Games I Played In 2025: The Midnight Sanctuary

   

Console: Switch, PS4, Steam

Developer: CAVYHOUSE

Release Date: October 3, 2018

The Midnight Sanctuary is a 3D visual novel with heavy religious and occult themes. Developed by CAVYHOUSE, a Japanese indie two-person studio, The Midnight Sanctuary is a visual novel with no real gameplay; instead, the player merely chooses which area to go and then proceeds to watch a cutscene. There are no missable cutscenes, and the entire thing will last around 4-5 hours.

What first stands out is The Midnight Sanctuary's visuals, which are generously described as 'gorgeous like cut-paper art.' While the intention is appreciated, it has to be said that the game is a bit rough on the eyes, sporting low quality environments with zero shadows to give them volume or weight, and very basic character models that are animated in a very stiff, rudimentary manner. That's not to mention that the character models have some amateur-looking traits to them, such as one character having unnaturally long fingers and another having long tentacle-like arms; it's difficult to tell if this is due to a lack of budget/talent, an attempt at being unsettling, or both. Most characters only have two or three facial expressions and no real lip-syncing animation. The girl in red, in particular, has a facial expression I can only describe as "anime delinquent" that is used all the time, yet rarely seems to fit.

Another aspect of the visuals that is impossible to ignore is the texture work, specifically with the stained glass image I used as the header. Almost every NPC character and certain effects like fire and glass feature this unmoving image as their texture, as if it were constantly in the background and their textures were see-through. Think of the animated show Chowder (or Delta State if you're a real one). At first, it's very distracting and hard on the eyes, but there is a pretty good environmental storytelling reason use for it that I won't spoil. As I kept playing, I got more used to it and it was less of a distraction by the end, but I still think that while it's a cool effect, it's a bit too much at times and could've been dialed back. Surreal visuals are nice in this sort of game, but too much and it loses its luster and impact.

The Midnight Sanctuary actually has an intriguing, unique setting, being focused on Daiusu Village, an isolated Christian village in Japan that is trying to modernise itself to appeal to the world. As a result, the village chief's son, Jyuan, contacts Hamomoru Tachibana, a Christian pastor, to Daiusu to serve as a historian and help them attract tourists and new settlers. There is also a mysterious lady in red in the village, as well as the village's pastor, Kurosu. Other than these four (and a spoilery fifth character), all the other characters are faceless NPCs draped in robes that merely show the stained glass image, but with different headbands and leggings (which I found impossible to remember, barring two obvious ones). 

Naturally, while things start innocently enough, it doesn't take too long for a mystery to bubble to the surface, and then spin out of control. The story goes to some dark places, though the atmosphere is alleviated by the simplistic visuals. I'd say the story is well-written, in a way that feels like an elongated folktale, or a horror short story, down to the way the story ends in a bit of an unsatisfying shoulder shrug that's left to interpretation. It nonetheless feels like the game truly has something to say in relation to faith and one's purpose in life, which I appreciated. However, I found the localization a little strange, having entire sentences seemingly made-up to express what sounds like a few words at times. There were also a handful of typos and odd word choices, but I find those acceptable to an extent in foreign indie games.

Most notable is that the game is fully voice acted, with fairly well-known Japanese voice actors, the biggest of which is Hamomoru's voice actress, Yu Shimamura (Attack on Titan, Final Fantasy XV, Legend of Zelda). The voice acting sounded like it was pretty good to my untrained ear, which made The Midnight Sanctuary much more palatable and the characters far more likeable. Even all the NPCs are voiced in ways that make them recognisable beyond their different headbands and titles.

The complete lack of gameplay outside of choosing which area to go to and reading the status of Hamomoru and the village is disappointing, as even without changing the story, I feel like being allowed to explore Daiusu and trigger cutscenes like that would've been more interesting. However, there's most likely a good reason for this: The Midnight Sanctuary is, at its core, a VR game. There is a silent character, the Watcher, which is present in every cutscene and is the viewpoint for VR players to my understanding. What I played is instead presented in a more typical 'cutscene' fashion, with different camera angles across a scene. This Watcher character is still present in the non-VR version of the game, and does have some story significance, though it doesn't feel like it goes far enough.

The game's music, as with everything that wasn't a free asset or sound (or the story), was made by Yoshino. It's a fine soundtrack, simple and effective enough, but the game's low budget is apparent in how there's not much musical identity to the whole affair. Still, I can't help but admire that this was, for all intents and purposes, a solo effort by an indie dev. And through that lens, it's quite impressive, especially since there's some two songs with vocals that sound quite nice, though simple. It's little more than a serviceable offering at the end of the day, though.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Interesting story with a unique setting.

• Likeable, well-defined characters, especially Hamomoru.

• A really cool use of the kaleidoscope-like graphical trick with the stained glass image.

• Story is generally well-written, and has some good twists that make sense and are properly foreshadowed as well as some truly dark moments and some mildly harrowing moments.

• Solid voice acting that adds a lot to the game.

CONS

• Overly simple visuals that don't live up to the "papercraft" look it's trying to go for.

• Hard on the eyes due to the unmoving stained glass image that permeates a ton of the game's textures, the lack of shadows, and the stiff character animation.

• A lack of real atmosphere makes the story less scary and unnerving when it should be on top of the lacking visuals. This isn't helped by the fact a lot of the cutscenes lack music and the free SFX used are more distracting than anything.

• No real interaction makes the game... not much of a game. 

• Bit of a limp ending that doesn't feel very satisfying.

• Lack of stability; the game hung twice when trying to load the epilogue scene on PS4 (played on a PS5) and I've seen some people mention crashes on PC with VR.

WORTH PLAYING?

I'd have to go with no, not because I don't think The Midnight Sanctuary is bad, but mostly because it'll appeal to very few people with its very lackluster visuals, simple music, and complete lack of interaction coupled with its short length. I don't think it's particularly great either despite having some interesting parts and good voice acting, but there's something to like here nonetheless. The main character, Hamomoru, is also seemingly in all of CAVYHOUSE's games, or at least the large majority of them, which I can't help but appreciate. Either way, if The Midnight Sanctuary interests you, I'd wait for a sale.

I have to say though, in its very own way, The Midnight Sanctuary is somewhat of an inspiring game to me. It's still a full experience with redeeming qualities, in spite of looking pretty ugly and clearly being a low-budget game. And for something made by two people, I think it's pretty neat overall.