A Scary and Creepy Visual Novel, The Letter

The Letter is a horror visual novel set in the United Kingdom. This makes for a great setting, but it caused some confusion for me as I had to look up a fair number of slang words. The game is also very long for a visual novel.

It took close to 20 hours. It took me longer because I stopped to take notes and look up words that I didn’t understand. On the plus side, I now know what a Bubble and Squeak is, and I can’t wait to try to cook it.

The game has seven points of view (POV) and a lot of jumping back and forth in the story. It is a unique way to tell a story. While I liked it overall, there were a lot of refresher segments, and the story felt a little padded out.

TLDR: A Long but spooky visual novel. It is a great game to play during Halloween.

Narrative

The game’s story is told out of order and from seven POVs. If that sounds complicated, then you’re right. It is an overly complex story that takes a while to tell.

There are seven POVs in the game. I got the impression that only a few dozen people were in the city, and they all knew each other somehow. Here are the POV characters:

• Isabella
• Hannah
• Zachary
• Marianne
• Rebecca
• Ashton
• Luke

We learn a lot about these characters.

I’ve read stories like this before. Having multiple perspectives on a series of events can be fun, but it doesn’t always work in this game. It makes things move slowly, and I was tired of going over the same thing.

The plot is slow-moving and can be frustrating at times. Several parts of the story are retold from different perspectives. It isn’t hard to follow, but it can be very annoying. I would prefer it if we stuck with one character.

I like the game’s overarching plot. It reminds me of the movies Ju-Rei, Ju-on, and The Ring. Some of the scenes feel like they were taken from those movies. From what I’ve read, this was intentional. It is a good story, but it takes a while to get to the point.

There are a lot of slang or dialectic words from Ireland and the United Kingdom in the game. I had to stop to look up a few words here and there, as their meanings weren’t apparent to me. There were also some pronunciations that I was confused by.

They weren’t incorrect; they were just different. I’m from the United States, and we have a distinct dialect of English from the UK and Ireland. That was the root of my confusion regarding some of the dialogue and pronunciation of words.

Anyway, the plot is slow-moving. Isabella finds a letter in a mansion; it curses her friends and other people who have read it. At least, that is how things are presented to the player. I think there is more to it than that.

Throughout the game, people start dying and disappearing from October 17th to November 1st. It got to the point where I felt like half the town was missing or dead. It felt like there were only a few dozen people in the town who knew each other.

This leads to our heroes breaking into the mansion to try and break the curse. There are a few hiccups along the way, but that would give away plot points. It is a great story that reminds me of the Japanese Horror movies I got into in the early 2000s.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very simple. There are a few stops for dialogue choices, some quick-time events (QTE), and a relationship system. If you “die” during one of the QTEs, you can restart it until you get it right.

You’re given two dialogue choices every once in a while. They either have a positive or a negative effect on the character you’re talking to. I’m not sure how this impacts the ending. It does give the player a reason to come back to the game.

The QTEs were okay at times. Sometimes, it took me a few tries to get them right as it wasn’t always clear what you had to do, and the game didn’t give you much time to figure it out. There is an option to skip the QTE, which I appreciate because there was one that I wasn’t fast enough to complete.

For a game like this, the gameplay is okay. It is what you should expect from a visual novel, as the emphasis is on the story and getting to know the characters. The dialogue choices and QTE are just there to break things up.

Visuals

The graphics are pretty good. The character models aren’t all that interesting; they look like generic anime characters. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t anything special. The locations are fine, but like the characters, there isn’t anything special about them.

The game looks relatively stock for the most part. Everything looked fine; I didn’t see anything that looked bad or terrible. There was one bright spot in the graphics.

The entity or ghost looks very good! It is similar to what you would see in Ju-on or other Japanese horror films from the early 2000s. It looks great at times, and the developers did a good job of making it look unnatural when it moves.

I wasn’t sure where to put this because it doesn’t exactly fit anywhere, but the game has a bizarre obsession with food that sometimes feels out of place. The visuals on the food look good, and it makes me wish there was a cookbook based on this game.

For those who don’t know, cookbooks are an actual thing. Several video games now have cookbooks. I’m not sure why this has become something, but I’m glad it did in some cases.

Overall, the graphics are decent enough for a game like this. I don’t have too much to complain about, as nothing looks off to me. The ghost looks when it shows up, and the other characters look generic.

8.5/10. This game is wonderful, but I prefer Scarlet Hollow, Oxenfree, or Varney Lake. The Letter is a very long game for a visual novel, and it retreads the story too much for my liking.

Pros

• Good Story
• Lots of Characters
• Great Graphics

Cons

• Repetitive
• It feels like there is a lot of filler
• This is a long game

Conclusion

I was conflicted about how to score this game. The story, which is great overall, goes on for a very long time and seems to repeat itself. Things got a little frustrating as different perspectives on the same story were told.

The Letter is a slow burn with a lot of jump scares. It gets a bit old, but I still find it enjoyable. The graphics and the story are wonderful. It gets scary when it needs to, and I found the references to Japanese horror movies spectacular.

With all that in mind, I would rather play Scarlet Hollow, Varney Lake, or Oxenfree. Those games are a better experience and don’t drag on as long as The Letter. It is a great game, but there are other games I would recommend to people before having them try this one.