The Ghost
A simple visual novel consisting of only music, photos and text.
It’s a game like a play.
All photos were taken here in Aomori, a provincial city in Japan.
Press a button to move through the text and background.
You can select Japanese or English from the menu at the bottom.
About ghosts that cause everyday mishaps.
Why do you see ghosts?
Seemingly unrelated things are connected.
All things are connected by underground stems.
Read More: Best Cinematic Indie Games.
UnearthU
A strange experience, if you’re interested at all I’d recommend not reading much more about this
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cinematic Capitalism Games.
This is a “game” much in the same way a walking simulator or a VN is, so just fair warning.
I am currently on Day 4 and will update again when I get to Day 7.
I will not spoil specifics.
The “game” is best experienced as intended: do each day without changing clocks or anything. Do Day 1, and then do Day 2 the following day when it unlocks. Complete all exercises with honest intent, to include the writing prompts and meditation exercises.
There is a narrative and character and background amidst what feels like real mindfulness concepts. The blend between the real and fictional is intriguing and keeps me coming back each day. The layout of the exercises feels intended, with the motivational video leading into the discussions/lectures by KARE, then a meditation/breathing exercises that inevitably lead you to ruminating about what KARE just talked about, a writing prompt that sometimes gives you pause about wanting to be completely truthful, and a final checklist of items that you’re more than likely just going to click through without actually implementing.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Survival Horror #8,436
looks good, plays fine. the Dev is trying to make something fun here so give it a try.
hey, it’s free
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
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Monsters AI is buggy/terrible the lake glitched for me where if I went into it the game would completely freeze couldn’t escape key or anything I tried jumping in and reopening the game 25 times, but that didn’t work. The game has no real scare factor at all. The loading screen says if nothing happens while hiding from the monster try letting him hit you so I did and it just killed me. If you pick up the perma sprint alien while your spring bar is depleted you can no longer sprint. There’s no amount of 3 percent that will make this game better the game would need to be improved 60 percent to be enjoyable.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Stela
First impression: It has flesh-eating bugs (instead of rats like in Plague Tale) to oversized Gollum and a pyramid-shaped Tet that zaps you into “Oblivion” (movie with the same name)
Well, I’m kinda fond of the atmospheric, minimalistic game that’s has a puzzle/maze element and this one makes no exception. However, this particular puzzle-platformer has a lot to desire compared with other similar games I played before. Visually, Stela is a striking atmospheric game in a side-scrolling format but technically it’s low-poly though enough care has been put into the visuals and environments where they all feel alive.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
B-E-A-UTIFUL! That was the first thing that sprang to mind when I delved into STELA.
From the barren wastelands of fields to the cold and desolate snow-swept landscapes, STELA is absolutely caked in artistic imagery. Everything is designed with a keen eye and attention to detail.
This is particularly important as, much like games such as Limbo and Inside (which this game will no doubt draw comparisons to) there is no dialogue to tell the story. Much of what you gleam of this tale is from the images presented to you. Without spoiling anything, much of what this story entails is told from pillars found throughout the game.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
The Trud
What the heck is a Trud? Some sort of baddie I imagine. The cutscenes are in the realm of so-bad-it’s-good, But the game that follows is a good enough spooky puzzle and slow walking simulator.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Update: the dev has updated the game since my previous review and it’s much better. Now the movement is smoother and faster and the game flows better. I enjoyed my second playthrough. Below is my old review from long ago.
Cons:
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It is absurdly overpriced.
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99.9% of the things you do in the game are walking. And the walking is buggy as hell. They might fix it later, but at release it’s pretty bad. If you turn while walking it feels like you bump into invisible walls all the time or maybe the character is tripping over her own feet because the game stops you from moving forward for about 0.1sec. Feels very wonky and at some point teaches you to never look around and just look forward to avoid the glitchy walking.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Evil God Korone
The Philosophical implications of this games detailed, and invigorating story writing will be felt for generations to come. I’ve spent over 300 hours contemplating the pure prose that has been inscribed on the title screen - “Offer Yubi” what does that really mean? I remain hopeful that my dedicated studies to this game and the message behind it will finally offer me one thing; an end to the voices. I hope that if I remain stalwart and studious in my journey to mental awakening I can finally crack the universal code, and realize my goals of having Korone clean my kitchen and make me a red velvet cake with extra cream cheese frosting right next to my wife Tsumugi Kotobuki.
– Real player with 562.4 hrs in game
Tsugunohi in general is very hard to recommend. They’re walking simulators involving small horror stories, with the theme being that each day gets weirder and creepier (And with more jumpscares). Korone’s story is no different even if sold separately.
However, this story mostly involves the inside jokes arround Korone and her streams on a spooky turn, so is further difficult to recommend to someone unfamiliar with either her or Vtubers in general (Granted, Tsugunohi has a Kizuna Ai story). As a big Korone fan like myself you’ll have a good experience during both runs (As the second time unlocks a new ending), but someone out of the rabbit hole will simply see a creepy cult story.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Mosaic
Striking visual designs and themes I usually enjoy aside, it’s a bit on the nose with it’s message about rejecting the hamster wheel of only working and never living. It’s also a bit too simplistic in it’s presentation. Real life isn’t as simple as just daring to choose between being happy and doing fun stuff you enjoy and working yourself to death in a boring dead end job with unreasonable demands. Real life usually is a mix of the two sides, and all the thousands of little bits in between those two extremes.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
Some Tiles Are More Equal Than Others
Mosaic is a game secretly about another game. Blip Blop, the bare-bones clicker game contained on employee 978-067443006’s phone. In-between guiding him through his non-life, you’ll find your brain defaulting to your Blop accumulation and when you can next stop to Blip. You’ll reach for your virtual phone when ignored every morning in lifts and on train platforms and, to hell with it, stop in the middle of crowds. Even after the most harrowing visual set piece of late-stage capitalism’s worst excesses and neglect you’ll immediately open your phone to invest your auto-Blops, lest you be inefficient. This pernicious little app is the only source of stimulation - empty and soulless stimulation though it may be - in a world and game so utterly devoid of it.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
The Colossus Is Coming: The Interactive Experience
WHY DOES THE STEAM REVIEW SECTION SHOW 3 REVIEWS, YET WHEN CROW SCROLLS DOWN I SEE NOTHING CAW CAW
WE DEMAND ANSWERS CAW CAW!!!!!!!
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
One of the best super short free Horror games i’ve ever played. Amazing atmosphere. I wish the best to developer!
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Noosphere
It’s peculiar, rough around the edges and a lot could be improved, but virtually everything about this feels more… Unique than most other horror games. It feels like the developer had a vision and didn’t mind taking a few risks.
You’ll go back and forth between your conscious and subconscious, completing puzzles, fighting off enemies, but you’ll also be intrigued, wondering what bizarre scenario will be coming up next.
It’s pretty cheap if you want to take the risk and try it out. If it isn’t for you, there’s always the refund option.
– Real player with 5.4 hrs in game
Noosphere has been on my Steam wishlist for about a month and it was time to try playing it. I have to say that I was not disappointed with the game even though I found a few minor bugs.
One time I even fell into textures and got stuck there for a while :/
But after restarting the game I never encountered this again.
Nevertheless I consider Noosphere to be a good enough psychological horror especially considering it’s indie.
My rating would be 8/10 screemers.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Stories of Liane
Interesting game and looking forward to the next chapters. One thing that surprised me is that though the date is 300 years in our future, when I stepped into the office I saw stacks of reams of paper, a photocopier that would fit in any of our offices today, desk telephones and fans, etc. I honestly would expect the office equipment to be maybe vaguely recognisable and I would not expect to find a copier and reams of paper. Surely in 300 years there will truly be paperless offices. When I look into the future I expect to see the future. Hell, the original Star Trek did much better than this.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Please read (I don’t want this to come off sassy):
So I have a medium to beefy PC, with a higher end GPU. I also do 3d Modelling, animation, game development, and play a lot of games with the highest graphics settings (currently breezing through The Medium and Tomb Raider SOTTR on the highest settings).
After having installed this game without even beginning to play it, I for the first time, saw artifacting from my GPU with it blowing over the 8GB, meaning that the way this game was made is demanding more than what’s necessary.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game