Crimson Spires

This is an incredible game. Crimson Spires is essentially a dating sim combined with a horror-mystery, but WOW does it transcend those labels. It's extremely well-written (especially August and his route), the characters are fully fleshed out and have their own motivations and secrets, and the atmosphere of the game is at once grim and exciting. It delves into not only the mystery of the town's situation, but also into philosophy, spirituality, and the human psyche. Each character's story sheds a little more light on the mystery, so I recommend playing them all. All that said - I cannot recommend playing the New Game +. It reads as a forced polyamory fanfiction in which a lesbian is pushed into a relationship with men. It doesn't feel like an extension of the game and doesn't reveal anything about the mystery that we don't already know by that point. Overall, I'm giving it a 4.5/5 stars.

Crimson Spires is good quality mystery vn. Although romance not so well written to feel more important than mystery. My only issue with it is that the game leaves a lot of room to interpretation and it's sad that we don't get answers

Crimson Spires is a breath of fresh air that I really needed! I feel like it's been a loooong time since I found a visual novel that made me feel like this game does. The aesthetics are eye-catching and very cohesive throughout the story, soundtrack sets the tone perfectly, the actors are wonderful, and the story was honestly not what I expected at all in the best way. I appreciate how much focus there is on the mystery, not just on Erika and her love interests. Every little detail I get leaves me wondering more about the worldbuilding and I never felt dragged through the story. I'm so disappointed that this game doesn't have more of a fandom, this is the type of narrative that makes me want to spend hours watching video essays and story analyses' on youtube!

---{Graphics}--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ Paint.exe ---{Gameplay}--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It‘s just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Starring at walls is better ☐ Just don‘t ---{Audio}--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ Earrape ---{Audience}--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Human ☐ Lizards ---{PC Requirements}--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boiiiiii ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{Difficulity}--- ☐ Just press ‚A‘ ☑ Easy ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{Grind}--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isnt necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding ---{Story}--- ☐ Story? ☐ Text or Audio floating around ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☑ It‘ll replace your life (sucked me in for hours) ---{Game Time}--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☑ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{Price}--- ☐ It’s free! ☑ Worth the price (and wait til it's on sale) ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just bu…

The game has a great atmosphere which reminds me of old mystery shows like Twin Peaks. The backgrounds have a VHS filter and the music has this eerie retro vibe which just creates a great atmosphere. The characters and premise of the game are very interesting and I wanted to know what was going on (although I still don´t really know after finishing 2 routes). I was mostly intrigued by Julian and August who are of course very red flags. I thought the MC Erika, who was very headstrong, was written ok (I only wished she had a different hair color). I first played Julian´s romance, and well... let´s say, there are things about him that are very off-putting even if you like darker romance. Imo the romance comes a bit short and I wondered in both Julian´s and August´s route why Erika would even go for them.

I don't think i'll ever find a visual novel with as interesting a story as this one. I would do anything for a sequel. Even anything adjacent to this story i would love.