Video Game Review: The Letter: A Visual Novel

Developer: Yangyang Mobile

Publisher: EastAsiaSoft

Genre: Visual Novel, Horror

Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch

Also Available On: PC, Xbox

I can’t remember the last time that I’ve seen one of the social media or email chain messages. You know the ones that insist that you will have bad luck or lose a loved one if you don’t share it with 5 people within 24 hours? As silly as those are, there is something a little spooky about the concept of needing to infect other people with some kind of curse to save yourself. The Letter: A Horror Visual Novel heavily leans on these kinds of urban legends and other horror juggernauts like The Ring or The Grudge.

The Letter focuses on seven protagonists who are all united by a curse obtained via a spooky letter. The game takes place in England after one of the characters finds the letter and is informed that he needs to get five others to read it to save herself. Over the course of the visual novel, players will meet six other afflicted characters as they try to solve the mystery of the letter and save the protagonists.

Like most visual novels, The Letter is full of branching paths that can lead to any of the characters dying or surviving. The narrative is a little disjointed, with each chapter focusing on a different perspective and time. Despite this, it is a compelling story with some genuinely interesting characters. The Letter is full of clichés as far as horror goes but makes up for it with an emphasis on character relationships and interactions. Players won’t only determine who survives the whole ordeal, but they will also decide how close the characters are to each other.

Like most visual novels, there isn’t too much gameplay. The majority of the game is simply reading text, enjoying the art, and making decisions for the characters. There are some quick time events throughout the game that can have severe consequences (Think Until Dawn), though these aren’t groundbreaking.

Since it is a visual novel, a key part of the experience is how well written the dialogue is. While the dialogue is certainly serviceable, there are plenty of lines that just don’t read naturally. Fortunately, anyone who is used to the genre and Western localizations is likely already expecting this. All of the dialogue is fully voiced, which is a nice touch. This is especially so because the voice acting is actually solid, even if all of the characters’ lines are not.

The rest of the presentation is solid. The voice acting is accompanied by both pleasant and haunting tunes and great art. The backdrops are all full of detail with excellent coloring and shading throughout the game.

The Letter is full of content to keep players busy for a while. With over 700,000 words, it isn’t exactly a short game. With all of the possible deaths and relationships, there are over 50 variations of the final epilogue. Sure, a lot of them are similar to each other, but the variety gives plenty of the reasons to pick up The Letter again after a short break. There are also over 100 CGs to unlock for the completionists out there.

The Letter: A Visual Novel‘s story isn’t groundbreaking, but the characters, their relationships, and the spooky atmosphere make this a visual novel worth diving into. It’s a shame that this one missed Halloween, but that shouldn’t stop fans of the genre from attempting to save (Or horribly murder) these seven characters.