Here’s a recommendation for a visual novel from someone who doesn’t play a lot of visual novels. Out of the blue one day, PQube Asia offered me a review code for Iwakura Aria, a suspense/horror visual novel, which I accepted for three main reasons:

• It’s a short game (<15 hours)
• The art style is very un-anime-like, like The House in Fata Morgana
• It’s a sapphic romance, and very unambiguously so

All of these things make this visual novel a very accessible pick for people who aren’t too immersed in the medium, or even anime culture in general. Personally, I found this to be a quick, satisfying, and immersive read, just like a good book. I’m glad I gave it a try.

It’s easiest to describe Iwakura Aria as a gothic romance. Although it’s set in Tokyo in 1966, the protagonist Ichiko becomes a housemaid in a western-style mansion, and the story that unfolds follows the gothic template to a T. Ichiko meets the mysterious, entrancing young mistress of the house—the eponymous Iwakura Aria—and is inexorably drawn to her despite the hints of wrongness she senses in her surroundings.

In my estimation, there is only one substantial twist in the narrative. It is actually a very simple story at heart, focusing more on the complex push-and-pull between the two main characters than on the mechanics of its mystery. Once you find out Aria’s secret about halfway through the story, the real question becomes “What should Ichiko do about it?” Should she remain a passive bystander, become actively involved in horrific deeds, or attempt to rescue Aria from the circumstances of her own choosing? The story goes through each and every one of these options, exploring the full extent of a housemaid’s limited agency within this setting.

I really appreciated Iwakura Aria’s laser focus on the themes of choice and agency, which are especially effective when presented as a visual novel. Although there are dialogue options, they are very limited in scope, and the choices themselves are either innocuous or almost impossible to tell apart from one another. I thought this was a clever way of reinforcing that your character just doesn’t have much freedom. Fittingly, the choice that determines whether you get the good end doesn’t come in the form of a dramatic action. The true choice is…well, I won’t spoil that.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a fleshed out setting, or even a story where every loose end gets explained, Iwakura Aria is not necessarily ideal. Side characters who seem very important to the overall plot don’t even get a sprite art, and crucial bits of backstory are relegated to cryptic side stories that are unlocked by fulfilling vague requirements. The supernatural aspect of the story ends up coming across as a bit half-baked because of this.

Yet for what it’s worth, the core narrative is so good that I found myself coming out of this with minimal complaints about the details. If you like your lesbian romances to be sweet and dysfunctional at the same time, this VN is absolutely perfect. And if you find the main ship to be too toxic for your liking, you can choose to pair Ichiko with Sui, the sweetheart cook, in an optional ending. In neither scenario does the story beat around the bush about the nature of the relationship, which is actually pretty unique given the historical setting.

So yeah, I give Iwakura Aria a thumbs up and a “thank you” for snapping me out of my blogging hiatus. The game is out now on Switch and Steam, so feel free to give it a try if it sounds interesting to you.