Name: Under the Bed

Developer: Muffle



Story: This is a fantasy about an ordinary, young, socially awkward teenager named Annabeth who is being raised by her awesome single and she has her very own monster under the bed. When her mother goes out for a date, Annabeth finally decides to pay the monster a visit, only to find herself in another world under her bed. But who's the good monster and who's the bad monster? The one is a jerk, but he was really trying to help her, but the nice one was trying to help, too. Who would you trust?



Writing: For the fourth of her games I've played, I can't get over how amazing Muffle's writing is. The dark and distressing themes that form the undercurrent of everything she writes is much more subtle here. The question in this story is trust and being able to see people's true forms behind the faces they wear. The story spends quite a bit of time establishing the relationship between Annabeth and her mother. This plays out a bit while Annabeth is in the monster world. This is the one point that the game consistently focuses on. The Protagonist isn't focused on self-realization as in the other games of Muffle's that I've played. Rather, the focus here on concern for the welfare of her mother. That the mother is the most important element of the story can't be overstated. It's the mother that creates the inciting incident for the story: the suggestion that Annabeth use her blanket as a protective shield from the monster under her bed and the one in her closet. This theme even plays out when we learn how Albert became a monster; his mother didn't believe him and he paid the price for it. In one of the endings, we have the chance to learn about Boris' mother, but we're deprived and we can see his behavior as an example of what happens when a mother is completely absent.

The focus on the mother isn't the only Freudian element we see in this game. We also see the tripartite of the Id, Ego, and the Superego. This story starts in the real world, enters the monster world, and if you get the true ending, returns to the real world. We can interpret this as Annabeth venturing into her psyche. Here we meet the two monsters. They each represent the Id and the Superego to Annabeth's Ego. The first clue to the notion that they represent the tripartite comes with the fact that the first she meets automatically has the name that Annabeth gave him. When she meets the second, he assumes the same name. Albert, the real Albert, is arrogant and standoffish, but he's also knowledgeable of Annabeth's situation and understands the solution--the Superego. Boris, or the fake Albert, is kind and caring to Annabeth, but he doesn't understand her situation and his first solution is violence. He hides behind a manipulative mask but promotes reliance on one's base instincts--clearly, the Id. Meanwhile, Annabeth spends much of her time trying to figure out which one to rely on. When the sequence ends and she's back in the real world, her success at recognizing the Id and trusting her own instincts has solved a problem that the story begins with. Another way of describing this is devil-on-one-shoulder-angel-on-the-other.

The lesson we take away from this story is that good people can hide behind unpleasant personalities while the kindest and most beautiful people can hide the most unspeakable evil.

Gameplay: This is a visual novel, so much of it is reading, but still, I would have preferred to have a few more choices.

Graphics: I believe a DeviantArt character generator was used for the character busts. I'm not sure where the backgrounds came from but it was all very pretty.

Sound: Exclusively music. They were all very pretty, peaceful pieces of music but the loops were short and they got a bit repetitive.

Conclusion: I really see Muffle as one of the really good writers on RMN right now. Every one of her games is absolutely worth the time you'll take to play through it and this one is no exception.