Review: Speed Dating for Ghosts (2018)

Original post: https://misthold.dreamwidth.org/6966.html

Speed Dating for Ghosts (2018) is an interactive fiction/visual novel/dating sim where you play as a nameless, genderless ghost attending a speed dating night. I went into this thinking it'd be a kooky, humorous game– but it was way more heartfelt than I expected from first glance.

There are 12 total ghosts to date, plus a secret 13th option. The ghosts' personalities vary a lot, they all have different backgrounds and stories and goals (and genders, including two nonbinary ghosts), and it was really neat seeing such a wide selection of people in one dating sim.

Each dialogue option leads to different story lines, and though you can technically date every ghost, you won't necessarily be able to get ALL the storylines in one play session. For instance, I didn't vibe with one ghost right at the beginning of the game, and he noped out of the rest of the speed dating session and was unavailable for the entire rest of the game. Also, some choices you make in one dating story affect the interactions you have with other ghosts!

You CAN go back and replay the dates individually, but there's no way to skip previously-seen text, unfortunately. There's definitely some dialogue options that help you vibe more with certain ghosts, because when you pick the “right” sequence they get adorable floating hearts around their heads. However, not every ghost is actually a romantic prospect, as far as I can tell– like, one ghost is a dog? I don't want to date a dog.

A good chunk of the dates aren't actually dates, they're more like therapy sessions or mysteries. But! The therapy sessions just made me sad. And solving the mysteries doesn't lead to happy endings, either. One ghost who had a mystery-solving date went into a dissociative episode at the after-party, and I couldn't figure out how to snap him out of it even having solved the mystery of his death. Or if I even could!

Also one post-date interaction was a mini game of Nim, which I can't figure out how to win.

Anyway, I stuck with the “don't want to hurt people, want to help people” route and through all but one ghost date options. It took me slightly less than 4 hours to finish the game, going just one straight-forward route. I think the other dialogue options lead to slightly different routes, but maybe just ones where they either like or dislike me more than they already do.

I really enjoyed this game! Even though it made me sad, and even though the ghosts were a little scary, it was fun to interact with them. And it was nice to think a little more deeply about what life means, what happens when you lose it and how that might affect you…it was very heartfelt, and had an unexpected depth to its story.

Price: $6.99

Content notes: some ghosts are scary-looking, though they're all in doodle style. Some spooky sounds. Sad ghost stories, and the previously-mentioned dissociative episode.

Available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Nintendo Switch. I played the Mac OS version.