Lately, I’ve been getting kind of into watching visual novels. Yes, that’s right, I didn’t say playing visual novels, I said watching. That is, watching some streamer I like play one. I don’t know if I’d actually enjoy playing one myself, just because I’m neither much of a gamer or particularly patient and visual novels usually requires a lot of hours put it, but I do really enjoy watching a good interactive story played by entertaining streamers. So today I am boosting:
The Letter by Yangyang Mobile
The Letter, which I’ve watched upwards of 15 hours of while finishing term papers these last few days, is a horror-themed visual novel with a very the Ring/the Grudge kind of vibe. It is about a group of friends, a haunted mansion and a creepy letter… I won’t say much more because I don’t want to give spoilers, but you can watch the rather manga-esque trailer here.
The story is told through multiple perspectives that are played out one at the time. A lot of the story is narrated straight to you as a viewer or player, but at intervals there are choices to make that will make the story branch off in various ways. I hear that there are a fair lot of different possible endings, which is pretty neat. Once the streamers I’ve been watching finish the game, I’m probably going to go and look up some spoilers so I find out what the other endings are, hah! There’s also mini-games once in a while where you have to make sure the character doesn’t die horribly (not surprising, since it’s a horror game).
I’m really enjoying (watching) this game so far. The story is interesting, with a set of interesting, somewhat tropey but still fun characters. The art and animations are really cute (and scary when they need to be), too! I will be honest though: I’m not super fond of the prose in the narrative sections. It’s not bad, they’re just very long, so this is definitely the sort of game that’s suited to keeping on while you’re writing a term paper (as I was) or doing a crafts project or something like that, when you want a really long stream or VOD to watch.
The Letter is made by Yangyang Mobile, an independent game company based in the Philippines! And in fact, the first narrator character, Isabella, is Filipina and honestly she’s my favorite character. She feels very genuine and her story and personality are compelling. Yangyang Mobile can be found on Twitter @yangyangmobile, and are also on Patreon where you can sponsor their work. They’re already working on a new game, a romance-comedy dating simulator.
So yeah, if you like playing or watching horror games, definitely check this game out! It’s a fun ride!
Bonus shoutout: I was watching my fave streamer Dexbonus and her friend Jesse Cox play this game and I totally think you should check them out and see if they play the kinda games you like watching!