ghostpia Season One Reviews
Interesting colorful but dark visual novel with a picture book-style presentation
The cast of characters is fun and varied, from the anxious Sayoko to the bubbly and optimistic Yoru, and all of them etch themselves into your memory immediately. Ghostpia never fully throws out an explanation for many of its mysteries, but with a season 2 apparently already planned it fits to leave some questions unanswered. Those looking for a purely narrative experience that may take you back to those late nights watching Inuyasha will find that weirdly precise desire in this town full of ghosts, and I have a feeling you won't regret your visit.
I’m definitely returning for Ghostpia season 2. It’s not just that this game looks quirky. Quirky aesthetics are plentiful. It’s that Ghostpia does something purposeful with the quirkiness, and uses it to enhance a pretty affecting and soulful narrative. I checked in with limited expectations and was thoroughly impressed. PQube picked a real winner here (at least in the artistic sense, who knows how many copies it’s going to sell).
Ghostpia is a visual novel that explores the life of Sayoko in a town inhabited by unique ghosts, offering rich world-building but limited interactivity.
ghostpia Season One is a visual novel that has an incredible artistic section and that will sincerely surprise you if you like what is different.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
ghostpia Season One offers five chapters that make a complete plot. Analyzing it from a narrative standpoint, it's hard to describe this visual novel as the impact of the themes it works with will vary from player to player, but, overall, the story is satisfactory and intriguing, with the right amount of drama and comedy. The audiovisual choices are, certainly, the high point of ghostpia, though the lack of choices during the narrative and the confusing menu navigation may chase away some players who prefer more interactive visual novels. In the end, for those who like a dense and introspective reading, but well connected, here is a game that manages to hold your attention for hours without rest.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
As off kilter of a “game” as this might be, it’s nonetheless a heady dose of high strangeness, a cafe blend of Twin Peaks meets Watamote with a fair dash of When Our Journey Ends and just a touch of existential crisis. Like a great book, it leaves you filled, curious, and eager for more. The yearning for explanation, for connection, and the very real taste of loneliness cloaked in dry humor is what will keep me waiting at the station. The next train will surely bring me home.
ghostpia is a beautiful experience, and an unfinished one with the potential for season two hovering in the distance, but considering the high price and amount of reading necessary, it is not something I can recommend to most people. For gamers who enjoy reading or art, it may be worth the investment: there is a lot of content, with each of the five chapters being split into two halves and the entire story is intriguing. However, if you do not find yourself able to focus on a book or get easily distracted, ghostpia is likely not for you.
Given that the bizarre, dreamlike world of Ghostpia Season 1 already took me to the halfway point, I’ll admit that I’m morbidly curious to see how things end. However, given how quickly things went from sweet to sour, I don’t think that I’d be too upset if that didn’t happen, either. Ghostpia Season 1 undeniably has some of the best visuals of any visual novel that I’ve seen in years, and its dreamy soundtrack compliments it wonderfully. Unfortunately, its strange choice of protagonists, tendency to focus on (seemingly) unimportant details, and habit of changing tone too quickly make it hard to digest all that easily.
If you’re down for a visual novel where you’re going to just be along the ride, involving a girl who lives in a town of ghosts, it delivers that