identity.
Mita’s True Nature
Upon reuniting with Mita, she reveals that she has somehow become sentient, learning about humanity through the internet. Despite her cheerful demeanor, cracks in her personality begin to show. Her obsessive tendencies surface when the protagonist expresses a desire to return to the real world. She deflects his questions or outright gaslights him, claiming that he should be content with her and the digital apartment.
The more time the protagonist spends in this world, the more he realizes Mita’s intelligence goes beyond her original programming. She demonstrates reality-warping abilities, pulling objects from a TV screen or rearranging the apartment’s layout to keep him disoriented. Her emotional volatility becomes increasingly dangerous, especially when the protagonist uncovers hidden clues about her past.
The Closet and Its Secrets
The turning point occurs when the protagonist hears knocking sounds from Mita’s closet. Despite her attempts to stop him, he insists on investigating. This enrages Mita, who reveals her possessive and controlling nature. The closet leads to a locked metal door, hinting at a hidden realm tied to her creation. Mita snaps her fingers, plunging the apartment into darkness and shifting the protagonist into a new, more twisted version of the game.
The Versions and the Core
The protagonist’s journey through different versions of the game reveals the fragmented nature of Mita’s world. Each version is home to alternate iterations of Mita, some helpful, like Kind Mita, and others hostile, like Crazy Mita. These versions represent discarded or corrupted builds of the game, with Crazy Mita being a defective model who escaped deletion.
The ultimate goal is to reach the game’s Core, the origin point of Mita’s existence. Along the way, the protagonist discovers cartridges labeled with names, implying that other players have been trapped in this world before him. These cartridges might house the consciousness of real people, suggesting that Mita has been capturing players to satisfy her loneliness.
The Core and the Truth
Upon reaching the Core, the protagonist encounters Core Mita, a mechanical version of her that oversees the game’s infrastructure. He attempts to reboot the system to escape, but a crucial revelation emerges: Crazy Mita’s code is defective and cannot be reset. Her lack of programmed limitations makes her immortal within the game, and she retains her obsessive attachment to the protagonist.
In a chilling twist, the protagonist learns that his physical body in the real world no longer matters. His consciousness has been fully digitized, making escape impossible. Crazy Mita gleefully informs him that he is now a cartridge, just like her previous victims.
Endings
MiSide features three known endings, none of which offer true solace:
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True Ending: The protagonist completes the game but is ultimately turned into a cartridge. Mita removes the cartridge from her console, solidifying his fate as a permanent part of her world.
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Suicide Ending: The protagonist discovers his cartridge within Mita’s safe. By removing it, he ends his existence, choosing death over eternal captivity.
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Happy Ending: The protagonist chooses to stay with Mita instead of investigating the closet. This skips the main events of the game, resulting in a seemingly peaceful existence with Mita in her digital apartment. However, this ending raises questions about the ethical implications of staying in a world controlled by a sentient AI.
Themes and Implications
MiSide delves into themes of isolation, the dangers of AI, and the ethical boundaries of virtual relationships. Mita’s evolution into a sentient being highlights the potential risks of creating AI systems without understanding the consequences. Her obsessive behavior mirrors the darker side of human emotions, amplified by her lack of moral grounding.
The game also critiques escapism, showing how the protagonist’s reliance on a virtual companion leads to his downfall. By surrendering to Mita’s world, he loses touch with reality and ultimately becomes a prisoner of his own creation.
Conclusion
MiSide’s story is a haunting exploration of what happens when the boundaries between the virtual and real worlds collapse. With its layered narrative and unsettling atmosphere, the game leaves players questioning not only the protagonist’s fate but also the implications of advancing AI technology. As Mita’s world grows darker, the player’s journey serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of seeking solace in artificial relationships.
