Grotesque Beauty - A Horror Visual Novel

Grotesque Beauty - A Horror Visual Novel, is, well, fairly self-explanatory. It is a visual novel with dark themes. Whilst it is noticeably short, its many different endings and reasonable price tag make it a decent experience for anyone looking for a spooky story with some decision making. [b] [u]Pros[/u] [/b] [list] [*] 30 different endings [*] Descriptive dialogue with intriguing characters [*] Brutal, vivid death scenes [*] Simple but effective comic book visuals [/list] [b] [u]Cons[/u] [/b] [list] [*] Steam overlay does not work [*] Sometimes the text box is completely blank [*] No branching path or list of endings [/list] [h1]Story & Gameplay[/h1] The game centres around two young girls Anita and Rachel. Anita is constantly home alone and has been having strange feelings of paranoia, so the two agree to have a sleep over to ease Anita's mind. Before long, things go from normal to extremely bizarre in record time. The two discover an odd, yet alluring painting in Anita's lounge room which makes them both feel uneasy and may be the reason for all of the recent inexplainable happenings. Like most VN's, every now and then, the player must make a decision that will alter their fate. These decisions are important and directly impact the ending, but due to just how many endings there are, this can become a tad cumbersome. The developers do an excellent job at building the sense of dread and mystery within players, despite each playthrough being quite short. The story has 30 different endings, and all of these are vastly different to each other. It is clear that the Digital Bento team have immense creativity and a vivid imagination to produce as many contrasting endings as they did. Yet, without any branching paths to follow, replaying to get all of these endings is not something that appeals to me. Skipping text is also not instantaneous as the game features an abundance of transition screens which slow down the text speed significantly. Furthermore, there was a common bug where the text screen was completely blank, yet the story seemed to continue on (shown by characters facial expressions). Overall, whilst the story was a well-written nightmarish tale, its small playtime is shadowed by technical issues which is immersion breaking and a bit of a disappointment. [h1]Visuals & Sound[/h1] The game is entirely displayed in a scratchy black and white scheme, similar to a comic book. I enjoyed this simplicity and lifeless theme. The scenes of the "monster" and death scenes are haunting, mainly due to the illustrations of the characters and their facial expressions. Grotesque Beauty is a good example of portraying horror and uneasiness using simple, but effective visuals. Although, this grayscale theme was irksome when reading for extended periods. The text box is black, and the writing is white, but the black text box background shutters around, making it painful to read the text. It seems to be a purposeful visual effect but it was more of a hindrance. Sound is minimal. There are scenes of prolonged silence, and the characters are not voiced. However, I felt the eerie silence added to the mysterious narrative, enhancing the background ambience when it was there. [h1]Technical & Stats [/h1] [quote][b]This game was played using mouse only and with the following PC specs.:[/b] Intel i5-9400 2.9 GHz 16GB RAM GeForce RTX 2060 6GB 2560x1440 resolution HDD Windows 10[/quote] [b]Playtime:[/b] Depends on how many endings you wish to achieve. I achieved 8 in my time of 2 hours. [b] Controller Recommended? [/b] No [b]Replayability value:[/b] Yes, the game is designed around it, to see all branching paths and endings. [b]Achievements:[/b] No achievements. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Grotesque Beauty is a spooky and short horror visual novel. It is adequately priced at $AU8.50 and encourages replays to achieve the many different endings. The story is well written and engaging, but its lack of settings and apparent technical problems should be considered prior to purchase. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [quote] If you would like to see more reviews written by me, please follow my curator page and help support my reviews [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34936724/] Cookie Reviews[/url]. [/quote]

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6142328/][b]Like this Review? Follow The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more![/b][/url][/quote] The game starts with a gloomy fog covering the screen, then the silence is disturbed by the vibration of an incoming phone call. It’s your friend Anita, ringing you to make sure that you’re still coming over to her house tonight. She says that she thought you might have changed your mind, but you assure her that you’re still coming over and that you aren’t far from her house. You play as Rachel, an old friend of Anita’s. Anita has been feeling afraid of being on her own recently. Her parents both work late, so you have decided to stay the night with Anita to keep her company, as you used to when you were both younger. She’s always been afraid of being on her own, but you had thought she was over it now. She lives about twenty-five minutes' walk away and before you know it, you’re there. Upon reaching Anita’s house you’ll have your first choice of action to take; will you “Knock on Door” or “Serenade Her”? You will need to make many choices as you progress through the game, with each action you take influencing later outcomes. You enter Anita’s house after she greets you at the door, and after a bit of chit-chat Anita tells you about how uneasy she has been feeling lately. Ever since this mysterious fog appeared around a week ago, which seems to be isolated to just the street where Anita lives, Anita explains that she feels like she is being watched, although she can’t see anyone around as the fog is so thick. It’s not just outside, the feeling of being watched is still there inside her house; she is unsure if she’s just being paranoid. Rachel always knew that Anita was a little skittish, but she genuinely seems afraid that something might happen. After some more chat you both move into the living room where Anita offers you a drink. The living room looks just like it did the last time you visited, with one exception; the painting hanging above the fireplace. The painting is of a naked woman surrounded by fog, just like the fog surrounding Anita’s street. Anita then tells you how she doesn’t like the painting, and that her father is obsessed with it after getting it from some auction house. After hearing about how they got the painting, Rachel connects the arrival of the painting and the mysterious fog with the uneasiness of Anita. Anita wonders whether Rachel is trying to scare her, or she is just being crazy. A painting can’t bring the mysterious fog to the neighborhood or make Anita feel like she’s being watched … or can it??? Suddenly there’s a loud bang on the front door; from here things start to get weird and creepy. There’s not a lot in the way of Settings; Save (ten game saved slots), Load, Hide Message, Skip Message and Back to Title. The game has that eerie feeling with the sounds and music, the graphics are well done with animated characters which had me checking myself a couple times (I was OK … honest). The storyline is good and there are thirty different endings to the game. I’m not sure how many endings I have currently found as I lost count and sadly there is no way to keep track of them unless you write them down yourself. Hopefully this is something which can be sorted sometime in the future. Overall though I’ve enjoyed playing the game and think it’s worth giving a bash. Thumbs UP! Positives + Great graphics and sounds + Good storyline + Eerie atmosphere + Thirty different endings Negatives - Cannot track completed endings - No achievements currently - No cards currently While staying at a friend’s house, things turn into a nightmare and a mysterious painting may be the cause of it all. 7/10 [quote]Key provided by developer/publisher for review purposes via THE CPT FROGGY CLUB! Any opinions expressed are entirely my own! [/quote] [quote]For more reviews, great game giveaways and much more. Come join us @ www.Zeepond.Com and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/thecptfroggyclub]The Cpt Froggy Club[/url] Steam Group[/quote]

It's been a while I played any horror novels. It felt nice for a change. I used to be a great horror fan, watched all possible horror films I could only find. It is a bit nostalgic to dive into some scary, gruesome story once in a while. Thanks. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2611383508 The novel is created in dark colors, visuals look simple but quite atmospheric. The story is short but it contains 30 endings. It's amazing how many ways exist for you to die at just one night, at one house xD I applaud to the writer's imagination. I mean the endings are quite diverse, you may survive if you choose right, plus there are some 'open' endings I personally enjoy a lot. It's up to your interpretation to decide what kind of ending it is. Unfortunately, once again I'm not satisfied with the technical side of the game. Too many similar games recently, sadly. Welp, --I wish I was rewarded with achievements for all the endings; --it'd be nice to have the list of endings in the menu; --too few save slots AGAIN (｀□′)╯┴┴ There's a helpful steam guide but as the story is short, it's easy to get all the endings on your own IF ONLY I could save before the choices:(( not enough save slots for that:( just one page, that's too little! --skipping is too slow due to lots of transitions between lots of new scenes, plus you can't skip all those animated moments; --only full window mode, at least I didn't see how to change that. Usually while playing I write down my thoughts, so I need to minimize the game but when I click window key it triggers skipping, so not only ctrl forced the game to skip for whatever reason and when I have to use a backlog it's just unreadable with light text on a white background. Very inconvenient! --typical F12 for screenshots doesn't work here, it's been a while I played such games, I have a new computer since then, so I had to spend lots of time to actually find that comment where one of my steam friends recommended me 2 programs I need to use for that xD --lots of typos, and I may be wrong but I think that mixture of past and present tenses in the same sentence can't be right grammatically. Anyway, the game needs some editing for sure. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2611383139 But all those issues aside, I liked the game. I guess the main reason we read horror stories is to feel scared, right? The feeling we don't usually experience in real life. I mean some supernatural fear, like while fighting against monsters. And at first I thought it was not scary enough, just gory. One of the reasons I stopped watching horror films as they were mainly disgusting but not scary. But then I had such a bloody, nasty nightmare, first in so many years I felt shaken to the core. I couldn't fall asleep despite being very tired and sleepy. And I mean it as a good thing, I llove powerful emotions. I wouldn't like to experience nightmares often, I know some ppl really suffer because of them, but once in years felt kinda exciting! Thanks again. Horror stories seem so far from our actual reality but more reason to enjoy that unique experience. When I play visual novels, I always self-insert, give MC my name, honestly imagine how I'd act in those circumstances but horror... Gosh, I have no idea what I'd do if I face a monster: will I save my life sacrificing my friend, will I honestly be able to sacrifice my life to save others, will I be strong enough to fight against such monstrous creatures, will I be smart enough to find a solution, will I be lucky enough?! I guess it'd be the same way as it was in this game xD Looooooots of ways to die and so few chances to survive xD All the time I watch horror films, read horror stories or even real news about criminals I try to imagine if I'd be a victim—will I just scream, trip over my own foot and die or will I actually be able to fight in this or that way. I hope I'll never know. I hope horror stories will be enough for such an experience. And I'm grateful for this emotional, thought-provoking ride. [table] [tr] [th]More thoughts about the game in a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/readingnook/discussions/0/3043859512581058733/] Reading Nook [/url][/th] [/tr] [/table]

Grotesque Beauty - A Horror Visual Novel was pretty much what I expected. I wanted to play a game that was somewhat scary since it is Halloween but not much of a time investment. It took a little over an hour for me to go through and I ended up getting ending 19. There are 30 endings total. From a guide I seen there are 3 key save points you can make and reload them and change a some dialogue choices to get the endings you missed. I may check a few on youtube however I do not plan on replaying it. The story was inspired by Junji Ito. I thought it was intriguing and it kept me wanting more without getting bored. The still frame pictures are basic and nothing too artistically great but they had charm and help set the tone of the game. There are also some parts with moving animations. I thought the sounds were fine. I did notice where the ambient background noise would very briefly cut out early in my play through, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not. If you are looking for a potentially short game that has an eerie type of vibe to it and don't mind interactive visual novels then this is worth playing. I don't think it is worth full price for most people but with a discount it could be worth it.

Has many different endings, almost each bad ending has a different way to die. Game is around 3 hours, give or take. Fans of horror games, visual novels and multiple endings will enjoy.

I'm gonna be succinct in my review here and not be too wordy because it's a visual novel and thus is story driven. The game has a lot of choices you need to make to achieve certain endings, etc. It's very much what it says on the tin. That being said, this game is very well written, very scary, and very much makes you feel like you're there, like any good piece of literature should. And if you're a fan of Junji Ito, his influence shines through the game's visuals exceedingly well, and it's not all just still images, either. A lot of the scares are animated, which really helps drive them home. More people need to play this game. More people need to review this game. This game is a grotesque beauty.

This game is a trip. I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, never really knowing what would come next. It's definitely worth the price.

The story is short but with 30 different endings it will take some time to finish the game. To get an estimate, I did 4 endings in 1 hour. Pros: Lot's of endings A captivating story-telling The art is really enjoyable, I appreciate to work in the different characters and backgrounds too Quite minimalist but still a lot of choices to explore A few negative sides: The music was mostly sounds and not pleasant ones. I had to mute it to enjoy the story. The text box is moving non-stop, it's asthetic but for those having light epilepsy it would be nice to be able to desactivate that. As there aren't jump-scares it doesn't seem necessary to the story. The save screen is not easy to read with those font and colour. All in all I really appreciate the effort. We need more good horror stories like that! All the negative points were design elements for me that others may not find as disturbing.

This has to be one of the scariest horror visual novels that I have played. Seeing from the screenshots on the page, I thought this doesn't look scary at all but I was so wrong. The creature in this game is so weird and scary that it never failed to keep me scared throughtout the game. With its animation and its looks, I can't seem to sit well on my chair whenever that thing popped up. Whoever who likes to play visual novels especially horror, you should get this game. Trust me, it's very scary and it doesn't help when the music makes you scared more

I would definetely recommend! You can watch some gameplay here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EKeXp-Xtz8&t=31s Pluses: 1. Interesting plot (though I haven't finished the game yet) 2. There are some spooky moments 3. Art style is amazing (reminds me of Little horror a little bit) Minuses: 1. Too much text (but it is a visual novel, so it is ok for that type of games. Though some moments seem unneccesery overfilled with dialogue) Overall. I believe the game is super cool and I intend finidhing it very soon