Admittedly, I haven’t played many visual novels. I played Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors a year or two back, some of the Ace Attorney games, like half of Steins;Gate, and, like, the social sim parts of personas 3-5 kinda count I guess? Regardless, it’s just not really a genre I’m intimately familiar with. With that caveat out of the way, Toumayhem is probably the best visual novel I’ve ever played.

I mean like, the characters? Each one is WILDLY loveable. The art? Gorgeous and expressive! The plot? Windy and twisty and mysterious, with intrigue at every turn. But really the biggest strength here is the writing I think. Each character’s got such a unique voice to them, but they all fit together in the larger story so perfectly, so seamlessly, and you can really feel the writer’s voice show through every line as well. The most surprising part to me was that honestly, this game is hilarious! It’s serious and never breaks tone, but sometimes a line comes out of left field and BAM you’re scream laughing on the couch.

I’m a little biased, to be fair, since I’m friends with Crescendo, the main person behind the game, but I really think Toumayhem is something wonderful and special that will probably resonate with you if you like any other visual novel-shaped games. You should definitely play it!

Also the OST is BANGIN AND BUMPIN