Scar of the Doll Review – A Compelling Revival of the Classic Mystery Visual Novel

On the surface, Scar of the Doll is your run-of-the-mill visual novel with an unassuming guise as a horror/mystery-flavored visual novel title you might see anywhere. What isn’t immediately apparent is that the game is a remake of a quaint indie-developed Japanese PC title dating back to the late 90s.

Scar of the Doll was created and published by Hidehisa Miyashita of Child-Dream and made on the RPG Maker 95 software in 1998. The title has been ported over to mobile platforms on iOS and Android in the past. Last July, Child-Dream decided to team up with developers Mamekujira in bringing the visual novel to a new generation of readers.

The latest 2022 remake brings the PC classic visual novel over to consoles for the first time and changes things up the most by being branded as a full-blown remake of the title. The initial trailers and announcements of the title proudly show off the more modern takes on each character and an updated UI and soundtrack.

Having experienced the story to the end credits as well as reading through the original version of the visual novel over on the PC, here’s a look at the Scar of the Doll Remake.

*This review was played and reviewed on the Nintendo Switch Release of the game in version 1.0.2. Scar of the Doll is available now on Nintendo Switch and Steam via PC.

▍How Well Do You Know Your Sister?

The player steps into the shoes of Asumi Kamijo who heads to the city of Tokyo in search of her older sister after losing contact as she works at the university lab. Upon arriving and asking around for her whereabouts, Asumi quickly realizes something is incredibly wrong. When she comes to the lab, she is told that they have never heard of her sister and that they have no records of her ever being enrolled.

Things turn for the worst for Asumi as people in and around the lab are mysteriously murdered. Having been embroiled in a series of killings on-site, Asumi finds herself seeking the truth behind her missing sister alongside the dark secret kept at the facility. Was her sister here? Did she even exist, to begin with?

Though the title categorizes itself as a psychological horror, it can feel like a misnomer. Asumi’s quest to find her sister gets snatched up by a conspiracy plot that pokes its head out from underneath the horror tone setters early on. Without spoiling anything, the game juggles themes like memories and their subjective ambiguity of them well, shrouding the story about seeking the truth in a veil that uncovers itself as Asumi finds out more about how she fits into the clandestine ploys she discovers.

▍A Suspenseful Mood Thanks to the Characters

Throughout its relatively short run time, Scar of the Doll introduces eight main casts of characters who all come to serve concrete purposes in the narrative though they aren’t initially apparent. Reveals throughout the story uncover different reasons for them being there alongside the motives behind every step of their actions. Whether it’s to tell Asumi how it’s best she didn’t ask where her sister went; or to assist in her pursuit of the truth, each character brings something new to the table.

The game seems to handwave points that would intervene with the plot in some ways, such as how nobody overtly antagonizes Asumi, a total stranger who shows up a day before somebody at the lab is murdered. Nobody seems to object or point out the absurdity of how an outsider like her can either enter or leave the facility, with Asumi having almost complete impunity to walk around and ask other students about her sister’s whereabouts. While these questions do get somewhat elaborated on later, the initial lack of explanation for some of these incidents and cursory storytelling can be grading to some readers. The game can at times seem like it’s underhanding plot points for the sake of suspense.

▍Tread Lightly as You Reach For the Truth

Gameplay segments throughout Scar of the Doll necessitate the players to take control of Asumi Kamijo’s actions at times, asking you to steer her in the right direction to collect items to solve problems or come to alternate conclusions in dialogues with other characters.

Some sections display a map of her current location, allowing players to investigate different areas of their current vicinity. Simple navigations such as these hint at the game’s origin as an RPG Maker 95 title, where it made use of Point & Click Adventure style gameplay, possibly as a compromise with the game dev program.

Scar of the Doll keeps tabs on what your character knows or doesn’t and takes into account the decisions you took playing the role of Asumi. Unlike other games in the genre that regale players with the notion that “your choices can affect the plot” that then simply switch up some dialogues and call it a day, your decision-making here can lead Asumi down completely different paths.

Early on in the game, for example, Asumi can pick up a CD-ROM that can be shown to others to ask if they know anything about it. Showing it to the other cast elicits different responses with some even asking if they could take it off of you. Another character warns who you’re showing the CD in front of. Though the game throws out an objectively correct answer, it does it while entertaining the player with tangible options they can play around with.

Making the wrong choices wind up Asumi getting herself killed more often than not, leading to various game over states. If you get one of these, a subsequent message box will pop up and elaborate on where exactly something went wrong, at which point Scar of the Dolls offers you to restart at the point where you need to take an alternate route. While these screens spell out your errors in an explicable manner, the added little snippets of advice are a nice touch.

▍Refined Visuals and QoL Features

As a remake, Scar of the Doll on the Switch comes with a completely new coat of paint featuring more modernized character designs for each character. Though the renewed aesthetics greatly deviate from the original releases’ more Gekiga-style character portraits, the newer anime-like visuals of the remake capture each character’s personality while making the game more approachable.

Due in part to the rewrites made in the plot of the Scar of the Doll remake, the developers found more chances to add CGs for crucial plot points, visually spicing things up. Although the game doesn’t particularly make a point to add a CG viewer for these artworks, their presence throughout the run-time is much appreciated.

Alongside the visuals, the audio soundscape of Scar of the Doll also got an overhaul, as mentioned on the Nintendo eShop page of the title. Owing to the remake’s overall gravitation towards more traditional visual novel presentations, the game features new vocal tracks that play as opening and ending tracks to the novel.

Interestingly, the remake of Scar of the Doll also offers players a way to play without jump-scares and horror elements. Upon starting a new save, the game asks if you’d like to turn on “Horror Ease Mode”, which replaces applicable CGs with a cut to a black screen instead and omits audio jump-scares as well.

The Switch version of the game offers touch controls allowing you to play the entire game without pressing a single button. Outside of the button shortcuts that are shown on the options screen, a sidebar menu can be pulled up to access functions like quick save/load and auto-scroll, should players require them.

Much like any visual novel of its ilk, a text log is present and accessible at any time with the press of either bumper on the Switch. What is interesting about the function is how Scar of the Doll allows you to go back to the scene in which the dialogue happened, effectively giving you a rewind option. Though the game locks the feature out in some scenes, the option is appreciated as it allows you to replay scenes without loading a save.

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▍New Zapping Scenario and Rewrites

Alongside the overall glow-up, the Scar of the Doll remake also features rewrites to the story’s final arc, alongside extra chapters that round out the overall plot. Called “Zapping,” these chapters are unlocked after hitting the credits once over and are retellings of the key plot points in the story told through the lens of a different character.

While not spoiling anything, the rewritten final arc does a great job of fleshing out characters that needed more screen time together with Asumi in the original script. The zapping chapters unlocked by beating the game also act as ways for old-time players to re-experience the story from a new perspective. A separate chapter is added to the remake as an epilogue to the story, giving better closure to our protagonist and each surviving member of the cast by the end.

I would have preferred if there were more writing attached to these zapping chapters as I was slightly disappointed by their total run time. Since I enjoyed the different story segments retold through the lens of another cast, I was excited to see what the writer, Hidehisa Miyashita would do to experiment with the idea of multiple perspectives. What’s present in the game is appreciated, with the extra epilogue being a fantastic send-off to the story. It only made me wish that Miyashita would’ve done more with the concept.

▍Scar of the Doll is a Short, Yet Compelling Read

There’s a lot I can say about the story in this review without spoiling the plot, but what is clear is that though some parts of the writing can feel stilted (especially character dialogue), the overarching narrative told in Scar of the Doll puts its readers through an engaging ride of twists and surprises. What begins as minuscule as a sister with whom our protagonist lost contact a mere week quickly spirals out into a multifaceted mystery that explores concepts such as identity and memories.

The upgraded visuals and soundtracks improve the title’s reading experience while touching up crucial moments throughout the novel with beautifully illustrated CGs and remastered music. Newly added features like rolling back certain dialogues and the updated UI help modernize Scar of the Doll for a new generation of players to try the visual novel, whereas the older antiquated visuals from the past remaster would not.

Though the game clocks in at about 3 to 4 hours, Scar of the Doll pulls in its readers with a compelling horror-turned-mystery story. Though some plot points seem convenient at times, no parts of the story overstay their welcome either due to the brisk pacing. The zapping chapters, while leaving more to be desired, holistically round out the conclusion to the story arguably better than the original release. Whether it’s to experience a 90s throwback visual novel or to simply just have a short breezy read to kill some time, Scar of the Doll delivers an intriguing story, should you have the patience for its twist-heavy narrative.

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