As I’ve admitted many times before, while I’m always game to check out visual novels, and will do my best to be fair to them, they aren’t my cup of tea. If nothing else, the romantic threads and other elements that are common to them are something I lost interest in long ago, having been married for over 25 years, and that’s before getting into issues of player agency and spending a lot of time simply reading text on a screen. 

With all of that said, what I can do is step back and compare newer titles to the rest I’ve played, and point to which feel like their flavor is a bit more distinct or even unique… and that’s where I land with Sunlight Scream. Yes, it has those romantic threads and a core story of someone coming back to their hometown after being away for a while, both somewhat genre staples. What it has that many don’t though is a darker thread, a threat that you and the people around you will be put in peril by, and then a variety of key decisions that can alter the course of events for good or ill.

It’s that element, throwing some crimson into the mix, and watching how things can play out differently depending on your choices that make Sunlight Scream more interesting than average in my estimation. My typical issue is that so many of these games almost immediately feel familiar, and while at the very start you may believe this is falling into the same trap you come to see that you’re wrong before long, and that helps to make it more exciting. If you’re down for something very story-driven that can both be familiar and shocking at times, this is a better stab at that mix of elements than most of the competition, and worth a look.