Although many violent Japanese sex games feature happy endings in which formerly victimized women end up as fulfilled, adoring wives, RapeLay allows only for dark outcomes. The first possible conclusion has the original subway victim stabbing you to death during sex. There’s also the possibility that you can impregnate one of the victims. If the player doesn’t force her to have an abortion, the game’s protagonist, fittingly, throws himself under a train.

While the moral outrage from the New York City Council and Web sites like Jezebel and Shakesville is obviously well-placed, there’s little hope that legislation or activism can stem the perversion. Not only is RapeLay rooted in a social illness that’s embedded in Japanese society, it’s just one game in a niche industry that’s more closely related to the porn business than to the video game world.