This game is being published in the West by PQube and was developed by a small team at Chosuido. When I remember just how small the team is, I’m all that more impressed by Ghostpia.
If you’re thinking about getting Ghostpia, it needs to be noted that this is a visual novel that is meant to be read through, not exactly played. That being said, Ghostpia is one of the better visual novels I’ve ever had the pleasure of clicking through. I would describe the experience less like a typical visual novel, and more like a comic that comes to life on your screen.
Controls and selection are intuitive, and we are also given a quick breakdown of how to use them. We can press A to continue and rewind if we missed something. This was a great surprise, as there are many visual novels that just assume their controls are intuitive and thus don’t really explain them. The visual novel divides itself into episodes that can be accessed from the main screen. Episodes span for an hour or so, but you can stop and save at any time.
That being said, there were parts that weren’t perfect. I was horrified when I first opened this game, and not because of the ghosts. When you start up the game, you’re greeted with an extremely hard-to-read menu that is glitching around. Thankfully this can be shut off in the settings. While the effect is cool, I highly appreciated the ability to turn it off.
Other things, I couldn’t turn off. While most of the text has white text on a darker background, there are times there is white text on a textured light green background. Making it really hard to read, especially with the thin lettering. This is less of a problem when the Switch is in go mode, but if you’re playing on the TV it can be hard. It would be nice if the text size or font could be edited, but luckily most text is easy to read as it is either on a darker background or in a dialogue box.
There are some moments where things that should be dialogue are in the narration box and moments where there are very minor translation or spelling errors. These don’t completely ruin the mood, but do snap you out of the story for an instant and are a shame. An example would be instances like “Doorknoband” where words were lacking appropriate spacing.
If you can look past those minor downsides, you’ll quickly fall in love with Ghostpia.
The visuals are fantastic and contrast the more violent scenes greatly. Everything, while looking adorable and soft, has an ominous glow from the snow that reminds us just how creepy the atmosphere is. One second we are having an adorable scene where characters are drinking coffee, and the next moment our main character is shooting someone in the kneecaps. In both these scenes, the art style is perfect.
Visuals aren’t just still backgrounds with the same sprites over and over again either. There are short animations, unique sprites, and changing scenery throughout the game.
Accompanying the creepily cute art style is fantastic background music and sound effects. While a lot of music repeats throughout the episodes, the songs never exactly get old either. I found myself humming to the melodies during the calmer scenes. The game also treats us to sounds of snow crunching and other sound effects that make the story all that more immersive.
The visuals and sound combined do a fantastic job of aiding the story, which is extremely interesting. Without spoiling anything, I’ll tell you that it is a mystery focused on a ghost town and the ghosts living in it. The fast-paced story and smooth transitions make it very easy to get engrossed and lose hours to trying to solve the mystery. Because it is so entrancing and hard to put down, I’m thankful that there are episodes that help you find a good place to pause.
In conclusion, Ghostpia is one of the better visual novels out there with an engaging story, awesome visuals, and catchy music that doesn’t get annoying. There are very minor issues with the novel which are most likely due to being translated from Japanese. Be sure to set aside a lot of time for this one, because once you start it up, it will be hard to stop.
Ghostpia Season One: Welcome to Our Literal Ghost Town
$19.99
Pros
- Story
- Comforting Visuals
- Fantastic Music
Cons
- Minor Inconsistencies With Dialogue
- Minor Translations Errors
