Soul Void

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Lost in a Game Boy purgatory, helping the souls who cannot leave.

Platforms: Browser
Stores: itch.io
Price: Free
Rated: Rated 4.9 of 5 by 1,114 players on itch.io
Length: 1 to 3 hours
Players: 1
Controls: WASD or arrow keys to move, E to interact, Q for settings
Made by: Kadabura
Released: 2019

Not on Linux. Soul Void is on itch.io and Browser. It is not in the Linux part of the site you came from.

What frightens A woman wakes in a dark green void of lost souls: kneeling figures with branching growths for heads, a tall pale thing tangled in vines bleeding into the floor, a mass of eyes that demands an offering. Its Game Boy pixel art makes the body horror and the quiet, empty places feel stranger.
Content: body horror, blood, disturbing imagery.

A free browser horror adventure by Kadabura, made in GB Studio to look like a Game Boy game. You explore the strange landscapes of a void full of lost souls, help the ones you meet and face your inner demons on the way home, in one to three hours.

About Soul Void

Soul Void is a free horror adventure by Kadabura (the artist Brooke Edenfield), made with GB Studio and first released on itch.io in 2019. A Redux update in June 2023 redrew the graphics and added a soundtrack, a save system, new characters and quests and a ROM that runs on real Game Boy hardware. It plays in the browser.

You are a woman who finds herself in the void, a dim purgatory of odd landscapes and lost souls. You walk from screen to screen, talk to the creatures and spirits you meet, help them with their problems and look for a way to get home.

There is no combat. You explore, read and solve small quest puzzles, such as bringing the right thing to the right soul. Movement speed options, easy backtracking and cheats in the Redux version make it gentle to play.

What unsettles is the place itself and what lives there: kneeling figures with branching growths for heads, a pale figure wrapped in vines bleeding into the ground, a mass of staring eyes asking for an offering. The four-shade green palette of a Game Boy screen makes it all quieter and odder, closer to a bad dream than a chase.

It suits players who like surreal, exploration-led horror in the vein of Yume Nikki or OFF and who enjoy retro pixel art.

How to play Soul Void

Open its itch.io page and run it in the browser; it is free.
Move with WASD or the arrow keys and talk or interact with E.
Explore each area of the void and talk to the lost souls you meet to learn what they need.
Help them with their quests, find the way onward and save your progress from the settings menu (Q).

Screenshots

A tall pale figure tangled in hanging vines, standing in a pool of red blood in green pixel art

The small player figure facing three kneeling figures with branching growths for heads among plants

A column of tangled vines covered in eyes, with the text I require an offering

A small pixel bedroom with a bed, shelves and black cables snaking across the floor

Tips

Talk to every soul twice; many give hints about where to go next.
Use the movement speed option if backtracking feels slow.
Turn off caps lock: its maker notes the keyboard input is case-sensitive.
If it boots to a black screen in Chrome, allow third-party cookies for itch.io or use another browser, as its maker advises.