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0.0 uur in de afgelopen twee weken / 49.1 uur in totaal (22.8 uur op moment van beoordeling)
Geplaatst: 5 aug 2017 om 12:31
Gewijzigd: 23 nov 2017 om 1:51

"London Bridge is falling down.. falling down.. my fair lady.."

The Letter is an episodic Visual Novel game, about a diverse group of people who are affected by a strange curse. The game is full of decisions the player can take to further the story, which immediatly reminds one of japanese horror classic "The Ring" - not at least because of the black haired ghost woman herself. Besides this resemblance though the story has enough novelty, and most important a good cast of characters as well as a gripping presentation and atmosphere to make you want to play it through.
The decisions mostly impact the relationships between the different characters, which in the end impacts the story as you play through it and finally will lead to different endings for each one, but also can lead to a quick and bloody ending sometimes. This also can happen through some Quick Time Events, which are thankfully optional to play through.

The characters are well enough defined and each of them is presented during their representative playthrough. Regarding the Presentation one can only say that the backgrounds are nicely drawn as are the different faces and poses of the characters, which helps transporting their moods, beside the well done voice actors, who are doing a good job bringing their alter egos to live. The atmospheric music rounds up an good impression and is especially during horror scenes very fitting (together with the grisly done ghost appearances).

Rounding this up "The Letter" has quite some achievements to get, the decisions really influence the game somewhat so more than one playthrough won´t get boring. With around 15 to 20 hours for the intial playthrough you get your moneys worth here for sure. Technically the game is well done too.. despite some missing audio at a few speeches and a few typos here and there.

Conclusio: I am someone who get´s bored easily, but the Letter had me gripped enough to make me invest quite some hours into it to get my first endings.. not exactly those i was aiming for either, but the characters are rich enough that initial likes or dislikes even change during the game. Also i very much enjoyed the thrill this game could provide, together with the voice actors, who really fit their characters (i especially liked the Police Chief/ Bartender speaker ;) ). So all in all i can really recommend The Letter to players who like a good VN or also Telltale Games.. or just a good ghost story.

Point Scale: 8/10
Was deze recensie nuttig? Ja Nee Grappig Prijs
9 opmerkingen
Moltavis 13 jul 2022 om 22:19 
Nice Review !
Recently got into VNs when I got my Steam Deck. Its just the perfect device for me for "playing" theese types of games
Kassmia 8 mei 2018 om 0:42 
I'm intrigued! Nice review:)
ρоѕιтяои_ 18 nov 2017 om 12:41 
Thanks for the headsup and great review on this visual novel.:diplomacy: I'm gonna check this title out.
Roddy 24 aug 2017 om 18:53 
the first video pulled me in to the game so much i didnt even think and started the download

☠✠☩ Nekator ☩✠☠ 5 aug 2017 om 21:24 
As Vidservent wrote, it´s not necessarily a traditional (japanese) or anime like VN.
Also i thought it quite a bit deeper story- and decisionwise than Until Dawn, but yes it is similiar in that way.
Vidservent 5 aug 2017 om 20:59 
@Stoibs Yes, it's like Until Dawn where every choice is like a butterfly effect no matter how small of a choice it is and there are some quick time events.
Every character is over 25 years old and aside from the opening song the rest of the artstyle isn't anime-like at all.
Plus this was made by the Philippines and all the voice acting is English.
Stoibs 5 aug 2017 om 14:45 
The gamestore summary and some of the screenies all reminded me of 'Until Dawn' at a glance, would you say it resembles that at all?

Looks intriguing as a concept but I have zero experience or knowledge about traditional Japanese VN's, and to be honest anything Anime-like tends to be a turn off for me with all the giggling 'tee-heeing' school girls and the like. Would you say it is a more proper, mature narrative or does it still fall into this Anime trap of eye rolling cringe in the dialogues?
Tarn 5 aug 2017 om 13:09 
:bigups:
⛄🎄🎅 Klaus ⛄🎄🎅 5 aug 2017 om 12:36 
:ontoagoodthing: