Review – 1f y0u’re a gh0st ca11 me here! (Nintendo Switch)
I love when entertainment catches me off guard. Books, movies, video games—one of the best things they can do (short of including prolonged sword-fighting skeletons segments) is offer something new and unpredictable. I didn’t think I’d get that from a visual novel—let alone one published by KEMCO—but that’s exactly what’s offered by 1f y0u’re a gh0st ca11 me here!
How’s this for a premise? There’s no grim reaper to lead the dead to the afterlife. Instead, there are employees called gr1ms who handle the job. And they do it via a call center, of all things. Consider it an emergency dispatch for the dead (for those who didn’t successfully get through to the emergency dispatch for the living).
The player takes on the role of Vanitas Vanitatum during her first day on the job.
She gets a crash course in how the call system works, and is then put on a test run that sets the tone for the game. Basically, calls come in, and she has five seconds to direct them to the proper network. Ghosts in pain get routed to the SOS network (indicated by an ambulance), confused ghosts get the Lost network (a map), and ghosts in need of an exorcism get the police (a cop). You simply select the proper network and move on.
Unless the caller is human. You hang up on them…and with this, I have plenty of practice.
Only it’s not nearly that simple. Three or more calls can come in simultaneously, and you have only five seconds to make the connection. Players will use the left stick to select a speech bubble, hit the proper button for the destination, then quickly grab another speech bubble. Some calls can be figured out right away, while others push toward the end of the time limit. It’s terribly frantic, and you’ll need to read quickly and make snap judgments in order to successfully complete your shift. How well you do will determine your path and ending.
It’s a very simple premise, but again, it’s like nothing I’ve played before. That was enough to keep me engaged for quite a while, but was it enough to carry me through a whole game? Thankfully, that’s not a question we have to answer. I mentioned at the onset that 1f y0u’re a gh0st ca11 me here! is a visual novel, so be prepared to do a lot of reading (at your pace, not at the dispatch center pace). Over the course of six days, you’re going to learn a lot about Vanitas, her coworkers, and this somewhat Burtonesque world around them. The story is actually somewhat emotional, but not heavy-handed. The narrative tone fits the game’s visual vibe even when going to some unexpected places.
We should address that vibe, which is also quite unique. The characters are portrayed as simple black and white illustrations set against heavily filtered photography. This really helps the characters and dialogue pop out, and that’s especially important if you’re playing the game in the Switch’s handheld mode.
The music is great, too; albeit repetitive. Story elements are backed by a heavily syncopated techno beat that’s appropriate for busy work, while the soundtrack gets ghostly and creepy when taking calls.
The uniqueness of the gameplay and presentation made for quite an engrossing initial run through 1f y0u’re a gh0st ca11 me here! Subsequent playthroughs may not be as appealing, however, due to the inherent repetition and the large narrative dumps between gameplay sessions. I will definitely need time away from the game before returning to seek one of the alternate endings (and eventually unlocking the game’s 100-call challenge), but my first week on the job was well worth the time.
