Toxic yuri story Kaschei is a marvelous free visual novel that turns your Downloads folder into a little labyrinth of mirrors

Don't look up "kaschei" connected Wikipedia earlier playing

I excessively often default to reasoning of videogames arsenic singular, monolithic things, alternatively than hives of collectively made functions and assets, secreted down a launcher icon. Kaschei, an experimental ocular caller created for Toxic Yuri VN Jam 2, is an openly piecemeal statement of mutually informing oregon sabotaging fictions, stretched crossed antithetic interfaces and timeframes, held unneurotic by a batch of beauteous and hateful emotions. A truly bully benignant of cautiously networked, implicit mess. People and pieces successful orbit.

It's a communicative of belonging, hollowness and resentment pursued by mode of linked artworks, astir akin to a forensic probe crippled similar The Roottrees Are Dead successful places, though its capital-C Choices are fewer - they mostly boil down to what you unfastened next. It invites you to execute a ceremonial investigation by steadily overlaying itself, introducing caller incarnations of itself that consciousness some binary and consecutive. While broadly a mystery, written successful the benignant of an instant messager conversation, it covers a fistful of styles and genres, from epistolary fabrication to sci-fantasy.

It has amusive with a fewer interface conventions – there's a wonderfully condescending, menu-level characterisation of the subordinate arsenic an inexplicable basement dweller - but it's not conscionable a spoofy dismantling. As with galore a large ocular novel, it explicit a batch by mode of deceptively elemental questions of font, substance colour and substance SFX. It besides has precise chill music.

New to "toxic yuri"? Here are immoderate framing excerpts from the jam page: "This is simply a jam for stories that truly excavation successful to [and] tackle trauma and problematic relationships. Stories that amusement despair, jealousy and rage. Stupid girls that marque each different worse. Sadistic girls being manipulative connected purpose. Societal trauma and the destructive ways it manifests successful girlthings. You know, each that stuff. Basically, we emotion it erstwhile girls suffer, yaaaay!"

Further down, the organisers adhd that: "Toxic yuri tin beryllium interpreted arsenic thing from idiots navigating atrocious inexperienced romance to intentionally abusive convulsive transgression relationships. There isn't a strict criteria for what counts arsenic toxic and it is simply a precise vibes based interpretation. The jam is inactive created with the anticipation that we tin person a spot for radical to taxable games leaning further towards the much aggravated themes."

Speaking arsenic Johnny Squareman, Esq of Cisgender Towers, I'm nobody's perfect interlocutor for stories astir "stupid girls that marque each different worse". But I americium precise intrigued by however Kaschei works the chop and alteration of its narration angst into a bid of interior estrangements. The crippled is often truthful engaged talking to itself, interrupting itself, that it needs a benignant of 'reception' furniture that is amusingly upfront successful addressing the player.

My 1 ailment is that it ends alternatively abruptly (I finished it successful a mates of evenings), which possibly reflects the gamejam timeframe, but whitethorn besides bespeak my not picking up connected definite pieces of foreshadowing. There's truthful overmuch to get into, here, but I've blathered capable - you tin get into the remainder yourself. Download Kaschei for escaped from Itch.io.