Land of Ghosts

Praised near-unanimously for its rain-soaked atmosphere

Land of Ghosts earns its Very Positive rating first through overwhelming praise for its mood. "Very beautiful game, I loved it entirely!! The graphics and overall aesthetics are stunning and highly atmospheric... I like how the ambience maintains a subtle eerie tension all the time," reads one of the sample's most-upvoted reviews. A more measured, detailed review agrees on the craft even while noting the game's genre is a crowded one: "By RPG-Maker standards this is pretty good, using many evocative art-panels, recorded footage videos, and the ambience of the rain to create a moody experience." This review treats that praise as fair: a solo developer using RPG Maker MV to produce original art panels, recorded video footage, and a sustained sense of rain-soaked unease is a genuine, specific technical and artistic achievement, independently confirmed across reviewers with very different tastes.

Praised extensively and personally for its handling of depression and suicide

Beyond its presentation, this review found a striking number of reviewers describing the game's content in deeply personal terms. "As someone with suicidal thoughts from time to time, this game has genuinely changed my outlook on life," reads one review. Another describes it from a place of recovery: "as a person with depressive disorder, recovering from ptsd... this game explores very personal topics mainly the depressing existential dread, it gives them a shape, something to experience and relate to." This review treats that reaction as fair and significant: a narrative game whose depictions of suicide and depression repeatedly move players enough to volunteer their own lived experience in a store review is a strong, credible signal that the writing is handling weighty subject matter with care rather than using it for cheap shock value. The store page itself discloses this content plainly, flagging depictions of depression and suicide before purchase, and several reviewers add their own further warnings about self-harm, religious trauma, and a brief scene of intimate partner violence, which this review treats as a responsible level of disclosure for material this heavy.

Praised for a short, complete, and affordable experience

This review also found reviewers repeatedly praising the game's shape and value. "About a 90 minute game... Pretty much a visual novel wrapped in an RPG," reads one review, while a more detailed reviewer reports roughly two and a half hours including multiple endings and some optional exploration. A separate reviewer highlights the structural payoff: "All 3 endings are easy to get back to back as well as all the collectables so you can get a feel for the story." This review treats that praise as fair: at a price well under ten New Zealand dollars, a complete, multi-ending narrative experience that most reviewers finish in a single sitting is a genuinely strong value proposition, and one several reviewers explicitly framed as such.

A fair complaint about an overused narrative trope

Set against that praise, this review found a fair and specific complaint from one of the sample's most detailed reviews. "The whole psychological/melancholy narrative is very overused in the medium, specifically the RPG-Maker games, but I think Land of Ghosts still manages to create some compelling moments," reads that review, which goes on to award the game an 8 out of 10 despite the observation. This review treats that complaint as fair: a genre veteran who has clearly played many similar RPG Maker narrative games is well placed to note that stories about depression, loneliness, and death are a well-worn convention in this specific corner of indie development, even while crediting this particular game's execution as above average for the trope.

A fair complaint about corny dialogue

This review also found a fair complaint from the sample's lone negative review. "Awesome soundtrack and a nice art style but unfortunately insanely corny dialogue," reads that review in full. This review treats that complaint as fair: even a reviewer who otherwise credits the game's presentation drew a clear line at its writing, and for a game built almost entirely around dialogue and text, a specific complaint about the quality of that dialogue is a real weakness rather than a nitpick, even if it is a minority view within the sample.

Fair complaints about backtracking and repeated content

This review also found a fair, repeated complaint about the game's pacing. "If you backtrack, the game recycles some story elements," notes one detailed reviewer, who also wished for "a little more exploration" after finding backtracking rarely revealed anything new. A separate reviewer describes the same friction more bluntly: "the only thing that annoyed me a bit was the unnecessarily big locations I had to go back and forth through." This review treats that complaint as fair: a narrative-first game whose pacing depends on players wanting to keep moving forward benefits from tight, purposeful spaces, and multiple reviewers independently flagging oversized, repetitive backtracking is a legitimate structural critique.

Fair complaints about technical rough edges

This review also found fair, specific complaints about technical polish. "I did experience a soft lock that forced me to restart the game once, so even if you're going to play this in one sitting, it might be a good idea to save frequently," reads one review, which also notes limited controller support on a DualShock 4. A separate reviewer reports a more severe issue on Valve's handheld: "this game runs at 7-10fps on Steam Deck when moving. Runs great on my Windows PC though." This review treats both as fair: a soft lock and single-digit handheld framerates are concrete, specific technical problems, even though both reviewers ultimately still recommended the game once they understood the cause.

Final verdict

Land of Ghosts is a short, sincere literary horror game that earns its Very Positive rating through an overwhelming, often deeply personal response to its atmosphere and its honest treatment of depression and suicide. Its clearest weaknesses are a fair, self-aware complaint that its narrative leans on a familiar RPG Maker trope, a fair complaint about corny dialogue from its one dissenting review, and fair, specific reports of backtracking fatigue and technical rough edges including a soft lock and poor Steam Deck performance. For players prepared for its heavy subject matter, this is a confident, if imperfect, recommendation.