The Mimic: Control

The Mimic: Control is a 2019 survival horror game developed and published by CTStudios. It's the remake of the 2001 game The Mimic, originally developed by Mimic Beasts, a group of Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET). Like the original game, follow Yasu Masashige, a young searching his missing friend in the La Quinta High School and find the truth about his family. It was released for Android, iOS for January 15th, 2019 while Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 was released in December 31st 2018.

The remake of the game was officially announced in January 2015 and released the first trailer in official group on YouTube. The game was built on the Unreal Engine 5 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One, which was also used for next video games. The Mimic: Control received praise for its presentation, gameplay, new elements and faithfulness to the original. By 2023, it had sold more than 8.3 million copies, outselling the original The Mimic. It was followed by The Mimic II: Jealousy in 2022.

The Creation Of The Beasts
Thousands of years ago in early Japan, an evil god created four beastly demons, also known as the Four Beasts to be his "tools." He tasked them to wreak havoc upon the Earth just for his vicious amusement. The Beasts consist of Control, Jealousy, Rage, and Rebirth. For ten days, a samurai named Kusonoki Masashige fought against each of these beasts one by one and sealed them across the Earth. However, when he faced the Beast of Control, she held Kusonoki's daughter hostage, causing him to sacrifice himself to save his daughter. Unfortunately, Control had tricked Kusonoki, cursing him and his entire bloodline.

Ancestral Curses
Years later after being cursed by Control, Kusonoki’s surviving descendants got married and started their new generation of the cursed bloodline, who unfortunately were soon to be cursed by Control as well.

Chapter I
"You search for your old school for your missing friends only to unveil a bigger secret." - The description of 'Control' Chapter I.

A young man named Yasu went to his old high school in search of his missing friends. When he walks into the main entrance of the building, he notices a trail of bloody footprints leading somewhere deep in the dark hallways. As he follows the footprints, he comes across various notes written by his friends that warn him about a mysterious entity lurking within the abandoned school grounds. Once Yasu finds a key in a classroom, he encounters an unnaturally tall girl with a pink hat — the monster that his friends probably warned him about. He continues to the school basement, where he finds the same girl crying in the sewers. As Yasu tries to approach her, she suddenly disappears as she did earlier in the classroom. He then opens the door, which oddly leads him to a small modern town in his home country, where he must find a key to escape the tall girl's little maze.

Upon escaping her maze, he finds a small village where he talks to a farmer about what was happening lately. The farmer warns him that if he had seen a girl playing the biwa, it would already be "too late." After the terse conversation, he then moves on to a cave, where he is chased by statues. However, they fail to catch him as they were too slow. At the end of the cave, Yasu opens a door underneath a Minka which brought him to another mysterious place.

Yasu is confused as he ends up inside a barren, dim hotel. A lady like a penguin who was lies sidewards tells him about what is going on and warned him that he can't escape. Subsequently, he uses the elevator and continues with his erratic journey. Yasu was then chased by Biwaki upon hearing her play the biwa but managed to escape from her grasp and entered the next floor. Within the obscurity and secrecy, he finds a map of the hotel maze that will be useful for him as a guide. He was chased by Kuriko throughout the spacious maze. Providentially, he was able to find the elevator at the end that led him somewhere unexplored. Yasu ponders where he was until a voice states that he is in The Imperial Palace.

Chapter II
"You begin to question the things you see. Has everything been a mimic of your reality?" - The description of 'Control' Chapter II.

After taking the elevator, he asked the voice about its identity. The voice introduced to him as a "friend" and opened the doors of The Imperial Palace. Yasu encounters a servant who can extend her neck in tedious distances. She chases him in the broad library of the palace while he finds a key to a door with a lever. Once he pulls the lever, he rushes up the stairs and managed to escape the servant, Megumi.

The voice whispered to him about something. He didn't seem to believe it and shrugged it off. Yasu then makes his way to a somewhat crumbled land and then to a massive door with a lever to pull. As he pulls the lever, the voice introduces a large samurai figure to Yasu. While trying to find an escape, Yasu finds notes that are written by his friends telling him that it's too late to find them. He didn't believe it and continued to find an escape to this twisted world. Yasu managed to escape the samurai and explored deeper in The Imperial Palace. He managed to escape the palace by finding Butterfly Spirits that allows him to access the glowing doors.

Yasu enters The Realm of The Forgotten where he explores around the realm and encounters the same samurai earlier from The Imperial Palace strolling around of the realm whilst looking at him before disappearing into the waters of the river. Yasu continues his journey to the other end of the realm by finding another Butterfly Spirit to open another glowing door.

He walks through the hallways of the school and the hotel like what he did back in the events of Chapter I. At the end of the elongated hallway, Yasu sees a doll leaning onto the wall while he hears the voice telling him that everything has been a mimic of his reality since the beginning. Now, he has to escape a hospital full of lifeless yet eerie dolls. Yasu managed to escape with a key and a Butterfly Spirit while being chased down by a doll named Shaku and her mutated form, in two separate mazes.

Yasu finally meets the voice that was inside of his head, as they meet face to face with each other. He never fathomed the reason as to why he ended up here from searching his friends, being trapped and targeted. Kintoru chases him out of the village while finding a Butterfly Spirit in one of the three gardens to escape. The Witch failed to catch him as Yasu managed to elude from her grasp. Kusonoki waits for Yasu to come then says that he'll never escape the curse of The Witch, then vanishing into thin air, leading to the beginning of Chapter III.

Chapter III
"You realize an even bigger threat has been pulling the strings behind everything." - The description of Chapter III.

Left on an island, all by himself, Yasu travels to a boat and then to a Minka. He then travels through the building with a feeling of déjà vu and convolution before entering a swamp with a tall monster lurking around to catch him. He was tasked to offer a blade in a shrine in order to open a passage to a cave. After finishing what he was supposed to do, he heard Kintoru's voice provoking him; if he's still searching for his friends or just trying to survive after he all went through.

Though, that was not the end yet, he still has to survive a couple of hands trying to catch him. Yasu was led to a sealed, vast Sakura tree with a dormant large centipede. It asked Yasu about those butterflies he used and sacrificed. He ignored it and offered the Butterfly Spirit from the tree. As he heads towards the door, Kintoru mocks him again saying he sacrificed another one of his friends. Yasu didn't believe what she said, as he stated that she is lying to him and moved forward.

Yasu appears to be in a Minka that once belonged to someone. He then has to offer a blade, a rose, and a corrupted spirit found in various rooms before going in the basement. Once Yasu enters the basement, he meets a slit-mouth woman named Mihari that aggressively tries to capture him by the boarded window but fails to do so. Mihari and Yasu meet again in another portion of the basement. Mihari roams around the maze trying to hunt Yasu whilst he tries to find bells to ring in order to unlock Mihari's corrupted Butterfly Spirit, then he burns the spirit by an altar, killing Mihari while Kintoru taunts Yasu that he is a murderer.

Yasu appears in the same Minka again but as he goes downstairs, he sees a lifeless body of Kaito with a key laying on his lap. Yasu gets the key and uses it on a door with ofuda (御札) surrounded by it. He enters a hallway full of paintings that are all the same. At the end of the hallway is a bloodier version of the same painting. Kintoru pops out to jumpsare Yasu in a few paintings. Subsequently, he then goes into a passageway that leads to Omukade's Lair. Yasu has to turn all four pillars green by interacting with the four skulls in each pillar while surviving Omukade, the giant centipede.

Once the puzzles are completed, a huge door opens and Yasu enters through it, leading himself in a hallway seeing the monsters' tied up by strings. Kintoru then revealed that the monsters he encountered are her puppets and Yasu's ancestors who blinded him into this curse, and that he's suffering to pay for their sins. At the end, Yasu unexpectedly returns to his home but questions if this was really home.

Chapter IV: The Finale
"Will you be able to break free from control? Or will you be another mindless puppet forever?" - The description of Chapter IV.

Yasu notices that something is off in his house. He first saw the note written by his mother, saying that they went to his high school for a "parent-teacher conference" which was years ago. Yasu then proceeds to go upstairs to see a floating woman inside his room but the door automatically closes as he got too close and she disappears. He knew something was off and decided to go into his parents' room which he found a key for the garage in one of the drawers. He went downstairs to open the garage and garden, seeing another key for the basement. As Yasu enters the basement, a song plays from the radio while he searches for a crowbar to open the barricaded passageway. It leads to another room full of crates and a woman laying on the flat pedestal who he assumes was a "Halloween prop" but it disappears as it jump-scares him. Yasu then grabs the key found at the edge of one of the crates and opened the locked door.

Yasu goes deep into the basement and enters a bloody swamp, wondering what kind of sick nightmare he's in. As he goes onward, he encounters multiple groups of a few aggressive dummies that are trying to ambush him when he does not look directly at them. After Yasu manages to survive, he goes opens a door which he thinks of as an escape.

Yasu now appears to be in a small space with a door on his left. He then enters that door to see the gym of his old high school which gave him déjà vu. He thought to himself that he never found his missing group of friends, and hoped that his parents would be okay at least. He then enters the school finding out his parents, Daku (Normal Mode) and Keiko (Nightmare Mode) are now chasing him around the school as he collects the keys and butterfly spirits scattered around.

Yasu now appears in an unfamiliar village with a building in the other end. He then goes into the building to see a statue of a samurai with a code sculptured on the base. Yasu then goes upstairs to find another butterfly spirit to get access to the white door to the left. He finds himself in a protracted hallway and hears a familiar tune playing from a radio that his mother sings to Yasu as a lullaby for him to sleep. As he continues to open doors at every end, the song gets more distorted. At the very end, he sees a bloody room with a safe inside. He then puts in the code he saw from the statue earlier to get a key inside. As Yasu leaves the room filled with hallways, he unlocks the door to the opposite side where it leads to another room full of spider webs and enters a forest.

Yasu now finds himself in a foggy forest with such a sinister red environment. He has to collect six cursed items which look like a samurai's equipment and burn them in the white flame beside a giant tree. He managed to burn all the six cursed items while surviving from Kusonoki who is chasing him down once again. Kusonoki then appears in front of Yasu as a mirage and revealed that he is his main ancestor (or great 10x grandfather). He also told his story why Kintoru was targeting Yasu as a result of Kusonoki sacrificing himself to "save" his daughter who was held hostage by the witch which led him to her trap and cursed the family bloodline. After telling the story, Kusonoki instructs Yasu to get his Blessed Blade to defeat Kintoru once and for all but warns him not to be tempted as Kintoru can find a nimble way to deceive Yasu at the end.

Yasu wanders through a cave, finding Hiachi, Futaomote, Shaku, Biwaki, Kaito, and Mihari trapped in a spider web. While a red door emerges from the ground and violent shaking from the ground, he tells himself that he promises that he'll save his parents. After entering the red door, he uses the blessed blade that Kusonoki gave him to destroy all of Kintoru's three hearts now placed in random locations while being chased by Kintoru in her Saigomo form.

After he manages to slay all three hearts, Kintoru now teleports Yasu, now offering a battle with him. Then he drains half of her health, then Kintoru enters her rage mode. Later, he wins the battle, then it shows two options, each that cannot undo.

Endings
The games have four endings:


 * End of Control: After Yasu kills Kintoru by stabbing her once more when she is downed, a large tower of arms grabs her body down in the depths of the waters saying, "WHAT A USELESS TOOL," to her as she forfeited to a mere human whom Kintoru was after for. Yasu's ancestors have been freed from Kintoru's curse and he managed to save his parents. The next day Yasu wakes up with an anxious heart as he bolted down the stairs to be greeted by his parents that do not remember the incident that happened before. He calms down as he and his family are safe... for now.
 * Stuck in the Webs: Kintoru captures Yasu, with no one escaping from her grasp, saying “Humans are so easy to decieve.” Kusonoki warned Yasu not to be deceived by her. Yasu's ancestors including Yasu himself, are now at a web where they are not supposed to be.

Update 1.9
In the update 1.9, CTStudios added two new endings.


 * UFO: After destroying 2 hearts, Yasu founnd a sticker with an image of an unidentified flying object. After destroying the last heart, Saigomo teleport to Yasu, where he is standing. However, her lair was later sucked in by an unidentified flying object. Together they boarded the unidentified flying object. The next day, Yasu doesn't remember anything and his parents are still very normal
 * Sacrifice of Yasu: After defeating Saigomo, Yasu will have 2 options. Instead of choosing one of the two, Yasu will stand still and choose nothing. He will then be teleported to a mysterious area where the large tower of arms will appear and attack you. Yasu must attack the vases before the Yokai appear. A moment later, he slipped and fell. The demon dragged him to the bottom of the sea. In the dream, he prayed that everyone was okay. The next morning, Daku and Keiko woke up and saw Yasu nowhere, thinking he had gone to school early. Daku was about to go out when he saw Yasu's body lying in front of the house.

The Witch Trials
The Witch Trials is the extra DLC of the game and the prequel of four main games. That takes place in Japan's Edo Period, set 31 years before the main events of the books. It's followed a new main character, Keiko Masashige (Yasu's Mother)

Prologue
Firstly, a person talks about the story of the Beasts which that person says: "Four beasts rampaged across the earth, Control, Jealousy, Rage, and Rebirth,"

"For ten days, they raged against their glided cage,"

"And for ten nights He fought against our people's plight,"

"The earth shook and our oceans burned, as He fought for weeks, his back unturned."

"He overcame these creatures, escaped unhurt, and sealed these monsters, all around our earth,"

"And so you, my child, who comes from Him, our people's future, decided by your whims."

Part I
Keiko starts off at a small village in a forest, looking perplexed. She then travels across a bridge that leads to a chamber where she must offer the scrolls of Control, Jealousy, Rage, and Rebirth to their respective statues. However, it will not be easy to attain them. She must grab the scrolls from the Fleshbags in order to continue her journey. After offering all of the scrolls to their perspective stones, a secret door in the maze opens, and Keiko escapes.

Part II
Keiko enters in a meager, quiet setting with a minka across her. She passes into the empty house, which has an interior splattered in maroon blood and groups of skulls as she is taunted by some entity. The house then precedes a forest beyond. While looking for a way out of the forest, Keiko must hide in the bushes to avoid being attacked by Kazeko and Hanzu. Her task is to offer a white blade and a black blade on an altar in order to break through the chained cave. However, she needed to acquire a key to unlock the first blade, with another key and a blue butterfly being needed for the secod.

Part III
A cinematic plays, showing Futaomote, Hiachi's mother. Futaomote was an abusive mother due to her impulsive disorder in which she described herself as "unnatural." She and her daughter were shunned by their neighbors as a result. Futaomote then made a pact with the "demon" one day to end her burden. The demon told her that if she ate a Butterfly Spirit, her desires would be fulfilled and would become normal. Futaomote, however, fell into Kintoru's trap after consuming the Spirit, believing that her wish would actually come true. Kintoru split her soul in half, dividing the two figures and personalities, and turned her into her own pawn.

Keiko is tasked to solve two skull puzzles in the neighborhood with Futao and Mote mindlessly roaming the area. She must also obtain the two various Butterfly Spirits, which are inside them. Futao bears the normal spirit, while Mote carries the corrupted one. After taking the spirits from them, Keiko must burn the spirits to two fire pits in a cave near the exit in order to escape.

Endings
The Witch Trials have 2 endings, 1 for Normal Mode and 1 for Nightmare Mode


 * If the player completes the Normal Mode of The Witch Trials, they will get this ending where Futaomote claims that she is not a bad mother and realizes she is under control:

"I'm not sick." "I'm not a bad mother."

"She did this, she planned it from the start."

"She kept CONTROLLING me." "She made me this way..."


 * If in Nightmare Mode, the player will get a different dialogue where Kintoru recites a poem in a red text:  "Control  was sent to the East, where she cannot feast."   "Jealousy  was sent to the bottom of the sea, part of a forgotten legacy."  "Rage  was trapped in His strongest cage, seething with wrath and counting her days."    "Rebirth  was sent deep in the Earth, watching the world in reverse."   "4 shall stand, all shall fall." 

Release
The Mimic: Control was first released for Android, iOS and Microsoft Windows in EU and North America on January 15th, 2019, Japan and PAL region in next day. On December 31st 2018, it was released for 3 platforms is PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Swicth.

The next extended version for Microsoft Windows and consoles named Nightmare Mode, Director's Cut in EU on April 3rd, 2019, Japan in April 16th, 2023 and PAL and North America in June 23th, 2020.

In May 10th, 2023, the CTStudios said they will make 2 new games for the franchise is The Mimic III and The Mimic IV and developments an upcoming game is Yokai.

Reception
TBA