exciting prologue that fizzles out into a 10 hour long murder investigation that barely builds off of any of the interesting aspects built at the beginning of the game that ends up with a really dissatisfying conclusion that boils down the whole premise of the game into a "what-if?" story that leaves you wandering what the ♥♥♥♥ was the point.

I went into this not knowing what to expect, but impressed with the positive reviews it had accumulated. Those reviews were well deserved.

This is an amazing spooky VN that tells two prime stories side by side, along with a handful of character arcs, all with a number of explosive twists come the end. What makes this unique is the manner in which it breaks the fourth wall, something it does a number of times, and yet still cleverly makes complete sense once the story is complete. You really have to think outside the box in terms of how to deal with some of the puzzles.

Essentially, the story surrounds nine characters thrust into a killing game, each being bestowed powerful curses that can kill other people so long as certain conditions are met. Of course, the goal is to collect soul fragments from kills, and they get more fragments if they kill other curse holders, so at all times you're engaged with working out who the other curse holders are, and, when engaging with them, what are the conditions that could potentially set their curse off and get you killed.

The game embraces its gimmick to the max, with a bunch of characters who all seem to metaphorically get the curses that best suit their particular issues/traits, so you're uncovering their story at the same time as you uncover the story behind the various curses. There's murder, trauma, and occult dealings in abundance, and some decent jokes/cheesy events to lighten things up in between.

The writing is janky in places, and the characters are prone to overdramatic poses that come off funny even if they take away from the seriousness of the event they're reacting to, but all of this is negligible in what is an extremely well crafted mystery and beautifully visioned paranormal event. Well worth the full price and an absolute steal when it's on offer.

Really good story, great artwork too.