The Specter's Desire
Themisian · 2024 · Choose Your Own Adventure, Visual Novel, Interactive Fiction, Card Game, Strategy
PC
Positive98% · 47
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About The Specter's Desire
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Every year, Aurea pits its most dazzling stars against one another to see who will make it to the very top. The annual Desire Hierarchy is a fight for the position of Actualized, a title that can make your every dream come true. For decades, the Hierarchy has loomed over the city, and the Maslovs who host it have enjoyed their place at the top. But this year, things are different. It has been 12 months since Anna Maslov tragically passed away, there is a new head of the Fulfillment Foundation, and the ghosts are out to play.
Meet The Players!
You play as Colton, an editor with dreams of making it big in Aurea. When he lucks into being a Rising Star, a program that lets ordinary people compete in the Hierarchy, it seems to be a dream come true. However, that dream quickly transforms into a nightmare after he's contacted by Spectra, and given an ultimatum by a ghost who has kidnapped his parents. Now, without any connections or preparation, Colton must fight to win this year's Desire Hierarchy, all the while attempting to solve the mystery of Spectra, and perhaps the mystery that lies at the heart of this city. Along the way, he will have to work with and against a cast of Aurea's most famous, most eccentric, and most dangerous individuals.
Earn Your Place!
As you play through The Specter's Desire, you'll have to think carefully if you want to come out alive. The Specter's Desire sports Ace Attorney-inspired gameplay that sees you listening for Colored Statements, and responding with the appropriate Note. Point out incorrect assumptions, prove allies correct, and even try lying yourself to get ahead! There's also plenty of other gameplay to contend with, such as managing your Stress Grid, creating Logic Chains, and solving the puzzles that come with the card-based minigame Peacekeeping!
52+ Encounters!
The game boasts an impressive 52 unique Encounters that will challenge you in a variety of ways. Often, Encounters will have completely custom gameplay that will keep you on your toes. At one point, you might be participating in an auction to gain Evidence Cards you'll use to solve a fictional murder. At the next, you may be desperately trying to escape a room minutes away from catching on fire. Win a rigged Poker Game against fellow debtors, duel a Robot Cowboy in a showdown, or fight against yourself to prevent a total breakdown. The possibilities are endless!
Unlock All That There Is!
The game contains a total of 25 Chapters broken up into 5 Acts. All in all, that amounts to 40+ Hours of content, and that's not even getting into the bonus materials. Each Encounter has an Optional Card that can be used to unlock all sorts of goodies after the credits have rolled. From Developer's Commentary to a Custom Peacekeeping Mode to an Encounter Gauntlet, to even more surprises! You'll never quite know what The Specter's Desire has in store.
If you want to join the community, here's a link to our Discord: https://discord.gg/b9u6UyyWpA
I can't wait to play together! I think the two of us will make a fantastic pair. - Spectra
Every year, Aurea pits its most dazzling stars against one another to see who will make it to the very top. The annual Desire Hierarchy is a fight for the position of Actualized, a title that can make your every dream come true. For decades, the Hierarchy has loomed over the city, and the Maslovs who host it have enjoyed their place at the top. But this year, things are different. It has been 12 months since Anna Maslov tragically passed away, there is a new head of the Fulfillment Foundation, and the ghosts are out to play.
Meet The Players!
You play as Colton, an editor with dreams of making it big in Aurea. When he lucks into being a Rising Star, a program that lets ordinary people compete in the Hierarchy, it seems to be a dream come true. However, that dream quickly transforms into a nightmare after he's contacted by Spectra, and given an ultimatum by a ghost who has kidnapped his parents. Now, without any connections or preparation, Colton must fight to win this year's Desire Hierarchy, all the while attempting to solve the mystery of Spectra, and perhaps the mystery that lies at the heart of this city. Along the way, he will have to work with and against a cast of Aurea's most famous, most eccentric, and most dangerous individuals.
Earn Your Place!
As you play through The Specter's Desire, you'll have to think carefully if you want to come out alive. The Specter's Desire sports Ace Attorney-inspired gameplay that sees you listening for Colored Statements, and responding with the appropriate Note. Point out incorrect assumptions, prove allies correct, and even try lying yourself to get ahead! There's also plenty of other gameplay to contend with, such as managing your Stress Grid, creating Logic Chains, and solving the puzzles that come with the card-based minigame Peacekeeping!
52+ Encounters!
The game boasts an impressive 52 unique Encounters that will challenge you in a variety of ways. Often, Encounters will have completely custom gameplay that will keep you on your toes. At one point, you might be participating in an auction to gain Evidence Cards you'll use to solve a fictional murder. At the next, you may be desperately trying to escape a room minutes away from catching on fire. Win a rigged Poker Game against fellow debtors, duel a Robot Cowboy in a showdown, or fight against yourself to prevent a total breakdown. The possibilities are endless!
Unlock All That There Is!
The game contains a total of 25 Chapters broken up into 5 Acts. All in all, that amounts to 40+ Hours of content, and that's not even getting into the bonus materials. Each Encounter has an Optional Card that can be used to unlock all sorts of goodies after the credits have rolled. From Developer's Commentary to a Custom Peacekeeping Mode to an Encounter Gauntlet, to even more surprises! You'll never quite know what The Specter's Desire has in store.
If you want to join the community, here's a link to our Discord: https://discord.gg/b9u6UyyWpA
I can't wait to play together! I think the two of us will make a fantastic pair. - Spectra
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
One of the best visual novels I have ever read! (Also: the soundtrack is awesome!)1 found this helpful
This might be one of the best games of all time. If you dig visual novels, get this. Kaiji and Danganronpa vibes undersell this beast, the Shuffled Deck games are really starting to flesh out a whole world and a vibe that is entirely unique. What a rollercoaster ride. 192.1 hours in, and I've completed the story... but I missed some things. And there are still more puzzles and mysteries that I'm going to have a hard time not jumping back in to try figure out. Some parts of the game are WILDLY DIFFICULT. I am surprised I was able to complete the game. I think the quality of the story was a strong enough motivator to get me through the more difficult spots. I am now going to go back and replay the rest of the series, while waiting for the release of The Wonderland Killings.1 found this helpful
I'm honestly just here to play Dimensional Sniper. Some of the puzzles towards the end are bloody hard, but this is one of the best VNs you'll ever play. Such a massive improvement from Themisian's earlier works, which were also fairly good.1 found this helpful
Gameplay: In between linear VN story, there are several Encounters that are pretty much gameplay segments. Gameplay segments are nearly all encounters in which you can interrupt a dialogue (or internal thought) with evidence, to interact with it. We have high diversity of scenarios, coming from Liar Game-like social games, Kaiji-like gambling-focused games, classic murder mysteries and even confrontations that focus on extracting information. Most of them are stories on rails in which you have to help MC get some in-the moment decisions that turn game around, figure out what's really going on, or how to cheat your way to survival. There are few actual games as well, in which you actually have to play the whole thing out, but these are few and far between, and none of them are particularly strong compared to on-rails encounters, aside from mysterious Peacekeeping game. Sometimes, game will throw a math or number decoding puzzle as well, so it's unfeasible to brute force through everything. Game features optional objectives that are not always known ahead of time, also tied to ambiguous reward at the end. It also implements a mental health "block puzzle" system that provides some p…1 found this helpful
Incredibly ambitious, especially for what I assume is a mostly solo project. I just finished this today and am still shook from the climax. If you're the type of degen who craves Liar's Game or Kaiji or death game type content, this is a must-play. The protagonist plays out literally dozens of those scenarios (possibly 50+), and they are all very well thought-out and intricately design. There is also a huge cast of interesting characters that each have different philosophies and goals, and it's fun to see how it manifests in their gameplay styles. It's also one of those stories where everyone is inexplicably a genius, but I'm here for it. While it's a visual novel, there are many gameplay segments that involve making decisions in those scenarios (called "encounters"), in addition to some exploration/investigation segments. As a warning, this game is very, very long. And because it's relatively low-budget, there are moments where the lack of a visual aid makes the encounters harder to follow. This game will also demand a lot of buy-in from you when these happen and will reward thinking about them thoroughly. This is all to say that a lot of patience is needed, even among normal vi…
What a crazy game. Themisian's third effort, it really feels like they went all out for this one. The game is longer, the story is more complex, the minigames are off the charts. Above all I have to applaud the sheer ambition of this game - it must have been a hell of a project for a small dev. I really enjoyed the first act, and in particular its finale - the dawning realisation as you slowly create the map of purgatorio was really something. In addition, compared to the divine deception, this game has a dizzying array of minigames, most of which I found to be quite fun and appropriately challenging. However, it did feel like there was a gradual decline in quality as the game went on, and later acts were not as enjoyable as the first. Also, it really felt like the game expected, at times, for you to be some kind of unhinged genius. I don't consider myself such by any means, but I've always had a sharp analytical mind for logical problem solving, and my grades throughout my life have been pretty stellar, so I like to think that I ought to be in at least the top 10% of players in terms of being able to solve puzzles in videogames. Certainly I don't usually have too much trouble, and…
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