Six of the best spooky visual novel Indie gems to play for Halloween

It’s finally Halloween, so here’s six of our favourite spooky visual novel indie gems. Today’s the perfect time to get playing them, what with it being Halloween – but these are all worth playing all year round, because they all deserve far more attention than they’ve had!

Occult Rewrite

Occult Rewrite sees players on a field trip heading towards the mysterious island of Talha Bruma, because of course that’s a super-safe outing for a group of school kids with their scantily clad teacher. Things rather unsurprisingly take a nosedive after arriving at their destination.

After one playthrough, the mysteries of the island mount up and the player becomes cursed to loop the same events and encounters unless they can piece together the truth to obtain the aptly named True Ending. This closes out the game if you do everything right in your subsequent runs.

This little Ero-Horror title is the gift that keeps on giving, and hopefully that extends into the near future. As of now, the title ends with a cliff hanger and plenty more potential plot threads to possibly explore in subsequent updates. For now, it offers an aesthetically pleasing and wholly unique experience with its Nintendo DS/PSP-inspired graphics and design.

Many different choices allow you to familiarise yourself with its charismatic cast of characters, and the point and click adventure-style mechanics let you compile evidence, advance story branches and solve puzzles. It’s a lewd experience that definitely stands apart from similar titles in the genre.

You will be dying numerous times before seeing that True Ending, but it will certainly grab your attention with its always unwinding mysteries in a world that is incredibly intriguing right from the get-go. Just enjoy the ride!

Available on Steam and itch.io.

The Price of Flesh

If you asked me what beats out any kind of monstrous, supernatural entity in fear factor, it’s the horror that stems from our own species.

Humans can be the ultimate terror; horror involving humans hits closer to home in realism, and all the more so when it’s not too far out of the realm of possibility. So how does it sound to play a game that has you getting auctioned off, chased around and hunted down by three individuals who are outright insane… or possibly just bored and stressed out of their mind?

The Price of Flesh is as thrilling as it is horrifying. You will quickly learn to save often in a vain attempt to save your skin before getting completely pulverised in one of the game’s many dead ends. Assess each of the capturers’ surroundings and make the best use out of careful and deductive scheming to get out of there alive. You can even enact revenge on your capturers and deliver justice by your own hands if you think far ahead enough.

I genuinely love this game, so you can find my extensive thoughts of it here if you need any further convincing. Or get to playing the game now on Steam or itch.io.

Mycorrhiza

Mycorrhiza is another attempt at a video game inspired by the work of Junji Ito, following the success of the excellent World of Horror, this time also incorporating elements from the work of Masaaki Nakayama. The game sets out to be “a love letter to horror manga in the form of a visual novel”, and it very much succeeds in that regard.

Mycorrhiza takes advantage of being a video game by making use of our input and interactivity to turn the metaphorical pages this time around. It features three short stories, each of which start up by selecting a door, and each begins with a motion illustration showing the opening of the “Distorted Minds Comic”. You’ll quickly learn exactly what you’re in for.

Each story transports our main character Scott into a new horrifying world, and each is topped off with an outro that interweaves all the stories with a haunting finisher.

Containing disturbing themes such as cosmic horror, body distortion, psychological horror and phobias brought to life, and featuring art and designs illustrated by self-published manga artist Black Wing Bin Lan, Mycorrhiza hits the nail on the head as an interactive horror manga collection. Grab it now via itch.io or Steam.

Athanasy

Athanasy is a lore rich biopunk horror that reads as a mixture of the speculative evolution novel All Tomorrows and Saya no Uta’s “best” ending. Yes, it’s that wild, but those will be all the suggestive comparisons we’ll be making, since this is all meant to be spoiler-free. You simply have to envision the absolute worst possible post-apocalyptic world, only you are still expected to keep crunching those numbers — or get thrown into the dregs of society if you intend on whistleblowing.

With excellent worldbuilding, harrowingly dark and macabre themes and some of the most descriptive violence and subtle horror imagery I’ve seen in a visual novel, Athanasy will keep you up late at night.

You take on the role of Josiah Kaviani, a young and promising statistician who can either meet or exceed his own potential, ride out the horrors he will face or simply turn a blind eye to it all. In the simply named City, this frightening science fiction story based on a real study is a mature and depressing tale that grows increasingly harrowing with every single ending.

Supporting characters are complex and have their own hidden agendas, and your choices help shape Josiah’s sensibilities and future. It’s all complemented by a truly atmospheric soundtrack specifically composed for the game. Athanasy is, as you might expect, not an easy read, but your eyes will be transfixed by the living horrors of it all.

Experience it now on Steam.

Neighbor

Otusun Land is a developer and localiser of niche Japanese titles, and their parent company of Otusun Club has been mentioned here before on Rice Digital. As the indie company behind otome games targeting the often sidelined and underrepresented older oji-san love interests, the duo actually originated from the amateur group, Rosalia, who created Neighbor.

Originally released in 2008, the duo brought the title back 10 years later as a remake plus its first English localisation. As a kinetic visual novel, the title has no choices to select but it does present a most effective ghost tale. There’s plenty of spine-chilling CGs and atmospheric features, including an ominous soundtrack, a distinctive washed-out art style and everchanging text effects alongside unsettling sound cues. There is also exceptional voice acting throughout; all its characters are fully voiced.

With the majority of its horror coming not from cheap jump scares but rather a building sense of discomfort and foreboding, it’s traditional Japanese horror storytelling through and through.

It’s short and sweet, too — the latter descriptor being particularly apt, as the main pairing are delightfully adorable together as something of a counterbalance to the nightmare-inducing horrors. Their dynamic is honestly as much of a selling point as the overall story.

Check it out on Steam today! Also available on Android and iOS.

At Eve’s Wake

At Eve’s Wake has the player character attending the funeral of their grandmother. Our heroine is estranged from her after being kept away from her extended family by her mother, but the truths soon start to pile up one after another after this twisted funeral. It’s not what any normal person would expect from such an event, and that’s because it’s actually a Convergence — a form of battle royale, if you will.

Prepare for death games, murder mysteries and psychological horror going hand in hand with dysfunctional family dynamics and cult-like traditions. Become familiar with the extensive cast of characters to become better equipped to see through the week alive — or exist to save the many lives around you.

Four personality types match the four endings required to fully experience the game, affecting dialogue choices and unlocking additional subtext. Learn how to play the game to your own advantage and see everything that’s possible to happen transpire right before your eyes.

Be honest or keep each and every secret uncovered kept from the others; join families and scheme your way towards winning, or don’t and watch all the other families go up in flames. They may very well deserve it. The choice is yours.

There’s even a hidden sanity gauge for when things really spiral out of control, so be careful to avoid becoming as bad as the others, if not worse. With deep characters who reveal more layers the further you bond with them, plenty of branching plot points and the opportunity to get yourself a guy like Woden (marry him, it’s the right call), you won’t be able to outrun Lovecraftian horror when it runs in the family here.

At Eve’s Wake can be played on Steam.

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