Help Vivi find herself through the journey that takes her to where people go after they died, to what comes after. Ride the train filled with the souls of the people, animals, and plants that are on their way to leave this world, and talk to them to learn about love, regrets, life, and death that haunt us every day until our time has come. All presented in a light-hearted way with a sprinkle of comedy and philosophy.
Tropes:
- Afterlife Express: The main setting. One passenger wonders about the ramifications of an afterlife delivery system that can update itself to modern society, but realizes that even if he wasn't dead, nobody would believe him.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: The train's conductor and chef are "beyond life and death", and spend all their time making sure that their passengers are delivered to their destination safely.
- Death of a Child: One of the more notable passengers is an infant, who's content with death because they didn't live long enough to form attachments. Also riding along are a child who died from a hereditary illness, and a kitten.
- Death Seeker: Vivi's first reaction upon realizing she's in an Afterlife Express, but before learning that she's still actually alive, is to be relieved that it was painless and mention that it's something she actually considered before...before realizing how horrible it would be for whoever finds her corpse. As the story progresses towards the Golden Ending, Vivi starts to grow out of this mindset.
- Disappeared Dad: Vivi makes mention of her mother and sister at times, but her father is completely absent.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: The old tree states that she's been friends with "The Death" for ages, it visiting whenever someone has died near her roots, and that Vivi was likely brought aboard the train in the first place so The Death could help her reevaluate life.
- Garden of Eden: The setting's cosmology is confirmed to exist in tandem with Biblical myth by the chef (who gives everyone a "last meal" that invokes the happiest memory they experienced in life) stating that he served Adam and Eve a copy of their apple.
- God in Human Form: The Afterlife Express's conductor is also the conductor of the regular train, as Vivi learns in the Golden Ending.
- Last Request: In the Golden Ending, Vivi receives one from the last ghost she speaks with: the stray Kitty died while foraging for her kittens, and asks Vivi to take care of them for her. When she returns to life, Vivi's able to find them and bring them home with her.
- Multiple Endings: There's a Golden Ending for talking with all the important people on the train (the conductor, the baby, the owl, Tiny the plant, the old tree, the chef, and Kitty), and a Bad Ending for just immediately returning to your seat.
- Mundane Luxury: The chef serves meals that invoke the happiest memories of the diner, not the highest-quality meals they've ever eaten. For Vivi, who he permits to have a meal without passing on, she gets a home-cooked lunch from her mother that was normally too busy to cook, and a cup of instant tea that a friend once gave her while listening to her problems.
- Our Souls Are Different: All of the souls aboard the train are able to perfectly communicate with Vivi and each other, including animals and plants (which, as living things, do indeed have souls).
- The Owl-Knowing One: Vivi asks a ghost of an owl for advice, believing in this trope, and decides it's true after being told that the answers she seeks must be found through herself.
- Plant Person: All of the souls of plants Vivi interacts with are depicted with human-like faces.
- Vision Quest: The game serves as Vivi's, as listening to the perspectives of (and encouragement from) the recently-departed help her reevaluate her own life.
- Waking Up Elsewhere: Vivi simply fell asleep on the regular train out of the city, accidentally getting left inside after the last stop, at which point it transforms into an Afterlife Express.
