The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass

Safe / Tame (13)

Title

Play time

Long (42h from 57 votes)

Developer

Trinitite Team

Publishers

Trinitite Team
WJ-Collect

Links

Wikidata, HowLongToBeat, IGDB, PCGamingWiki, Lutris, VNStat

Description

The discovery of a rare gemstone draws people to an exhibit held in Ashiya Tower. Just as the event begins, the tower is flooded with smoke and the emergency shutters activate, trapping 8 people in the tower for the next 12 hours.

With no clear facts about the events occurring inside the building, the public and police can only speculate. Why can't the shutters be opened? Is anyone behind this, and if so, who? Are the people inside even still alive?

These questions can't be answered until the time is up. Even then, describing the events that transpired might prove to be a challenge. Prepare for twists and questions that will keep you theorizing, second-guessing, and searching for the ultimate truth.

contenttechnicalhide spoilersshow minor spoilersspoil me!summaryall

Confinement 3.0 Intrigue^S 3.0 Linear Plot^S 3.0 Museum 3.0 Mystery 3.0 One True End^S 3.0 Time Travel^S 3.0 NVL 2.8 Alternate Dimensions^S 2.8 Backlog Jump 2.8 Infodumping 2.8 Hard Science Fiction 2.7 Time Loop^S 2.7 Mind Screw 2.6 Built-in Flowchart^S 2.5 Paranoia 2.5 Unlockable Bonus Content^S 2.5 Playtime Counter 2.4 Brief Branches Only 2.3 Multiple Protagonists^S 2.3 Murder Mystery^S 2.3 Narrator as a Character^S 2.3 Science Fiction 2.3 No Sexual Content 2.2 Protagonist with a Face 2.2 Winter 2.2 Bad Endings with Story 2.0 Childhood Friend Support Character 2.0 Child Support Character 2.0 Death of Heroine^S 2.0 Detective Work 2.0 Disappearance 2.0 Fictional Modern Day Japanese Town 2.0 Jump to Prior Scene 2.0 Life and Death Drama 2.0 Mother Support Character 2.0 Multiple Credit Rolls 2.0 Music Recollection 2.0 Office 2.0 On the Run 2.0 Ordered Choices^S 2.0 Psychological Trauma 2.0 Unoriginal Soundtrack 2.0 Few Event CGs 1.5 Male Protagonist 1.5 Photographic Backgrounds 1.5 Unreliable Narrator^S 1.5 Varied Title Screens 1.5 2010s 1.3 Battle of Wits 1.3 Unlockable Gallery 1.2 Adult Protagonist 1.2 Corporations 1.0 Crime Family^S 1.0 Descriptions of Violence^S 1.0 Falsely Accused^S 1.0 Female Protagonist^S 1.0 Modern Day Japan 1.0 Restart from Chapter Index 1.0 Time Jump^S 1.0 Track Display 1.0 Achievements 0.3

By Myna on 2021-05-18r74268Vote: 7

This review will contain major spoilers for the entire game.

Whatever your opinion on The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass is, there’s no denying it’s truly something special. A visual novel made with this much care and love put into it is extraordinarily rare, and I want to make that very clear. I have a deep respect and admiration for the fact that this game exists, and you should too.

Ultimately, I’d expect a majority of people who play The Sekimeiya will be forced to confront whether or not this is a game for them. It’s the obvious question to ask - The Sekimeiya was simply not designed for mass appeal. I have seen, and can expect to see many more complaints and criticisms about this game that... Read more »

This review contains spoilers, click to view.

0 comments 4 points

By tysonex on 2021-05-09r74268Vote: 10

<report>Sekimeiya is one of the best games/visual novels I've ever played. I've been interested in this game since the kickstarter and as a massive mystery game fan I had high expectations. It exceeded them in every single way.

The game is about a group of individuals entering a tower for an event, who all get trapped and have strange experiences happen to them. They are taken on a ride for the next 12 hours.

And boy, what a ride it was. This might be the single most complex/intricate narrative I've ever played in a game. There are so many twists and turns that the story takes and all of them are consistent with the rules of the world. The rules are hard to figure out, and the game does provide a... Read more »

1 comment 4 points

By canSnom on 2022-04-27Vote: 7

I'll start this by saying I did not go back through the game for tips. Let me know if it's worth doing or if it helps with any of the issues I had.

I liked this VN, but I can't say I loved it. I've seen a lot of other reviews that go into the characters being robotic and uninteresting, so I won't go into that here, but I would agree with those comments. This VN reminds me a lot of the film Coherence (minor spoilers for this). In my opinion it has a core mystery that isn't too complicated, but is made artificially complex by how frequently characters time travel or world-switch. I ended up not really caring too much about what was going on by Chapter 4 because the Sekimeiya had been used so... Read more »

This review contains spoilers, click to view.

2 comments 3 points

By ss-danko on 2021-06-26r74268Vote: 10

<report>One of the most engrossing mysteries I've read. I was on the edge of my seat for basically the entire duration of this game and could only stare in awe at some of the crazy events, twists, and revelations that kept coming one after another. Excellent presentation, soundtrack, and an absurdly complex and refined story that I can't even fathom exists.

Despite how much I loved this game, take it with a gran of salt. The writing is very dense, and if you want to keep up and understand what's going on, you'll have to pay very close attention to every minute detail. All the answers are there, but there's so much going on that even after finish the game, I'd have to replay it to thoroughly... Read more »

2 comments 2 points

By flvbycjctnheheh on 2021-10-02Vote: 9.1

<report>Without a question, it's the best OELVN out there by a far margin. It's success on Steam was hindered by the fact that the authors decided to omit what this game is truly about in the description to avoid "spoilers" so I'll respect their decision and put it under one as well, even though it's something you learn in the first 4 hours out of 40. It's a complex mystery story with some murders that uses complex time travel theories. It's very similar to games like Ever17, Remember11, 999, Root;Double, though it has elements from Umineko and S;G as well. As a mystery, this game is really the best out there as it's more complex than any of the games I've mentioned and honestly the most... Read more »

0 comments 2 points

By loomweaver on 2021-08-29r74268Vote: 10

<report>Sekimeiya is a dense ontological mystery with immaculate attention to detail and all the necessary tools (and then some) required to solve it, extremely fair to the player yet still managing to confuse and misdirect at every step.
As any dense mystery reliant on its details, it is best enjoyed completely blind, but I want you to know that the Sekimeiya truly stands out in its respective niche of ontological mystery VNs (and ontological mysteries in general), and the novel ideas it presents are executed competently enough to provide a unique experience worth having.
If the paragraph above was enough to interest you in the slightest, you should stop reading this review and play it. Sekimeiya... Read more »

0 comments 1 point

By questlion on 2021-05-08r74268Vote: 3

Okay, this is full review on Sekimeiya. My previous review was short and kinda emotional which is bad thing for vndb, so since people from development team are ganging up on me I really need to show why my arguments stand. Be warned - this review includes Remember11 spoilers too. Why? You'll see. So let's begin.

First part is UI. No problems here, it's really good. Search option is unique and helpful, but this is not useful feature for most visual novels. Only ones with mystery in which you need to reread. And even then, these have TIPS and flowchart available on start, not after you finish story. If you were been given TIPS from start it were much easier. But no, they include spoilers... Read more »

This review contains spoilers, click to view.

15 comments 0 points

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