Otogirisou (1992)

10th Game Completed in 2024

Otogirisou - literally, St. John's Wort, as in the flower, but also a pun in Japanese that has a second meaning related to the story - is kind of like a missing link between old-school text adventure games and modern visual novels.

It calls itself a "Sound Novel", and that really makes a lot of sense when you play it. The game has extremely minimal imagery, with just enough to give context to the story being told. But the story is often punctuated with an exceptional use of sound that does a really great job of setting a mood -- and I should say, was effective in genuinely startling me a few times, which kept me thoroughly invested. Music is used sparingly, but to great effect, with use of a leitmotif throughout that helped connect some otherwise disparate scenes.

And that element makes Otogirisou very hard to evaluate.

Because this game only received an English translation this year, finding guides and route information in English is damn near impossible. Not only that, but the game is an obscurity in Japan, and even finding Japanese sources to translate with Google Lens was a little tough. My play time for this game was probably something like 2-3 hours, and I got what seemed to be a "good end" as far as where I thought the story could go... But the game has 20 endings. 20! Plus an additional joke ending you can unlock after completing other routes; at random, I think.

That's what makes it tough to evaluate. I've barely scratched the surface of this game. And because I've only completed the one route, I definitely feel like I have a lot of unanswered questions. It feels like the story I got was missing scenes, and like it was over too soon. But despite that, it still works.

Otogirisou is your quintessential haunted house story, and that simplicity makes it extremely playable. But if you want something deeper... That's also there. It really feels like a game where, if you choose to have a one-and-done experience, you have that night in the spooky mansion, and that can be your experience. But if you want to comb over the story and find more... You can. And I love that. Too many modern visual novels just blabber on and on and on about meaningless minutae, and repeat the same things the reader already knows over and over again, to the point of frustration. When these games ask you to complete multiple routes, I have no real desire. But this game? I dunno man, I kinda wanna dive right back in. How can my night have been different? What else can I learn about this mansion and its past?

Overall, I really enjoyed my time, and I highly recommend this one. There's a small barrier of entry insofar as you will have to manually patch the ROM yourself, but it's definitely worth the hassle.