Free Visual Novel for Windows
Lift Your Spirits is a free visual novel for Windows by DeersphereStudios. As a college student on a deadline, you find yourself alone on campus at night. As is often the case in creepy campuses at night, you get stuck in a lift, and horrible things start to happen.
Similar to Vampire Slave and (Don’t) Open Your Eyes, you interact with the world via by multiple-choice selections. In this case, it’s a short title that will only last around 20 minutes, rather than days, but there are different endings, so it has some replayability.
Well-realised artwork
Visual Novels rely, of course, on their art as one of their main selling points. Lift Your Spirits delivers in this respect, with a distinctive style that sets the mood perfectly. Its illustration-like scenes are beautifully rendered, with dark tones that are never so dark that you can’t understand what’s going on.
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There is also voice acting and carefully placed noises and audio cues that help build the claustrophobic experience of being stuck in a lift.
Some shortcomings
Since it’s not a AAA title with billions in its budget, it’s logical that there are some loose ends here and there. One of the biggest ones is that the text speed can be changed. However, it can become out of sync with the audio clues if you do this.
There are also four endings, labelled as two “good” and two “bad” endings. However, after one playthrough, you can pretty much guess what the other endings might be about.
An intriguing 20-minute experience
Lift Your Spirits is a great pocket-sized experience you can take up when you have some in-between time. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad title at all. In fact, the story is well-written, the options you choose matter, and it is a good overall experience.
While other horror visual novels can be somewhat cheesy or rely on cheap scares, Lift Your Spirit never loses its grace. It’s not meant to make you jump off your chair but to get you wondering about explanations. In this sense, it’s much closer to a UFO encounter than meeting a Zombie.
