Gabe's Ghost Hunt v0.2

The ghost in the tutorial has a pumpkin for a head and I laughed, which I don't think was the point. It's a visual novel about running a ghost hunting show, except you're the producer, not the guy with the camera. Gabe is the host, some loud guy who probably yells at shadows for ratings, and you're stuck managing a team of weirdos. The redhead, Claire, she's the one who actually knows what she's doing. I spent way too long on the first investigation just clicking through her dialogue because her expressions change in this subtle way when she's annoyed. It's not animated well, the whole thing has this deliberately rough, almost placeholder art style that somehow loops back around to being charming. Or maybe I'm just easy to please when someone writes snappy back and forths about ectoplasm. The horror tag is a lie. There's one jumpscare in the second investigation that made me blink, but mostly it's just people arguing about thermal cameras and whether a cold spot is a ghost or a draft. The fantasy elements creep in slow, though. By the third case, you're not just debunking, you're negotiating with something that has too many teeth. The sex scenes unlock in this weirdly clinical way, like filling out a report triggers them. I won't spoil which character, but there's a moment involving a possessed prop from the set that I still think about when I see a certain kind of antique chair. The humor is the only thing holding it together. It knows the ghost hunting shows are stupid. It leans into the stupidity. I just wish the management part, the actual "manage your team" bit, had more bite. You assign tasks and then... nothing. They just do them. No one screws up and blames a demon. Missed opportunity.

• fantasy
• halloween
• horror
• ghost
• redhead