Inner Scales 1: Choice Review

Inner Scales 1: Choice does not have much traditional narrative. Players accept a four-day job that takes them to a seemingly abandoned building out in the middle of nowhere. First you’re told to lock away your phone. Then, each day you must give food to the eight female captives locked in the prison cells nearby. Comply or die.

The real story is all about the characters. Each captive has some back-story, along with aspirations and personality traits. One is a dancer and another is a nurse. One is a kindergarten teacher and another is a student. Character exposition comes naturally, which is not easy when much of the game is set within identical prison cells.

What is great is that each captive has a different reaction to their situation: fear, frustration, denial, confusion, acceptance, and more. The intimate setting exaggerates these differences. Most treat you coldly at the start. Then they start being nice to you, their only lifeline. Some might even fall for you, in a severe case of Stockholm syndrome. But there is more to it; they’ve had time to think. Eventually, you can save one. Who will it be?

Do you rescue the saddest, the prettiest, the most useful, the richest, the nicest, or the one who thinks of others? It is an interesting moral dilemma and a good end to the character study. More could be said about whether it comments on the genre itself; do we ‘lock’ up these actresses, make them dance, and choose one at the expense of the others?

The cast is astronomical, in terms of FMV games. There are over 20 game credits amongst the eight actresses, including LIAA alumni Guo Xinyu and Wang Xingchen, Game of Fate veteran Chen Man, and Hello Love: 18 Again teacher Shen Yichen. Thanks to many hilariously shameless camera angles, you get to see each one from head to toe. But try to stay focused because the actresses bring the emotions to life. It is worth playing for their acting performances alone.

It takes about 4 hours to finish and another 2.5 hours to see all endings and alternate dialogs. There are only 1-2 dialog choices per day, for each captive, so it is far too linear. At least the tiny differences in responses do mesh with the character focus. All good endings are worth seeing, but it is still a rigid and repetitive template. If the sequel has equivalent star power and improves the rest, players will have no choice but to buy it.