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.
The Hunter’s Journals - Tattered Sails
The interactive mechanics are not like other interactive fiction I’ve played. It is much more like a table top game. Combat is actually handled in rounds with randomly generated dice rolls. You can speed this up to just show the final result but it’s still a table top way of handling things and I didn’t like it.
In table top games you can build your character to weight the dice rolls through backgrounds, stats, gear, race, etc. This game’s character creation was so minimal that I felt that the outcome of combat was very random. This was a huge interruption to the story because poor results weren’t injuries or delays. Poor results (at least early on for me) meant death.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Dark Fantasy Games.
All Ashes and Illusions
“Women are snakes and liars, all of them: the more beautiful, the more conniving. Don’t let your guard down, or they will ruin you.”
Yuel was only six years old when he witnessed his mother being put to death, for the heinous crime of daring to have an affair. For other women, such a folly mightn’t have been so lethal, but for Yuel’s ill-fated mother – the wife and queen of Indra’s tyrannical king, Khalil – it spelt her doom.
As he witnesses his mother’s corpse decomposing beneath the intense sunlight, Yuel’s father offers him some sage words of wisdom: namely, not to trust women. They are, in Khalil’s words, wicked and deceitful, and becoming too attached can end in nothing save disaster.
Outwardly, Yuel must swallow his sorrow, for fear of earning his father’s ire. Kings are not, after all, supposed to cry; even future kings such as him. In private, however, Yuel turns to his nursemaid, the kindly Safiya, for succour. Safiya is Yuel’s only ally in the palace: his father cold and distant; the servants deferential, brow-beaten, and kept silent through fear. Without Safiya, Yuel would be all alone…
Yet she, too, abandons him, when Yuel grows old enough to no longer need a nursemaid to tend to him.
Bereft and embittered, Yuel has nothing to look forward to, until – after a prolonged illness – his father eventually dies, and Yuel inherits the throne and the crown in his stead.
No longer a young boy – Safiya’s ‘little prince’ – but a grown man, Yuel plots to win Safiya over once more. Unable to forget about her, and unable to trust any other woman, Yuel cannot conceive of a life without her. She did promise to stay with him, after all - and, single-minded to a fault, Yuel is determined to see this promise fulfilled at any cost.
-
About 90,000 words of text (approx 4-6 hours of reading)
-
A kinetic story with no choices/branches
-
Detailed background and character art
-
A custom soundtrack
-
A highly dysfunctional relationship
-
Free patch that adds uncensored r18 content
-
Complete and utter agony ❤︎
Read More: Best Dark Sexual Content Games.
DnD Adventure: Wizard’s Choice
You play a wizard in this interactive novel set in a medieval fantasy world. Stay alive, manage your spell power, find treasure, and smite evil. Wizard’s Choice is a series of RPG interactive novels that will engross you in a story while allowing you to make the decisions that will determine your fate.
The game includes the complete story of Wizard’s Choice in 6 chapters. No additional purchase.
***** Features *****
-
Zero learning curve. Read the story and make decisions.
-
Manage your health, mana, gold, and morale.
-
Outcomes are determined by decisions you make.
-
Score and rank at the end.
-
Comfort options: font, font size, screen luminosity.
A game by Delight Games & Cold Coffee Studio
Written by Sam Landstrom.
The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass
Sekimeiya is one of the most impressive and ambitious stories i’ve ever read. Blows almost all other mystery VN competition out of the water. Hell it just blows most other mysteries out of the water. The story is very dense, complex, and detailed but still watertight and engaging. While the core of the VN is about actively trying to solve the mysteries don’t let that scare you because it doesn’t lack in other departments.
The pacing and presentation are tight and makes for a story that i found very hard to put down even at the cost of sleep. Its thriller elements are stellar with all sorts of twists, conflict, and some great presentation to keep you engaged regardless of how deep you go into mystery solving. Despite being less character and drama focused (not that it has none) it still has a nice cast of capable, non tropey, and enjoyable characters who facilitate the mystery nicely.
– Real player with 103.2 hrs in game
No Visual novel has ever made me spend so much time NOT reading the Visual novel, but instead made me think, take notes, craft theories and construct timelines.
According to the in-game playtime recorder, I’ve spent 17 hours in the notes section and 8 hours reading the log. But that doesn’t take into account the time where I’ve just been theory crafting while staring at the screen or when I’ve audibly gasped “No fucking way dude” and I have left my computer with my hands in the air because of what just occurred.
– Real player with 78.5 hrs in game
EnviroGolf
A text adventure golf game, well, sort of.
The game consists of a series of prompts, selecting your club, and then your power. After every hit, you’re treated to a screen with a message criticising the sport of golf due to its various specific negative effects on the welfare of the local fauna. That’s the whole game.
It’s hard to say what exactly this game is trying to accomplish. It certainly can’t be a text adventure, because there is no adventure to be had. The environmentalist message is negated by the store description of the game, so it can’t be in support of that. It can’t be a sardonic criticism of preachy games, because there’s no hint of self-awareness. What is there to be had here? Nothing, really. It sets out to do several things and does none of them well.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
I used to participate in the sport of Golf. Both watching it and (ashamedly) playing it. I now know the consequences of my actions. I sincerely apologize to any forest animals reading this review. I never knew how many I was personally responsible for killing. But now I know. Golf was invented by the devil. Golf will end civilization. That is, unless we spread the word and get more people to play this game. I need to go contemplate how to fix my terrible decisions over a delicious juicy hamburger. Hamburgers are the only thing that clears my mind.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
The Peresmeshnik
The story of the game is pretty interesting! There’s no jump scares but it really does make you question who is bad or good the story reminds me a lot of the thing with a hint of c’thulu (possibly just cause it’s a big bad at sea and the charts?) Overall I enjoyed the play through and it kept my interest as I replayed it multiple times for the achievements and they weren’t insanely hard to get or anything!
my full play through with all achievements here: https://youtu.be/2155w1tHkjw
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Let your imagination run wild with this story game! Its a quick play through with a well thought out story ark. Its taught me to trust again!
Playing The Peresmeshnik for the first time brought back memories of my survival days in Rust and Ark where I developed PTSD and an excessive amount of paranoia. I might have lost my mind the first playthrough, but I made things right eventually.
A word to the wise: Don’t let that tentacle bastard get you, like it got me!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
TOMORROW DON’T COME - Puzzling Depression
First of all, I want to say that there may be a lot of syntax errors in my review. Because I am a Chinese, I am not very good at English. I will do my best to let everyone understand me.
This is my first serious review. This is not a game for me, it is more like a feeling. Because I also have depression, even though I never admit, but the problem is there, I have to face it.
This game has two endings per chapter, one good and one bad. But when I play, I’m always tangled. I want to finish a good ending, but I know that I am lying to myself. Like “Let me die”, I say “no”, but I want to say “yes”. I am so tired, I am tired of anything, my family, my friends, my lover and my interest. I know that everyone loves me very much, but we never get close to each other in the soul and read each other in reality. I also admire my acting skills. As long as I don’t say I am not happy, no one can find out. I know that I will be better when I say it, but I can’t do it. I don’t know why.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
This game in the description says that it is a “short but unique experience” and a “think outside the box to solve the “puzzles.”” I would agree with this completely. Though it also says that it takes 10 minutes to play through once, which is true, and 30 mins to explore everything. I would disagree. As my time count says, I spent 3 hours in this game. Short it most certainly is, but I spent most of that really working out the puzzles and the other part of that actually actively pondering on my own diagnoses. While this was a step-into-someone-elses-shoes kinda game, I found myself also looking at a form of myself, as I reasoned and listened and worked out each puzzle to get the 100% completion. Which I might add, for me was not so simple. Outside the box thinking for sure in some cases. As another reviewer said, “it is not a guided tour.” I think for the amount of energy I put into the game, it was a well spent 3 hours. I recommend this.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Wraiths of SENTINEL
A very solid CoG - better than most. I really only have two criticisms for the story:
1. The romance wasn’t handled that well in my opinion. It’s very abrupt, especially with the Sorcerer, and with the limited character exploration of the romance optinos it feels empty.
2. I didn’t like the inclusion of the non-Wraith entities. Magicians, demons, etc. To me it makes the whole thing feel smaller. I get that the author is building a shared universe with MetaHuman Inc. (which is a good game), but… meh
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
I liked MC’s base wraith superpower, I think it was unique and cool. I don’t think it counts as spoilers since you’re introduced to this power at the very beginning of the game: you can walk through walls and other solid stuff (including people) like a ghost, and you are invisible to the human eyes which makes you the perfect spy. It’s cool to see that MC wonders about the extents of this superpower, like can you somehow pass through earth and so on.
There are a number of major choices (at least it looks like it) and different endings (I’ve explored 2 endings, at least). I felt like most of the choices I’ve made had some effect at later stages of the game which is good.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Control Over
It’s so impressive.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game