Gayme of the Week: Stop Burying Me Alive, Beautiful!
Just in time for scary season, Angela He has released a new queer, creepy visual novel called Stop Burying Me Alive, Beautiful!
As the name implies, you play as a young woman who wakes up and finds herself being buried alive by her girlfriend, who won’t be convinced that she’s not actually dead. Making the situation even more complicated are the rats in the hole with you that are trying to sneak bites while you make your appeals to your girlfriend. Oh, there’s also a girl living in some kind of underground bunker and/or tunnel system who considers the rats to be her family, but is interested in talking with you.
The loop in Stop Burying Me Alive, Beautiful! has three main parts. The first, arguably most important one is trying to convince your girlfriend you’re not dead by talking to her. During these conversations, she reveals that your “dying wish” was apparently for her to bury you, and she’s determined to make good on that promise. When it becomes apparent that you probably won’t be able to convince her you’re still alive, the conversation starts to turn towards your relationship and history together.
All of this doesn’t come out at once, however. Your girlfriend, Karina, will only talk to you in short burst. In between these, you can scroll your viewpoint down into your grave, where you should click on any rats you see before they bite you. Multiple bites will cause you to loose hearts, which you only have three of.
After you’ve chased off any preemptive scavengers, you can pan downwards even further to find a strange young woman peeking through a hole at you. Her name is Remi, and she apparently lives down there in harmony with the rats. She prefers animals to people largely, but she does want to chat with you during your final moments. She also wants to have you playtest a card game she’s made that seems to depend more on luck and vibes than any actual mechanics (an update has added more hints to the logic of the game though).
After enlightening conversations with both women, and fighting off several rats, you will eventually have to make a big decision. Your choice will determine your fate, and the resulting endings may surprise you. This game is perfect for spooky season for obvious reasons, but also does a great job of introducing pretty haunting dialogues about relationships and humans overall through the tone of a dark comedy. It also has really gorgeous art and manages to be genuinely funny, despite the dire circumstances.
Stop Burying Me Alive, Beautiful! is available on itch.io for whatever price you feel like paying.
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