ghostpia Season One is not the first kinetic visual novel I've played, but I will say that I think it's one that will stick with me for a long while. Depending on your reading speed, I'd say it's maybe about 10 hours long on average. With visual novels I've previously played I'd go on long stretches of playing several chapters in a row but with ghostpia I felt I had to take a break after each chapter to allow things to really sink in properly. It's hard to organize my thoughts completely, but before I discuss the game itself and my experience with it, I want to provide a detailed content warning (with minimal spoilers where possible). Skip on ahead if you don't care. There's headers signifying when it ends and when it begins. DISCLAIMER BEGINS! I want to say first and foremost that you may not enjoy this game if you expect it to be wholesome fun and if you expect the protagonists to be entirely morally sound. There's plenty of gun violence, blood, limbs breaking, impalement, but no explicit gore, and it's often our protagonist(s) enacting this violence. There's instances of drug use. Two instances where our narrator-protagonist Sayoko is drugged to induce exhaustion, and one instance of substance use (though Sayoko is completely unaware it's a drug). Regarding the physical violence, a young girl is occasionally made the target of said violence (though, unlike what most reviews say, I do feel like it has some purpose in emphasizing the worst in our main character, though I'd be lying if I said it wasn't uncomfortable to witness. There's even an instance of attempted sexual assault (though Sayoko is NOT the one enacting this). Warning for minor non-explicit spoilers for more detail: another girl gets Sayoko into her car and is described as fiddling with Sayoko's underwear, even attempting to remove it. Her discomfort with the situation is described. The visuals are not explicit either as they both remain clothed despite the text suggesting Sayoko is being disrobed beneath her overwear. However, it doesn't go further than what I described as the act is interrupted, and isn’t visually explicit at all. But if you feel any of what was mentioned prior would dissuade you from experiencing this game, then I understand. DISCLAIMER ENDS! With that out of the way I want to talk about my actual experience with the game! I'll start with the basic plot that's shown to us in chapter 1 before explaining what I, personally, enjoyed about the experience, followed by my criticisms. The story follows Sayoko, an amnesiac "ghost" in a town of 1,023 other ghosts. She's a bit of a shut-in, and the only time she really gets out is when it's so early in the morning that all the other ghosts are asleep. However, she's made to confront her past after running into some old friends of hers that she used to be extremely close with. Though Sayoko doesn't seem to hold any resentment towards them, she’s still hesitant to reconnect with them for reasons that aren't made immediately clear. But, as it turns out, they want to not only become close with her again, they want to help make her a new friend. A new ghost is on the way to this town of 1,024. Things develop from here in ways that I don't wish to explain for the purposes of keeping spoilers to a minimum. To start my praises: the artstyle is extremely charming, and the art is consistently good throughout the whole experience. The visual charm and polish is undeniable, in my opinion, although I felt that the "VHS" effect that's on by default was way too much for me and so I turned it off almost immediately which allowed me to more fully enjoy the art presented. As for characters, Sayoko has to be one of my favorite visual novel protagonists in recent memory. I did say I wanted to keep spoilers to a minimum, so I can't go into full detail here, but I think Sayoko being an amnesiac was a solid narrative choice to help immerse the players (who are also fully unaware of what this "ghost town" is) and (re)learn Sayoko's surroundings alongside her. I enjoy her narration a lot, it's clear that she very much lives in her own head and so it feels natural for her to be constantly thinking to herself for the more "novel-esque" sections of the narration. The main cast is a lot of fun to follow and I think they bounce off of each other really well. Though they feel so different in personality, they're very clearly united and their interpersonal struggles as the trio tries to reconnect with one another felt realistic and, for me, were quite interesting to follow. Their chemistry felt natural and I found myself getting really invested in them. The soundtrack for this game is really solid too. On their own the songs are great, but the context in which they’re used really elevated a lot of scenes for me and helped my immersion. I found myself unable to stop playing until the chapter was over. The developers said that they wished for you to enjoy this game the same way you would enjoy a movie and I think the soundtrack in conjunction with the visuals really adds to that. I really think this game is amazing. I adored it from beginning to end and by then I nearly cried over it. It's exciting to see how it's building up to Season Two. If the team can keep up this level of quality into the sequel I have no doubt that Season Two will be amazing as well. I can’t recommend this visual novel enough. If you're a visual novel fan and used to a game having several endings/several choices you can make in terms of dialogue along the way, the lack of "choice" here won't really be disappointing. This is a really strong narrative from beginning to end (though I did like some chapters more than others) and was a quality work. Please consider giving it a try if you even think you may like what I've described. It goes on sale relatively often and, in my opinion, it's more than worth it even at base price. Season Two is in development right now, but I think Season One as it is is a complete experience more than worth playing even before then. All that being said, I'll still share some of the minor grievances I've had during my time with ghostpia, though they're just nitpicks/things that I personally didn’t enjoy. The only complaints I can think of immediately would have to be the occasional textual errors. I think there's an instance in chapter 2(?) where text is repeated twice in a row and there's occasional typos. While they're infrequent enough that it never fully detracted from my experience, they did break my immersion at times as I would have to reread a sentence just to make sure that I read it correctly. I'd like to revisit the game and collect them so I can see about reporting them to the development team, though I know their focus is on the development of Season Two at this time so it could be a bit before they do any fixes. I do think the soundtrack is excellent, however I think the only track I had issue with is the track called "Sayoko". I think it's tonally perfect for her, I actually really like the thematic relation to Sayoko, but the sort of "glitchy" sounds throughout it felt a bit strenuous and I would sometimes have to turn the music down if I felt overwhelmed, though I do recognize that this is mostly a me problem. This game has no "text log" to see previous text, instead you rewind or fast forward, which means you can easily revisit animations. However, I personally prefer the log format that a lot of other visual novels have, and so for someone used to that format it felt off. Again, I wholeheartedly and earnestly recommend this game. It's a beautiful game and one that has made me happy just as much as it's made me feel like a neurotic mess. I do have my grievances but, really, my problems with this game are small compared to what I love about it. Play ghostpia Season One and please wait warmly for the release of Season Two.
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