Featuring a cute (but creepy) 2D pixel style, KEMCO’s Decollate Decoration is a horror visual novel with point-and-click gameplay that you can complete in about 15 minutes per run. The basis is that you’re a girl who has just died but finds herself unable to move on to the afterlife without the boy she loves. So, she makes the completely logical and totally unselfish decision of finding a way to take him with her.
You have 49 days to do this, with each choice taking up a week’s worth of your time. Because you’re a ghost, it’s not easy to get your love’s attention. You can try talking to him, visiting his dreams, cursing him, or using your poltergeist abilities to catch his attention. Different choices in different orders create different outcomes. There are six endings you can get from this game, and with each playthrough lasting about 15 minutes, you can get a decent couple of hours of game play.
Decollate Decoration starts how most games often end: with a black screen and a big ol’ “YOU DIED.” You then find yourself at your lover’s apartment, unable to talk to him or get him to notice you.
You can interact with a few objects, but each really just provides explanations to what they are or how your partner lives. Each week, the dialogue provided by interacting with these objects changes, offering more insight, such as his relationship with his mother, his relationship with school and friends, and his relationship with the ghost girl before her death.
You also have four possible ways to interact with him. Talking to him is an option that doesn’t exactly work at first, as he can’t hear or see you. Poltergeist creates disturbances nearby to catch your love’s attention. Dream causes you to enter his dreams and communicate with him in that way. And Curse allows you to curse him in the hopes of getting his attention.
Because you only have 49 days to complete your task—and each action takes up a week’s worth of time—you only have 7 chances to take action. It’s which actions you choose and in which order that affect your ending. There are hints within the game to help you reach the best ending, but at the end of the day it’s only based on the order of your choices.
As you get further into the game, you’ll notice your character’s love for her boyfriend turn into obsession. This is where the horror elements come in. There isn’t much gore or any jump scares. Instead, the game focuses on emotion and reveals little at a time. It creates this eerie and unsettling atmosphere that reminded me a bit of games like Doki Doki Literature Club.
The 2D pixel style, the music, and the character design all work well together and are what ultimately make the game. Since there isn’t much strategy or action to Decollate Locations, the environment is what makes it feel refreshing and fun. Also, due to the lack of gameplay elements, the controls are super easy.
Decollate Decoration takes an age old trope—obsessed girlfriend—and turns it into an adorably sinister horror story. It may be too short and simple for most, but it does keep players on their toes.
