This is not a game. This is strictly a novel--and a beautiful one at that. The Ghost of Alcantra goes from awkward introductions to gripping intrigue, from unpredictable mystery to psychological horror, and from heart-wrenching pain to a story of redeeming love. Every bit of this tale is laced with snarky humor, teenage cringe, Midwestern sensibilities, and all things corny (but cute); yet, predominantly, the writing takes itself seriously with a vicious intensity. After all, this is a ghost story. What the characters face is a matter of life and death.
But I almost did not read this visual novel:
My first impressions of The Ghost of Alcantra were very wrong. At first, I neglected to watch the trailer or read the full intro summary. Had I done so, I might have been sol from the start. But, I only perused the screenshots. One or two showed promise of a good story. Then, I saw the one-liners and thought: "Well, the dialogue is probably going to be some shonen-inspired drivel." I don't know the author, but my friends do. They invited me to give it a try 3 times. After they mentioned how prominently it features Chopin's music, that the author reads Dostoevsky and other serious literature, and that he's not really a shonen fan, I thought I'd stop judging the book by a small portion of its cover and give it a shot.
I'm so happy to say this is not shonen. This is actually some of the best slice of life content I've had the pleasure to know. To be fully transparent: I rarely enjoy anime, although I can see the connections to the anime Your Lie in April--both superficially in its use of some of the best classical music pieces and spiritually in the character dynamics. If you’re looking for something to emulate that feeling you get from quality sentimental anime, I’ve definitely had similar feelings reading the Ghost of Alcantra.
But I’d be selling this short if I stopped at comparing this to a good anime. To clarify: I'm probably the last person the author expected to be the first to fully read through his story (not counting any pre-release readers or the Steam achievement hunters who skipped all the dialogue). Again, I don’t even know him. But more importantly, I'm who the protagonist Nick may poke fun at as a "sheltered religious person." Despite Nick's 2 or 3 jabs at religion, I did not feel like the Ghost of Alcantra mocked me or my faith in Jesus Christ. If anything, the journey of healing and spiritual transformation I've relied on Jesus to guide me through has only reached closer to culmination thanks to the strong and universal message of this story. Whether or not it was the author’s intention, I personally found that this novel goes beyond the swelling feelings of romance and the curiosity of mystery and becomes something that could help any atheist or theist arrive closer to the personal recovery and healing they seek.
What I'm trying to say is that there is no "target audience" for this kind of story. It doesn't matter whether you like anime or Dostoyevsky--whether you pray to God or hope for oblivion after death. Everyone can ponder over a good mystery whether they want to solve one or not; everyone should learn about romance whether they wish to experience it or not; everyone has need of healing whether they're accepting of that or not; and everyone needs stories to help them see the world and truly see others. And if we can do all that--I mean truly seeing others--maybe we'll find that the world is a lot more lovely and connected than we saw it before. People ever distant will be found within us. What once you may have considered an infinitely vast and careless expanse of space will shine its stars brightly upon you, and the constellations will reveal themselves to you--weaving a tapestry of legends that the ancients desired to instill upon you and wished that you would make them your own.
It would be irresponsible of me--out of care for both the reader and the author--to give such high praise and not discuss the flaws of such a fine piece of art. I love this story, but this does not necessarily have to be the author's magnum opus. I hope my feedback serves constructively for any future art he may be inspired to create.
There are a few points in the first half where the dialogue got a bit distracting. Mostly, I liked the juxtaposition between seriousness and levity that I mentioned at the beginning of this review. It brought a lot of sincerity to the story. Sometimes, the levity was too much. Corny can be cute, and it often was. And sometimes we need to cringe, but not too much. Fortunately, such instances were not a major occurrence.
All the musical scores featured are of fine taste. However, some of the recordings were of low audio quality. There were a few moments where the music chosen was good for the moment as an isolated scene, but the transitions from one score to another felt off. Not sure how that would be remedied, and I apologize for not giving a specific example. But this isn't as big of a concern. Overall, I had so much fun with the music and am grateful for the inclusion of a built in track list.
My primary issue with the work is in the way it handles the two climaxes in its narrative:
WARNING: VAGUE SPOILERS AHEAD
I'm doing my best to phrase all this in a way that doesn't ruin the story, but you have been warned. [spoiler]The back-and-forth between 1987 and 1997 is fantastic, especially when you begin to notice the tiny but juicy parallels between them. The ballroom scene that makes the upcoming events as clear as crystal was handled well. Not long after that, the story reaches its first climax somewhere between 1/2 to 2/3 of the story, and I'm in tears. The scene is marvelous...Then the story continues, and I'm stumped as to why the narrative has deliberately deflated things after such intensity. I feel like a few things happened here: Many an author knows the mantra "kill your darlings", but it's another thing to do it again, and again. I think the author had a harder time cutting things towards the end of the story, and I get it. The Ghost of Alcantra has a story and a message or two to get across. But I found that so much was already told both implicitly and explicitly up to and during the first climax that the reader largely understands the characters and the message. I believe the story could do well by either altering the first climax by making it less climactic and saving the theatrics for when the second climax happens. That, or the amount of content between the first and second climaxes could have been reduced to make sure that the previous implicit telling of the message is not drowned out in the heavily explicit telling of the message in the latter parts. [/spoiler]But this is not the world where The Ghost of Alcantra was told with less words or with only one climax. This is the way it is, and so I'll gladly take it for how it is.
All that being said, I did not tear up in the first parts of the story. But, the latter parts that I say I take issue with were also the ones that made me tear up. The ending made me cry. Although flawed, it was absolutely beautiful, and I'm so glad I read this. I know I'll carry this story with me for a long time, perhaps until the day I die.
END OF VAGUE SPOILERS
Author, you've done something good here. I don't know if this work or your future works will gain notoriety, and who's to say whether they deserve to. But I can say that good readers are worthy of a good story, and good stories are worthy of a good reader. I'm glad that this good reader and this good story were connected like one star to another, and I think I'm all the better for it.
