Analogue: A Hate Story Is The Darkest Visual Novel I’ve Played

And since the game’s title *is* Analogue: A Hate Story I shouldn’t have been expecting anything light. I saw the game at E3’s IndieCade, which is "set" in the 25th century. Your mission is to investigate what happened to the Mugunghwa and you’ll find out by digging through the logs from dead crew members.

The game starts with a DOS prompt and after a bit of typing you’re introduced to Hyun-ae, a lonely AI who you can talk to by clicking on options like "yes" or "no." While the presentation is barebones even for visual novels, the plot is engaging because Analogue: A Hate Story is a grim reimagining of Korea’s Joseon dynasty. That just adds to how dark the PC game is.

Visual novels don’t demo as well on the noisy show floor, but after briefly seeing Analogue: A Hate Story during E3 I wanted to find out more about it. You can too by downloading the demo and if you’re into story oriented games (and like lots of reading!) check it out here.