Sometimes I feel like one the reasons why TWEWY was never mainstream and stays up as a "niche jewel" is because I notice that TWEWY as a whole is a videogame that invites to critical thinking and self reflection for the players. The videogame itself places Neku as someone who needs to rethink his life and he is the one who has to put himself in their places, to listen to them and understand their world. And Neku is able to connect with Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, Joshua and other Shibuya citizens because he can connect with them, aside from the mask they are putting, realizing they actually share things in common. It's noteworthy how Neku doesn't want a facade and actually doesn't initially gets along with them for this reason, he wants their real selves. He starts to care about Beat, after realizing how his "tough competitive guy" was just a facade. He starts to care about Shiki after realizing she felt so unwanted in the real world, and felt the need to just "hide herself", how she was as confused as he was. Neku gains real friends because of his ability to open up without being selfish. Being able to understand that you were "wrong", placing yourself in the shoes of another person... It's not necessarily the "fantasy" most gamers, especially teenager gamers are looking for. And not so many people are able to connect with this.
I also feel like Week 2 made a great commentary about critical thinking regarding "popularity" vs "quality"... Appreaciating the heart put in a project, instead of just a shallow content, understanding that if you do thing with love and a soul is more than a content that everyone can replicate, this exemplified by Ken Doi and the Prince, versus Makoto.
And while I understand that TWEWY, as any other game, it's a product meant to sell and entertain, I feel like the game has this ideals that might differ with the mainstream market in comparison. No shade to other games like Persona, but if you compare them their difference is astounding. TWEWY does not rely on fanservice, or "romance simulator" routes where the main character gets all the ladies, and it doesn't milk "shipping" as a way to gain an audience. This differs a lot with mainstream games who get an audience for these reasons and I highly doubt the fans of this games would be interested on a videogame like TWEWY with all I mentioned.
Going back with Neku and the characters. It's interesting to notice that even when Neku canonically has reasons that explain his character, including his trauma. But the game still calls him out, and how it was just making him drown into misery and making him unable to explore his true potential, potentially becoming someone egocentric. And the same thing applies to Shiki. Higashizawa calls her out on her fake presentation as a disguise to her low self esteem, and how her jealousy was consuming her, to the point of doubting if she wanted to go back to life. (This might be an "unpopular" opinion here, but this is why I feel like Shiki's face not being shown most of time was a good choice... Because Shiki was more than just her appareance, or an image she intended to present. Neku doesn't need to see her face to care for her and appreciate her real self.)
While I'm personally not that fan of "character gets told by everyone they're wrong and that makes it automatically good writing", TWEWY does a great job in this case.
Technically it can be said that TWEWY's not being mainstream was just a marketing factor. But I think this is algo a good coincidence, and why it makes me appreciate this game more. It's also good to see that NEO kept most of these core messages.
