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Right, so I went into this game completely blind. From the pictures I saw before release I maybe got the idea that some mystery would be involved but by the time I got it I had forgotten all about it. In any case, my first impression once I started the episode was “Oh, this is kinda creepy.” The art style really caught my eye. I thought it was really beautiful and set the scene really well.
The story starts in your typical small town with a group of four teens, who are also pretty typical and I’d say seem purposefully stereotypical. You have the nerd (Michael), the weird girl (Eva), the pretty girl (Ashley), and the jock (Brian). To be honest, I initially found the dialogue a bit stiff or unnatural sounding. Like “Hmm, would kids this age really speak like this?”. But it didn’t take long for me to get used to it. Or, after replaying the episode, I definitely thought the way they spoke was very much in character after finding out more.
What I thought was really fun about the game is how much my impression of the characters, particularly Eva, changed throughout the story. In the beginning, when she first got introduced, I really thought “Ah, she’s gonna annoy me, isn’t she?”. WRONG. I was so wrong. As the plot progresses, we start to get more and more hints about something being wrong in this town, as well as little details about the personal lives of each character, with the horror aspect really kicking in when Michael starts seeing dead people and you kinda get this OH OKAY feeling of “I see where this is going”. What I initially thought was a pretty stereotypical cast grew on me pretty quickly. The kids go to play at this rundown arcade after school, mostly at the two boys’ insistence. I quite liked the dynamic between the characters. It became clear early on that they are genuine friends and found comfort in each other’s company, even if they each had secrets of some kind.
One of my favorite things when it comes to visual novels is when they add mini games. YES, give me some way in which I can interact with the story, thank you! The first interactive mini game we get is a Pac man variant, “Pumpkin man”. There’s three levels, and it gets progressively harder, but each outcome slightly changes the story moving forward. The first time I played, I only managed to beat 2 levels (which after trying the others I probably liked this one the most). Beating 2 levels gave me enough tickets to buy a reward, something the other routes don’t do. The vendor also gives you guys a creepy cassette by default.
Depending on which rewards you pick, it will give you some insight into one of the 4 protagonists and their lives. Initially, I picked the 8-ball, which to be honest is probably the one that’s the most vague, but after trying out the others I noticed small differences. For example, if you pick the deck of cards for Brian, one of the cards changes into a scary image of a woman (which I’m assuming might be his mother, considering how they’re giving us hints about his dad being abusive). In regards to the creepy cassette, I liked the detail of how each character brought up different things when smelling it. I can’t remember what it was for each one, but I think Michael mentioned burnt meat which made me really curious what could possibly be his fear and backstory.
In any case, the kids decide to go to Ashley’s house to watch the weird cassette, and depending on whether you win or lose the Pumpkin game, you meet her brother, Chris. Now, I think one thing that could be slightly improved would be the amount of explanations for each character. For example, in this introduction to Chris, Ashley gives us some insight into the fact that he has a soft spot for Eva and does whatever she asks. I think the interactions they have show that really well, which is why I didn’t find all the explanations that necessary. I also thought that when there were mentions of Brian and how he likes to smoke in order to look cool around the older guys at school. It is obviously shown that he doesn’t smoke or even mention that around his best friends, so I felt there was no reason to keep reiterating that he’s hiding it when showing his POV. I guess what I’m trying to say was that the ‘show’ was already good enough for us not to need the ‘tell’.
On the cassette, there is a video of some guy who presents some kind of ‘midnight show’. It was pretty obvious there was more to it than meets the eye, but I guess I was curious how they’re going to introduce the mystery without being corny about it. And honestly? I think they kind of cooked by basically not showing us exactly what happens. Essentially, as they are watching, Eva notices something on the screen (which we don’t get to see), which also made me really curious as to what she’s seeing. And then, BAM! We get cut to the next morning, seeing everything from the perspective of Eva.
Even though I initially thought she’d be annoying, seeing her interactions with the others actually already made her grow on me, and by the end of the episode she easily became my favorite. We get a hint early on that she has a younger brother she cares for a lot and that her mother is a painter but wow, the art really popped off for this bit. The plot starts with her waking up in her room. She doesn’t seem to remember anything about the tape, which of course made me wonder even more what the deal is with that creepy cassette. We see a few more objects in her room that display her perhaps unusual fascination with horror, but then her little brother shows up and we get this sequence where she’s telling him stories to help him fall asleep. They basically communicate through those string and cardboard phones (not sure what they’re called) but it’s important later. In any case, their mom shows up and basically gets on Eva’s case. But then, Eva sees the string move again and thinks her brother isn’t sleeping but he won’t answer so she gets worried.
This is probably the bit where I started getting a bit spooked. First of all, because the brother was adorable and I was so worried. Like the poor child, please don’t kill him! Second of all because I forgot to mention but the mother is essentially a horror painter, so all her creepy paintings are all around the house. Not just that but of course she has a creepy atelier where she keeps her creepiest paintings. And OF COURSE, that’s where the string leading to our innocent little brother leads to. The art for this section was sick, though. All the paintings looked SO GOOD (kinda get why the mom had so many clients). Part of me was scared and part of me was just admiring the work the entire time.
By the time we get to the atelier, the paintings start acting funny, as if they’re moving. It’s the usual horror trope of “DON’T GO THERE!” but I have to give it to the writers, I really wanted Eva to go get her brother cause they made him so likeable. From what I remember, she also checked his room before so it genuinely didn’t feel like a stupid move. So the string ends up being in one of the paintings. Now, you can choose whether you think something is suspicious and run, or stay and try to help him escape the painting. I was an emotional dummy and stayed. I mean, there’s no way I could abandon my little brother, right? And… yeah. I thought they wouldn’t go as far as to kill the kid, but they definitely did. Brutally too. As Eva pulls on the string to take him out, blood ends up on it, and the only thing she managed to rescue was his head. I actually needed a minute after that because I couldn’t continue.
After this, Eva tries to at least find her dad, hoping he can save them. Unfortunately, he is also gone. She then tries to escape, and I kind of liked the detail of her resenting the mom for creating the monstrous paintings. Even if it was a curse her mother created or not, it felt realistic of how children get affected by what their parents do, even if indirectly. That the paintings scared her and her mother’s indifference towards her kids made her more of a parental figure to her brother at a young age.
Another mini game starts as a monster catches up to Eva just as she’s about to escape. Basically, you need to press the arrowheads in time and then you can escape. Except I did something really stupid and used WASD instead of arrows. Which ended up being kind of entertaining since I was curious what the bad ending was if you fail. Which is when we get the big reveal! When Eva dies by the monster’s head, we transition to all the kids, in a trance, still in front of the TV they watched the cassette on. She then starts bleeding in real life and dies. If you help her escape, she wakes up from her dream. However, she finds marks on her arm to prove that she could’ve actually died. Honestly, this conclusion made me really happy though because all her family dying was way too sad.
I really enjoyed it! I thought the horror was cool, the art really shined when it came to the horror aspect, music was good, and I’m interested to see the direction they take for each character. The only thing I maybe didn’t like was the fact that during Eva’s section, the voice acting for her inner thoughts was way too calm, which would slightly take me out of the immersion. In the rest of it, the voice acting was great, which is why I guess I think if her thoughts were either just text or like the rest of it, it would be a lot more engaging.
Pink Noise Episode 1
Bottom Line
Pink Noise is a horror episodic visual novel that explores the lives of a group of teenagers, as they live in a small town where bizarre events are starting to take place. Overall, I thought the atmsophere was done really well and I enjoyed finding out more about the story. The art is more on the stylistic side but I really liked it. My main criticism is only the slightly stiff dialogue in places and the voice acting which sometimes could take away from the immersion.
