A concept that quite genuinely keeps me up at night is the idea of waking up one day and every other person on Earth disappearing. Couldn’t possibly tell you where this fear of mine stems from, all I can say is that I would imagine such a reality to be a cosmically nightmarish one. Enter Sleepover, a post-apocalyptic cosmic-horror visual novel that sees in that exact fear of mine, the key difference being that its protagonist isn’t alone after all.
“In the not-so-distant future, two girls experience the last Sleepover on Earth,” the game’s logline on Steam explains. It follows Yuna, a young woman who “struggles to find meaning in an empty world,” and initially believes herself to be the sole survivor on Earth. Except there’s also Fermi, a mysterious girl with a “soft smile” that shows up at Yuna’s doorstep who’s thankful to have found you in time. For what? I’m not so sure, leaving us with an appropriately creepy mystery to uncover.
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There are different rooms to explore, various objects to interact with to learn more about Yuna, her family, her past, her regrets, and generally declining mental health. It is most certainly a game that will require some content warnings; the Steam page makes mention of depictions of depression, anxiety and suicide, alongside some body horror visuals. Certainly sounds like it’s on the same wavelength of the likes of Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk and other contemporary, Western denpa games.
It’s a visual treat in all aspects too. Of course you need a convincing story in a visual novel, but so too do they live and die by their aesthetic. Sleepover is a bit grimey, a tad offputting; it has the kind of vibe that it should be a shot on film B-movie that inexplicably has almost five stars on Letterboxd. I hope it lives up to that vibe! No release date attached to it just yet, however, but you can wishlist it on Steam in the meantime.
