ghostpia Season One

A slice-of-life story that might be a dream, its tone is eclectic but still coherent, complemented by phenomenal sound design and glitchy VHS aesthetics. Randomly violent, hilarious, and immensely fun.

The stomachache of ghosts who have vomited their memories in the midst of an endless winter. A rusty, bloody melancholy hidden behind pastel-colored pixels and cute smiles. The ultimate proof of how boring, how sickly a prison sentence immortality truly is. Pure melancholy, pure glitch, pure captivity! We have arrived at this ghost town where the snow never melts, where ghosts drown in their own existential crises, you paupers of memory. You look at the screen and think we have before us cute little anime girls drawn in soft pastel tones, don't you? What colossal stupidity! Behind that sweet display, this game carves into you with a bloody razor the fact that "immortality" is actually an endless decay, a meaningless and suffocating loop. Sayoko's numb, hollow melancholy is, in fact, the exact reflection of that feeling of not belonging anywhere in your own pathetic minds. The true striking point of this monstrosity is its "kinetic novel" nature. While watching those bloody, violence-filled scenes torn by visual glitches appearing on the screen, you think you can somehow alter destiny. Yet your pathetic fingers are condemned to press nothing but the 'forward' button. There are no …

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I've never been so confused on where to start when talking about a game before. From the very beginning of Chapter 1, Ghostpia set my expectations at an all-time high. I don't actually like reading visual novels all that much, but something about this one--the expressiveness of the artstyle and the melancholy/sombreness of the music, plus the VHS effects that really bring the whole thing together--the atmosphere was immaculate. I was convinced this story was going to be one I'd never forget, a coming-of-age story about a girl learning what it meant to be alive in an isolated town where death didn't exist. But what I got instead was less coming-of-age and more a story about conspiracy, with brief and epic action scenes, and comedy which--while funny and original sometimes--was more jarring than anything. Maybe "jarring" really is the word, cause I've never seen such tonal whiplash in anything ever. You'll go from a quiet scene with detailed, introspective narration, straight into the next scene filled with hijinks and the resident crazy character, and then after only a few seconds, it'll transition to an emotional scene and you're left confused on what exactly you're supposed to f…

It’s so disjointed. It’s difficult and purposely told in a way in which you don’t know what to believe. What is real and what isn’t. I appreciate the art a lot. I do not like what little bit of story there is. Nothing really happens.

ghostpia Season One, developed by Chosuido and published by room6 alongside yokaze, delivers a visual novel experience built around atmosphere, emotion, and mystery rather than traditional gameplay systems. Instead of offering branching routes or player-driven outcomes, it presents a carefully directed story that unfolds like an animated novel, prioritizing emotional depth and worldbuilding over interactivity. The result is a title that confidently embraces its identity and creates an experience that feels both unusual and memorable within the visual novel genre. The story takes place in an isolated town buried beneath endless snowfall, inhabited by ghosts who continue existing in a strange state where death no longer carries meaning. This unusual premise immediately creates intrigue, establishing a setting that feels detached from reality while maintaining emotional familiarity. Players follow Sayoko, a young girl struggling with loneliness, belonging, and complicated personal relationships while navigating this mysterious frozen world. Through her perspective, the narrative explores themes of isolation, identity, and the desire to find a place where one truly belongs. One of th…