Scarlet Hollow (Preview) - An Unnerving and Well-Constructed Visual Novel That's Near Flawless on Steam Deck

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Visual Novels are the type of game that I never really fancy playing, but when I actually get around to trying one, I get hooked and end up having a really good time, and Scarlet Hollow is no exception to that.

The story follows the protagonist as they arrive at their recently deceased aunt's manor, you'll explore the manor and the surrounding village and meet various characters in this new horror-mystery game from the makers of Slay the Princess.

Scarlet Hollow - Gameplay Impressions

Scarlet Hollow presents itself in a similar way to Slay the Princess, a largely monochromatic, hand-drawn world, with splashes of color here and there to add some clarity. It's a solid choice though, and works well for the horror genre that the game adopts, keeping things largely muted and almost a little despairing. Even somewhat cheerful scenes can still make you feel a little on edge with the way the world is shown.

At the beginning of the game, you can select 2 character traits that can affect how the story might play out to some degree. I, for example, went with the ability to talk to animals, opening up tonnes of extra dialogue choices with various creatures you encounter, as well as the "keen eye" trait, allowing you to perceive things like body language much better. It's a cool feature that could add some replayability to the game.

As a visual novel, Scarlet Hollow seems to be pretty fleshed out as it stands. The dialogue between characters is well-written, putting across the many personalities you'll meet well. The scenes are visually presented in a clear and distinct way, helping with the world-building a lot, and text can back up some descriptions that are not shown, helping your mind fill in the gaps. When the game gives you dialogue choices, it often gives you a great amount of freedom in what to say and do, opening up the story to be played how you want to play it.

The story is also pretty out there, leaning deep into the supernatural, which you might expect if you had played Slay the Princess. I didn't get to experience the entire story in this preview, but the game does an excellent job of building tension, regardless of whether or not something actually happens. It keeps the player guessing just what on earth is going to happen next in this isolated village where things are going from bad to worse with supernatural sightings and catastrophes. And there are, of course, dating opportunities.

While Scarlet Hollow doesn't rely on jumpscares to frighten the player, there is a fair amount of tense situations and disturbing imagery in the game that will almost certainly put you on edge and give you that "rush" if you're into horror games. I for one, am not, so I just had a sense of dread and unease the entire time which only escalated as the days went on and more supernatural and horrifying events began to occur.

This slow and natural build-up is explained through the game's story, and lends itself well to building an ever-increasing amount of nervous energy for players, each episode contains more horrifying content than the last, from merely hearing about creatures to seeing them with your own eyes, to their actions beginning to affect you and your friends.

Scarlet Hollow - Steam Deck Performance Tested

Given that Scarlet Hollow is a Visual Novel, it's pretty easy to run on the Steam Deck. Controller support is present and generally works fine, you just have to make sure it's selected the right dialogue option before confirming a choice. The game does not support 1280x800 as a resolution and some options are cut off in the game's options menu as a result, although they can still be altered.

The text is a little smaller than I would have liked, but it's perfectly readable. Some font scaling wouldn't have gone amiss here though.

Performance-wise, there's no reason not to run this game at 60 or 90 FPS, depending on your Steam Deck model, the power draw will hang around 5-6W throughout regardless. You should run with a 5W TDP Limit, the game can run with 3W, but it causes some lag issues when selecting dialogue choices.

Final Thoughts

As it stands right now, Scarlet Hollow is about as deep as a visual novel can get. It has extensive branching dialogue trees, a great atmosphere, and world-building that does a fantastic job of filling you with tension and dread, and for some reason, we can date people amidst all of this madness!

It also runs pretty great on the Steam Deck, so if you want to curl up in your bed and be terrified, you can do it!

The game's first 4 episodes are available right now on Steam, and you can play a free demo of Episode 1 too!

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