Narcissu is a short visual novel that is freely available, cross-platform, and has an official English translation. It’s about two terminally ill patients who meet at the hospital. They decide they don’t want to just die at the hospital or at home so they decide to just go and drive off somewhere.

Going through the story reminded me a lot of 5 Centimetres per Second. The characters are all very soft-spoken and melancholic, probably because they’re about to die. There’s an atmosphere of sadness that lingers around for the duration of the time you’re reading. Even though there might be a few relatively light moments here and there, it doesn’t really change the direction and mood of what’s eventually going to happen.

For a free game, it’s very well produced. The music, art, and voice acting is pretty good. Even though it uses the NScripter engine, it looks a lot more professional than Umineko or Tsukihime. Already, this makes giving it a spin very well worth the time.