I Did Not Buy This Ticket

Title: I Did Not Buy This Ticket
Publisher: Time Galleon
Developer: Tiago Rech, Time Galleon
Release Date: April 13, 2023
Genres: Indie, Visual Novel
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Where to Buy: Steam, itch.io
Rating:

Candelaria travels from one funeral to the next, weeping for the departed she has never met in life, going on long night treks that keep her insomnia at bay.

When she comes across a bus ticket she did not buy to the mysterious Eigengrau Line, she is forced to confront traumas from the past and define a new course for her life.

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Review

I Did Not Buy This Ticket is a surreal horror visual novel about grief. A professional mourner suffering from insomnia travels by bus from funeral to funeral weeping for the departed. Her routine is upended when she boards a bus she does not remember buying a ticket for, and her journey takes her to the edges of reality.

The highlight of the game is the highly stylized and moody art. Each ending unlocked a CG, but instead of being a scene from the game each one was a collage. I was excited each time I unlocked a new CG. I was also pretty impressed with how clean the UI is compared to other visual novels. Controls were smooth and I was able to become fully immersed in the creeping atmosphere of the game.

The story and characters are strange, but interesting, and I enjoyed my first playthrough of the game. This is a visual novel with a lot of choices, and there are many branching paths and a fair number of endings based on your decisions. Most are not terribly different from others, but there were a few that surprised me. Unlocking all of the endings was a little tedious and not easy to do without a guide.

Overall it is a pretty short experience, and I was able to unlock all of the achievements in around 4 hours. The story is a little too brief to leave a lasting impression, but it’s a pretty neat experience and I’m interested in the developer’s work in the future.

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