Title	Karamu
Credit	Chattercap
Media	Otome Game
Platform	PC, Mobile
Genre	Horror, Romance, Supernatural
Year	2023
Character Type	1 Yandere

Nelli Owens had sent a breakup text message to her boyfriend Rakuo Kumode 2 weeks ago, and had successfully avoided him until now. While cycling through the woods, Nelli’s bike chain broke, and Rakuo appeared by coincident. With a sudden rain, the two were left stranded in a vacant bus stop. Rakuo obviously wishes to talk, but Nelli is reluctant. Will they be able to sort things out, or will things take a sinister turn?

SPOILERS AND PERSONAL OPINION

Karamu is a short visual novel centering on a young woman named Nelli Owens, and her sudden breakup with her clingy boyfriend Rakuo Kumode, or “Raku”. The visual novel features a total of 4 different endings, and can be completed within an hour. The game is formatted in a way that encourages you to replay the game in order to get the full story. The game is also fully-voiced, including the protagonist, which is extremely rare in otome games. Karamu can be played on both PC and mobile platforms. Best of all, this game is totally free.

I was immediately impressed when I first entered the game, and was greeted by a cute little mushroom mascot, even giving a tutorial on how to navigate the game. The UI was neat. The background music and the SFX were also well done. Instead of the standard visual novel style interface, the game features a comic book-like structure, which was a breath of fresh air. I also want to give special mentions to the voice acting of both the in-game characters, which I thought was spectacularly done. I can’t believe I get to play this game for free, especially when it is so apparent the amount of effort put in from start to finish.

It is already quite obvious who the yandere in this game is, but I shall say no more here and leave it to the character’s page. But I must say that the yandere is rather unconventional, and quite interesting of a character. The story, despite short, was also quite interesting. I just wish it could have been longer so that all these characters can be better explored. To have 4 different endings in such a short game is remarkable, but given the even wider variety of choices to be made in-game, I felt that not all of the choices really mattered. And I may be a bit greedy here, but I would really have liked to see more yandere moments, not just towards to ending. But I do understand that it is hard to achieve in such a short game. Still, I really enjoyed this visual novel, and I highly recommend everyone to check this out.

CHARACTER SPOILERS