theresia.. Dear Emile

theresia.. Dear Emile is this psychological horror VN that totally tricks you. You go in thinking it's gonna be another one of those «wake up with no memory, escape the spooky building» things which… okay, it technically is. But it's so much more than that. There are no zombies or monsters chasing you, no fights at all, which sounds like it might be boring, but it's actually the complete opposite. The horror is all in the atmosphere and this incredibly sad story you slowly piece together. It's a graphic adventure, but it uses the DS in ways that just feel really smart and cool.

You play as this girl Leanne, who wakes up in this grim underground prison place with just a pendant. Your goal is to get out, but the whole place is basically one giant death trap. You've got spike pits, landmines, all sorts of nasty stuff. The gameplay is all about being super careful, using an eye icon to check everything for traps before you even think about touching it. You find items, combine them to make tools (like tying a rope to a hook) and you have to be really observant. The tension is insane because you know any wrong move could make a trap go off and, like, blood splatters all over the screen with this awful scream. The sounds are seriously creepy, with creaking floors and dripping walls that just keep you on edge the whole time.

But the real reason you keep playing isn't just the escape. It's the story. As you explore, you find pages from a journal that tell this super dark tale about a war, a messed up virus called Epicari and some really tragic relationships. The way the game tells this story is the best part. It uses both screens for text, sometimes flooding them with sentences or just slowly revealing a few words in red on a black screen. The art for these flashbacks is mostly in black and white or sepia with these shocking bursts of red and it's just so effective.

The controls are pretty simple, using the stylus and buttons to move around. The map on the top screen is a lifesaver because this place is huge and it shows you where you've been and what you did in each room. My only real gripe is that you have to be inside a room to see all the map details, so you'll constantly pop in and out of doors just to check where you need to go next. 

After you finish Leanne's story (which takes a good while btw ) you unlock a second story called Dear Martel. It's a prequel where you play as a guy in a different location and it gives you the backstory on everything that happened with the virus and the people involved. It adds so much context and makes the whole thing even sadder and more complex. Feels like completing a dark deppresing yet intriguing puzzle.

It ain't a perfect game, some puzzles are seriously hard and will have you backtracking a lot and the rooms can be so dark it's tough to see what you're supposed to be looking at. But honestly, those things kinda add to the feeling of being scared and confused. theresia.. is one of those hidden gem games that proves you don't need jumpscares or creepy monsters to be terrifying.

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