There Is No Light
After a global catastrophe, the remains of human civilization built a new religious society among the ruins of the desolated underground. They have forgotten the light of the sun and now are blindly following the New God — The Great Hand. Once every few years, The Hand comes down to the people of the Central Station and takes away the chosen newborns to the world hidden behind the gates of the Sanctuary. The Hero embarks on a dangerous journey through this hostile world to find a way to open the gates and bring his child back.
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Atmospheric pixel art world
A vast, detailed and beautiful pixel art world to explore.
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Unique combat system
Adjust your fight style for every foe and boss by switching between 4 main weapons on the go.
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Thrilling and emotional story
A deep and touching 30-hour long storyline about a family, war and redemption awaits you.
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70+ Types of enemies and bosses
Be prepared to slaughter hundreds of dreadful monsters and bosses!
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1000+ Dialogues and Karma system
Non-linear narrative helps to build a branching story with meaningful choices that will impact the world according to the player’s decisions.
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Useful skills to upgrade your weapons
A massive skill tree for every weapon allows you to build your own fighting style.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1132980/There_Is_No_Light/
Read More: Best Choices Matter Dark Fantasy Games.
Betweenside
So far, so good! A chilling and intriguing little Gothic tale with some innovative ideas on interactive storytelling. I will update this review as I keep playing and have more things to say.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Indie Games.
5.5/10
Although I recall writing a paper on “Gothic” literature in college, I can’t recall any hallmarks of the genre. I thought the idea of “rewriting the story” was a neat one, and was amused by the way that some of my revisions were then featured in the game’s environments (on a trophy or on posters). The game involves moving from object to object revealing brief vignettes, choosing whether to rewrite this part of the history and which of Victor’s family members to bequeath the item to.
However, I had difficulty figuring out who was speaking during the game’s vignettes, and therefore had difficulty choosing exactly how I might want to rewrite the situation. In addition, the game did not communicate exactly how much of each story I would be rewriting. I might want to alter one line, but upon choosing the rewrite option, almost the entire vignette was erased. Lastly, I just didn’t like the personality of the family lawyer that I was playing. His views on the importance of a military career and the incompetence of a more sedentary career clashed somewhat violently with my own.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Corpse Party (2021)
Corpse Party (2021) has one of the best stories I’ve ever heard, full stop. For a 2D 16-bit horror pseudo-visual-novel, it doesn’t get any better than this. Not only that, it is superlatively intense and immerses consumes any player daring enough to take on the challenge. Corpse Party is the kind of game that one doesn’t play through so much as live through; this game weighs heavy on the soul. The halls of Heavenly Host seem to exact as much toll on the player as on the characters themselves! The game has an uncanny knack for getting into the player’s head, too - this game is eerily good at cultivating within the player the sense of fear and dread that pervades the school, and it’s easy to get the impression that perhaps the game is toying with the player more than the other way around…
– Real player with 69.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Horror Games.
This was the game that started it all for me. Over a decade ago, long before I cared for story telling, I found this game. I watched YouTubers play it as a kid, because back than, that’s what I did. Watch games, play games, go to school, that was it. However, soon I’d find out this wasn’t just a game to have fun and enjoy like the rest I experienced at the time.
Looking back on it now, I can say the story of Corpse Party quite literally changed my entire life. For the first time, a story made me feel pain, an extreme sadness. It was powerful, and as a child, it confused me. No game, no show, nothing, ever made me feel the level of despair this relentlessly dished out to me. It was so long ago, so it’s hard to remember, but I think as a child, after I finished this, I avoided it at all costs. That way, I didn’t have to think about it. However, it already planted something in my mind. Although it made me feel terrible, the feeling was very real. It fascinated me that something made up could hurt me so badly. So, from there, I left this series and searched for countless ones like it. Searching for even more stories that could leave an impact on their viewers all the same.
– Real player with 31.5 hrs in game
Geisterland
What a weird game experience! I got lost a little bit at the beginning but once you get the hang of the controls it’s rather intuitive. I loved the rich scenario and all the discoveries you make through the lost journals. The puzzles were really cool as some were quite tough, had multiple solving options and often impacted strongly on the rest of the story!
Hope there will be a second one, as I didn’t get all the answer I wanted from this one!
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Human Apocalypse
WARNING: This game contains heavy material that might make players/audience uncomfortable.
An unknown deadly virus has suddenly spread. It turns people into brain eating zombies, the whole world goes into chaos, etc. You know the rest.
However, in this game, a cure has been found. All the infected people have been treated and are now normal, functioning, harmless humans again. Except for one thing, the cured people’s skin color is still green. Play as a Green man.
Human Apocalypse is a game set in a post-POST-apocalyptic world focusing on story, characters, decisions, and exploration. The dark, bizarre world of this game has a deep thought-provoking story, full of interesting characters to meet, a city to freely roam and explore, tough decisions to make, an original soundtrack, beautiful visuals, lots of secrets to uncover.
Soundtrack included when buying the game!
Red Embrace: Paradisus
1999—Las Vegas, NV.
When you wake up on an unfamiliar couch, your skin cold and your heart silent in your chest, everything feels like a dream.
It’s all a blur. You remember an invitation, a strange figure, the sharp teeth sinking into your throat…and a blinding flash of light. Blood splattering against the walls.
What happened? Who turned you? What strange powers did they awaken inside your body?
Dive into the underworld of Sin City as a newly reborn vampire—and reveal a sinister truth beneath the glittering neon lights.
Red Embrace: Paradisus is an immersive vampire sim/narrative RPG. Inspired by Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Disco Elysium, and the Shadowrun series, RE:P seeks to create a dark, fully story-driven (no combat) vampire experience with branching narrative and multiple endings.
We also aim to present a world with diverse characters and identities, as well as implementing inclusive options to make RE:P enjoyable for as many players as possible.
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Design your character
Customize your name, pronouns, appearance, and vampire house
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Choose your personality traits and skills
Become a shy hacker, a ripped pacifist, a seductive empath, or anything in between
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Explore Las Vegas
Prowl the lurid depths of Sin City, including casinos, clubs, skyscrapers, and your very own rat-occupied motel room
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Uncover terrible secrets
Rescue vampires from a horrifying psychoplague or submit to higher machinations
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Dark romance
Find (optional, potentially doomed) love beyond death
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Earn a reputation
Learn the stories of your fellow nightstalkers, make friends and enemies, and ally with a faction (or go at it alone)
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The classic CRPG experience
Gather experience, money, and pick up everything that isn’t nailed down
Planned Accessibility Features: Closed Captions, OpenDyslexic font option, screen reader, font resizing
Writing, Design, GUI: Adrian L. (Dovah)
Programming, Management: Nikita H. (Gamma)
Portrait and CG Art: sh0d03
Student Union
Lane is in trouble and needs work, ASAP. At the kick-off of his final year of high school, he turns to asking the faculty for help. The assistant principal Mr. Underwood recommends a unique solution: form and lead a student organization dedicated to the support and maintenance of the institution. However, Lane must convince at least four other students to join the group before the end of the week.
Underneath this pretext he quickly learns the school administration is more sinister than it seems, that great danger lies within the school walls, and that the group he’s forming may be more necessary than he realized.
FULL GAME FEATURES
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Over 40 hours of gameplay
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5 - 7 character routes divided among major branching plot routes
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Over 10 endings guided by player choice, including a secret ending
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Over 30 backgrounds and over 50 illustrations
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Over 50 original tracks in a two-disc OST
DOWNLOAD THE DEMO
The game demo includes the first ~2 hours of the game, depending on your choices. It demonstrates the thesis and provides a strong introduction to the major branching paths to come.
Aimi
My full play through with edit: (all endings thanks to the creator) and secret room+secret video here:
A pretty well made story about mental health it’s well written there’s not a ton of grammar/spelling mistakes which usually plague most RPG Maker games I’ve played so that’s a huge plus. The game does a great job of executing the narrative that some things you can’t come back from in a dark serious tone. Definitely enjoyed playing through it and all the best to the creator in his future games!
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
If anyone wants to watch my playthrough of the game, here is the links to it! I’ve got it split into 3 :D
https://youtu.be/4qX1yfhOGAA (Part 1)
https://youtu.be/djD9_w8s4JM (Part 2, ending 2/4)
https://youtu.be/ja4MnQnZpM4 (Part 3, all remaining endings and the secret!)
I absolutely adored this game, even after re-playing it numerous times (Cause I didn’t make enough save files originally lol) And I wanted all of the endings. It was such a masterpiece, especially for a free game. To be honest, I would have paid to play this game.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Tales of the Black Death
If you like narrative games with difficult moral choices, then this is the right adventure for you.
Tales of the Black Death follows the troubles of Baldasar, a young boy trying to escape the 1346 plague. His journey will take him from Italy to France, and finally to England.
The story is very engaging and effective in delivering the collective and individual drama, helped by a very inspired art style and soundtrack.
I couldn’t stop playing and found myself torn in front of many troubling decisions, feeling the urgency and the tragedy, hope at times, and worry about the fate of the protagonist.
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
1346 – 1356
A Pandemic reaches europe.
The Black Death.
Over 25 Million Human died.
Hard Times – hard Decissions.
What have you done to survive in such times?
Welcome to TALES OF THE BLACK DEATH!
In first look it seems to be a typical Visual Novel.
It is not.
It is more.
It is a Journey into a dark Time where you not only have to read Text.
You also have to care about yourself, you have to make hard Decissions …… you have to survive!!!
You can be sure that each decision has consequences and you can also be sure that you will disbelief many of your decisions, wishing to have other choices.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
Vesper
Beautiful game.
Game play and mechanics are straight forward and well done, but the visual and audio atmosphere of the game are where it really shines
– Real player with 13.3 hrs in game
I’ve played about 90 minutes so far and I’m really enjoying this. The graphics and sound design are top notch. The game play is virtually identical to Abe’s Odyssey, but I really enjoyed that game too so it’s all good!
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game