Ghost in the pool

アップデートされて機械翻訳からクリーンな日本語に!! そうなんですローカライズがなんと一新されました!! [h1]関西弁に!![/h1]

偏視覺小說的遊戲~ 講述了水中女王的三種死法XD 遊戲性很低~跳臉殺也一般 但是衝著畫風 加減看吧~

画风是主要卖点，不太恐怖，猎奇感还是不错的，这个价位也匹配流程长度，作为一个小品游戏比较令人满意 不过中结局是 真 差结局 差结局是 真 好结局 好结局是 ？？？结局，还是蛮有意思的

The art in the game is great, but it lacks in everything else. The translation is really poor and makes everything sound really awkward and unnatural and even hard to understand at times. The game play is pretty minimal, choices are pretty obvious and the point and click scenes are somewhat pointless. Story was very basic, and everything else on top of it made it hard to get into.

Brief yet well written horror story in junji ito style. To the point of almost being a knock off. Main flaw would be backtracking mid game, clearly a filler could have been executed better but can't complain given it's a tiny project. For this price it's all good

주인공이 진짜 순수광기임ㅋㅋ

Cool short horror visual novel.

美术风格很有辨识度，有点伊藤润二风，微恐的元素对于一个女生玩家恰到好处，音效和氛围感拉满，剧情短而紧凑，而且是多结局，王亚茹绝对是个水中高手，服了。

EDIT: My review is from before the recent overhaul, so my criticisms may have been addressed. I'll need to revisit this later [h2]It's a fun, albeit janky, little horror visual novel.[/h2] It's a Chinese visual novel that has obvious Junji Ito inspirations. Overall, the game is short, with the first route being around 45 minutes to an hour, and the other routes being shorter because you can jump to decision points. The story is pretty fun and the art is nice, but the whole thing is kind of janky. Given the jankyness and length, you might want to wait for a sale, but I did enjoy it enough to want to check out the sequel. [h3]Pros:[/h3] [list] [*]Great art and decent short horror story. [*]After clearing the game, there's a route chart to help you see the other scenes. [*]I found it hilarious that one of the routes is just saying "nope" and walking away every time you see something supernatural. [/list] [h3]Cons:[/h3] [list] [*]The game's systems are surprisingly lacking. No manual saves. No control over message speed. No skipping. Given the length of the game, it's minor, but it's weird to play a VN that has less features than something built in Ren'py. [*]The game absolutely needs LQA. The script is understandable, but formatting is weird or ugly in places. There are typos. There are inconsistencies. It's kind of distracting and adds to the amateur feel of the game. [/list]

I played Ghost in the Pool right after playing Concealed and even though it wasn't perfect, I still enjoyed spending my time getting to 100% it. I'm going to try my best to not compare the two games or ramble about Concealed, even though they have a bit of crossover and are in the same 'universe' along with Weirdo, all taking place at DiYingLing High. Just to note, I've never played the original version of this game-- only the remastered version, which is what's available now on Steam. Ghost in the Pool is a fairly short, linear game, but I don't think it's awful despite the length. The story is entertaining and there aren't many dull moments, pretty much every scene adding to the plot and lore. I would have liked to know a bit more about the characters, but there wasn't really much time to get attached to anyone, not even the MC, Yaru. (Okay, there's actually one ending that made me appreciate how crazy and reckless this girl is though, LOL.) Most of the characters add very little to the story, but I feel like they could have been given some extra background info to be made more interesting. Aside from Yaru, there's just the “rival character” and “gossiping classmates” which could have been left unnamed with no affect on anything, really. The lack of a manual save system isn't really much of a drawback due to the short length and ability to use the story map to load most areas in the game. I think it's completely forgivable to omit manual saving and I didn't find it to be an inconvenience as I played. In a quick game like this, I preferred the story map over having a save system anyway. Get ready to click a bit because there's no skipping seen text, though again, this is something I could overlook because of how short the game is and being able to pick a very, very generous number of scenes to load from on the story map in the menu. Ghost in the Pool isn't the scariest horror visual novel out there, but it creates a fairly consistent eerie atmosphere with most areas you visit having SOMETHING happen to unsettle the MC. There are a lot of tense moments and the transitions revealing the creepy things Yaru experiences are initiated well without being over the top, cheap jumpscares. It actually feels like you're flipping through the pages of a horror manga, which I think was the aesthetic the developer was going for and they nailed it. The designs for the ghosts throughout the game are really nice too, blending a little body horror and light gore to make some uncanny looking creatures. It's pretty obvious when you can make a choice to put yourself in a creepy/dangerous situation (or not) in some parts of the game, but I appreciated feeling like my choices had some impact on the story, even if it was just a small scene here and there. The game has three endings based on the decisions the player can guide Yaru make. There are slight variations between a couple of endings that make them worth attaining because they come with unique art and dialogue that reflects each respective ending, even if Yaru's fate is pretty much the same in a general sense. I enjoyed getting to see every single outcome and the story map made that very easy to do. Ghost in the Pool may not be the most memorable VN, but for a quick game that doesn't require a ton of effort, it's worth playing to experience the story and enjoy the artwork. The low price reflects the content you'll get to experience, so keep that in mind and I think it'll be hard to regret this purchase. I would have liked it if there was a bit more story, but the game is short and fun without dragging things out for no reason. Still kinda wish there was more straight-forward information on the significance of the cat though, lol.