It’s a little scary and sad youth story about the Newspaper club at a certain high school, which “you” and “they” choose.
— The Game’s Tagline
Mysterious Forum and the Seven Rumors is a linear visual novel and chat story for Android and iOs developed by Entabridge
. The game is divided into seven main chapters and one bonus, with Multiple Endings depending on your choices.
There was a secret forum run by the newspaper club at a high school. Rumors posted on this secret forum will become mysteries of reality. Seven mysterious stories are posted on the forum. What on Earth are they? It’s up to the newspaper club to find out.
Tropes
- Adults Are Useless: The forum is a place for people to come to ask for help. From high-schoolers. About things that would be better brought to the police or 'professional' paranormal investigators.
- Breather Episode: The Third chapter, which does not have a bad ending.
- Call-Forward: In the beginning of one chapter, Akane indulges on a "Special Harakiri Choco Banana Whip Latte-Latte Strawberry" flavored taiyaki. Later given a Shout-Out in Entabridge's later novel Normal Me and Abnormal Friends, where the aforementioned snack is the main characters' Trademark Favorite Food.
- Dead All Along: It turns out that the leader of the Newspaper club, Shino, had died after being pushed down the stairs by a classmate (who then left her to die) several years before the events of the game. In her quest for revenge, she created the titular forum in order to take revenge against all the people who left her to die alone.
- Death By Genre Savvy: The Fifth chapter has some of these:
- In a horror setting, when a suspicious-looking lone child approaching you and asking you to escort her somewhere, the smartest thing to do would be ignoring her, right? Not in this VN. It would make the child (who happened to be a ghost) angry at you and kept following you. Then when you are at the most vulnerable situation, she will kill you.
- Supposedly you agree to escort the child, then you arrive at a fork in the road. The child tells you to turn right, while you are certain than you can reach the destination quicker if you turn left. Normally, you would try to follow what the child wants so she doesn't sulk, but this choice will lead to a bad end. The correct thing is to trust your judgement and turn left.
- The Dreaded:
- "The girl in the photo" from the First chapter. Anyone who receives the text message from "the girl in the photo" fears her. The rumour is that anyone who looks into her eyes will die, whether they're looking at her directly or through picture file in the cellphone. Thankfully, Akane manages to appease her, and the death curse disappears.
- The stray ghost Hitahita from the Fifth chapter also counts. Bonus point for being one of a few harmful spirits that the Newspaper club cannot properly appease.
- Foreshadowing: Out of all the protagonists, Shino is the only one who doesn't die in any of the bad endings. The Third chapter where she acts as the sole investigator (Yuuki has an appointment and Akane is injured, so neither of them can accompany Shino) also does not have a bad ending. Turns out it's because she's Dead All Along.
- Golden Path: Chapters with more than one good ending have a standard good ending, and a more detailed good ending.
- Grotesque Cute: Hitahita, the stray ghost child from the Fifth chapter. She's a Cheerful Child who will not hesitate to kill you if you anger her or give her chance. If you manage to humor her, she will like you enough to play with you. Forever.
- Go Out with a Smile: Shino rests in peace at the arms of Akane, with one last tearful smile on her face, before fading away.
- Guide Dang It!: To get the true ending of the Seventh chapter, you have to ask the people in the forum for help. How do you do this? By entering the pause menu and staying for a certain period of time until a secret option pops up.
- How We Got Here: The Sixth chapter focuses on the formation of the Newspaper Club, and their first solved mystery: the blue spider lily.
- The Leader: Shino Kominami is a girl from 12th grade. She is the Leader and President of the Newspaper Club. Much later on, it turns out that she is in fact Zuso-san, a vengeful spirit who's out to kill the hundreds of forumgoers out of revenge for being left to die alone.
- Message Board: The titular mysterious forum.
- Multiple Endings: Each chapter has at least one bad ending and at least one good ending, excluding the Third, which is entirely linear.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: A woman from the Third Rumor is a friendly ghost who never got to say goodbye to her lover. She waits for him by the cherry tree.
- Paranormal Investigation: The story becomes this.
- Plucky Girl: Akane. And how.
- The Seven Mysteries: The whole plot is centered around the titular rumors.
- School Club Front: The newspaper club don’t make newspapers - they’re amateur sleuths investigating paranormal activity caused by the rumors posted on the forum.
- Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?:
- Switching P.O.V.: Each member of the newspaper club gets their turn.
- To Win Without Fighting: In Chapter One, Akane realizes that the only way to survive is by not running from the ghost and instead admitting her fear.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Any rumor posted on the forum becomes true.
- Unfinished Business: Most of the rumors are Ghosts with some kind of Unfinished Business so they try to finish it or find peace.
- Unseen No More: For most of Chapter Two, the ghost known as Vengeful Spirit never reveals itself, instead opting to follow and scare Yuuki. Then near the end, it reveals itself to him in the mirror while Yuuki was washing his hands in the bathroom.
- When She Smiles: Shino possesses a strict demeanor for most of the story. On the few instances where we see her smile...
D'awww...
