The Ghost of Alcantra

[h1]The Ghost of Alcantra or the Art of Holding Your Hand [/h1] [h2] [b] Hold on. Not like what you think I mean. [/b] Literally, let me explain. Don't go anywhere. I am holding you in place. Not shaking you though.[/h2] Just holding you. Like by your hand. I played this game for the ,,Fall in Love“-festival. What a good time that was! It's so strong! From the characters to the building up of the narrative. It's not just the attention to detail, but the persistence on making the outer and inner worlds of the characters feel as realistic as possible is what gives it it's charm. I was charmed! I knew going in that it was a kinetic visual novel. Meaning no choices and no branching paths. It's a book with (how someone from the team told me) ,,⭐ audiovisual elements ⭐“ and as someone who struggles with reading books I can say that the art and classical music elevated the experience of what at the end of the day is really just a really well-written novel by (as the afterword tells us) a first-time author. Literally how? Colin Campbell, you are [i] crazy [/i]. Also, I need to talk about the music. The sheer [i] commitment [/i] to using almost exclusively classical music from Chopin, M…

SERBIA MENTIONED RAAAAAAGHGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! All jokes aside, it's fantastic. If you're like heavy reading. The prose and the themes it explores all come as a well deserved slap in the face to those stuck in life

Reading this VN as part of the Fall in Love Visual Novel Festival 2025. ❌ Tested on Steam Deck, it doesn't seem to run in the device as it gets permanently stucked in Steam loading screen (24/09/2025). Well written story about love, grief and moving on. I got really baited by the initial plot into thinking this would just be a murder mystery novel with some romance sprinkles but I didn't find the actual plot unpleasant at all. The story is beautifully told, the different perspectives complement each other really well and the pacing was quite accurate for my taste. Just give it a try, it's free.

Drop everything you are doing and play this game now. Please, you will not regret it. Quite possibly my favourite story that I've ever read. I cried and I laughed and I cried some more. I'm not very good with words so I can't quite explain what I loved so much about this visual novel. I'll let the other reviews do that for me. Just play the game already, its free after all. It's simply an injustice that such a good story only has 25 reviews on steam and is completely free on top of that, so the least you can do for the creator is to play their work of love. I hope you all will love this game as much as I have and that it can help you as much as it has helped me. We are but stars in the boundless universe and stories are the bridges that connects us all. And this bridge, "the Ghost of Alcantra", might be the one closest to my heart. I hope that my love of games and stories will be as everlasting as the love story between our two delightful main characters. Have fun playing this masterpiece. :)

The Ghost of Alcantra Recommended Length: Medium (10-30 hours) Number of Routes: 1 Choices: No Character Rating: Good Story Progression: Good Music Rating: No Rating* Achievement Difficulty: 1 Additional Thoughts: A very good free visual novel where it alternates between two stories that are 10 years apart. Each of the stories follows a slightly different genre where the 1987 part is a mainly slice of life romance and the 1997 part of the story is a mystery. Does it work? Yes. Did i like one section over the other? Also yes. *music is a collection of classical themes that fit well in the scenes that they are used in.

Is it a book or a game? Either way, a waste of time.