Punch Line’s Three Childhood Friends Are Its Most Important Characters

A lot of Punch Line may keep people guessing. Who has possessed Yuta’s body and forced him out of it, turning him into a ghost? Why do we keep seeing clips of three children ahead of each “episode” in the game? How is it that both Mikatan and Yuta have the ability to power up? Well, a lot of it all comes back to those three kids we keep seeing: Chiyoko, Guriko, and Pine.

Editor’s note: There are going to be so many spoilers below. So many.

Years ago, three children were a part of an Uberfication experiment, where children exposed to the Hercules virus would be given the ability to Uberfy when triggered. This makes them better, faster, and stronger, but it comes at a cost. Constantly using them causes their bodies to degenerate and eventually die. When we are seeing these segments during Punch Line, we are watching test subjects from the past. Pine, the boy, is Yuta. Mikatan and Teraoka/Gliese are Chiyoko and Guriko.

Confused? That is understandable. In the flashbacks, Pine is a boy with white hair, Chiyoko is a girl with black hair, and Guriko is a girl with pink hair. In Punch Line’s present, Teraoka is a white-haired man, Yuta is a black-haired man, and Chiyoko is a pink-haired girl. This is because of an incident that kicked off the entire plot. The three children attempted to escape the facility where they were being experimented on and abused. It was a stormy night, all three were Uberfied when panicked, and lightning hit them. This caused a body swap, with Pine going into Guriko’s body and becoming Yuta, Chiyoko going into Guriko’s body and becoming Mikatan, and Guriko going into Pine’s body and becoming Teraoka. Yuta was found and adopted by Akina Iridatsu’s grandfather and adopted by the family. Meika found Mikatan and began training her to become a hero. Teraoka was recaptured by the scientists and was tortured and experimented on.

It is because of that failed escape attempt that Teraoka is the leader of Qmay and attempting to destroy the world with the asteroid in Punch Line. He is totally alone, hates everyone, and wants it all to end. So when Yuta sees panties twice, his ghost form dies and the world ends because he no longer there to set the course of events that would cause the people in Korai House to defend it. Mikatan needs to become Strange Juice to deliver the gut punch that can snap people back to reality.

This connection between the three characters in Punch Line provides a sense of balance. We have someone who represents that which would be lawful and good, Mikatan. She is just trying to make the world a better place and fight evil, even if she could end up killing herself by Uberfying too much. Teraoka has become evil after everything that has happened, willing to destroy the entire world to get back at everyone for what the character went through. Yuta starts out as a neutral party who is really just trying to get his body back, but ends up becoming a force of good once he realizes what is going on.

Granted, everyone in Korai House is important in Punch Line. It is only through their powers combined that Qmay can be stopped. But everything happens because of Chiyoko, Guriko, and Pine and the experiments done on these children. Their experiences after attempting to run away, enduring the body swap, and being raised in vastly different environments caused everything in the game to happen. The three finally reuniting bring on an event that could doom or save the world.

Punch Line is available for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.