Nie No Hakoniwa – Dollhouse of Offerings review

“Let us celebrate the birth of this nightmare”

As an urban legend, there’s something remarkably unnerving about the kotori-bako. Building on Japanese kodoku (or “cursed poison”) folklore, the tale of a child-devouring box was first shared on 2chan. Unlike many mythical artifacts, the kotori-bako doesn’t just violently murder an individual. Instead, the object slaughters entire families, ruthlessly wiping out an entire linage from existence.

Like any respectable visual novel, Chatte Noire’s Nie No Hakoniwa – Dollhouse of Offerings doesn’t delve right into folks violently choking on viscera. Smartly, the kinetic visual novel methodically establishes its context, with the occasional harbinger hinting at the bloodbath to come. For some, that shift in tone might be off-putting, with Nie No Hakoniwa visiting some extremely dark and startlingly nasty places. But fans of J-horror might just relish how subversive the novel gets- especially with the optional 18+ patch available through Denpasoft for an additional ten dollars.

Of Class Struggle and Cannibalism

After a brief framing sequence in a contemporary setting, Dollhouse of Offerings shifts to the Sengoku era, focusing on an isolated island off Japan’s central coastline. Here, life is particularly bleak- and death fueled by disease and malnutrition. High atop a hill, a greedy daimyo barks orders to impoverished workers and orders decapitation at the slightly hint of insubordination. True to kotori-bako tales, there’s a momentous power imbalance that seemingly could only be upended by the supernatural.

While you might want to see the corpulent lord get his comeuppance in a rebellion, Nie No Hakoniwa takes another shift just as the tension reaches a rollicking simmer. Years later in the Meiji era, a young man named Yasaka Kurou is being escorted to the Shiki compound where he is about to be meet his future fiancé.  The Skiki’s are one of seven powerful clans on the island, and Kurou struggles to understand why a prominent family of nobles would request a suitor from a family of cold-blooded assassins.

The Creation and Extinction of Life

At this point, you could easily mistake Nie No Hakoniwa for shirking its politically minded preface and becoming yet another quaint romance novels both Kurou and his newfound finance Kyouko discuss baby making. But scenario writer Shina (Yurikago yori Tenshi made, Baldr Sky “Zero”) toys with readers, flirting with the comfort of harmoniousness before surprising us with a succession of dreadful atrocities. But before exchanging vows, the pair travel across the island, encountering members of each of the seven houses, which forms the bulk of Nie No Hakoniwa’s fifteen-hour read.

Evading and Embracing Conventions

For some, the novel descent into depravity might feel liberating. Far removed from the puritanism of most reads, Dollhouse of Offerings’ offers a catalog of debauchery that habitually disgusts, delivering the kind of offensive shocks that are growing progressively rare. The back of my mind regularly wondered, “are they really going to go there?” Sure enough, Nie No Hakoniwa didn’t back down, even if that meant an undercurrent of misogyny.

The tenor is occasionally undermined by characters who habitually fawn over the lead. And that kind of cliched fan-service stands in sharp contrast with the novel’s transgressive leanings. I appreciate nukige as much as the next person, but some of the overenthusiastic personalities feel cliched. Still others might take issue with the game’s conclusion. In hindsight, the finale can make the novel’s preceding events seem incredulous, diminishing Nie No Hakoniwa’s impact.

Conclusion

Regardless of whether you appreciate the game’s uncompromising tone and can pardon the conclusion, Dollhouse of Offerings makes quite an aesthetic impact. Aurally, the novel employs ambient noise to add atmosphere, while sound effects play out like ASMR for gore-heads. Visually, Kaguyuzu’a talent is unmistakable, with detail devoted to clothing, architecture, and the human figure – in both whole and piece form. Few novels exhibit a range that sinuously spans from exquisiteness to the downright repulsive. Given that Chatte Noire is a sister studio to NEKO WORKs ( Nekopara), readers can expect the same top-tier quality voice acting.

Nie No Hakoniwa – Dollhouse of Offerings was reviewed
on PC with review code provided by the publisher.