The end of an obsession
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
Trigger warning
This VN does not feature any explicit textual or graphical depictions of blood or gore. It does, however, mention these topics:- kidnapping
- stabbing
- murder
- toxic co-dependency, manipulation, and gaslighting
Which might upset people.Reader discretion is advised.
Available in English, Français, and 简体中文.
You feel groggy when you finally wake up.
The back of your head is throbbing and your mouth feels dry, as though it has been stuffed full of wool.
With bleary eyes, you glance about.
What time is it?
Where are you…
And, perhaps more importantly, who are you?
Try though you might, you can’t remember.
This could very well be your end — but wait. Who is that woman standing by your bedside, who looks like a rose?
Perhaps she can help you.
Now, why don’t you open your heart up to her?
Learn how to love her, and perhaps this story might even have a happy ending.
- About 18k words of text (approx 30-60 minutes of reading)
- A story with several choices
- 800x600 resolution!!! We love VNs the size of postage stamps!!!
- Fully original artwork and an original soundtrack
- One adoring(?) witch
- A tired narrator who no longer wants to be involved in this narrative
- Violence ♥
Writing & programming: ebi-hime
Art:Kalechips
GUI:elduator
Music:yuzuki
Mastering:xtraspicy
Video: ell絵
Proofreaders:Bishmuth,Emelia K. Fletcher,ravnervn
You can read the prequel game for free here!
| Updated | 21 days ago |
| Status | Released |
| Platforms | Windows,macOS,Linux,Android |
| Rating | Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars (82 total ratings) |
| Author | ebi-hime |
| Genre | Visual Novel |
| Tags | Anime,Creepy,Fairy Tale,Horror,Lesbian,LGBT,Psychological Horror,Spooky,yandere,Yuri |
| Average session | About an hour |
| Languages | English,French,Chinese (Simplified) |
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I knew where this was going in the first 2 minutes of the game, but it didn'tmatter because it was handled so well and so enjoyably (to the degree of enjoyment one gets from these kinds of emotions!) that it was deeply satisfying watching it all play out.
And gosh if it sure doesn't hit some themes I've tasted in life and hits them real well too!
I think her journey was very similar to the one we see in the game, including the long abandonment at the end. The love that she was manipulated into feeling eventually turns to deep longing and then resentment and then anger and then she becomes a witch and eventually she captures Medea and replays the cycle of manipulation that was first inflicted on her from the opposite side. She vaguely says as much in time she talks about what drives women to become a witch in the first place.
I suppose deciding whether this becomes an endless cycle that they continue to perpetrate on each other or if it truly ends here is a exercise left to the reader.
It gets so lonely here was so good that it got me into ebi-hime’s games in general, fast making her one of my favorite indie solo-developers. WhenThe end of obsession was announced, I eagerly added it to my To Play list. While I didn’t enjoy this sequel as much as the original, ebi-hime’s second foray into yandere witches and princesses is worth playing.
The end of obsession has a much more straightforward take of the yandere archetype, and is a lot more dismal and depressing for it. Chains, cages, torture, mental deterioration, knives: it runs the gamut. The music matches perfectly with the mechanics and themes of the game. The art is cutesy and fantastical—the witch’s outfit is an especially remarkable work. Between the music and the vivid narration, the atmosphere tenses the stomach, despite the lack of plot. I thinkThe end of obsession achieves the minimum of what it set out to do, but my frustration with the POV character and lack of catharsis caused me to enjoy it less than its predecessor.
(I shortened my review here to avoid as many spoilers as possible. If you want the whole thing, you must follow me, sorry! DX)
Obsession is a sequel to It gets so lonely here, you'll probably get more out of this VN if you've also read that.
It Gets So Lonely Here was probably my favorite visual novel, and I'd consider it right up there with classics like Fate or Steins;Gate. The shorter nature of it didn't leave anything to be desired. This game feels the same way, where though it was very short it feels like the story was still complete. Any longer, and it might have felt a little dragged out.
The writing hasn't diminished in quality at all since Lonely, and your notes included as always were insightful to the creative process. Both games have evoked a lot of emotion, which I think will leave a lasting impression. The Princess was indeed my (and apparently many other's) favorite character, and so I was overjoyed to see the theme continued in a way.
While I'd love to see more of the world or characters, I'd find it completely reasonable if you have no intention of writing a third tie-in, as this feels like it puts a nice little bow on it. I look forward to seeing other VN's from you when/should they come.
This was such amazing fairy-tale horror!!
I think I enjoyed it even more thanLonely in a way, because it was such a tight focus on a single fairy-tale scenario/antagonist and you stretched it up so beautifully.
Loved the light worldbuilding here and the way it built up onLonely to paint strokes of a wider world of witches (with some Umineko reminiscences ahah).
The seamless time loop was such an interesting design choice and nice departure from the usual time loop in VNs!
I did not end up skipping that many of the repeating lines because I was just so engrossed in the variations, and in the protagonist’s deteriorating psyche. Following her conflicted her train of thoughts, her conflicted emotions was increasingly uncomfortable but so well-done, 10/10 would go through that again👍
I had a feeling about who the witch was but the princess? Didn't see that coming.
Wow. Just... wow. I had no idea what to expect going into this. I absolutely love It Gets So Lonely Here so seeing that this was a sequel definitely had me intrigued, but I was not prepared for how intense this story got. The fact that you were able to contain everything that made the first game so brilliant in a smaller scale story was incredible, there were even parts that hit me harder than the first game because it felt even more like the story was out of my control. No joke I spent several minutes stuck in a loop because I did not want to give in, I was sure if I just kept persisting that something would change. Seeing the ending explained why it went like this and that was a MASTERFUL twist, but that build up hit hard. Absolutely amazing story, you've completely blown me away with The End Of An Obsession. It kind of makes me want to replay both games back to back so I can really see all the little connections.
Also the song at the end was AMAZING! Definitely going to be listening to that on repeat for a while.
this was the perfect sequel to lonely that could ever hope for, really (dare i say i even liked it more)
i absolutely loved the themes of the vn and the general pacing of the story, it fels so much more cohesive and even more like an actual neverending cycle. lonely told of the many death and continuous suffering of its mc, but obsession showed it. (pardon my fancy words i know nothing of literature)
the ending struck me real hard (even though i've been anticipating some form of this twist from the near begining of the game). how medea instanly picks herself up, "i can't blame her, really", and proceeds to simpharder.toxic yuri at its FINEST.
the love of a witch is really something else huh
thank you very much, i'm glad you liked it! i was a bit worried people would think it's too short or too underwhelming compared to lonely, especially since there's only 2 characters and not as mnay art assets, so i'm glad it wasn't the case...!
(i also kept this story in my drafts for like 6 months wondering if i should actually release it or not haha so ig it's good i did...)
and yes it is true love... medea and rosette belong together haha ;;
This was lots of fun! I think I actually liked it better than the originalit gets so lonely here, for pacing reasons: it feels more focusedly-told, with its shorter length and differently-laid-out branch-structure leaving less room for the story's progression to sag towards the middle.
One interface-question: when I was at the point of 100%-completion-as-best-I-could-tell—I made it to the point of (spoilers in rot13) univat gur abgrf haybpxrq va gur tnyyrel, naq hcba fgnegvat gur tnzr ntnva orvat noyr gb sbetrg rirelguvat va beqre gb erfrg tnzr-fgngr—the music gallery listed only seven tracks as playable, despite there being eight interface-slots for them. (The seven BGM tracks from throughout the main story, but not the credits-music.) Is this indicative of my having missed things more broadly, such that I should poke around more to find hidden corners of things that I missed on my initial passes?
(Also, somewhat-implicitly-spoilery fun theory I had during the middle parts of the story: for a decent chunk of the story I was thinking that gur znva punenpgref jrer obgu Ebfrggr, va fbzr fbeg bs gvzr-ybbc bs ure jvgpu-frys chfuvat ure abajvgpu-frys gb ybir ure hagvy riraghnyyl ure abajvgpu-frys jbhyq orpbzr n jvgpu naq yrg ure jvgpu-frys trg gb or gur nzarfvnp abajvgpu sbe n juvyr. This is not exactly what happened, but it was a fun possibility to imagine while it remained plausible!)
GOD i just finished this after work and needless to say I adore it. As always your prose is phenomenal (and such an inspiration). I actually figured out the twist relatively early, but it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the story at all.
The toxicity of love between Medea and Rosette is SO intriguing. I think it's a wonderful continuation of the story, and I'm so glad you decided to focus on them, as I definitely agree the Lonely LIs' stories feel very... complete? And I like the little nod that in the end they're just aspects of Medea and her all-consuming love for Rosette. All in all, such a lovely addition to the story and will definitely be encouraging people to read it (after getting them to read Lonely)
(ALSO YUZUKI'S OST IS STELLAR AS ALWAYS)
Tysm! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I did think it would be fun to do a little more in the Lonely universe but I didn't think I had anything else to really explore with the three main LIs in Lonely (at least, not in the same setting), so I wound up doing something a bit different...
I wasn't really sure if people would vibe with it since I mostly saw people saying they wanted to read more about the princess haha but I'm glad it was still interesting!
And I love the music in this VN too, it's so good!!! It's one of my fav parts about the whole VN haha, I enjoyed listening to it a lot while I was coding the story together <3
