I don’t think Akiba Lost is the best name the development team could have come up with here. It’s accurate, in that it’s a game about people who got lost in Akihabara (pet name “Akiba”), but given the presence of Akiba’s Trip, this game is just asking for players to make assumptions. It is, of course, an entirely different game.…
Kodansha Creators’ Lab has announced that it will publish the Bon-developed visual novel Buzz or Die. In it, you compete in a new gruesome game show for viewer votes to avoid being sent to death row. Buzz or Die is in development for PC and is expected to launch this…
There was a time when visual novels were a rare thing in…
Six years after its original Japanese launch, Cupid Parasite is now coming…
I really like the first two games in the Pixel Pulp series, and I’m quite looking forward to the next title – Bahnsen Knights – that follows an investigator looking into a fast and powerful cult. Each game in the series has a distinct look: Mothmen 1966 is very green-black,…
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Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s weekly catch-up news feature, the catch-up coffee. With each issue I will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!…
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Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s weekly catch-up news feature, the catch-up coffee. With each issue I will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!…
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Sympathy Kiss is an otome visual novel about office drama and romance. I get that office romances are often frowned upon, but let’s be real: they happen, and they can lead to successful long-term relationships. That’s not to say that a successful career isn’t important, though, and Sympathy Kiss wants…
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Described as a mottled burlesque fantasy, One Night: Burlesque is a detective/crime story in a unique noir setting. The visual novel has players delving into the heart of a tarry noir tale, where the fluff of peacock features and sequins darken under the influence of crime lurking in the shadows.…
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Reality is increasingly uncertain, and this is fascinating. Anonymous;Code, the latest in the series that has brought us Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes and Chaos;Head, is a play on this idea, and it, too, is fascinating. Quite possibly the most fascinating of all this series of visual novels, precisely because it is so…
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Thank the maker for Aksys. The publisher of the most niche of niche visual novels has announced that it will be bringing Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II to the Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation in late February 2024. Death Mark II is actually the third in the series, after Death…
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I struggle to think of a more consistent developer than Otomate. The Idea Factory otome specialist developer produces games at such a rate that I’m convinced the only reason we don’t get all of them in the West is that the localisers simply can’t work that fast… and that’s a…
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I love a good spooky story; it doesn’t have to have jump scares, it just has to be deeply, deeply unsettling. That’s the kind of story told in Varney Lake, the second in a trilogy of Pixel Pulp games. I reviewed the first game, Mothmen 1966, about a year ago.…
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What happens when you blend the otome visual novel sub-genre with death games like Danganronpa or Squid Games? Essentially, you get Charade Maniacs. This is Idea Factory’s latest to make its way out west and it’s an intriguing and eclectic thing. I don’t know if this particular fusion of ideas…
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