Mana is a detective blessed (or cursed?) with the ability to see black strings representing bonds of hatred between people. When she travels to a small town to investigate a missing woman, Mana meets twin priestesses who share her ability. The town worships the “Stringless God,” a being who is said to soon bring “salvation” to the world through a special ceremony. Can Mana figure out what is going on in time? Will she stop the ceremony, or embrace the Stringless God’s teachings? Will she find love along the way? And just who is the mysterious Mikami Itoha?
Lachesis or Atropos is a free horror/mystery visual novel available via Steam and itch.io. It is written by veteran visual novel author 4noki, with collaboration from a number of major names in the indie visual novel sphere including shino, Akua Kourin, papaya, Riuki, and more. It was published under Quill Game Studios’ Quill Yuri label, which focuses on visual novels featuring female with female romance. Lachesis or Atropos has four endings (and, of course, as a horror game, multiple bad endings!), several CGs, a soundtrack by Eric Jeffrey Tan, and extremely robust accessibility options.
The story is a really nostalgic one; it reminded me a lot of the classic Japanese horror visual novels and sound novels like Akai Ito, Kamaitachi no Yoru, and the Higurashi series. The horror itself comes primarily from the language, mixed in with the occasional downright terrifying CG or bit of spritework (not to mention the effective tension-building soundtrack). Lachesis or Atropos focuses on a small cast of characters and devotes a lot of its runtime to building the relationships between those characters. It effectively builds tension, letting players realize that something is off about this small town pretty much as soon as Mana arrives – but, by then, it’s already too late to escape.
The central mystery isn’t that complex, but there’s still plenty of terror to be found. Lachesis or Atropos is primarily a work of psychological horror, so you won’t find many jump scares here. Instead, you’ll be overcome with creeping dread as you are forced to confront big questions like “can you really escape fate?”, “are the relationships between people truly meaningful?” and “holy shit, why does that thing have so many eyes?” However, there are definitely plenty of visceral, bloody, and horrifying moments as well – the content warnings for ‘monsters’, ‘parasitism’ and ‘body horror’ are not just for show!
While I loved the horror elements of Lachesis or Atropos, I was a little more mixed on the romance. I’m always glad to see more F/F romances out there, especially in genres outside of simple dating simulators. However, Lachesis or Atropos‘s fast pace and limited time frame (Mana has only a few days to solve the mystery before the antagonists put their plans in motion) means that there isn’t a lot of time spent getting to know the two love interests.
While both Towa and Shiki are interesting characters, and I liked both of them, I found myself really wanting to know more about both of them and get more time simply developing them and their connection to Mana. This is especially the case with Towa, as Shiki gets more personal scenes while much of Towa’s one-on-one time with Mana is spent explaining the Stringless God’s religion and the background behind the strings. Still, overall, it was a cute romance with two likeable love interests to choose from and two endings for each love interest so that you get to see both heart-warming and tragic romances between Mana and her suitor of choice.
In general, I did come away from Lachesis or Atropos feeling that I wished it had been a little bit longer. While the story is well-developed and comes to a satisfying conclusion, there were several moments that I felt could use expanding. Little is shown of the village outside the Stringless God-related rituals – several scenes have Mana saying “I did touristy things” with no further explanation. The other residents besides the twins and the mysterious shrine Keeper are barely touched on – it would have been nice to see more of them, especially as the creepy cult-like atmosphere of the town was already so strong, getting more time to interact with ‘cult adherents’ would have made it even creepier.
I especially wanted to learn more about Shoko, Mana’s mentor in the art of detection. Shoko was the entire reason Mana started the investigation in the first place, but players learn frustratingly little about her. In particular, Shoko’s deep relationship with Mikami Itoha is key to the entire game’s resolution, but what information we get about the two women and what they meant to each other is simply told to the player rather than presented in a “show, don’t tell” manner. I was left feeling that I didn’t know enough about Shoko to truly understand her contributions to the story, which was frustrating because it was majorly relevant to everything going on in the small town.
Lachesis or Atropos’ art was well-done, especially the design of some of the more monstrous creatures Mana encounters over the course of her investigation. I loved that the subtly creepy atmosphere was present even during scenes of Mana doing supposedly “ordinary” things like bathing or visiting tourist sites (and can I say how much I appreciate that Lachesis or Atropos included several hot spring-centric scenes WITHOUT resorting to bathing/bathing suit fanservice CGs. Bathing and onsen culture CAN be portrayed in a tasteful manner, and Lachesis or Atropos truly did it!)
I do want to give a special shout-out to Eric Jeffrey Tan’s ominous, chilling soundtrack. So much of a visual novel’s atmosphere comes from its music, and Tan’s pieces were perfectly chosen. I was especially a fan of Mystery Loves Company, an aptly-named, sinister-sounding track that played during many of Lachesis or Atropos‘s more mysterious scenes. It is a song that I could see myself listening to frequently even after completing this game!
Lachesis or Atropos is a great throwback to the traditional Japanese horror visual novels of the past. It feels a bit too short in places, and its romance is not as well-executed as its horror, but it’s a great quick play for anyone looking for a nice creepy mystery. Plus, it is completely FREE (via either Steam or itch.io) so there is absolutely no reason not to pick up this visual novel!
Kate played Lachesis or Atropos on PC using a free copy downloaded on Steam.
