When I saw that one of my favorite reviewers on the site, Woodaba had made a short visual novel, I knew I had to sink my teeth into it as soon as possible.
Woodaba's writing style within their reviews (both on here and on their Youtube channel) are incredibly captivating, so I was very excited to see how that would translate to something in a VN format.
It translates very well.
From the start Woodaba's prose captured me in building up the mystique of the prologue scene, painting this picture of a dark encounter with something beyond comprehension, and leaving me curious and interested to see where it would build.
As the main story unfolds, the interaction between our protagonist and the dead girl winds up feeling surprisingly natural. The way the two bounce off of each other at first does have the vibes of your traditional comedy anime meeting, but as we get to know more about both characters, it builds to what feels like real people having real conversations about their lives and specifically the impact of the educational system.
Yeah, that's the part I definitely find the most interesting, and I'm gonna say minor spoilers here because its a relatively important theme to the narrative of the game.
Beyond the super-natural horror Woodaba goes for, the very real horror of Holy Ghost Story comes down to how the educational system (in this game it's Ireland but honestly the critique could apply to any country's as far as I'm concerned) fails those trapped within it.
From the endless amounts of all consuming stress to try and satisfy the constant memorization to get the highest exam scores, and such stress burning out young people to the point of total exhaustion.
It's entirely relatable to anyone who has ever been in school ever, while I myself never studied to such an extreme degree, the oppressive nature of school was always felt. The constant clocking in and clocking out and forcing pointless information into my brain was always the worst aspect of the system, making school less about actually learning and more of just being fed as many answers as possible.
Holy Ghost Story in particular criticizes Catholic School and religion in general, as the constant lingering visage of the man on the cross fills the characters with a deep sense of sadness, as if he is guilting them throughout the education experience.
Of course, this could just be how I internalized it, but I much appreciated how this critique wove in with the supernatural elements, giving us both abstract and yet very real, down to earth horror at the same time.
The ending of the game, much like the opening, left me with many questions. However, I think it's good that way. I think a good story always leaves a few things unanswered to let you piece together in your mind.
Of course I don't want to spoil the experience more than I already have so go give it a shot yourself, I think you'll find yourself similarly enthralled as I was.
Woodaba's writing style within their reviews (both on here and on their Youtube channel) are incredibly captivating, so I was very excited to see how that would translate to something in a VN format.
It translates very well.
From the start Woodaba's prose captured me in building up the mystique of the prologue scene, painting this picture of a dark encounter with something beyond comprehension, and leaving me curious and interested to see where it would build.
As the main story unfolds, the interaction between our protagonist and the dead girl winds up feeling surprisingly natural. The way the two bounce off of each other at first does have the vibes of your traditional comedy anime meeting, but as we get to know more about both characters, it builds to what feels like real people having real conversations about their lives and specifically the impact of the educational system.
Yeah, that's the part I definitely find the most interesting, and I'm gonna say minor spoilers here because its a relatively important theme to the narrative of the game.
Beyond the super-natural horror Woodaba goes for, the very real horror of Holy Ghost Story comes down to how the educational system (in this game it's Ireland but honestly the critique could apply to any country's as far as I'm concerned) fails those trapped within it.
From the endless amounts of all consuming stress to try and satisfy the constant memorization to get the highest exam scores, and such stress burning out young people to the point of total exhaustion.
It's entirely relatable to anyone who has ever been in school ever, while I myself never studied to such an extreme degree, the oppressive nature of school was always felt. The constant clocking in and clocking out and forcing pointless information into my brain was always the worst aspect of the system, making school less about actually learning and more of just being fed as many answers as possible.
Holy Ghost Story in particular criticizes Catholic School and religion in general, as the constant lingering visage of the man on the cross fills the characters with a deep sense of sadness, as if he is guilting them throughout the education experience.
Of course, this could just be how I internalized it, but I much appreciated how this critique wove in with the supernatural elements, giving us both abstract and yet very real, down to earth horror at the same time.
The ending of the game, much like the opening, left me with many questions. However, I think it's good that way. I think a good story always leaves a few things unanswered to let you piece together in your mind.
Of course I don't want to spoil the experience more than I already have so go give it a shot yourself, I think you'll find yourself similarly enthralled as I was.