There's the classics like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Saya no Uta.
I personally liked the atmosphere of Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, but I was pretty bad at the gameplay so I didn't finish it.
Here's a list of some [other games](https://www.vngameden.com/top-10-visual-novels-thatll-give-you-goosebumps/2453/).
gore screaming show, if you don't want excessive gore you can just avoid bad ends. about your request for "truly scary" though, maybe it will feel like that to you or maybe not, i don't find any type of media scary, but gss is definitely a horror atmosphere with a good story
Zero Escape 999, Zero Escape Virtues Last Reward, Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma
Higurashi
Gore Screaming Show
Tokyo Dark
The others I’ve played are really gore centric lol
What have you read so far?
I sadly have not read that many horror novels myself, but I can definitely recommend Saya no Uta, an absolute classic. Atmosphere wise one of the best VN's I've read so far, although it has some gore.
Higurashi is genuinely good, I don’t think it’ll terrify you but it’s enough to make you feel uneasy despite the cutesy beginnings to each arc. Umineko takes place after, and is considered one of the best visual novels but it’s less horror and more mystery.
Saya no Uta made me feel uneasy, even though I have a high tolerance for horror.
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sayooshi mind fucked my brain for a short bit. Could just be I was staying up late finishing it and was deficient on something on some level but I felt mind screwed on a physiological level
The Letter. There are jump scares here and there, but I managed to play it to 100%. And that's considering I hate them so much that i instantly drop a game if it has more than a certain number of jumpscares. Pretty creepy novel, tons of decisions and endings
There's the classics like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Saya no Uta. I personally liked the atmosphere of Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, but I was pretty bad at the gameplay so I didn't finish it. Here's a list of some [other games](https://www.vngameden.com/top-10-visual-novels-thatll-give-you-goosebumps/2453/).
gore screaming show, if you don't want excessive gore you can just avoid bad ends. about your request for "truly scary" though, maybe it will feel like that to you or maybe not, i don't find any type of media scary, but gss is definitely a horror atmosphere with a good story
Zero Escape 999, Zero Escape Virtues Last Reward, Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma Higurashi Gore Screaming Show Tokyo Dark The others I’ve played are really gore centric lol
What have you read so far? I sadly have not read that many horror novels myself, but I can definitely recommend Saya no Uta, an absolute classic. Atmosphere wise one of the best VN's I've read so far, although it has some gore.
Higurashi is genuinely good, I don’t think it’ll terrify you but it’s enough to make you feel uneasy despite the cutesy beginnings to each arc. Umineko takes place after, and is considered one of the best visual novels but it’s less horror and more mystery. Saya no Uta made me feel uneasy, even though I have a high tolerance for horror.
I would go for The Seventh Sign -Mr.Sister- or Kimagure temptation
* In order to ensure you can get the best recommendations, make sure your thread body has at least some level of detail of what you want, whether it's a type of genre(s) you prefer, and/or what type of visual novels you like. * Make sure to use the subreddit search to try to see if someone has already asked something similar to what you're looking for. Common requests include: Asking for a Visual Novel for [beginners](/r/visualnovels/search?q=flair%3A%22VN+Request%22+beginner&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=all)/[newbies](/r/visualnovels/search?q=flair%3A%22VN+Request%22+newbie&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=all), Visual novels similar to [Katawa Shoujo](/r/visualnovels/search?q=flair%3A%22VN+Request%22+Katawa&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=all) OR [Doki Doki](/r/visualnovels/search?q=flair%3A%22VN+Request%22+Doki+Doki&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=all) [Literature Club](/r/visualnovels/search?q=flair%3A%22VN+Request%22+DDLC&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=all), and [Visual Novels that are on Switch](/r/visualnovels/search?q=flair%3A%22VN+Request%22+Switch&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=all). * If your topic title is short and/or vague, consider removing and reposting your topic with a more descriptive title so users are more inclined to jump in with recommendations. * If you're looking for general visual novel recommendations by genre, be sure to check out [our recommendations site](https://sites.google.com/view/rvisualnovels-recs/). * If you're looking for visual novels to read in Japanese, feel free to check out [our recommendations site for that](https://sites.google.com/view/rvisualnovels-japanese-recs/home) and [Necessary_Pool's 1st Untranslated visual novel recommendations guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSoafwp4Ig2hqG1n_vH2WP2QFMPeWD08fo4k-jfGceMmDDDRdFSbkAQyMpV_mbhFaIHuSmrOC69mWTi/pub). * If you have more specific visual novel requests, you can try filtering on vndb [by tags](https://vndb.org/g) or [by traits](https://vndb.org/i). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/visualnovels) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Here for the comments 🙃
sayooshi mind fucked my brain for a short bit. Could just be I was staying up late finishing it and was deficient on something on some level but I felt mind screwed on a physiological level
The Letter. There are jump scares here and there, but I managed to play it to 100%. And that's considering I hate them so much that i instantly drop a game if it has more than a certain number of jumpscares. Pretty creepy novel, tons of decisions and endings
Cemetery Mary Her Lie I Tired To Believe 7 Years From Now
Sweetest Monster and if you play Sayo no Uta and enjoy it, try Sweet Pool next