As anyone who follows this channel likely knows, I have a tendency to struggle more often than not with visual novels being released in an eShop full of actual games. There have absolutely been some examples of this subgenre that have worked well, looking at more interactive titles like Overboard, Along the Edge, and some others. When there’s sufficient room made for player agency, the subgenre begins to make more sense, but too often it feels like a small handful of decision points mixed into a tall pile of scrolling text, and a few periodically-changing pieces of background is passed off as gameplay, and I struggle with that. As you might have guessed, The Fissure is another newcomer on the scene coming up a bit short on interactivity, though it at least does have some merits, but they’re overshadowed by some other issues as well.

Set in the pretty barren and decidedly creepy village of San Adraín, you’ll play the part of Nahuel, who has come to see the town his mother called home. Of course, given the game’s creepy tone that is established right out of the gate, this won’t be a simple or pleasant homecoming. Though Nahuel believes that he has never been here before, he’ll quickly begin to question that fact as he tries to explore the secrets of the family home, and the townsfolk who seem to be unnerved by his presence.

If that sounds intriguing, you may well find this visual novel to your liking, though as always I do question whether going digital has necessarily enhanced the story… at least when this little effort has seemingly been put into the presentation. While I love music, and there’s no question that it can be used to effectively set the mood and help build suspense, here it is used a bit like a laugh track, and almost feels distracting rather than helpful. Even when you’re just reading through relatively benign text it’s consistently trying to slowly bend upwards, looking to heighten the tension, but for the most part it’s disconnected from what you’re reading, and then simply feels like a cheap gimmick. Worse, while I can’t say that the game absolutely uses AI-generated assets, major disconnects between the text of the scene and the art that accompany it make that seem very likely, or at least that the work in putting this together was very sloppy. I’ve played worse in this space, without a doubt, but there’s also far better out there.