
USSR, 1986. A girl goes missing in the closed city of Vorkuta-5, yet not a soul seems to be concerned. Uncover the mystery behind her disappearance and transmit your signal to the universe.
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About
USSR, 1986. When Ira Grachevskaya goes missing in the closed city of Vorkuta-5, not a soul seems to be concerned – except for the quiet outcast Asya Shubina, that is. Uncover the mystery behind Ira’s disappearance, transmit your radio signal to the universe and learn why a bird flies past the window.
Meet the cast.

A problem child and a truant, Ira doesn't have the best reputation. Her standoffish demeanor makes her difficult to talk to, especially for someone as meek as you. There is a rumour she's been meeting with an older man.

Marina's carefree personality makes her quite popular among her classmates. Adults don't seem to like her very much, probably due to poor grades. Despite the girl's outgoing nature, her worldview is rather cynical.

A boy with an unpleasant sense of humour. Likes picking on people weaker than him, namely you. His family has been a little out of it the past few weeks.

You. Not worth writing about.
Z.A.T.O. is a linear visual novel with roughly 7-8 hours of playtime. There are no choices. The ending is predetermined. Sit back and enjoy your time in a town that doesn't exist.
DISCLAIMER: the game contains strong language, loud noises and flickering images.
Genres
Stats
Languages: English
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 1969 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
Ultimately a very typical denpa in both the good and the bad, but what it does well it does solidly: The psychological horror/first-person writing is really evocative and your perspective is an interesting one to occupy and piece together throughout, the ambiance is pretty good even if the music is lacking, and in general it just pulls the "can't take your eyes off" mystery vibe excellently. The character writing, with one exception, is pretty solid too; they aren't pure 'worldview'-type characters, all feel like true people. Impossible to talk about the bad parts specifically without spoilers, though, so be warned. (spoiler-free verdict is 'go read it it's free and short and mostly good) What it does less well is at least mostly contained, and all are classic things you wave away for the usual denpa anyhow. The inevitable more conceptual/sci-fi turn that murks up the psychodrama and strains credulity being the biggest and most classic issue, and here it's basically fine, shoved all the way to the end just to get the story's message across most directly, decent coda even if of course underwhelming in comparison to the beginning. Every time I read a sentence about the 'mechanics' of the world, the classical denpa heart weight was suddenly dropped for a slightly annoyed squint. That stuff shouldn't be there, there's no point to it being there. Mostly, the whole 'amor fati' thing felt kind of underexplored, which is a real shame since it's such a big moving part on the first two thirds. Yes, at the end the world dying and her being the last one to hold out because of this love for the world while not loving living in it is a beautiful and nice send-off, but I feel like it didn't really investigate this tension as much as it should, it mostly just presented it and the contrast for you as the reader to reflect off of. Which is fine, I guess, but at the end I couldn't help but feel a little dissatisfied with this. It has all of that nice psychological tension and philosophical undergird and then it swings that into "but what if the main character's metaphysics were actually correct about the world", and, I mean, it wasn't the worst way for this to go but among the least interesting. Lacking follow-through. Which is to say, strangely, it could do with being longer. Only a little longer, though. Possibly the biggest point in its favour is its pacing: it does a hell of a lot right for only being 4-6 hours long. To me this is its most remarkable achievement, even if it comes at the cost of the bigger ideas being inevitably left for 'interpretation' (read: underexplored and gestured at). So, all in all, a solid effort; nothing too unique but an unusually sharp, mostly no-frills execution for the genre. Worth a read, especially since it's free.
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| Game | Estimated lifetime revenue | Reviews | Review score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2.5M | 6.1K | 95% | $24.99 | |
| $810 | 11 | 100% | $4.24 | |
| $0 | 276 | 98% | Free | |
| — | 0 | — | — | |
| — | 0 | — | — | |
| $148.9K | 1.2K | 98% | $7.99 |
Hours played at review time, across 2K reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
cool
beautiful. so beautiful. i felt like i knew asya, like i've been her before, just seeing how she clung to ira like a spark of hope. how she viewed herself so lowly so the world could seem all the more beautiful. as the game progressed, you get to understand that her perception goes much deeper than that, and at the climax, you're turned upside down if you weren't approaching it like i was. asya is the whole universe. the universe is infinitely beautiful (and cute to boot!) need more time to process this transmission. i love you
como me tatuo un juego?
Um dos melhores jogos que conheci esse ano. Z.A.T.O. é uma experiência. Um aprendizado. Uma obra com tantas mensagens em poucas horas que até agora, mesmo depois de dias de ter terminado de lê-lo, ainda sinto que não o apreciei completamente. As artes são maravilhosas. Eu fiquei apaixonada desde que vi o trailer pela primeira vez, então baixei e decidi dar uma chance pra conhecer os detalhes da história. Fiz uma maratona de leitura e valeu a pena cada segundo. Não consegui conter minhas lágrimas ao final da história. Z.A.T.O. fala sobre amor: amor próprio, amor aos outros, amor ao mundo... E também sobre revolta, sobre negação, medo, arrependimentos, desgraças que estão além do nosso alcance para resolver e frustrações que vamos sempre carregar conosco. Porém, mesmo com tudo isso em nossos corações, ainda existem motivos para amar a vida, para amar viver, para se amar e espalhar esse amor ao mundo. Assim, quem sabe ele se torne um lugar melhor.
Beautifully drawn and well written, with a number of memorable characters. A heartwarming and sad story well worth the 8ish hours of reading.
You allowed someone like me, a worthless gnat, to be the last curve in the infinite straight line that is the world, I Love You.
My first visual novel, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ did it leave a impressing impact on me, the storyline was incredible, and so was the message, wouldn't say it's life-changing but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ was it impressive and incredible, a incredible game, truly! I expect more from this creator... ...If he decides he wants to work on more games. Nonetheless, a incredible and awesome visual novel, Please play if you haven't already, the message's incredible but the way you get to it is heartbreaking and heavy. .-.- - . -... .-.- .-.. ..-- -... .-.. ..--
[h1] Я люблю мир, и всё что в нём есть [/h1] Игра, которую явно делали с любовью. Линейная новелла с приятным визуальным стилем (хоть и немного обидно из за небольшого количества артов) и необычным саундтреком, который давил практически всю игру. Ни один внутренний монолог Аси не хотелось скипать, а сам текст подаётся максимально живо, потому что каждое "а.." ты должен прокликивать сам, не говоря уже о динамичных моментах. Ты правда веришь в то, что копаешься в мыслях местами странного подростка, ты даже в коем то роде синхронизируешься с гг по ходу сюжета, так как поднимаются для многих близкие темы. [spoiler] Развязка с кодом полностью выбила из колеи, и дальнейшее повествование начало восприниматься совсем в другом ключе, местами тревожном. [/spoiler]. Конец же оказался совсем сумбурным, но это скорее и придаёт ему такое послевкусие: игра заставляет переосмыслить всё, что было до конца. Многие детали по ходу игру оказывались вкинуты далеко не просто так, что замечаешь уже после первого прохождения. Из минусов: местами сюжет явно растянут, и да, основная развязка ощущается слегка натянутой. Я явно не жалею что потратил своё время на Z.A.T.O., особенно странно, что за это не берут денег. И да, когда русский язык?
Ilegal que sea gratis
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