若津谷村の祟り (2024)

"若津谷村の祟り" is not a game, it's an e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game. This LGBTQIA+ friendly Japanese e-book is at least not an obsessive, cringey fan-fiction about the authors imaginary boyfriend, instead, there's a focus on a badly written murder mystery set in a quaint (fitting) remote Japanese village where the characters uncover events of the past. And bore readers to death. At least it's not as cringey as most Steam Direct e-books. Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to …