I don’t really play visual novels, admittedly. I was always of the belief that I could just pick up a good book—or a mediocre one, even—and get a similar experience without needing a screen. Or electricity.
Yet, something drew me to Seraphim Slum. Developed and self-published by rosesrot in early July 2024, Seraphim Slum promised a lot from its few screenshots and intriguing preview trailer. Billed on Steam as an “eerie liminal game,” it’s an intriguing mix of biblical references, sapphic romance, and metatextual horror elements that coalesce into an experience as uncomfortable as it is entertaining.
Is it a horror game? Is it a dark romance story? Is it some kind of writhing, twisting amalgamation of the two? In short, yes.
Seraphim Slum Is Sapphic and Unsettling
Right off the bat, things start a little ominous. Flavor text that precedes the game describes a world in which angels are born with free will, though this freedom is nothing more than an illusion. They all eventually become servants of God’s will, His “greatest fools,” as they embrace predestination under the guise of autonomy. It ends with an intriguing revelation, then, that “corruption” could be considered a form of love.
You play as Ezekiel — the latest resident of a nebulous slum — who’s only there because she’s “bored.” The residents heed you no mind. It’s all curved smiles and small hellos. That is, however, until you introduce yourself to three specific residents of the slum: Macy, an antsy tech enthusiast; Salxire, a gregarious creative type; and Oriel, a hoarder of goods of all kinds.
All is well. But then you start talking to them.
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What starts out as an esoteric romance story quickly escalates into an examination of predestination, the nature of free will, and the potential rewards of giving into desires. Seemingly innocent conversations are always tinged with an undercurrent of malice, intrigue, or avoidance. Routine behaviors masked under unique personalities melt away into true personas. Other big words accompany philosophical debates and scenes of abstract violence.
It’s all fine and good. It’s actually legitimately engaging. Seraphim Slum does more than just throw the bog-standard visual novel storytelling format at you. It utilizes its combination of strange aesthetic choices and metatextual themes in order to convey a story that’s as chilling as it is engaging.
I adore how Seraphim Slum looks and sounds. The combined talents of background artist NOIR, sprite artist Ethan Encinas, and GUI artist Sfilmak make for a world that’s as perturbing as it is beautiful. Character sprites are charmingly messy, with organic linework and warm colors accentuating their personalities. The game’s backgrounds are detailed but not overbearingly so—there’s an emptiness that permeates every backdrop, making the slum feel all the more strange and vacant. The game’s detailed CGs, or “computer graphics,” are also thoroughly beautiful, turning the rough character designs into something more classical in comparison.
Being a visual novel, it comes with a handful of additional features you’d typically expect. You’re free to look at the many different CG illustrations you’ve unlocked in a separate menu on the title screen. You can even see how many endings you’ve unlocked and how many more you have left to discover.
Several different composers (Lorraine Wong, James Molloy, and Eli Orcutt specifically) all form a melancholic soundtrack that pairs well with the game’s themes. Similarly, while the voice acting does occasionally dip into melodramatic territory, I did enjoy the numerous performances here. Lauren Kong, who played Ezekiel, did a particularly fantastic job in the lead role.
A VN of Biblical Proportions
I didn’t read the Bible. Well, that’s not necessarily true. Just before getting my wisdom teeth ripped out, I popped open a nearby pressing of it at a dental office and skimmed through Genesis. If I recall correctly, God said there would be light, turned out the light, made water, and then took a nap. I think that’s roughly the gist of it.
What I’m saying is that Seraphim Slum is heavily inspired by the Bible. Each of the main characters you interact with takes heavy inspiration from specific Christian stories. While the game’s themes aren’t necessarily bound to religion by itself, there’s certainly a lot more to appreciate if you’re at all familiar with Christendom. The same can be said of its other inspirations.
Meta narratives in visual novels aren’t anything new. By now, even people who aren’t familiar with the genre are at least partially aware of Doki Doki Literature Club, a game that took standardized visual novel conventions and flipped them on their heads for a terrifying horror experience. It preyed on the kind of generic tropes that the genre had built up over the years. Seraphim Slum does something similar, but it thankfully does it in a way that’s subtle enough to distinguish itself from its peers.
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It lacks a traditional fail state. The challenge in playing Seraphim Slum comes from making the “right” decisions in how you interact with each of the slum’s residents, and should you veer down the wrong path for too long, things will get a little . . . scary. More often than not, the game will prematurely close itself before starting back at the title screen. Should you resume where you left off, all the “incorrect” options will be appropriately marked.
It’s an interesting way to handle this kind of thing. The guesswork of getting a specific ending is, for the most part, taken away. Scary sequences and alternative scenarios become more of a curiosity than anything else. Likewise, it ties into the game’s themes surrounding predestination and maybe even the true ending—but we won’t spoil anything about that for you here.
There are some bugs here and there. It’s nothing really too obnoxious, thankfully. The only major thing that I’ve really noticed was that if you’re rapidly skipping through voice lines, some dialogue choices may take a second to fully catch up. If you’re not aware of the game’s utilization of crashing and starting up again as well, you may feel tempted to just close the game out completely and start it again. It does take a bit longer to reload itself than you’d expect.
Should You Play Seraphim Slum?
For something that started out as a simple game jam project, Seraphim Slum comes together in a full package that’s surprisingly impressive. Even though it costs absolutely nothing, there’s quite a bit of effort going on in its presentation, its writing, and in its overall accessibility as a game.
If you’re looking for a visual novel of any kind to play, I think there are certainly worse options to go with. Especially for the low, lost cost of . . . nothing. It’ll take around half a dozen hours to do just about everything there is to do in Seraphim Slum. Given its brevity, it’s hard for me not to recommend it.
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Seraphim Slum is ultimately a visual novel that carves its own unique identity in a saturated space. It blends its influences into a functional tale of corruption and loves that rewards your successive playthroughs, carrying with it some impressive aesthetics and metatextual twists as well. If you have a weekend to spare, Seraphim Slum is absolutely worth checking out.
Seraphim Slum is currently free to play on Steam and itch.io. If you’d like to support rosesrot, you can buy A Seraphim’s Guide to the Slum, a walkthrough/making-of DLC pack that costs around $10.
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