
One Last Story
A downloadable blockbuster for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
This game delves heavily into suicide, self-harm, mourning, and loss. If these are sensitive topics for you, make sure you are in a good headspace, in a safe place, and/or with someone you trust before playing.
This was made by a survivor. Please be respectful.
You are not permitted to record or stream this game for now.
Please respect my wishes.
FULL CONTENT WARNING LIST (CLICK ME)
Self-harm (cutting), blood, suicide (attempted, successful), suicidal ideation, substance abuse, overdosing, death, chromatic aberration, loud and sudden music, realistic eyes--------------------------------
Do a writer's last words mean anything to the living?
A story about death and the (idealization or fear of a possible) future.
This game delves into mourning, loss, mental health, imposter syndrome, the sanitization of art, and the view of art as a product that needs to be palatable. If those subjects interest you, please give it a try.
- Discover the thoughts of users with different views on a
deceasedauthor. - Explore the blog itself, reading through the archives in a site-like user interface.
- Featuring original black-and-white pixel art.
- Includes some voice acting!
- And guest art!
- And the usage of color as symbolism! There is a lot of symbolism!
- There are a few secrets to uncover, and post-game content!
- Length: 8.5k words.
This is my worst performing visual novel ever. I would really, really, really, really appreciate a 5-star review if you enjoyed the game, as it helps it reach more people.
A word from the author:
I greatly dislike this mindset I’m seeing in the big media we consume nowadays, where everything has to be palatable and understandable and easy to consume. Sometimes stories need villains and conflict and bad decisions. Sometimes games, stories, drawings, and music have to make you think - about yourself, the world, injustice, history, life - or make you uncomfortable and scared and sad.
When we wash that out, slice it up to make it as inoffensive and agreeable as possible, what do we get? Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making something casual and good-feels-only, but I think the problem happens when we cut and remove the ‘uncomfortable’ parts of what we want to make to reach that safe, sanitized goodness.
One Last Story offers several POVs for the same event - the announcement of the death of a small, unknown online writer.
Each chapter of the story has a new narrator with different opinions on the announcement.
...A fan of the author, who met him and got his heart broken.
...The lover of the author, an exhausted caretaker left to pick up the pieces.
...A stranger with no love or attachment.
And...
CREDITS (CLICK ME)
Writing, scripting, coding, art: MeiriVoice of Lake: Danny Spiller
Additional Scripts: Daniel Westfall, Stella
Guest Art: luca
Music: bleep, Kisa, watson, Dova-Syndrome, Oleksii Kaplunskyi
ARTBOOK AND PLAYABLE DLC:
---------------------------------
Related projects:
Contact me; applepiegame(at)gmail.com
I respectfully, empathically ask that you interact with this project in good faith. I am showing an IMMENSE amount of vulnerability by posting this to the public, as a survivor.

NEW: Version 1.2.5 adds the option to invert the game's colors, for those who have a hard time reading white-on-black text. Since it's my first time adding such a feature, I'm uploading it as 'extra' build, in case the changes have broken anything.
Updated | 2 days ago |
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (11 total ratings) |
Authors | Meiri, 俊 |
Genre | Visual Novel, Interactive Fiction |
Made with | Ren'Py |
Tags | Anime, Dark, LGBT, Mental Health, Narrative, Pixel Art, Psychological Horror, Queer, Story Rich |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Languages | English, Portuguese (Brazil) |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse, Gamepad (any) |
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- BETA 1.2.5: Accessibility option to invert the GUI colors2 days ago
- [Celebration Art] Thank you for 125 downloads!!77 days ago
- Most embarrassing hotfix in history96 days ago
- a postmortem of a highly marketable blockbuster96 days ago
- [READ ME] OLS Released96 days ago
Comments
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This was incredible. I cant even really describe all of the ways this made me feel, other than the profound appreciation I have that you existed in the same time as I did, to write and code this piece of art for strangers on the internet like me to be able to experiance.
The act of creation as self harm has been a concept I've struggled with for a long time as well, alongside the hatred of censorship practices and the dumbing down of media. This felt like a reflection of my own thoughts and struggles. Maybe why the fan's reaction resonated so strongly with me.
There are many things I want to create and publish but cannot bring myself to, for many reasons. Words don't flow. I don't finish drawings. I write short drabbles for my friends that half the time they don't read. This has made me want to post. To create again. I don't know how long the motivation will hold, but I hope you know that the stories you create really do make a difference. Thank you.
omw to try this out i'll tell yall what i think
edit:.....wow that was such a good way to spend an hour and 20 minutes of my life this game was truly a masterpiece. If the creator reads this, please keep making games, especially if they are this good. This game is a 9/10 in my opinion because, i don't fully understand some parts. like who am I? who was that blue eyed girl? yet even so i still love this game
Keep up the good work!
I have no idea as to how i'm supposed to convey my appreciation of the distinctly human writing (the typos kind of improve the immersion for me, weirdly enough), the premise and how it's toyed with to present the themes, the numerous symbolisms, the whole structure of the game's take on writing about negative themes (euphemism of the century but whatevs) and just writing in general and other stuff i won't delve into because it's about time i finish this damn sentence.
I guess i just did, huh? In short, this is awesome and thank you for making it, gosh darn why is writing comments so hard
Thank you so much for playing! Don’t worry, I really appreciate any and all comments on this project!
I AM SO SORRY FOR THE TYPOS… this is one of those games where’s it’s difficult to back to the script due to the subject matter, perhaps when it’s not as raw for me I’ll be able to triple-check it again, but right now it’s. Owgh.
Anyway, thank you so much!!
One Last Story surprised me a lot.
I always wondered how would be the POV of people who knew me and who didn't know me would react to my death, what would be their thoughts?
It's an interesting idea to explore in a game, and I believe it's worth your time for the experience that the game provides.
(Spoiler-Free Review)
As I am typing this, tears are running down my face, across my cheeks. My heart feels so empty, yet so full at the same time. My emotions are at the height of their intensity. Anger. Sadness. Love. I am experiencing all of it.
What I thought was going to be a retrospective on the deceased author's writings and blog posts turned into an emotionally unsettling experience. But I don't mean this negatively. This feeling of being emotionally unsettled...was also in a way, somewhat comforting. Loss through death is a complex subject to discuss or even process, and yet this game demonstrated the perspectives of it beautifully through the lens of different people.
To be honest, it's difficult to keep my thoughts on this game to one boxed-in review, as I'm still feeling the emotions. That said, I would like to mention the strictly game-related aspects that I really enjoyed:
One last thing: for the record, I was crying throughout this entire game. But the last scene really did it in for me. I truly hope more people play this so that they can see how much of a masterpiece it is. I commend you, Mei, and appreciate you sharing this experience with people like me. I will never be able to truly understand the story from your direct perspective, but even playing this game had me self-reflecting on the ways that I navigate death, loss, and mourning. I truly resonated with a lot of the conversations shown in this game, and it carries a very impactful message. Thank you for reminding us that games are more than just a place for fantasy worlds. They are vehicles for storytelling, even for the stories that are not "palatable."
This is a game I will never forget. This is a game that I will forever cherish. This is a game that I will forever know as one of my favourite games to ever exist.
Thank you so much for playing, Viv ;o; I’m so touched that it’s one of your favorite games - since I’ve barely gotten any feedback on it, I was unsure of whether it really was as good as I wanted it to be… and calling it a ‘masterpiece’ really means so much to me. Thank you <3 <3
There's something I find really heartfelt about the use of color in this. Red being the pain, the hopelessness, the self-destruction. Blue being the drive to step forward, to keep going, to create. It being so distant while we're in the red. The blue starting to bleed back in...
What really made it click was seeing how purple was used in the end. We can never really get rid of the red, can we? Both sides are a part of us...
I hope you don't mind my musing, this hit some old wounds I haven't felt in a while... Thank you for making this, I'm so glad I finally played this
Thank you so much for playing. ❤️ Yeah, the usage of color is very intentional, I’m really happy to hear that the meaning was conveyed as intended.
Thank you so much! 💝
i'm about to download this but i've never been more of an idiot looking at a itch.io page, like am I the author? or just looking?
Play to find out… (don’t worry haha it’s kept vague on purpose)