MC is the ultimate loser ¶

MC is depicted as the ultimate outsider / loser, living on top of an apartment building in a lone shipping container filled with trash, anime figurines and his PC. Over the course of the game he begins to touch grass, build connections with other people like him and leverage these connections to fight against the delusions imposed on him by others. Some endings involve him doing the exact opposite and living in a truly cursed delusional world of his own making.

Harem / gal game satire ¶

The MC’s internal monologue constantly references harem / gal game tropes. CHN is a satire of the genre in that the MC is playing the role of a “typical” player of gal games constantly transposing this warped version of reality onto his own. And in some rare cases, bringing it forth into reality and creating his own little sick delusional gal game life (Nanami’s route).

Daisuke is the actual gal game protag doing his thing mostly offscreen where as Takumi is the little freak that the game’s POV is mostly tied to.

Nanami ending ¶

The world of CHAOS;HEAD NOAH is one of blurred lines between the real, or our own unique perception of it, and the imaginary.

So, it’s fitting that some of the endings specifically play into that.

The ending of Nanami’s route is a great example of this. In it we see the MC, unable to handle the kidnapping of his sister Nanami, completely rejecting the reality in front of him and choosing instead to live the rest of his life in a completely delusional world. One in which Nanami was never kidnapped and is actually into him (yikes).

This kind of twisted scenario is often portrayed in other visual novels, but CHAOS;HEAD NOAH is explicitly calling out how messed up this is and for the most part avoiding “becoming the thing it’s satirizing” by not depicting Nanami.

The music that begins to play at the end of the Nanami route is the most upbeat track in the entire game. It accurately reflects the completely delusional state that the MC finds himself in while contrasting strongly with the player’s expected reaction to the situation. In a good way!

Not all routes are created equally ¶

I feel mixed about the typical gal game structure of a normal route followed by a route for each girl (I say girl and not woman intentionally here). Some routes are used to expand on the world in interesting ways, others are used as a satyrical hammer to get you to understand that this is a satire, and other routes left me feeling like they shouldn’t have been written in the first place.

There’s not a lot of gratitious horniness in the game but there’s just enough that I feel like I need to acknowledge that it’s there and I wish it wasn’t. The horny stuff that’s there even when it’s used in the satyrical mode, I would rather a bit more restraint have been used here. The game is pretty restrained though so I can’t complain (cutting to black and writing out some of the gorier stuff, but the horny stuff always gets a CG).

Einstein might be a Gigalomaniac ¶

Einstein is mentioned as possibly being a Gigalomaniac (GM) by someone in the game. This is an in-universe gesture at the Great Man theory. The MC in finding or creating the ir2 formula is shown to be someone like Einstein who may have done the same for the e = mc^2.

Trauma, Trauma, Trauma ¶

Gigalomaniacs, all the main cast and more, gain access to their powers by experiencing highly traumatic events. The specific of these events are revealed through playing the game.

Universally, these traumautic events define these characters behavior and goal above anything else for better, or usually worse. Due to their status as Gigalomaniacs, they also have access to DI-swords which are big swords that they can manifest into reality for two purposes. Firstly, DI-swords are essentially weightless and can be used for violence. Secondly, DI-swords grant their wielder the ability to also manifest their owns dreams/delusions into reality.

As you can imagine, these highly traumatized characters running around with the ability to manifest their delusions into reality is dangerous especially considering that their is a nefarious group using technology to do the same but to a lesser extent.

CHAOS is the only way I can describe the outcome of this situation. Some routes are more chaotic than others.

Ayase

“Do not allow yourself to be dominated by your wicked heart. Let it instead be absorbed into your self”

In Ayase’s language, “wicked heart” seems to mean something like the negative delusions caused by your trauma.

6.7 billion ways to perceive the world ¶

In Ayase route, she says the following:

Ayase

“The shape of the world… is formed by the eye of the beholder”

The world Ayase perceives is one where the sky is dark red and the only constant is pain and violence. The MC doesn’t see the same world as she does although it’s up in the air which one is “more” real.

The MC helps Ayase expel the darkness of “Gladioul” (the eponymous Noah essentially) from the world. In doing so, Ayase begins to see the world as the MC does. Of course, at the expense of all the other Gigalomaniacs dying.