Dragon's Dogma 2
Dragon's Dogma 2
Game
Game2021
Scarlet Hollow
Developer Black Tabby Games
Scarlet Hollow is an episodic visual novel developed and published by Black Tabby Games. It entered early access on June 11, 2021, for Linux, MacOS, and Microsoft Windows systems. As of 2026, five episodes have been released out of a planned seven. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
470 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
97
LovedLoved
314 positive · 11 negative
95% range 94–98%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 314 | 11 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 60 | 0 | 54 |
| Mastodon * | 9 | 0 | 15 |
| Lemmy * | 4 | 0 | 3 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Overwhelmingly Positive
4,601 of 4,690 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
96% recommend · 270 yes, 10 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 280 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (5,267 of 5,377 positive).
Players praise the game's intricate branching narrative and meaningful choices. [1][2][3] The writing, characters, and atmosphere are widely acclaimed. [1][4][5] Some reviewers criticize the story's pacing and character depth. [6][7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [1]
Scarlet Hollow is an incredible experience. The developers are frankly insane, the amount of work put into the writing and the artwork and the branching storylines is just bonkers. This might LITERALLY be the best game I've ever played, hardly any contest. The writing is top notch, funny, and there always seems to be a dialogue option with what I'd actually want to say in any given situation. The artwork is …
- [2]
DO NOT LET THE FACT THAT THIS GAME IS IN EARLY ACCESS FOOL YOU INTO BELIEVING THAT YOU SHOULD WAIT TO PLAY IT. YOU COULD DO 6 FULL PLAYTHROUGHS AND STILL NOT SEE ALL OF IT. This game is so incredible that it has fully raised my standards for narratives in gaming. I convinced one person in a discord server to stream it and then like 5 other people in the server got hooked. Your choices in this video game TRULY matter …
- [3]
scarlet hollow is one of the, if not THE very best of choice-based games to have ever done it. to me, it blows every other game that purports to have 'choices that matter' all the way out of the water. the writing is incredible. there's top-notch atmospheric horror that's interspersed with really moving and funny stuff, all the while adding depth to the core themes of family, change, parenthood, and children. in the …
- [4]
One of the greatest games I've ever played. The writing has the most dialectical understanding of the world I've ever seen from a game. The way all of the characters say their words with conviction, as if what they are saying is the complete and utter truth, makes me feel like I need to have my brain constantly on and engaged in the work because there isn't any character that will spell out what is actually going on …
- [5]
WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!!! "You won't be able to save everyone. You might not even be able to save yourself." Scarlet Hollow stays true to its introduction, but I never expected it to do so to this extent. This is a game that is very, very frustrating. I'd be lying if I said it didn't piss me off at times while playing it. But it frustrated me for a reason: it felt real. One of Scarlet Hollow's greatest strengths is …
Summarised from 34 of the 408 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Scarlet Hollow sits at 97% positive across 325 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Reviewing Episode 1, PC Gamer's Emma Matthews praised the game's setting and implementation of the trait system. Rachel Weber of GamesRadar+ wrote positively of the game's hand-drawn art and dialogue, saying, "The story has echoes of Shirley Jackson, with the snappy dialogue of a Netflix hit, and the art style holds it all together like a beautiful spiderweb spun with digital ink." Writing for The Escapist, Amy Davidson praised the first episode's tone and pacing. CGMagazine scored the episode an 8/10 while focusing praise on the characters and setting. John Walker of Kotaku named the early access version of Scarlet Hollow as one of 2021's best games. He also listed Episodes 3 and 4 among…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 470 · most liked firstScarlet Hollow - The Roads Untraveled releases on March 3rd. Consider this update a soft relaunch of the game, including over 70,000 words of new content expanding player agency in the first two episodes, a UI redesign, tons of brand new art and more! There'll be no better time to take the plunge!
neutral · AI labelView post →Scarlet Hollow Episode 5 is finally OUT! Our vision was to make a game where your choices *actually* matter, instead of just being window dressing. 930,000 branching words later, no two runs should ever feel the same. If Slay the Princess has no wrong decisions, Scarlet Hollow has no right ones.
neutral · AI labelView post →With Scarlet Hollow, we set out to make a game that pushes the bounds of respecting player agency. Every choice, big and small, has reverberating consequences, and characters dynamically react to who they think you are, to the point where their perceptions of you can change the entire story.
neutral · AI labelView post →It's Halloween, and the entire first Episode of Scarlet Hollow is free for you to explore on Steam. Its branching narrative web is so intricate that you'll see less than 15% of the game in a single playthrough. So get lost for a bit, and see where the road takes you. Welcome home.
neutral · AI labelView post →Your regularly scheduled reminder is that Slay The Princess was Black Tabby's short-form side-project. A showcase in how much reactivity they can cram into a single sitting. Scarlet Hollow is their BIG visual novel and plays the long game on all of your decisions. They WILL matter.
neutral · AI labelView post →Slay the Princess isn't the only game that's crossed a major sales threshold over the past month! Thrilled to also share that Scarlet Hollow has passed 100,00 units sold, just in time for Episode 5's release on the 13th!
neutral · AI labelView post →I’ve seen a lot of people say recently that narrative games can’t actually make player choices meaningfully matter because of exponential scaling issues. To that I say, the first episode of Scarlet Hollow is free. And if you remain a disbeliever, you can buy the rest of the game and keep playing.
neutral · AI labelView post →Yes! ANY updates we make to Scarlet Hollow will be free to anyone who owns to game. We don't believe in gating story content behind an extra paywall. When you buy the game you buy the game.
neutral · AI labelView post →Man I've been offline a while, a lot has been goin on! We released Episode 5/7 of our game Scarlet Hollow this past February, and are back to work to finish the remaining two :] We also launched a small-scale publisher and announced the first title, Prove You're Human by @sunsetvisitor.studio
neutral · AI labelView post →www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Hg... A new and largely spoiler-free video about how this game handles player (and NPC!) agency, as well as me ranting about romance and how Black Tabby games got it right. #scarlethollow
neutral · AI labelView post →Under 24 hours remain to get Scarlet Hollow for $18.74 before the base price of the game goes up from $25 to $30! That's effectively a 37.5% discount — or 47% if you buy it in a bundle with Slay the Princess. If you've been waiting to pick it up, this is the cheapest it'll be for a long time!
neutral · AI labelView post →This is why Scarlet Hollow is such a fantastic game. Your choices really matter and sometimes following your moral intuition is just really, really hard.
positive · AI labelView post →Scarlet Hollow???? Why are you the game of all time LMAO
positive · AI labelView post →I've been posting a bunch of scarlet hollow stuff on tumblr...I love this game #scarlethollow
positive · AI labelView post →Reminds me of the time Steam REPEATEDLY rejected Scarlet Hollow from a horror sale event. Scarlet hollow, the incredibly gothic game from the Slay The Princess team. Steam just looked at it and said 'nah, not spooky'. Repeatedly. Under appeal, even.
neutral · AI labelView post →Scarlet Hollow is a brilliant game but - and this is absolutely a 'me' problem - it has really ruined a lot of other 'choice-based' video games in that it now actively annoys me when the game doesn't really punish you for any of your choices.
positive · AI labelView post →SCARLET HOLLOW IS NOW 25% OFF AS A DAILY DEAL ON STEAM! Get it now! Or play the entire first episode for free with the demo (and then get the full game!)
neutral · AI labelView post →The first episode of Scarlet Hollow is free, and your progress automatically carries over into the full game.
neutral · AI labelView post →Scarlet Hollow is an incredible experience. The developers are frankly insane, the amount of work put into the writing and the artwork and the branching storylines is just bonkers. This might LITERALLY be the best game I've ever played, hardly any contest. The writing is top notch, funny, and there always seems to be a dialogue option with what I'd actually want to say in any given situation. The artwork is beautiful, the atmosphere is masterfully crafted, and the characters are all dear to my…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you want to see our narrative systems in action, but aren't ready to buy the game, you can play the entire first episode of Scarlet Hollow for free with its demo, and yes, your saves carry over into the full game! store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
neutral · AI labelView post →As much of a blowout hit as it was, note that Slay The Princess was a SIDE PROJECT that Black Tabby Games did to vent some excess creative energies between working on major chapters of Scarlet Hollow, their REAL visual novel. Each *chapter* of this is equivalent to the entirety of STP's word count.
neutral · AI labelView post →I might have actually had Scarlet Hollow relationship dynamic as my favorite game mechanic. Long story short, characters evaluate you on multiple (hidden) axes and act accordingly. Tabitha, for example, can respect you if you butt heads even if you stand for yourself and are reliable. It's stellar.
positive · AI labelView post →This review isn't even lying btw Scarlet Hollow is THE SHIT. I typically don't super enjoy VNs (at least like, traditional ones) but Scarlet Hollow is a wonderful story game with a lot of great characters and my one of my favorite antagonists with the latest chapter. This game is worth the money
positive · AI labelView post →I held off on playing Scarlet Hollow for ages because I loved Slay the Princess and was weirdly trepidatious about the possibility of not loving @blacktabbygames.com's other work as much. But oh. my. god... I love it more. This thing's a masterpiece. store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
positive · AI labelView post →Many romance options in Scarlet Hollow. This one's for the goths, the anime-obsessed, and lovers of tragic romance. store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
neutral · AI labelView post →I just finished Chapter 5 of Scarlet Hollow. Jesus fucking Christ. I think this is the one game that getting spoilers for it somehow made it hurt worse. By trying avoid something, I did things that backfired and ensured it would happen. For those who know what this achievement means... Yeah.
positive · AI labelView post →WEEKEND WIP ✨ Scarlet Hollow fanart that I wanted to get out for the episode 5 drop, but I can’t finish it quick enough because I keep playing the game instead of drawing. Tabitha my beloved 🫶 #art | #WIP | #scarlethollow | #fanart
neutral · AI labelView post →you're on a path in the woods, and at the end of the path, lies a mansion. and in that mansion, is your estranged cousin. your job is to survive the next seven days. good luck!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You--yes, you, personally--should play Scarlet Hollow. A narrative horror game with story deeply rooted in a mix of folklore, personal psychology, and struggles with family/society, branching to a degree that is frankly boggling. Content warnings are available on the studio's website.
positive · AI labelView post →Played Chapter 5 of Scarlet Hollow through from my second playthrough save and even though it has the same three main beats, how is it an ENTIRELY different flavour of 'ow my heart?' This flipping game.
positive · AI labelView post →This is a game where one run as of 2025, with 4/7 episodes released, will take you maybe 3-5 hours. This is one run, with two traits and the annoying feeling that maybe something else could have happened if you played with a different pair. But you only played one run. You're curious about what might happen if you could just have stopped that bad thing in episode 3. You restart the game with two new traits. You play again. You see new dialogue, you experiment a bit, you try new things. You…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →spoilers for Scarlet hollow going forward, u MUST play it first . . . After reading this i can confidently claim there is basically NO narrative-centric video game that comes close to what Scarlet Hollow achieves And the best part is Scarlet Hollow _seems_ like a normal VN if you dont know better!
positive · AI labelView post →It’s been a while since I’ve played a game that so masterfully blends drama comedy slow burn suspense thriller and tragedy together into such a beautiful way. Please support Scarlet Hollow. The hype for the game is real.
positive · AI labelView post →genuinely feel like being the most annoying fucker and responding to every single comment about "whoa what a cool idea but idk any games that does this!!" AND ITS SCARLET HOLLOW. SCARLET HOLLOW DOES IT. WE HAVE THE GAME CAN WE PLEEASSE SUPPORT THEM I WANNA GIVE THEM SO MUCH MONEY
positive · AI labelView post →6/? - Scarlet Hollow This game has so much sauce. The writing is impeccable, your choices truly matter and all of the characters have so much personality. They feel real. You can RP so well in Scarlet Hollow. It may not be finished yet, but this is already the best VN i've ever played
positive · AI labelView post →Did you know that all of the art in Scarlet Hollow is hand-drawn? store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
neutral · AI labelView post →There are two major complaints I see in the negative reviews: development timeframe and character likeability. The development timeline of (currently) five years for five chapters is, indeed, brutal, but it's brutal because the developers truly love this game, and you can feel it throughout the experience, especially if you do multiple playthroughs. They took one long break to develop Slay the Princess - possibly my all-time favorite game - in order to earn the funds to keep independently…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Can't believe I never bothered with Scarlet Hollow until yesterday. It's the other game the Slay the Princess Devs made and it's Amazing. You should play it trust me
positive · AI labelView post →Scarlet Hollow is SO GOOD, if you've played Slay The Princess, you should absolutely try Black Tabby's other game!!
positive · AI labelView post →NOCLIP_2's GAME RECOMENDATION ZINE RETURNS FEATURING 👇 - Demons Tides @fabraz.bsky.social - BrebeMan - Scarlet Hollow @blacktabbygames.com - Laysara: Summit Kingdom - Tomb of the Bloodletter WATCH HERE: youtu.be/fL6aLDtt3qI
neutral · AI labelView post →Well, I finally took the plunge and played through what's available of Scarlet Hollow. I'm now going to play through Scarlet Hollow again. Then probably again after that. For eternity. I need more Scarlet Hollow. Tabitha and Wayne are by far my favorite characters in the game!!!
positive · AI labelView post →The first episode of Scarlet Hollow is free. Saves carry over into the full game. store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
neutral · AI labelView post →It's time! We're checking out Scarlet Hollow, the other game from the dev team behind Slay the Princess! Time to get spooky in North Carolina! twitch.tv/savedatateam (or YT!)
neutral · AI labelView post →7. Scarlet Hollow (2021-) - unfathomably massive game despite how short a playthrough through its currently available episodes might appear. idek what to say this was a fantastic experience that one needs to go through to actually comprehend how monstrous it actually is
positive · AI labelView post →This week, I talk with Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias, the creators of one of my favorite indie games, Scarlet Hollow. We discuss how animating Abby’s drawings allowed them to design a game where the players have seemingly endless choices and romance options in a spooky Southern Gothic town.
neutral · AI labelView post →Man. I need more people I know to play Scarlet Hollow. Its so fucking good and I want to know how other people would go through it. I wish it was done, but chapter 5 (of 7) should be out sometime this year. store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
positive · AI labelView post →Inject it into my veins No other game lets you define the personality of your main character and by extension the entire tone of the story quite like Scarlet Hollow
positive · AI labelView post →I’m so glad I joined the Scarlet Hollow discord, it’s so nice to have an easy way to see what other people are saying about such an underrated game
positive · AI labelView post →Here's the game I was utterly obsessed with yesterday. The short version is, Scarlet Hollow is already amazing, and Black Tabby Games continues to develop unforgettable narrative adventures. Check it out! www.heypoorplayer.com/2026/02/17/s...
neutral · AI labelView post →I can already sense that when this game releases into 1.0 it will be a Disco Elysium-level event. There is nothing else like this. I will buy every Black Tabby game until the end of time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you're looking for that feel of traveling into a rural town to visit a distant relative, meet a charming cast of characters, and discover the area is full of mysteries and horrors that Gravity Falls had, I would like to recommend to you... Scarlet Hollow store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
positive · AI labelView post →While not voice acted, I feel obligated to plug the devs' other game, Scarlet Hollow, as well. If I ever stop telling people to play Scarlet Hollow, I have died.
positive · AI labelView post →This game impregnated me and I gave birth to 50 beautiful broodlings.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1. Scarlet Hollow. A game that cares more about paying attention to player choice than any I've seen in a minute. Great writing, great characters, can't wait for the final chapter. 2. Dressmaker. You make dresses. It's fun and cute. 3. Disco Elysium if you haven't played it. My GOAT. (con't)
positive · AI labelView post →DO NOT LET THE FACT THAT THIS GAME IS IN EARLY ACCESS FOOL YOU INTO BELIEVING THAT YOU SHOULD WAIT TO PLAY IT. YOU COULD DO 6 FULL PLAYTHROUGHS AND STILL NOT SEE ALL OF IT. This game is so incredible that it has fully raised my standards for narratives in gaming. I convinced one person in a discord server to stream it and then like 5 other people in the server got hooked. Your choices in this video game TRULY matter I am being so serious with you. The sheer amount of potential worldstates…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This has got me in a chokehold and it's not even finished yet, but at least there are so many secrets and possibilities to uncover until the end is here. Very reminiscent of The Magnus Archives which I'm still obsessed with. 100% recommend if you're looking for quite a similar vibe, or just something that will have you very unsettled and fill you with existential dread.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Scarlet Hollow and Slay The Princess reveal the untapped potential of video game narratives--while also highlighting why it remains unrealized. Read @gracemachine.bsky.social on Scarlet Hollow's fifth episode. www.avclub.com/scarlet-holl...
neutral · AI labelView post →This game has done things to me. I don't know if I'm down bad or up good. I just know that I've been changed forever. Scarlet Hollow is a combination of several things I’m particularly weak for. Anything with an intriguing mystery and great music is like catnip to me. I love visual novels and gothic horror. I got the game for my birthday last month and have just now started to emerge from a kind of fugue state. I've played nearly 100 hours while attempting to hunt for achievements and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the greatest games I've ever played. The writing has the most dialectical understanding of the world I've ever seen from a game. The way all of the characters say their words with conviction, as if what they are saying is the complete and utter truth, makes me feel like I need to have my brain constantly on and engaged in the work because there isn't any character that will spell out what is actually going on due to the weight of the trauma placed on their shoulders. There is no 'this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I recorded my first foray into Scarlet Hollow, and oooooh boy, people were NOT WRONG that this game is great. youtu.be/DxgjFdoUF8A
positive · AI labelView post →
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