Departed Away is a rather outstanding Visual Novel title that was featured quite some time ago as a Demo preview during Steam Next Fest, which caught my attention purely due to the quality pixel art graphics, but while going through the offered Demo I did end up stumbling upon multiple positive surprises that led me to await the full release eagerly!
An indie title that does not only feature quality art that has been neatly stylized and neat BGM, but also multiple twists! This is a title that would be heavily recommended to psychological horror game enthusiasts, but that is not all there is to the genre! While the game does feature yandere heroines, gruesome outcomes and some heavy topics laid-out light-heartedly as can happen among the stated genre, the whole is presented with colorful graphics and the setting is so intriguing to the point the player can savour this game with no pressure nor ill feelings for most part of the game due to the offered here structure; lively BGM, intriguing characters to discover, well-displayed worldbuilding and mysteries to uncover!
You can catch the Developer's inspirations during the gameplay that does mention occasionally Doki Doki Literature Club, as well as discover more about the game's whereabouts and behind-the-scenes directly from their Discord Server!
If interested in viewing a portion of this game, you can watch my VOD, where we got through the presentation part of the heroines straight to our first dead end.
Alperen Torun aka Nooarth did work hard on this game on his own and I genuinely feel Departed Away would deserve way more recognition than it is currently getting; especially given how smart it is outplayed while being offered for a rather convenient price on Steam!
Nooarth not only is the solo Dev behind this twisted title, but also a self-taught artist. You can navigate through their Instagram and ArtStation to view more of their artworks!