One of the more interesting aspects of indie games is how they can take chances and make some unlikely pairings of styles within the same experience. When you think of some title with an odd storyline, and quirky characters, you’d typically assume it could simply be a visual novel, or likely an adventure of some kind. What I wouldn’t typically think would pair with a fair amount of character development and reading through some story beats, would be a pretty high-pressure work simulation, where you’ll be tasked with quickly fielding requests at what’s essentially a call center for the deceased. Nevertheless, here we are, and it at least makes for a wild ride.

You’ll play as Vanitas, someone who is able to inexplicably communicate with any type of lost soul. Whether they’re in pain and in need of help, are unable to find their way, or may even have been put through an exorcism, your job will be to quickly relay them to the appropriate help. The problem is that there are more ghosts out there in need of help than you can easily manage, let alone periodically needing to screen out annoying humans who’ll get on the line and simply pretend to be undead. While you’ll get some help, it isn’t unusual in these work phases to need to keep an eye or ear on as many as 3 conversations at once, with each soul conveying their situation which you’ll have limited time to decide how to handle.

Oddly enough, in your downtime between these pulse-raising sessions that you’ll be graded on, things are decidedly more chill and focused on building relationships between the game’s main characters. It makes for an odd dichotomy, moving between the pretty oddball but quite pleasant characters and their interactions, to then feeling like you’re going to suffocate as you try to keep on top of things. But for the right crowd it could be quite refreshing as a combination as well.

In terms of the calls, perhaps somewhat predictably, it doesn’t take too long before they start to feel somewhat repetitive, but I will give the developer credit for sometimes messing with you as a player as well. Just because the story sounds familiar, and you were able to quickly route the ghost to the right spot before, that doesn’t mean the details will be identical this time. This tends to make you linger to avoid getting it wrong, which of course then puts you at risk that you’ll miss a detail in some other conversation. While there are better dispatcher-style games out there, like 112 Operator which captures more of a real-world feel, this is still a quirky and simply different sort of example that’s nice to have as an option.