Say It In Red

2025 is Dying - Read  Indie VN's to kill it faster!Happy New Year, Dear Listeners, and thank you for once again joining us on this delightful journey into the vast and delightful realm of Indie Visual Novels. In our Indie VN Compilation episodes, Sara and Runa each read a handful of small visual novels produced by independent teams or sometimes even solo developers, many of which are free and if not are pretty cheap, and all of which offer their own unique and exquisite delights. From VNs made for game jams to delightful gay fluff to intense vampire melodramas to Isekai'd Dark Knights to the epic highs and lows of being trans in high school, we'll tell you about some games you might have missed but definitely need to check out! In these Indie Game Compilation Track episodes we want to highlight some of the incredible indie VNs we've played recently and get people excited about the things happening in Indie Visual Novel development spaces. We want to not only showcase the amazing breadth of work coming from Indie developers but also talk about some of our favorite games, many of which touch on subjects, characters, and experiences we rarely get the chance to see in games from larger studios. You can find a list of each game we played below and we encourage you to play along with us, and go searching for other Indie visual novels as well!    Most of these games are free and if not, fairly cheap (though please tip the creators if you are able), and you can read most of them inside of an hour or two. In fact, we want YOU, dear listener, to pick at least one of these games to play after you listen, and then tell us about it! You can also check our Patreon, where listeners and patrons can submit either a short audio clip or a few sentences telling us about an Indie VN you've played and enjoyed recently! We may even include your submission on our next Indie VN Compilation Track episode (only if you want, that is).  Games discussed in this episode:Char's EnnuiThe Mysterious Thief; Forget Me NotDramatic IronyDevil's LiminalHomunculus HotelAdult Life Yuri Bundle by Team ANPIMParfum NostalgiqueTaking my Dark Knight Girlfriend to the corner storeCycle

Have you ever glimpsed the truly ephemeral? Is it in the melting of a snowflake upon a cool window pane? The falling petals of a flower in spring? The laughter of a child in summer? Is it the brief and fleeting connection between lovers who might only meet once every thousand years? Is it the whim of the inscrutable and inhuman? Or is it, as so often is the case, the moment when a Type-Moon protagonist feels like he's got his whole life together and everything is really looking up for once?This month, Sara and Runa begin reading through Tsukihime ~ A Piece of Blue Glass Moon~ (2021), the remake of the vastly popular and influential game from Type-Moon, Tsukihime (2000). While the original game features more branching pathways and romance routes to explore, this installment of the remake focuses on Arcueid and Ciel's routes and for this episode, we'll be discussing Aruceid's route in particular. We begin following Shiki, a young boy who wakes in a hospital bed after a serious accident has left him near death. Throughout the world and across every surface he can see, there are pulsing, eerie red lines that cut through his vision. He discovers that, with very little effort, he can cut along these lines to utterly destroy anything with ease. Shiki Tohno, as it happens, can see Death - those lines represent the points at which anything be it human or monster or object can most easily fall to oblivion. After receiving a pair of glasses from a cool older lady who we don't meet again in this game (See Witch on the Holy Night for more info on her), Shiki strives to lead a normal, well-adjusted life with his new foster family. For the next seven years, at least, he is successful.After receiving word that his father, Makihisa, has died, Shiki is summoned away from his foster family and back to the Tohno mansion. There he meets Akiha, his younger sister who now acts as head of the family, and the maids Kohaku and Hisui who manage the household's domestic affairs. While he struggles to acclimate himself to this new environment, he suffers a bout of what is surely Normal Protagonist's Anemia and takes a moment to sit down on a park bench. That's when his life changes course entirely. That's when he sees the beautiful vampire with bewitching red eyes cross his path. That's when he decides that now, for the first time in memory, he wants to kill.Content WarningsDiscussion of sexual assault - 01:51:20 - 01:55:45

Yours is an old house, distinguished as much by its history as by its adamant defiance of decay and weathering. Its halls are lavish and narrow, its chambers dark and calm, and its rooms never quite feel large enough to fill its frame. One evening, the lady of the house calls you to her side. She beckons you from within her canopy bed, the drapery down and her voice unusually coarse. She says 'Come here, dear listener,' as she crawls on all fours. She says 'A little nearer...' as you part the curtains. She says 'Be still, and do promise you will not scream?' as she draws you close with one hand, and then another, and then another, and then another still. 'It is time,' she says at last, 'to share ghost stories.'Happy Halloween!This month, Sara and Runa discuss Iwakura Aria (2025), a game which just arrived in English at the end of summer. This tale of gothic suspense sports lavish sprites created in the style of oil paintings, watercolor and charcoal cut-ins, and a lush sense of style and design that often leaves you wondering whether you're really in 1966, when the events of the story take place, or further back in a Victorian drama. The game follows protagonist Ichiko, a 16 year old orphan who has just returned to the orphanage where she grew up after leaving her previous job due to the sexual harassment she faced from the men there. A well-dressed gentleman finds her on the street one day as she tends to a market stall for the orphanage - among the wares on offer, the orphanage staff have placed one of Ichiko's own paintings of a bluebird in flight. This gentleman, Amane Iwakura, takes notice of this painting and offers Ichiko a job working as a maid in his estate. With few other prospects, Ichiko agrees and it is at that manor where she meets Amane's daughter, Aria. Immediately struck by Aria's beauty and poise, Ichiko is flustered and feels she is blessed to be not only in such a lovely house, but to be maid to a beautiful girl like Aria. The house, however, is not without its mysteries and secrets. The distant sound of a crying baby rings in Ichiko's ears on her first nights there, though no baby resides in the manor. An umbilical cord preserved in a box on a shelf, a missing volume of architectural plans, the strange parties Amane hosts in which Aria entertains his associates, and several other curious details give Ichiko some cause for concern. More than anything, however, she is concerned for Aria who sometimes wakes cold as a corpse, barely eats, and seems so pale that even the slightest sunlight might burn her. As Ichiko falls in love with Aria, the secrets of the house and Aria's past threaten to crush them both without mercy or hesitation. As always, if you enjoy our show please consider writing us a review on your podcast platform of choice! You can always support us directly on Patreon at patreon.com/sayitinred where you will get access to all of our bonus episodes past and present, including our most recent episode in which our Umineko reading circle gathered to discuss the Umineko stage play adaptations!Content Warnings for this episode:Grooming of infants and childrenReligious abuseMutilations, particularly stabbing with sharp implementsIncestSexual harassment and assault

[Ship's Log, 26th September, Stellar Year 892]Your transport ship, already late in its departure due to congestion around the ports on Ganymede, alerts you to yet another delay. It seems that a cargo ship is emitting a distress signal and the captain of your transport will be diverting your vessel to provide assistance. The other passengers grumble and you feel your own jaw clench – you'll definitely be too late to check in to your hotel now. As the captain approaches the distressed vessel, you glance through the port windows and your stomach lurches. The cargo ship is now clearly in view, and also clearly derelict. Most of its heat shielding is peeling away, there's a terrible gash along the bow, and its airlocks are all conspicuously open. Your captain comes over the intercom to notify you that they'll be docking soon, and that's when the power goes out.At least nothing bad ever happens when you visit abandoned ships deep in outer space.This month, Sara and Runa read through Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog (2025), a game styled after classic PC-98 Adventure games and Visual Novels. You begin as most Adventure games of the era began, by entering your character's name and then selecting your pronouns. Then you're immediately dropped into the trauma of a high stakes interstellar battle, helpless as your comrades are all shot down around you while you can only hear their voices through your radio. The story cuts forward then to the present setting as your protagonist sets foot on their newly assigned vessel: The Jovian Fleet Ship Gun-Dog. Aboard the Gun-Dog you quickly meet your protagonist's girlfriend (as well as the ship's second-in-command), Cassie. Cassie is bright and bubbly and happy to see you as you make your rounds as the Gun-Dog's new security officer, meeting the other eccentric crew members and familiarizing yourself with the mission at hand. According to Captain Merys Bartermews, you'll be accompanying the JFS O'Brien in an investigation of a mysterious signal at the edges of known space. Despite clashing with the pilots of the ship's Armored Frames, you report a completely normal patrol to the captain and prepare for rendezvous with the O'Brien. That's when the power goes out, Cassie collapses, and your communications with the O'Brien are cut off entirely. From there you confront the protagonist's traumatic past, a terrifying mystery, possible mutiny, and your own girlfriend's secrets. Normal things, at least on the edge of known space. As always, if you enjoy our show please consider writing us a review on your podcast platform of choice! You can always support us directly on Patreon at patreon.com/sayitinred where you will get access to all of our bonus episodes past and present, including our recent episode on ASMR and the different approaches ASMRtists take in creating their videos! 

It's late August and you've just returned home. With a heaviness in your step, you open your front door, kick off your shoes, drop your backpack by your bedroom door, and flop onto the couch just in time to catch the opening of your favorite show. Your parents, who won't be home for a little while, don't really get your taste in television these days but honestly, when have they ever? There's something spellbinding and exhilarating about this show and the way all the girls confront unspeakable evils alongside the daily struggles of school and romance. Something speaks to you, something you can't entirely name, but it's real and visceral and it's waiting for you there on the TV every day after school. It's late August, the year is 1999, and you're watching Sailor Moon. This month, Sara and Runa talk about Life After Magic (2022), a game packed to the brim with 90's style and overflowing with love and admiration for Magical Girl stories. While Sailor Moon is the most obvious point of reference here, this game weaves in so many different influences from late 90's and early 00's anime and manga from Tokyo Mew Mew to Yu-Gi-Oh and beyond. The game centers around Akiko, a 22 year old high school dropout who was once Sentinel Starlight, leader of a magical girl group and alien princess here on Earth. Unfortunately saving the world doesn't pay very well and also employers don't exactly consider it a transferable skill, so Akiko works at a makeup counter in the Glamour Pop cosmetics store. Dealing with customers every day is so draining she barely has time to do anything even remotely social – most workdays, she winds down by watching TV with Allistar, her talking cat and magical mascot character. Then, in a development that calls back loud and clear to the first episode of Sailor Moon that aired on the Toonami block in 1999, a gorgeous (and kinda mean) Girlboss CEO arrives to announce a new Sentimentality line of makeup based on the theme colors of the Sentinels. Shortly after, Akiko realizes that her magic is weakening and Allistar calls an emergency meeting... which also forces Akiko to admit that she hasn't been keeping in touch with the other sentinels and lost their numbers. Cell Phones wouldn't be common for a few more years, after all.This launches us into the core of Life After Magic as Akiko manages her time, the stress of her day job, and tries to both reconnect with her former teammates while solving the crisis of magic's disappearance. Each former sentinel has a different perspective on Magic and what their time as Magical Girls really meant (especially given the loaded gender of the term). It's great to see both the characters and narrative unpack 90's nostalgia and the impact magical girl shows and shoujo manga have had on so many of us especially in the queer community. There's also a lot of depth and tiny secrets to uncover in this game, including secret endings and a really great cast of romanceable characters. Also, Akiko's Ex is there and he's the best/the worst. You really have to play to understand.As always, if you enjoy our show please consider writing us a review on your podcast platform of choice! You can always support us directly on Patreon at patreon.com/sayitinred where you will get access to all of our bonus episodes past and present, including our recent episode on Uma Musume and the legacy of Stat Builders & Raising Sims!