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soundless - A MODERN SALEM IN REMOTE AREA -

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A village cult, a girl it calls cursed, and a Holy Woman who sees it too.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Android
Stores: Steam, itch.io
Price: Free
Rated: 4.8 out of 5 on itch.io (107 ratings)
Length: about 6 to 8 hours
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard, mouse or gamepad: click or press a key to advance text; menus for history, save, load, skip and auto.
Made by: milk+ visual
Released: 2017

What frightens In a cut-off village of 145 people run by a church called the Group, a girl who sees things no one else can is isolated as a 'cure' and then bullied and blamed when the Holy Woman dies; the horror is the cult, the abuse and a reality that starts to contradict itself, with gore, torture and surreal, disorienting scenes.
Content: bullying, religious abuse, domestic abuse, cults, gore, torture, disturbing imagery.

soundless - A MODERN SALEM IN REMOTE AREA - is a free psychological horror visual novel by milk+ visual. In Phada, a remote village ruled by a small church, fifteen-year-old Mercy is shunned and bullied as cursed for seeing what others cannot, until one of two new Holy Women tells her she can see it too.

About soundless - A MODERN SALEM IN REMOTE AREA -

soundless - A MODERN SALEM IN REMOTE AREA - is the first visual novel of milk+ visual, released free on itch.io in September 2017 and made in Ren'Py. Its current edition, Final Verse, has redrawn art from 2023 alongside the original, and on 29 September 2025 it also came out free on Steam. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and itch.io offers an Android build as well.

Phada is a village of 145 people cut off from the world, governed by the Group, a small clergy in the church on the hill that worships a god of two halves, Barrier and Expulsive. Mercy has seen the unseen since childhood. When her sight worsened at ten, the Head Priest and the Holy Woman decided on a cure: isolate her until she stopped seeing things. At fifteen she goes to school as an empty shell, and her classmates torment her. When the 25th Holy Woman dies suddenly, the village blames Mercy's curse, and then the Head Priest announces that God has sent two new Holy Women instead of one.

It is a kinetic novel: there are no choices, only reading. The horror is in the slow grind of a closed community turning on one girl, in the scripture and rites that excuse it, and in documents and accounts that stop agreeing with each other as Mercy looks into what is happening. Its makers warn of extreme bullying, religious and domestic abuse, cults, gore and torture, and disorienting, surreal scenes, and the itch.io page opens by telling anyone who does not want horror about bullying and cults to turn back. The art and interface deliberately recall the visual novels of the early 2000s, and the story is a yuri tale at its heart.

It is also unusually accessible: itch.io lists it as blind friendly, and it has text-to-speech and screen reader support on computers, captions for music and sound, image descriptions, a photosensitive mode and an option for the Atkinson Hyperlegible font. It suits readers of long, dark visual novels such as Higurashi or Bad Faith who can take heavy subject matter.

How to play soundless - A MODERN SALEM IN REMOTE AREA -

Download it free from itch.io (Windows, macOS, Linux or Android) or add it free on Steam.
Read the content warnings first; the game is about bullying, abuse and a cult.
Click, press a key or use a gamepad to advance the text.
Use the history to reread lines, and save often from the menu; there are no choices, so the story runs straight through.
Open the options to switch on captions, the photosensitive mode, text-to-speech or the alternative font if you need them.

Screenshots

soundless screenshot: two silver-haired Holy Women in black and gold robes stand before a shouting priest and a blindfolded man as villagers crowd in

soundless screenshot: in a sepia classroom a girl sits hunched at a desk covered in scribbles while the text says nobody would approach her

soundless screenshot: two figures with scribbled-out heads loom against a glitching red background as Mercy begs them to stop

soundless screenshot: a distorted purple figure hangs with arms spread among red spikes in the dark

Tips

Set aside several evenings: it is a long read, not a quick scare.
Pay attention to the scripture and to who says what about the past; the accounts do not all agree.
If the original 2017 art appeals more than the 2023 redraw, the game lets you switch.
Saves from versions before 3.1 do not carry over, so start fresh if you played an old build.

Questions

Is soundless free?

Yes. milk+ visual gives it away free on itch.io and on Steam.

How long is soundless?

itch.io lists average sessions of a few hours; a review on VN Paths puts the whole story at six to eight hours.

Does soundless have choices or multiple endings?

No. It is a kinetic novel with one linear story.

Is soundless scary?

It is psychological horror rather than jump scares: a cult, relentless bullying and abuse, and scenes of gore and torture. Its makers ask players who do not want that to turn back.

Can I play soundless on Android?

Yes. The itch.io page offers an Android build, which is also tablet compatible.