What would you do with the power to judge souls? Would you immediately judge them based on their appearance? Or would you listen to their story without bias and judge them fairly? What if your life hung in the balance, based on your decisions?

So asks Luce Spenta of its players. The answers may surprise you as you navigate MrFaabry’s gothic visual novel. In a genre that has experienced rapid growth and varied styles, its difficult to find one that truly raises the stakes. With a pragmatic guide and complicated character stories, Luce Spenta strives to do just that. Does it succeed, or is it doomed to a graveyard of visual novels that aren’t so novel?

She Sees Dead People

Meet Morta: a sassy, confusingly beautiful, and even more sarcastic version of Wednesday Addams. She haunts a graveyard full of souls waiting for your judgement. Why you? I still don’t know. Nor am I sure what her exact purpose is. Is she Death? God? Something more sinister? Possibly all three.

She leads you to five graves, home to five displaced spirits, and tells you that you are the chosen one to judge them. You are given the option to listen to them in any order. But that’s all the information she provides you with.

Silent as the Grave

And so, it begins. Of the five, I chose the Silent Child as my first story. I’m not sure if my selecting his grave as the beginning of my judgement career had any impact on the outcome, but once you pick, there’s no going back during the playthrough.

As a mom, delving into the Silent Child’s tale of woe was extremely difficult. I have a kiddo around this little boy’s age. Thus, the pain I felt, knowing the actuality of his story, was acute. I’ll admit about halfway through it, I had to walk away for a few days. However, the fact it got that kind of response, and not from rage quitting is a testament to the depth of Luce Spenta’s storytelling.

At first, it is not apparent why the little boy is called the Silent Child. As you read and relive his tale though, it does become clear, and will impact your decision to forgive him, reproach him without judgement, or punish him. It is a child’s story, with child-like awareness that asks you to understand what he and his family are going through. Dying from a mysterious illness, akin to Tuberculous, he drifts from reality where his mother is desperately trying to save him, and his father’s see-saw of believing in faith and doing some truly terrible things, to a heavenly realm only he can save.

Here there be demons, angels, and a cute little companion. Given the task and means to drive back the hordes of hell, the Silent Child gains the strength to save his own everlasting soul, while perhaps, depending on what path you choose, damning his own family. This is one of the only times you, as the player, get to interfere with a path in any of the stories. For the most part you are just a witness to their journey.  At the end, he reveals his name to you and you move on to the next story.

The Shadows are Real

The next story I decided to listen to was that of Rebecca. She looks middle aged but could be much younger. A single mom of another little boy, living with her mom and struggling with mental illness, she seems easy to judge, on the surface. As I continued reading her story, it became evident that judging these books by their covers would be foolhardy.

Rebecca is a complicated character who wants to believe in a better world for herself and her child. She develops an almost obsessive interest in a local politician- Governor Ivan Rotstein. A fitting name for a corrupt leader whose followers are almost cultish in their hero worship of him. There was a sense of irony once I realized he too was one of the graves I would judge. Her fervent desire to please a man who could careless whether she and her child lived is reminiscent of certain current events.

Regardless, the story doesn’t dwell on him in his present form, even though the events surrounding his death is a catalyst for many events to come. It is partially responsible for Rebecca’s sudden divorce from reality.

This is where Luce Spenta truly showed its fangs, in horrific glory. While I saw hints of it in the Silent Child’s story, it was on full display during Rebecca’s. Experiencing her rapid decline into madness and understanding why she refused to continue taking the meds that might have kept the hallucinations at bay weighed heavily on my choice. Here the visuals and sounds really added to the terror. At times, I had to go back a few slides just to make sure what I was hearing was in the game and not happening in my house.

Unfortunately, Rebecca has a choice to make, and once she does, her final decent is truly something horrible and overwhelmingly sad. Were there other paths for her to take leading to a better outcome? It is a question I kept asking.

404 Not Found

Curiosity peaked led me to listen to Ivan, since he played so heavily into Rebecca’s story. And oh boy was he something else. Unapologetic, egotistical and in my eyes, completely unrepentant. Seeing bits of Rebecca’s story echoed in his did nothing to change my mind. And when I had the choice to forgive, rebuke or punish, I punished without remorse. Which led me to a new choice- what punishment did I deem he was worthy of? Spoiler: I chose the one that hurt him the most: Total. Erasure. It was very satisfying.

His death was draped in shadows, carried out by an unknown assailant. It was the only one I felt was unfinished in some way. But that may be rectified later.

Tangled Web We Weave

I won’t go into each story, as it is something you should experience yourself. Suffice to say, the five people presented to you have aspects that intertwined throughout each story. It was a revelation when the links struck me. None of them are blameless, but there are ones who are easier to forgive than others. It depends on your moral compass.

Speaking of morals, the game is all about them. After each story, you will pass your judgement as discussed earlier. Then, Morta asks you if you regretted your choice, not that you can change it if you do. She will note each of your choices and apply reasoning to them. Whether that was your own reasons or not matters little. It’s about her perception, and how it influences your own fate.

The Good Boy

Outside of the five graves, you have the opportunity to save the guardian of the graveyard- Arkaon the Dog. This pupper is so sweet and with a large gash on his body, he looks a bit worse for wear. One look into his glowing purple eyes, and how could I not help him?

Again, this is where the “choices matter” aspects of Luce Spenta have a chance to shine. I had limited selections before, primarily in my judgements of the souls. During this part, it was all about my decisions, from choosing sight words to pure emotional responses. It also gave me another jump scare, which are few and far between, but very effective when they happen.

And the Dark Girl

Additionally, Morta keeps a physical log of my answers, as can be seen on my computer’s notepad app. It adds a sense of reality and gravitas to the overall experience. There is no way to edit the answers manually, so no way to fudge your path. Because this part took place in the middle of my playthrough, I could appreciate the element of awareness, drawing me farther into the stories I was witnessing.

Eventually, after judging each of the five souls, plus Arkaon, I was judged by Morta. Given the chance to once again talk to those souls, I got to see how my decisions impacted their afterlife. Some it was for the good, while others- not so much. But what’s done, was done, and I had to stand by my judgements, no matter what it cost me. And the ending I got is apparently 1 of 25. Needless to say, I will be going back to see how some of the other endings play out. I still have a character to unlock, which I assume has something to do with one of those.

Strengths

We do have to talk about the elephant in the room. Luce Spenta does use a limited amount of AI. I’m a firm believer that AI should not take jobs away from true creatives. I also know that sometimes there is limited access to resources. It is something I hope will change.

In this case, MrFaabry is a solo developer. They created their own artwork, and fed those images through an AI filter, refining the images. I understand having a small budget for a game. Heck- none of our own Devs at Liminal Pendulum have big budgets.

That being said, the visuals are striking and gorgeous. I paid extra attention to the usual markers of AI junk art. None of the pictures felt out of place or inconsistent. The sepia overtone worked well to give the game a kinda of gritty feel. I hope in future projects, MrFaabry can connect with colorist that will match his vision.

Weaknesses

A few cons took away from Luce Spenta getting perfect marks. The entire visual novel is unvoiced. This is often the case with VNs and for me, it is a continuous frustration. My playthrough was around 13 hours, and that was only one ending. As someone with bad eyesight and dyslexia, reading that much can be exhausting. Even if only the changes in major scenes are voiced, it gives my eyes and brain a short break.

As with the artwork, hiring voice actors can be expensive. However, I personally know several budding VAs who want to help out with projects like this in exchange for building their portfolio. I do think Luce Spenta would have benefited from some, if not all the lines being voiced, particularly Ivan, Amaria, and Rebecca’s stories.

The sound effects, as I mentioned during Rebecca’s story, are used in such a way that really played tricks on my subconscious. Music, or silence enters at key moments and adds to the atmosphere. However, some of the music was looped and I could hear when it dragged off and restarted. Hearing the pause before the track restarts is jarring. This, unfortunately, took me out of the experience during pivotal scenes. As did some of the white text on light backgrounds.

There was also a bug that caused me to get stuck, and I had to refer to the community forum to resolve it.

Final Thoughts

Overall Luce Spenta accomplishes something many VNs and “choices matter” games do not- make you feel like what you’re doing matters. With each story told, you not only examine their lives and deaths, but your own mortality and morality. In the end, it invites you to play again, just to see where your path will lead you this time.

Luce Spenta is available on Steam. NeverMore Niche was provided a review key from KeyMailer.