Lo-fi kinetic novel Ghostpia coming west for Switch and PC
PQube has announced that Ghostpia, an episodic visual novel previously only released for mobile phones and the Web in Japan, is coming west for Nintendo Switch and Windows PCs via Steam. The new release, known as Ghostpia Season One, is an enhanced port of the original game’s release, featuring new music, better animation and higher resolution illustrations.
Ghostpia is a visual novel in which we follow the story of Sayoko, the only foreigner in a strange town. She’s staying with a mysterious girl named Yoru, but feels a desire to return to her hometown. As she attempts to cross the snowy wasteland in search of what was once her home, she begins to doubt and question everything.
Core to the game’s narrative are the themes of friendship, loneliness and endless revival. The game’s main setting is a town filled with immortal “ghosts”, who are people that are unable to die for one reason or another. Sayoko doesn’t belong there, so why is she there? Is it possible for her to escape? Does she really want to? And why can’t she remember anything?
Unfolding across five episodes, Ghostpia will follow Sayoko’s adventures as she struggles to adjust to her new “life”, such as it is, and tries to figure out how — or if — she should allow new people to get close to her. She doesn’t feel like she fits in, but she also knows that she’s lacking many of her memories, so there are clearly plenty of mysteries to solve along the way.
The game features a “lo-fi” aesthetic inspired by trends in popular culture, featuring an optional soft edge and “glitch” effects to the visuals, all accompanied by some appropriately chilled out music. Judging from some of the screenshots, though, it appears that the narrative heads in some rather unexpected, weird and wonderful directions, though — so don’t expect this to be a visual novel that’s just about people sitting around and being sad!
The developers describe the game as a “denshi graphic novel” that mixes “warm, delicate art that would be fit for an illustrated children’s book with glitch and noise effects, for a strangely nostalgic visual novel vibe”. They also note that it features “cruel cuteness and melancholy violence”. Intriguing.
Ghostpia is a purely kinetic visual novel, meaning that you sit back and enjoy the story like an animated movie rather than having to worry about making choices or replay the game to get “better” endings. This is a deliberate choice by the developers, who wanted to ensure they put as much time and effort into the narrative as possible rather than padding things out with what they see as unnecessary interactive sequences, branching paths and quick-time events.
The narrative is complemented by the aforementioned heavily stylised picture book-inspired illustrations and animated sequences that look like they’re right out of an anime. For those who enjoy their video games to be as much a work of art as anything else, this is definitely one to watch.
No word on a release date yet, but it will supposedly be later this year, perhaps around the second quarter or so. Watch out for it on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. Find out more on the game’s Steam page.
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