Pale Cachexia

posted on 8 Jan 2022

This VN deserves another playthrough from me. Due to life circumstances, I played it in brief and sporadic chunks. It’s best read in a few long stretches closer to one another, or even a single sitting if you can manage it.

Pale Cachexia radiates a distinctive sense of atmosphere and feeling tones that cannot be found in many other visual novels or video games. Various labels can be used to classify it, but in a true artistic fashion, conglomerations of language only serve to skew its underlying core that presents itself differently to each individual.

It’s strengths manifest in its well written dialog, gorgeous drawings, and haunting soundtrack. Beyond all of these visual illusions are its greatest strength: focus in story and presentation.

As time progresses and we become exposed to more and more fictional mediums, we feel as if the same ideas get repeated many times over in slightly different permutations. An over-saturated market. We become desensitized.

A common approach to mitigating this is creating ever larger and more expansive worlds, filled with numerous characters and ever increasing plot complexity.

There is a different way, a more counter-intuitive way to create something that shines in a sea of mediocrity and repetition, and it is found in this visual novel.

Simplicity, minimalism, and focus. Quality over quantity. Honing in on a strong plot and seeing it through to the end without progressive divergence into tangents. Crafting a small number of characters, giving them each the time to develop and show their nuances, quirks, and motivations. More simply - creating a good story.

Because when all is said and done, what really captures the interests of humanity and stands the tests of time is a good story. In other words, the tale of how a deeply flawed character experiences the world they find themselves in, and how they change in the process of overcoming the difficulty the universe has thrown at them.

The story grabs you, sucks you in with its subtlety and design, and has you exercising a level of empathy you did not know existed within you. The characters become real in their personality and delicate interactions. You are able to see the pain within.

Pale Cachexia realizes this. It does away with the flashiness, the needless complexity, the extraneous, and as a result, quality, substance, and style emerge.

This fact, combined with the marvelous illustrations and music, make this a highly recommended visual novel from me. And it’s a shame it’s not more popular.