Scar of the Doll: A Psycho-Horror Story about the Mystery of an Older Sister
Switch eShop
Child-Dream / Mamekujira
2022
Even ardent VN enjoyers are likely to roll right by this one when it pops up in Steam or the eShop. Scar of the Doll appears "cheap" at first glance (literally and figuratively), and the terrible genre-clarifying subtitle screams shovelware. Skipping this would be a mistake though: it's an interesting visual novel, in terms of both gameplay and historical status.
The original Scar of the Doll was an obscure Japanese visual novel developed in the 1990s and released as freeware. Created by an outfit called Child Dream, Hidehisa Miyashita served as writer, the same man behind the PS3 RPG Folklore. Originally unknown to Western audiences, it was localized and made available via Steam in 2017 as an enhanced port. I can't speak on sales figures but apprently this reboot was enough of a success to warrant a full-blown remake some five years later, the subject of this review. I've played both, and while I'd normally not be one to "double-dip" like this, the game is so short there really isn't a compelling reason to not continue on to the remake after experiencing the old version.
Scar of the Doll is a mystery, but not the type of whodunit murder thriller seen in many a retro VN. Rather, this is a quest to find a missing person, with a techno sci-fi theme that touches on the ethics of experimentation and scientific advancement. The protagonist is a young woman named Asumi, who has lost all contact with her elder sister. This particular sister attends an elite graduate school in Tokyo, renting a nearby apartment. Upon arrival, Asumi finds the apartment empty. Upon visiting the university laboratory, Asumi is greeted by hostile staff, all claiming that her sister was never enrolled as a student. However, after some requisite sneaking around, Asumi encounters individuals who (slowly and cryptically) offer up a series of clues. As the tale progresses, Asumi inches closer to revealing the truth.
Atmospherically, the story is quite good. It's genuinely unnerving, punctuated by some great creepy locales and frequent use of startling sound effects. The actual writing is quite straightforward. Unlike modern visual novels, which often attempt to steer the player's emotions, Scar of the Doll features significantly fewer introspective moments. There's a persistent ambiguity as well: certain events are never explained sufficiently and the game ends with some loose ends left untied. It's a rather effective sleight of hand -- the game begins as a mystery and ends as a decidedly different one. There are precious few supernatural elements found within Scar of the Doll, though oftentimes the "realistic" science fiction defies belief. Example: at one part Asumi must open a locked electronic door. Said door only responds to individuals who have the correct key card and aren't under a state of duress (what?!). There's also plenty of hypnosis and false memories and genetic manipulation -- some juicy "maybe someday" science.
Progression through the game is accomplished via a series of frequently appearing pop-up menus. Generally, a set of choices is presented and the player is required to choose one to proceed. Occasionally, only one choice is available, which on the surface seems pointless though it provides an additional sliver of player engagement and highlights some important actions. Though a linear experience overall, Scar of the Doll does feature menu-based navigation as well, so it is possible for one to get sidetracked or caught in a repetitive gameplay loop. Only a single proper ending is available and death lurks around every corner. Some deaths feel legitimate ("yeah okay that was a bad choice") while others are totally capricious ("enter the left room or right room" -- choose incorrectly and die!). Thankfully, the game seems determined to keep Asumi alive. Upon every death, after being assaulted by a blood-soaked screen and sneering killer, text appears detailing exactly what went wrong -- then the story cranks back up, a few minutes prior to the last fateful decision point. The music that plays throughout the Scar experience is decent: relaxed but sufficiently eerie.
There are two obvious differences between this remake and the original (or, the port of the original, I suppose). A minor change: the navigation is much more streamlined here. The original had some tedious "go east / go west" strolling around. Here, one simply needs to select a place from a map. But the big difference is the graphics. While the original boasted some uniquely realistic character designs and photographed backgrounds, this variant is pure anime. Nothing extraordinary here graphically, but it all looks good enough, especially the qt3.14 anime grills, but we always love those don't we folks. (I've heard some parts of the text were modified/rewritten for this new version but I played the original five years ago and I can barely remember what I had for lunch).
All told, I'd rank the original a bit higher than this new version. It's just fine but feels somewhat "generic" among the deluge of modern mystery VNs, while the original's comparatively unsettling aesthetics really pop. Can't really go wrong either way though.
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewed: 07/13/25
Lies as a Starting Point
Switch eShop
Mamekujira
2023
Lies as a Starting Point is a visual novel published by Mamekujira, but it's a wholly original creation -- NOT based on an old Child Dream game. Released in 2023 on both Steam and the eShop (I played the latter, which is oddly the cheaper option), I've become convinced that this VN exists in a universe that only I occupy. It was never advertised. I can't find a single English-language review (outside of this one, heh). Its Steam community hub displays zero discussion posts, zero guides, zero artwork, and a single screenshot. The highest number of concurrent players (again, on Steam) is TWO. And total Steam sales are shown to have topped out at around 60. Brutal. I'd expect these numbers on maybe some itch.io slop, but again, this game is on two major storefronts!
Oh, yeah, this is one of the worst visual novels I've ever experienced. And it's due to one simple reason: the translation is so bad it basically renders the whole thing unreadable. This is (comparatively) "common" among Chinese VNs, but I've never seen a Japanese one this incoherent. Flagrant spelling mistakes, confusion about who's speaking, total nonsense verbiage, it's all here. And Lies has something of an "abstract" story, so the incomprehensibility has something of a compounding effect: if you can't quite understand the first scene, you won't understand the second, or the third, and......
What's this actually all about? Well, the protagonist is a guy named Kanata who takes the train every day. He ends up chatting with Nozomi, who seems oddly confused (aren't we all!), downright amnesiac. She soon details three stories, from an omniscient viewpoint. The stories are romance tales about various folks in middle school, high school, and college. A "big lie" frames each tale. Eventually it's revealed how the stories are actually relevant to Nozomi herself, and there's a grand true ending. There are supernatural elements throughout, similar to what you'd see in an early Key VN like Air, but the anti-translation makes it almost impossible to figure out what the hell is happening. Gameplay is standard. Some occasionally binary choices can lead to premature bad endings. It seems odd that flashback story-within-a-story segments would feature choices but here we are. The whole thing wraps up in around three hours.
Audiovisual presentation is admittedly bland. Train girl is pretty hot and I like her mom jeans. The ending theme is really pretty, but maybe I was just relieved this was finally over.
Rating: 1/5
Reviewed: 12/01/25
ANGEL WHISPER - The Suspense Visual Novel Left Behind by a Game Creator.
Switch eShop
Child-Dream / Mamekujira
2023
Angel Whisper is not a sequel to Scar of the Doll, more like a "sister game." Same developer, similar release history, with both VNs first appearing as freeware titles in 1999 and then being remade some decades later. However, unlike Scar, Angel Whisper lacks a localized enhanced port. This remake is the only way to experience the story in English.
Story: this is yet another mystery. The game opens with live action footage and narration by an individual named Mirai (the only voiced character in the game, by the way). She states that her father, Hiroaki Yushima, had gone missing while working on a controversial video game, and "you" the player are tasked with finding him. It's a metanarrative, and pulled off well (at least at first). The "game within a game" is the titular Angel Whisper. And Hiroaki Yushima is billed as a real missing person in the Angel Whisper promotional materials (the real Angel Whisper, the one on Switch, not the fake one IN the game, you know what I mean...).
Unemployed and apparently content to chill in his absurdly comfy man cave office (check out that trackball mouse) Yushima is called one day by "Remsoft" and asked to work on their upcoming vidya (apprently for PSX or something similar, this is supposed to be happening in 1998). He accepts and soon makes some friends at the office. But there are also some real jerks. As such the game production is divided into two and Yushima plus his ragtag band of misfits are relegated to making the "gaiden" game, Angel Whisper, a mere supplement to the anticipated "Angolmois" project. There are some challenges in development, from both teams, to put it lightly. Yushima is haunted by reaccuring dreams, taunting emails, oh and people keep dropping dead (from both teams). Yushima becomes convinced that the game's development is wrapped up in some grand curse (or prophecy) and takes it upon himself to investigate.
Gameplay consists of reading, plus choices and navigation. As with Scar bad choices can lead to premature Game Overs, but they're either harder to trigger now or there aren't as many. I played pretty sloppily and only hit two, when I got cocky and tried to get Yushima to "do something" too early. Navigation is map-based and Yushima can scoot around the city. In addition to his work friends (and foes), Yushima also pals around with a couple of cuties: one a fortune teller and the other a paranormal researcher. It's often hard to figure out what to do. Thankfully there's a generous "hint" system that saves both hours and headaches.
The hard truth: Angel Whisper is way worse than Scar of the Doll (despite the more enticing premise) and is a pretty weak visual novel overall. A big issue is the writing (or writing/translation combo). It's super stilted, blunt, and literal. This was probably true of Scar as well, but it WORKED there, as that game was all about a lone person having interrogating/adversarial conversations with suspicious folks. Angel Whisper ostensibly features a group of friends, family ties, and so on, but the writing never transcends surface-level banter. When someone dies the best reaction I could summon was "who was that again?" and so on. The "mystery" element also gets worse as it gets "solved" and devolves into a combination of incoherent slop and moralizing nonsense (ie: an anticipated apocalypse due to humans' destructive actions and muh global warming). I do appreciate the epilogue, which returns Mirai to the fray, but that still leaves plenty of loose ends.
The audiovisual presentation is... okay. In terms of character designs, the ladies are all adorable but the men look goofy. For better or worse, the protagonist is never seen. Backgrounds are photographs. I'm a huge sucker for this, they look cool. Music is pretty stock, it's hard to remember a single piece. The most striking scenes in the game are the abstract dream sequences, with their vastness and weird geometry. Though having these essentially replay every hour or so gets old. There are some really specific annoying technical issues. Load times are frequent for some reason, and when the game is loading the screen is just pure blackness like the damn thing crashed. Navigating menus is a strange experience as the highlighted choice is, well, barely highlighted. It's a nearly invisible red border that I swear is like two pixels wide. I can only sorta see it and ended up playing the game with touchscreen controls but who wants to do that!!
I don't know how applicable my criticisms would be to the original game, but this remake feels really undercooked. Blessedly, it's "only" about seven hours in length, though I still found myself slogging through this in twenty-minute bursts. Hard to recommend.
Rating: 2/5
Reviewed: 11/29/25