Awesome work. I have experienced loss before, with the loss of my grandfather. He had a brain hemorrhage, so his death wasn't as immediate and we had time to accept it, but he still suffered fighting it, and that always stung my heart. My mother was experiencing the heavier phases of grief and witnessing them did hurt. She is better now, she's able to live with the pain of loss. I loved the discussion about grief, they felt raw but hopeful, at first I thought Elle would be more negative, but that showed what kind of person she is. Sometimes we are our own self worst enemies, especially when our mental health is in a severe state and we don't have the support system we need. I related with Lucia's feelings for her sister, I have a complicated relationship with my sister, but besides everything I want to keep trying with a few necessary boundaries. I used to see the whole setting boundaries as giving up like Elle, but when I started applying them, it felt like for once I was putting myself above others and was actually taking care of myself. I wished there were some bad endings, in order to rip my heart to pieces lmao!! Either way, I loved the message and the fact they both found what they were looking for, someone who could understand their pain and be willing to wait as well.
This game is amazing! I wish there is more to it though. I feel unsatisfied because the ending is too short. The ending is perfect but I feel like I want more.
This game. This game triggered something? I was out looking for some random wlw story I could escape from reality with. Instead It triggered some emotional response nothing else has before? I don't believe I've ever cried at a story, nor a game, but this one caused that. I know just about nobody is going to see this but I need to get the feelings of this game out.
I applaud whoever made this for being so ready to speak about the topics this handles. They don't shy away from the harder topics. Just about five minutes into the game it already caught me and took my emotions with it.
My only issue with the game is I wish it'd be a bit longer, so we could see Elle and Lucia fully accept their family members passing, while exploring their new relationship with each other.
Thanks to whoever might've read through my dumb little ramblings about the game or something?
I've made Indonesian language fan translation for Graveyard Girls. It's a good VN tbh, focusing on the grief, and a good learning material too on knowing how people feel and how to face them.
I want more people know this Visual Novel tho I have no social media followers to promote. So, I made the fan-TL. I hope more people, especially my fellow Indonesians who can't read English text, to understand.
I saw you gave permission to fan-TL on the another comment below, so I made the TL myself.
This game hit close to home for me. I won't go into too much detail, but I know the specific kind of grief felt when it feels like you are the reason that someone passed. My grandpa died driving home after dropping me off somewhere, and although it has been over a decade since then, I still feel the pain when I think about it too much. I relate to Elle, I can hardly remember his smile, his laugh, even his voice. All I really remember is his mustache, as silly as it sounds. He had this big cookie duster mustache, like, if you imagine a Texan grandpa you probably have an idea of what his mustache looked like, and that seems to be the one feature I can remember with certainty. Sorry for the text-dump, this game just brought all of those memories out of me.
Hello! I'm wondering if you are interested in adding a Simplified Chinese translation to Graveyard Girls, which I would be happy to provide a free translation for ^^
I first saw your game on itch a year ago before it was on Steam, at which time I had the desire to translate. However, I was new to game translation back then and I didn't want to ruin your work with my inexperience. Now, after a year of practice, I feel that I'm finally prepared. I hope you could give me permission to translate Graveyard Girls and share it with more Chinese-speaking players. I fully understand if you prefer not to have a translation since this game is very personal to you.
Thank you for reaching out! I am okay with you creating a fan translation and you can share it via your own itch.io account or any website that you'd prefer :)
Unfortunately, I cannot provide any assistance with this process and you'd have to do the work/programming on your own. If you do end up making the translation please let me know, I will share it on my social media.
Thank you again, I'm so glad that you understand how special the game is to me and I wish you the best!
Just played the Steam version yesterday and recorded a playthrough. This was reeaally good! I'm leaving some spoiler-ish stuff after the video "break":
Okay so I'm wondering if maybe Elle's mother blames Elle for her father's death and if that's why she's so cold to her? Either way it's not her fault-- it's just a tragic circumstance. I liked how you included a glimmer of hope at the end, too. The budding romance thing so soon after a loss could have been a tricky plot point, but I think you handled it well and made it believable within the short time frame in which the story takes place. Great work!
Sorry if this sounds weird, but I barely believe you pulled off this concept as well as you did. It really tells a lot about the quality of your writing. From the title I expected something a bit more strange and metaphorical, but the depiction of grief and the dialogue that was actually there was way beyond what I was hoping for. Hope you'll find many more readers on Steam & with your future projects. :)
My dad is older (turning 70 this year) and recently told me that after this recent set of treatments he would not choose to continue if his cancer came back. Now his cancer is a "better" cancer to have usually only comes back every 5-10 years and would take that same amount of time to kill him. And he jokingly said he would probably die of something else by then. I respect his choice his treatments are painful and invasive. But having a limit on the amount of time you have with someone. It's...I don't have the right words for it. My dad might not live until my 30th birthday he most likely won't live to see me turn 40. It feels far away but so close knowing exactly how limited I am with my time with him. Which is why I cried so hard playing this game. It made me think about the people in my life to who I can talk. I'm scared sometimes for the future, but I'm really thankful to this game for reminding me that I don't have to face it alone. It made me cry, laugh, smile, and cry a bit more but I don't regret playing it. Thank you Delphinium Interactive for making this. The art is beautiful, and the characters feel like real people. I can't believe it's free. I'm definitely going to play this again and cry. I'm going to go tell my dad I love him.
Everything about this game's page makes it seem like just another yuri VN with serious themes thrown in as an afterthought. I only decided to play this game out of boredom, so of course I was completely blindsided when it turned out to really be something special. The writing is so well done that despite not having experienced loss like this I still felt deeply connected to the characters. The conversations between the two women are filled with very real and personal emotions in such a natural way that it never seems like the developer is speaking through them. The art and music perfectly complement the story and never seem out of place or inappropriate. I'm glad I gave this game a chance, because you've all done some excellent work on it.
These are the kinds of comments that make me so happy for our entire spooktober team. Thank you for leaving such a detailed write-up on your experience, and thank you for giving Graveyard Girls a chance!
thank you for making this. it's been almost 40 years since i lost my sister, and still this conversation had me suddenly standing back at her grave, feeling very alone in the midst of all the people at the funeral. i cried tears again, and perhaps learned a little bit more about myself today.
Although I have not had to deal with intense grief in my life yet, I do struggle with anxiety about death and losing my loved ones, and so this novel hit me like a murder of furious trucks on a highway.
It made me despair, cry, smile, hope - all at the same time - together with its characters. The way it weaves such extreme and often opposite emotions in a realistic fashion is its highlight, and could only have come from personal experience.
I extend my thanks to the creators for challenging this difficult, yet important, topic. This piece of art will definitely stay lodged in my brain for years. Awe inspiring.
Oh, and the yuri pairing (this is technically a yuri game, right?) is unfittingly, but welcomely cute.
Sidenote:
The focus here is on grief as experienced by a young adult. Obviously, people in other stages of life would be affected differently. The novel even hints at it with the mother character.
It is interesting to think what a story like this would look like if it dealt with, say, children - "Kindergarten Girls". Could "Retirement Home Girls" offer the same hopeful ending? I like to think that it could.
Technical(?) issue (version 1.1):
Why is there a noise in the background of "Scribbles" - the music played in the main menu? At first, I thought it was an audio glitch, but I checked the .ogg file, and it is present there too. Is this intentional? It sounds horrible...
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, it is truly appreciated. You are correct, this game is made from personal experiences with grief.
On the technical issue, I'm having trouble figuring out what the background noise you've mentioned is. I had a listen and couldn't locate anything amiss. Could you describe it or reach out on our Discord? You'll find it listed on our Linktree here :)
A short (1-2 hour) visual novel which captures grief using raw, hard-hitting prose, with gentle emotional touches filling the moments in between. Highly recommend.
Please, play Graveyard Girls. It is a realistic yet hopeful depiction of grief both fresh and old. The way it explores even the small parts of losing a loved one that normally go unnoticed was incredibly refreshing. In addition to its solid storytelling are beautiful CGs that only add to the experience. This visual novel is a hidden gem that deserves at least an afternoon's worth of attention.
I was anticipating playing this game because the art looks so fantastic. The CGs are amazingly polished! I was absolutely not disappointed and the story has a lot to offer. It's very gentle in guiding you through Elle and Lucia's grief, in a really realistic way. Really well done!
This is a beautifully-written game. I think it was really good at describing loss and the many ways people respond to it. It was an experience that was very emotional, told in a way that felt comforting. Thank you for creating this.
Wow, that was raw and beautiful. You can tell the story means a lot to the developers, they knew exactly what they wanted to say with this game. I have a feeling I'm going to keep thinking about this story for a very long time. Thank you for making this game!
Thank you for making this. I lost my dad 5 years ago so this feels really close to home. Just like Elle, he never knew I finish college either. Even though I loved him most, I buried my emotions, but after playing this, I remembered all the good times after all these years.
Thank YOU for taking the time to leave such a touching comment. This game is dedicated not just to Sam's dad, but to the memory of all dad's gone too soon <3 sending a big hug your way.
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Awesome work. I have experienced loss before, with the loss of my grandfather. He had a brain hemorrhage, so his death wasn't as immediate and we had time to accept it, but he still suffered fighting it, and that always stung my heart. My mother was experiencing the heavier phases of grief and witnessing them did hurt. She is better now, she's able to live with the pain of loss. I loved the discussion about grief, they felt raw but hopeful, at first I thought Elle would be more negative, but that showed what kind of person she is. Sometimes we are our own self worst enemies, especially when our mental health is in a severe state and we don't have the support system we need. I related with Lucia's feelings for her sister, I have a complicated relationship with my sister, but besides everything I want to keep trying with a few necessary boundaries. I used to see the whole setting boundaries as giving up like Elle, but when I started applying them, it felt like for once I was putting myself above others and was actually taking care of myself. I wished there were some bad endings, in order to rip my heart to pieces lmao!! Either way, I loved the message and the fact they both found what they were looking for, someone who could understand their pain and be willing to wait as well.
This game is amazing! I wish there is more to it though. I feel unsatisfied because the ending is too short. The ending is perfect but I feel like I want more.
I played it on Xbox it was a fun time!
Thank you for sharing your playthrough!
This game. This game triggered something? I was out looking for some random wlw story I could escape from reality with. Instead It triggered some emotional response nothing else has before? I don't believe I've ever cried at a story, nor a game, but this one caused that. I know just about nobody is going to see this but I need to get the feelings of this game out.
I applaud whoever made this for being so ready to speak about the topics this handles. They don't shy away from the harder topics. Just about five minutes into the game it already caught me and took my emotions with it.
My only issue with the game is I wish it'd be a bit longer, so we could see Elle and Lucia fully accept their family members passing, while exploring their new relationship with each other.
Thanks to whoever might've read through my dumb little ramblings about the game or something?
I've made Indonesian language fan translation for Graveyard Girls. It's a good VN tbh, focusing on the grief, and a good learning material too on knowing how people feel and how to face them.
I want more people know this Visual Novel tho I have no social media followers to promote. So, I made the fan-TL. I hope more people, especially my fellow Indonesians who can't read English text, to understand.
I saw you gave permission to fan-TL on the another comment below, so I made the TL myself.
I've posted the patch on VNDB.org or my new blog.
This game hit close to home for me. I won't go into too much detail, but I know the specific kind of grief felt when it feels like you are the reason that someone passed. My grandpa died driving home after dropping me off somewhere, and although it has been over a decade since then, I still feel the pain when I think about it too much. I relate to Elle, I can hardly remember his smile, his laugh, even his voice. All I really remember is his mustache, as silly as it sounds. He had this big cookie duster mustache, like, if you imagine a Texan grandpa you probably have an idea of what his mustache looked like, and that seems to be the one feature I can remember with certainty. Sorry for the text-dump, this game just brought all of those memories out of me.
This was awesome I didn't expect it to be so short. I wish it was longer but it was great with how short it was!
Hello! I'm wondering if you are interested in adding a Simplified Chinese translation to Graveyard Girls, which I would be happy to provide a free translation for ^^
I first saw your game on itch a year ago before it was on Steam, at which time I had the desire to translate. However, I was new to game translation back then and I didn't want to ruin your work with my inexperience. Now, after a year of practice, I feel that I'm finally prepared. I hope you could give me permission to translate Graveyard Girls and share it with more Chinese-speaking players. I fully understand if you prefer not to have a translation since this game is very personal to you.
Thank you!
Thank you for reaching out! I am okay with you creating a fan translation and you can share it via your own itch.io account or any website that you'd prefer :)
Unfortunately, I cannot provide any assistance with this process and you'd have to do the work/programming on your own. If you do end up making the translation please let me know, I will share it on my social media.
Thank you again, I'm so glad that you understand how special the game is to me and I wish you the best!
Thank you for this beautiful game.
Just played the Steam version yesterday and recorded a playthrough. This was reeaally good! I'm leaving some spoiler-ish stuff after the video "break":
Okay so I'm wondering if maybe Elle's mother blames Elle for her father's death and if that's why she's so cold to her? Either way it's not her fault-- it's just a tragic circumstance. I liked how you included a glimmer of hope at the end, too. The budding romance thing so soon after a loss could have been a tricky plot point, but I think you handled it well and made it believable within the short time frame in which the story takes place. Great work!Sorry if this sounds weird, but I barely believe you pulled off this concept as well as you did. It really tells a lot about the quality of your writing. From the title I expected something a bit more strange and metaphorical, but the depiction of grief and the dialogue that was actually there was way beyond what I was hoping for. Hope you'll find many more readers on Steam & with your future projects. :)
My dad is older (turning 70 this year) and recently told me that after this recent set of treatments he would not choose to continue if his cancer came back. Now his cancer is a "better" cancer to have usually only comes back every 5-10 years and would take that same amount of time to kill him. And he jokingly said he would probably die of something else by then. I respect his choice his treatments are painful and invasive. But having a limit on the amount of time you have with someone. It's...I don't have the right words for it. My dad might not live until my 30th birthday he most likely won't live to see me turn 40. It feels far away but so close knowing exactly how limited I am with my time with him. Which is why I cried so hard playing this game. It made me think about the people in my life to who I can talk. I'm scared sometimes for the future, but I'm really thankful to this game for reminding me that I don't have to face it alone. It made me cry, laugh, smile, and cry a bit more but I don't regret playing it. Thank you Delphinium Interactive for making this. The art is beautiful, and the characters feel like real people.
I can't believe it's free.I'm definitely going to play this again and cry. I'm going to go tell my dad I love him.Everything about this game's page makes it seem like just another yuri VN with serious themes thrown in as an afterthought. I only decided to play this game out of boredom, so of course I was completely blindsided when it turned out to really be something special. The writing is so well done that despite not having experienced loss like this I still felt deeply connected to the characters. The conversations between the two women are filled with very real and personal emotions in such a natural way that it never seems like the developer is speaking through them. The art and music perfectly complement the story and never seem out of place or inappropriate. I'm glad I gave this game a chance, because you've all done some excellent work on it.
These are the kinds of comments that make me so happy for our entire spooktober team. Thank you for leaving such a detailed write-up on your experience, and thank you for giving Graveyard Girls a chance!
dang, must be a good game i downloaded right after i read this comment.
thank you for making this. it's been almost 40 years since i lost my sister, and still this conversation had me suddenly standing back at her grave, feeling very alone in the midst of all the people at the funeral. i cried tears again, and perhaps learned a little bit more about myself today.
Apologies for not responding to this lovely comment sooner, thank you for leaving such a personal message.
When I made this game, I hoped the story would connect with those who had experienced such intense loss in their lives. Sending you positive thoughts.
Although I have not had to deal with intense grief in my life yet, I do struggle with anxiety about death and losing my loved ones, and so this novel hit me like a murder of furious trucks on a highway.
It made me despair, cry, smile, hope - all at the same time - together with its characters. The way it weaves such extreme and often opposite emotions in a realistic fashion is its highlight, and could only have come from personal experience.
I extend my thanks to the creators for challenging this difficult, yet important, topic. This piece of art will definitely stay lodged in my brain for years. Awe inspiring.
Oh, and the yuri pairing (this is technically a yuri game, right?) is unfittingly, but welcomely cute.
Sidenote:
The focus here is on grief as experienced by a young adult. Obviously, people in other stages of life would be affected differently. The novel even hints at it with the mother character.
It is interesting to think what a story like this would look like if it dealt with, say, children - "Kindergarten Girls". Could "Retirement Home Girls" offer the same hopeful ending? I like to think that it could.
Technical(?) issue (version 1.1):
Why is there a noise in the background of "Scribbles" - the music played in the main menu? At first, I thought it was an audio glitch, but I checked the .ogg file, and it is present there too. Is this intentional? It sounds horrible...
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, it is truly appreciated. You are correct, this game is made from personal experiences with grief.
On the technical issue, I'm having trouble figuring out what the background noise you've mentioned is. I had a listen and couldn't locate anything amiss. Could you describe it or reach out on our Discord? You'll find it listed on our Linktree here :)
I learned that the noise is intentional — simulates the sound of a music box's clockwork. Which means that the novel has no technical issues.
And the song was replaced with a better-sounding version in the update 1.2.
The novel is now perfect in my opinion.
A short (1-2 hour) visual novel which captures grief using raw, hard-hitting prose, with gentle emotional touches filling the moments in between. Highly recommend.
Please, play Graveyard Girls. It is a realistic yet hopeful depiction of grief both fresh and old. The way it explores even the small parts of losing a loved one that normally go unnoticed was incredibly refreshing. In addition to its solid storytelling are beautiful CGs that only add to the experience. This visual novel is a hidden gem that deserves at least an afternoon's worth of attention.
I was anticipating playing this game because the art looks so fantastic. The CGs are amazingly polished! I was absolutely not disappointed and the story has a lot to offer. It's very gentle in guiding you through Elle and Lucia's grief, in a really realistic way. Really well done!
Wonderful game, filled with realism, tough topics brought to life in a careful way, and ultimately heart warming.
This is a beautifully-written game. I think it was really good at describing loss and the many ways people respond to it. It was an experience that was very emotional, told in a way that felt comforting. Thank you for creating this.
Wow, that was raw and beautiful. You can tell the story means a lot to the developers, they knew exactly what they wanted to say with this game. I have a feeling I'm going to keep thinking about this story for a very long time. Thank you for making this game!
A lovely and touching visual novel. <3
Thank you for making this. I lost my dad 5 years ago so this feels really close to home. Just like Elle, he never knew I finish college either. Even though I loved him most, I buried my emotions, but after playing this, I remembered all the good times after all these years.
What a beautiful game.
Thank YOU for taking the time to leave such a touching comment. This game is dedicated not just to Sam's dad, but to the memory of all dad's gone too soon <3 sending a big hug your way.