A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux



PHANTASMIAC is a short psychological horror visual novel game following the story of the game's protagonist, "You" who recently moves into a spacious yet oddly cheap house in a small rural town. Yet strange things start to happen shortly after you moved in... followed by dreams that reflects someone's thoughts.

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AUDIO ASSETS: Free to use music: z3r0, Pix  SFX: Pixabay
BACKGROUND IMAGES: Pexels, edited in Photoshop
The rest of the things used here are made by me

FEATURES: 
- Multiple choices that influences the outcome of the story.
-20 mins~ on average worth of gameplay.
- Gender neutral player character
- 3+ illustrated CGs to unlock

WARNINGS: This game contains depictions of violence and blood. 

NUMBER OF ENDINGS :: 3

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All tips and feedback are greatly appreciated.^^


Published 11 days ago
StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(1 total ratings)
AuthorSaintess
GenreVisual Novel, Interactive Fiction
Tags2D, Ghosts, Halloween, Horror, Psychological Horror, Retro
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsMouse

Download

Download
PHANTASMIAC-1.0-linux.tar.bz2 152 MB
Download
PHANTASMIAC-1.0-mac.zip 167 MB
Download
PHANTASMIAC-1.0-win.zip 161 MB

Install instructions

Download the files, right click on it to extract it using 7zip or winrar.

Comments

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Wow! It's really impressive how you managed to pack so much into such a short game. And, of course, this game being short, I feel like there are many things left unsaid and I'm absolutely not obsessing over them!



---Spoiler---



What exactly happened between Crowley and Abel? What exactly is the connection between Crowley and the poltergeist? What exactly made it possible for Crowley to use us? So many interesting questions!

When we decide to tell Abel about the strange occurrences, his reaction clearly indicates that there is a stalker around us - at least in the past - and he suspects that this stalker is back. In another dialogue between the protagonist and Crowley, we mention that the way he mentions not being able to know us when he was alive sounds like he already knew us "back then" - Crowley, when he denies this, looks away from us and is clearly lying. (Also, dear Crowley here is obviously a yandere -)

On the one hand, this seems to imply that Crowley was that stalker, but on the other hand, Abel's wording definitely makes it sound like the stalker is still alive and well - indeed, he mentions that he "never should have left [the stalker] alone. (And, well, we know he certainly did not leave Crowley alone.) This leads to some very interesting scenarios:

a). Crowley was the stalker. Abel never knew it was him and thought the stalker to be someone else.

b). Crowley wasn't the stalker. There's another guy who really is a stalker, and Abel knows who that person is.

c). Crowley was the stalker, and then there is another guy who is also a stalker. Abel only knows about the latter.

... And these speculations bring us to the identity of the poltergeist! I was 99% certain that Crowley was bs-ing us until Father Lucian came in and specifically mentioned that there were two spirits, one much stronger than the other. Moreover, during the exorcism, two voices have indeed spoken - one is Crowley (green text), and the other ??? (grayish text).

But then this doesn't make any sense, because ??? sounds EXACTLY like Crowley - the way he says "You should have listened ..." Crowley (the explicitly labeled one with green speech texts) first begged for his life for exactly one sentence, then when he realizes that this ain't working, he proceeds to drop all pretense and threaten us: "This won't end well for you. You're making a mistake ..." Like, tell me they aren't the same person!  Besides, if we assume that the ??? during the exorcism is the same ??? who read our journal, during the scene ??? explicitly expressed surprise that we are "with him," and that "as expected" we are "the same" (something Crowley would later say regarding our relationship with Abel).

So why the hell does Father Lucian say there are two spirits? If we assume that Crowley is the poltergeist and not, say, the unknown stalker who accidentally died somewhere out of Abel's sight, then... I don't even know, maybe this is the true source of Crowley's power? splitting his "soul" so he can find hosts to overtake.

Not sure if this is related, but when Crowley finishes his possession of us - as opposed to when he just starts using his powers on us - the CG cutscene shows multiple eyes (which look exactly like the ones in his usual sprite, instead of the ones with circular rings) below his "real" eyes. But hey, maybe that's just to emphasize his eldritch-ness!

Woof, I did not expect to type out an essay. Once again, well done on leaving so many breadcrumbs in such a short game. Thanks for making this - I had great fun! 

(1 edit)

I wish there were more endings based on the later choices made or 

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an option for us, even though I hate Abel as a personality, to take our own life instead of conceding to Crowley. 

Overall, really amazing game and art, loved the music as well, wish there was more playability but definitely one of the picks for this Spooktober VN Jam.

(+1)

Hiya!!  I'm really glad to know you liked the game, it means a lot to me! It initially did have that option as the fourth end, but I think the themes would be against the jam's rules, so I had to opt it out (at least for now) 🥲I should be updating the game again later with this! Either way thank you so much for playing the game and writing a comment

Ah, makes sense, keep up the great work, can't wait to see what you will come up with in the future!