Definitive proof that games have just gotten better.

It's clean. It's good. It's perfectly serviceable.

It is also the platformer equivalent of reading Peanuts in the 2020's instead of Calvin and Hobbes or literally anything in Shonen Jump.

Its concept of internet humor is dated. Its idea of gender dynamics for comedy and drama feel dated. I have to pause for a moment to let the insanity that I'm attacking those details in a puzzle platformer about rectangles wash over me and ok I'm back. But those are the first tangible details I have for conveying how it feels old while scarecly a decade young.

We're just used to better. Maybe this feeling is in part because it spawned so many imitators that its whole conceit feels dated. In its efforts to be timeless - the acting style of the narrator, the non-melody indie game music, the graphical flourishes stradling the line between reserved and cheap - its identity is defined by its quaintness.

Playing this on my OLED LG TV was an absolute nightmare in some levels, these color choices were made when monitors were just worse.

2 stars, C rank, someone fix that terrible and noticeable jumping input delay.

As a fan of both horror and visual novels, it was only a matter of time before I crossed paths with The Letter. Personally, I feel that the horror VN space is surprisingly quite limited, at least in terms of worthwhile entries. So… what about The Letter? Is it worth reading, or best left unopened?

The Letter was the debut title of Yangyang Mobile, which hit Steam’s servers in 2017. It was also released for multiple Sony and Microsoft consoles, as well as the Nintendo Switch, and the Google Play Store.

To call The Letter massive is a disservice, super massive would be more apt. Structurally it is similar to what the company Super Massive Games tends to put into works like Until Dawn or The Quarry, except that The Letter is a Visual Novel. If you are unfamiliar with what I am getting at here, it is VERY choice heavy with multiple endings. There are choices that you make which will determine the fate of the seven characters that you individually control and what happens to those characters determines how frequently they’ll appear in the story thereafter.

Under the hood, there are a lot of mechanics at play at all times. One of the most interesting ones, which goes towards determining the ending each character gets, is the relationship meter. Generally speaking, every chosen dialogue choice impacts one character’s relationship with another, or in a couple of cases, multiple. This might sound daunting, and it is, but it’s made a lot easier by the fact that the relationship bar between all characters is always readily accessible for viewing on the UI. Plus, you get a notification every time it updates and it shows a plus or minus next to the character to indicate how the bar has shifted in case you don’t remember where it was before. Every single character has their own relationship meters with other characters and they all start at different places on their respective relationship meters in regards to what the other characters meant to them at the start of the game. The relationship meter also carries over between chapters (for example, if Rebecca is low on Isabella’s meter; then when you go to play Rebecca, Isabella will be low on her meter).

There is also a mechanic called The Branching Tree, which is similar to, but not quite, a flowchart. It shows you all the choices that you’ve made and those that are to come. It is a very handy tool for subsequent playthroughs when you are trying to figure out how to access unseen content. In addition to seeing how potential choices might branch, it will also show a butterfly mark to indicate that the branch you are on - and/or options you have available to you - are the result of a previous choice.

Unfortunately, because of how the Branching Tree works and the overall structuring of the story, you can’t just select a route and load in from there (which you would be able to with a flowchart). You also cannot skip to next choice because of this setup. That’s rough for subsequent playthroughs, but Yangyang Mobile did their best to meet in the middle here by putting in a skip unread text button. It quickly fast forwards through text the reader has already read and then stops fast forwarding once new text - or some variant of already read text - is reached. Thankfully the fast forward speed is incredibly quick.

There’s also a journal tab on the UI available for viewing. The journal contains sketches of relevant characters/events next to a short summary of what has occurred from an in-game character perspective. This makes it easier to track what is going on due to how you’ll take on the role of a new character for each chapter (which means you’ll go back and forth on the timeline) and the fact that the game takes place over a period of 14 days.

Storywise The Letter manages to be horror at its most simple and captivating. It follows 7 people as their lives are irreparably changed - and threatened – by the discovery of a letter. The story is broken up into seven chapters and an epilogue. Each chapter chronicles a character’s point of view of the events that follow. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t be divulging more than that, but I do want to talk vaguely about the writing. Writing wise, it isn’t nonstop horror and bad things, there are some moments of calm and slice of life in between. I’m bringing this up because I’ve seen some people state that they felt the story dragged on because of those segments, however I firmly believe that the segments are necessary and found them well done.

To clarify, there was never a COMPLETE break from the horrific events that took place in the story, those things were always on all the characters’ minds. But, by having some measure of normalcy in between, the day to day as it were, it gives a chance for us to get to know the characters and their personalities better. If it was constant balls to the wall horror, we wouldn’t be getting some of those tender moments, which in turn causes the horror ones to hit harder. Having the normal in there is what makes things more scary.

Getting to see the characters be normal made me feel for them when bad things happened to them. Bringing me to the next point of review, I felt that the characterization in this game was REALLY well done. There was one character that went against nearly every bit of my moral fiber and I still felt for and liked them by the end of the story. That is some strong writing. None of the characters were perfect and all had their own unique flaws/demons. The only thing I want to complain about is that both Rebecca and Isabella seemed to have a habit of needlessly overreacting in ways that caused fights. This got exhausting at times, but I suppose that proves my point in how the characters all have their realistic flaws.

The art direction is spectacular! I adored the character designs. Truly, all of the character designs manage to stand out while not clashing with each other. While I don’t have much of an eye for art, I couldn’t help noticing how seamless the art style was at switching from a calm and clear look to downright terrifying.



I think the biggest criticism I can level at the game is that - after talking with a friend who lives in the United Kingdom - the way that The Letter represents the UK is almost wholly inaccurate. A lot of the buildings are very American in their architecture for example. While some English terminology is used, it’s mixed with American terminology as well, making it inconsistent. In my friend’s case, she believed the story to be set in the United States, despite it mentioning places in England, until a way into the game because of how badly this pulled her out of the experience. That said, I - as someone who lives in the United States and is ignorant of the United Kingdom in general - didn’t see anything amiss except for the architecture not matching.

There are some nice bells and whistles present that I wasn’t expecting such as animation. Sometimes there will be things like birds flying by in the background on occasion, or the curtains will be blowing in the breeze. There’s also English voice acting, which I really enjoyed (but can be disabled if it isn’t your cuppa tea).

Quick Time Events are present, but you can skip them and auto-win them by pressing the TAB key if you so wish.

Doubling back to what I said about the game being super massive in size… It took me around 17 hours to finish my first playthrough and an additional 7 hours to get through my second while fast forwarding through all previously read text. As of writing my review, I’m 28 hours in and have achieved 4 different endings and am sitting at 117 achievements out of 172.

Overall, I’d say that if I were to give it a grade it’d be with the letter ‘A’. I found the game to be impressive, never mind the fact that it was also the studio’s first release! It was clearly made by a passionate development team/studio and I can’t wait to check out more from them!

TL;DR: A unique gem and an even rarer backed kickstarter success story. The Letter has a ton of choices and directions that the story goes because of them. It’s highly replayable and well worth doing to see those other directions. Despite being set in the UK it is at least somewhat inaccurate to the setting, and while that is unfortunate, it makes up for it with the passion, sweat, and tears (hopefully not blood) poured into it by Yangyang Mobile. If you are unsure about buying it at full price, you can normally pick it up on sale for around $6; an outright steal in my opinion!

I mostly played this game for my past self. I remember seeing the game when it came out and watching Let's Plays, however, I was too young to actually buy the game. It wasn't until a year or so ago that I found myself actually being able to play it. It is...an interesting game to say the least. It is definitely something I'd expect from a game developer like Atlus. Those devs are a bunch of horny fools. I enjoyed the game. Can't say I was amazing at it, struggled on some nights. However, I got through and got the true good ending! Was proud of myself with that one.

I know they came out with another version of the game. Catherine: Full Body. However, I probably would never play that. It doesn't sit right with me. I can't trust Atlus with anything concerning trans or gay people.

for all intents and purposes this game should be complete dog shit ass but shoving a multiplayer mode while altering very little of the single player is a stroke of genius that results in a multiple dads polycule looking for their son while cheesing all the horrible combat by overpowering the enemy thru sheer numbers, jumping off cliffs to certain death, clearing the last cave backwards by sliding off the giant hole in the middle of the map, continuously destroying the base (which you'll spend 5 seconds in) building by naively chopping trees without looking where they'll fall, and afterwards looking at your son's picture in unison. It's an experience that's become a staple in my friends groups