HALF-DROWNED HOUND

Ring: Infinity

After the ordeal of watching Terror's Realm, I was beyond relieved to learn that not only does Ring: Infinity have a fan translation to watch, it's also a genuinely good game.

Infinity isn't anything special in terms of plot, but honestly, in some ways that was a breath of fresh air. In my opinion, it's much better to err on the side of caution in terms of gimmicks, lest you jump the shark. It's a straightforward VN, simply following a teenager and his group of friends as they navigate the curse; initially, I was wary of following a teenage boy, afraid he'd be portrayed as a weird little pervert - and in my defense, the books also do that, just with a grown adult - but he was perfectly pleasant. (Well, I was only able to watch one route, and the player only translated the options they chose, so I don't know for sure that there's no pervy dialogue, but I'll still count it as a point in its favor.)

Sadly, the fan translation had poor audio mixing, so I didn't get to hear much of the score, but what I did hear of it with the volume cranked up and the voice blaring was really good, following in the Japanese movie's footsteps of an eerie atmosphere. The black-and-white graphics were also splendid, and while I love her bulging eye shot just as much, portraying Sadako with one blind, angry eye was chilling in a way I very much enjoyed.

As I said, I was only able to watch one route since the others weren't included in that playthrough. From what I read on Reddit, there's no good ending like most VNs have. It was unclear if every route ended in our player character dying or if there were various ways it could break bad, but I enjoy the concept of either of them; I'm especially endeared to the theme of futility and cycles that the first one would suggest.

If anyone's looking for a short and sweet horror VN, especially one that's read aloud to them, I'd definitely recommend Ring: Infinity. Was it the most special game on Earth? No, not really, but it's fun to step into a curse victim's shoes, and after all, it's a hell of a lot better than Terror's Realm.

Final rating: 3.5/5 Stars