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Gamers may be about half-way through October, but there is still plenty of time to experience some of the scariest games out there. Those looking for a longer and more story-driven experience are recommended to try out horror visual novels. As the name implies, visual novels are mostly made up of reading, with other interactive elements incorperated. This usually goes down the route of branching story paths, allowing players to experience the same story in very different ways depending on their choices. When horror is added to the mix, these games can provide their own unique sense of terror that can't be gotten from other games.
The following are some of the most highly recommended visual novels to play this Halloween season. As they are horror games though, they all contain content that may be upsetting for some people. It is important for worried players to read specific content warnings before playing these titles.
Cooking Companions
Recently released on October 7th, 2021 by Deer Dreams Studios is Cooking Companions. This visual novel follows a group of friends stuck in a cabin located within the forests of the Tatras Mountains. During their stay, players are able to unlock and cook various recipes for their friends. As players go through Cooking Companions, they will be able to look at the actual recipe cards for the recipes to unlock. This will allow players to recreate all of the unlocked dishes in real life, as long as they have all of the right ingredients. Of course, there is much more to the game, with horrors hidden in plain sight and secrets in the deepest cracks of the cabin.
Cooking Companions is currently available through Steam for PC.
Purrfect Apawcalypse: Love at Furst Bite
Purrfect Apawcalypse: Love at Furst Bite is a visual novel that combines gore, horror, romance, and comedy in one big package. Players control Olive, a suicidal mutt, during the apocalypse. Before Olive kills themselves, though, they want to find love somewhere among the corpses and body parts tossed around their school. While exploring, players can meet Brownie the corgi, Sparky the husky, Patches the dalmatian, and a few other survivors. Depending on player choices, Olive can find love, commit suicide happily, get mauled by demons, or even discover the truth behind the apocalypse. There are plenty of ways to die and plenty of things to discover along the way.
Purrfect Apawcalypse: Love at Furst Bite is available through Steam for PC and Mac.
Doki Doki Literature Club
One of the more recently famous horror visual novels is Dan Salvato's Doki Doki Literature Club. This game has players join a high school literature club and write poems with the group of girls already part of the club. As players go through it though, there are many horrors that begin to make themselves apparent regarding the club.
There are two different versions of the game currently available. Doki Doki Literature Club is the base game and is available for free, while Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is a rerelease of the game developed in Unity, with new side stories and unlockable content. Both are available through Steam, while the expanded version is additionally available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox.
Higurashi - When They Cry
Attention has fallen once again on the visual novel series Higurashi - When They Cry thanks to the recent sequel anime seasons Gou and Sotsu. While it is an older visual novel series, the mystery contained is still a large one, with players needing to find a way to somehow get a happy ending. Players initially follow Keiichi Maebara, a teenage boy who moves to the small village of Hinamizawa in the June of 1983. While he quickly makes friends, his time in the village leads him to discover dark secrets within Hinamizawa's past. Keiichi's friends additionally begin to act strangly after being questioned on the subject.
There is a total of eight chapters in Higurashi - When They Cry with each chapter covering its own small arc. Each chapter can be purchased individually on Steam for both PC and Mac players.
Umineko - When They Cry
Another horror visual novel series from the creators of Higurashi is Umineko - When They Cry. While Umineko takes places in the same universe as Higurashi, it isn't necessary to play one series before the other, as each are self-contained. For this title, players see things through the perspective of Battler Ushiromiya, an eighteen-year-old boy attending the annual conference for his family on the Ushiromiya family island, Rokkenjima Island.
During this family meeting, though, a number of terrible and inhuman murders occur that are blamed on someone known as Beatrice: The Golden Witch. This leaves players to solve the murder mystery and determine if the deed was done by man or magic. Like with Higurashi, Umineko is available for purchase in different parts with it being separated by major story arc instead of individual chapters. Both the Question and Answer arcs are on Steam for PC and Mac.
Your Turn to Die -Death Game by Majority-
While not technically complete, Your Turn to Die -Death Game by Majority- is a freeware horror visual novel with multiple chapters currently released. As the title implies, it follows the rules of a death game where those involved have to compete in order to survive.
For this death game, players take the role of Sara Chidouin, a seventeen-year-old high school student who was kidnapped from her home and placed inside the death game. Like the others who were kidnapped, she has a collar device around her neck that will kill her if she loses in the various games. Each participant's collar seems to have a unique way of killing the wearer, with none of the deaths being quick or painless.
Each chapter has players make decisions on how to tackle the various challenges the death game presents, who to befriend, and who to leave for dead. There is no way to get through without bloodshed, leaving both Sara and players to face the terrible horrors that await for them in the death game.
Your Turn to Die -Death Game by Majority- can be played in English via the translator, VGPerson.