The Town of Nie is a supernatural fantasy boys love visual novel developed by √ZOMBILiCA and published in English by dramatic create (HuneX). In the game you play as Hisora, an apathetic part-timer who is just kind of existing. He has no friends or strong attachments and honestly, no one would really miss him if he just up and vanished one day. Which is exactly what happens when he follows a strange man in funeral clothes down an alleyway and finds himself spirited away to a nightmare world between life and death.
Game Details
- Genre: Horror | Supernatural | Romance
- Get the Game: Nintendo Switch | PC (Steam)
- Rating: T (Teen)
- Developer & Publisher: √ZOMBILiCA & dramatic create
- Similar Games: Hashihime of the Old Book Town | Paradise | Slow Damage
About The Town of Nie
“How did I end up here?”
The main character Hisora lost his family when he was a teenager, and now gets by working a menial part-time job.
One day while working his job, Hisora notices a young man in mourning clothes who drops a bouquet of white flowers while heading into a dark alley.
Unable to let it be, Hisora picks up the bouquet and follows him. However, after passing through the long, dark alley Hisora loses sight of the young man, and finds himself standing at an Inn, the entrance to another world. While dazed, Hisora is welcomed by the Inn’s residence, and hears something that surprises him.
This is a world where death is a far-away concept.
There’s a man who walks around with a crushed head, and a child who plays with his own head as if it were a ball.
And other Freaks with terrifying deformities.Hisora is the only flesh and blood human, wandering around in this world filled with creepy things. He looks for a way to return to his own world, but there is none.
Hisora searches for a way to return home with the help of the Inn’s inhabitants. He ventures into the town, where the scent of the living attracts the dead who live there.
What will Hisora find at the conclusion of his life-threatening search?
Characters and Routes in The Town of Nie
The Town of Nie has four romanceable routes and a final truth route. Each route has two good endings—the Stay Ends follow Hisora and his chosen partner after they choose to stay at the inn; while the Return Ends follow them after they return to the real world. In addition to those, there are several bad ends that cover a wide range of not so awesome outcomes, so make sure you double check the content warnings.
Play order recommendation: Mio > Asuku > Koko > Naruomi > True Route
There aren’t any locked routes, but, some routes reveal important plot points that are best enjoyed later in the game. The Truth Route is an extension of Naruomi’s route, so it’s best to save them both for last to avoid huge spoilers.
Mio Suou (VA. Netoru Irakusa)
The inhabitant of room 301. A careless person who loves drinking, smoking, and large breasts. With his excellent communication skills, he has the potential to become drinking buddies with most anyone in this world full of difficult people. However, he can be lazy and tends to half-ass everything.
Mio is an absolute menace! This man has achieved a level of unbothered that I could only dream of… He does not give a fuck about anything. In fact, he’s the type of character that could easily be very annoying, because he’s always off in his own world goofing off when you need him to be serious. But, I think his chaotic energy is well suited to the wonkiness of the other world. I mean when you live in a world where monsters roam the streets and people are literally eating other people for funsies, it would be weirder not to have a few screws loose. That said, Mio’s party boy antics mask some deep emotional wounds, the man is literally drowning out his demons in booze and porn mags. Like most of the residents of the Inn, his past is not all sunshine and roses. Man really needs all the hugs he can get and I love that his relationship with Hisora allows him to let his guard down and be vulnerable with someone. Hisora’s steadfast personality tempers some of Mio’s more destructive tendencies and brings both security and balance to his life.
Asuku Rokusho (VA. Tasuke Rokujo)
The inhabitant of room 304. Due to his short-temper and his tendency to be frank, he has many enemies both inside and outside of the Inn. He’s happy to accept any fight, and will turn the tables on his accoster with his beloved metal bat. While everyone agrees to let the irregular presence of Hisora stay at the Inn, he is the only one opposed to it.
Not gonna lie, Asuku is kinda terrifying. Man has a really short fuse and with his trusty bat always within reach, Asuku has a tendency to swing first and ask questions later. Asuku is the type of guy to always choose violence. The man is emotionally unavailable, especially towards Hisora, who he seems to harbor a strong sense of loathing towards. Man hates his guts and isn’t shy about telling Hisora how useless he is as soon as he sees him. Because of this a lot of their interactions can be really uncomfortable to sit through—there is a toe sucking scene that I will never forget. But, despite his prickly personality, Asuku actually arrived in the other world as a child, so he doesn’t have any memories of his past life. On top of that being raised around the horrors of this world kinda warped his personality. But, deep down, Asuku is really sweet and smidge on the innocent side. The romance in the beginning is very toxic but, once Hisora tames Asuku, their relationship is really cute. Asuku’s an angy kitty… with really sharp claws.
Koko (VA. Wasshoitaro)
The inhabitant of room 306. A good cook, he is in charge of all the chores at the Inn. He is gentle, caring, and playful. This together with his looks makes him extremely popular among everyone, from the residents of the Inn, to the townsfolk, men and women young and old.
Koko is the house mother of the Inn, cooking everyone’s meals and serving as the voice of reason when some of the more rowdy residents start stuff in the house. I have said before that I am not a fan of flirty love interests, because they come off really disingenuous. And it doesn’t help that they constantly describe Koko as being “sexy”. But, I actually really like Koko, because despite literally fucking his way through the whole town—we love a Bi King—he genuinely (in his own way) cares about everyone he spends time with. Koko doesn’t remember his life before coming to the Inn, so he has fully embraced his life in this world. While his free love approach is clashes with Hisora’s more conservative views on love, Koko is pretty dependable and becomes someone that Hisora can’t help but rely on. Koko’s overly accommodating personality stems from his deep desire to be needed by others.
Because Hisora can’t really survive without Koko’s help, he becomes his ideal source of self gratification. The relationship between Hisora and Koko is more physical than I was expecting at the start, but as they get to know one another their bond becomes much more genuine and wholesome. Warning in advance, this route deals with some triggering themes <highlight space to reveal>child abuse<highlight space to reveal> and it is very very hard to sit through.
Naruomi Kuchiba (VA. Souji Sarutobi)
The inhabitant of room 207. A well-behaved young man who can make calm and careful decisions. He is quite serious, and can be inflexible at times. He is always concerned for Hisora, but he himself claims that they are not acquaintances in this world.
Naruomi is the only seemingly normal person in the Inn, but don’t let his soft boi appearance fool you, the man is just as crazy as the rest of them. He’s just better at hiding it. From the start Naruomi is incredibly attentive to Hisora, to the point that he names himself his personal protector. But, when the other options are Mio’s sloppy ass and Asuku and his bat, Naruomi is definitely a safer option. He literally worships the ground Hisora walks on, something that the other guys love to tease him about constantly. But, the man doesn’t care, so long as he can follow behind Hisora like a puppy the man is happy. He is not shy about showing his love for Hisora, much to his confusion. This route had the most cute romantic moments—there were a lot of steamy bath times and night time “touching”. But, trust it was still pretty violent and gory. There was a very graphic scene where they smash while Naruomi’s guts are spilling out and it is described in painful detail. That aside, Naruomi is pretty chill most of the time. However, if you hurt Hisora or worse, get between him and his man, heaven help you, cus he will show no mercy. His route is the most spoiler heavy, so I recommend saving him for last.
Hisora (VA. Tetsu Watake)
The protagonist of this story, who works several blue-collar part-time jobs. Though he may seem like a cool character at a first glance, he’s very talkative, full of emotions, and honest. However he is oblivious to the affections directed towards him, often neglecting them without realizing it. Chasing after a young man in mourning clothes, he finds himself wandering into the Inn.
Hisora is like Alice in Wonderland, the man is out of his depth and just trying to survive all the insanity that surrounds him and return to the real world. His only clue is the mysterious man in the mourning clothes that he followed into the other world. Unfortunately for Hisora, unlike the other residents of the Inn, Hisora retains his flesh and blood body that gives off a unique scent that attracts monsters and freaky townspeople who want to literally eat him. Because of this he is told to choose one of the residents of the Inn to accompany him as he searches the town for clues to help him return home.
In the real world Hisora is pretty disconnected from other people, just kind of going through the motions of his life. But, when he arrives in the other world, he is suddenly the center of attention. He comes alive at the Inn, finding companionship and purpose, all the things he lacks in his everyday life.
The Town of Nie Review
I’ve played a lot of boys love games over the years and the best way to describe The Town of Nie is, Alice in Wonderland with a gory, psychological horror twist. Except in this case the white rabbit is a handsome man in mourning clothes and Wonderland is a nightmare purgatory full of monsters and crazed townspeople with a taste for violence and human flesh. Fans of NitroChiral will feel right at home in Zombilica’s The Town of Nie, which wastes no time revealing its disturbing story elements, but beyond the shocking imagery and narrative is a surprisingly deep story about grief, overcoming loss, and just making the most of every day.
The game follows Hisora, a 20 year old part-timer with no family, no friends, and really no prospects. After losing his family in middle school, he’s pretty much just listlessly going through his adult life, one meaningless part-time job at a time. Just when he’s starting to give up on…everything, he crosses paths with a mysterious man in mourning clothing carrying a bouquet of white flowers. As the man passes, Hisora notices that he has dropped the flowers. Intending to return them to the man, Hisora follows him into an alley only to be suddenly transported to a completely different world. Disoriented, Hisora looks for anything that might help him make sense of his situation, when he stumbles upon an old Inn.
There he meets the Inn’s enigmatic Landlord, who tells him that he is in a sort of Limbo, where the souls of people between life and death go when they fall unconscious in the real world. Since, no one in this world can die, they pretty much just do whatever they want without consequence. However, unlike the other inhabitants of this world, Hisora retains his flesh and blood body which makes him especially attractive to those hoping to get a taste of life… literally. With his life on the line, Hisora wants to get the hell outta Dodge as soon as humanly possible. But, his only clue to getting home is the mysterious man he followed into the world. So he sets out to find him and hopefully find his way home.
Until he can figure out how to get back to the real world, the Landlord offers him shelter at the Inn. While there Hisora gets to know each of the other eccentric residents of the Inn, each of whom have their own secrets and unresolved baggage from their time in the real world. Along the way, forge bonds with four main residents—Mio, the happy-go-lucky slacker; Asuku, the bat wielding shut-in; Koko, the flirty caretaker of the Inn; and the quiet and bookish, Naruomi—and uncover the truth behind Hisora’s connection to this new world.
The Town of Nie is one of the few games where I can honestly say I loved all of the love interests! There isn’t a single bad apple in the bunch. As you explore each of their stories you and Hisora uncover the truth behind their tragic pasts and help them learn to move forward with their lives. Trust me when I say, these backstories get dark, like emotional damage kind of dark.
The other world is meant to be an escape from the burdens of the real world. All of the characters in The Town of Nie are running from something, whether that be the expectations of their families, their responsibilities, or just straight up trauma—they each have something from their past that they want to forget. For them, the other world isn’t a place of fear, but a place of peace and comfort, where they can live freely and truly be themselves without the burden of their pasts.
While it isn’t the most healthy way to deal with hardships, we can all admit that at some point or another we wanted to just run away from our problems instead of facing them head on. The real world can be harsh and unforgiving, and compared to the suffering you face trying to live day in and day out, maybe a world where you don’t have to deal with that, even with the threat of homicidal townspeople and monsters, might feel like a better option.
You’re not meant to condemn the characters, but understand them and help them choose the best path for themselves. Whether that’s making the easier choice of staying at the Inn and living within the delusion of peace that the world offers them or making the more difficult choice to leave that comfort behind allowing them to embrace their past and face everything that comes with living in the real world. Neither option is considered to be the “right” or “wrong” one, rather they’re just the choice that is best for the characters at that point in their journey. Everyone is looking for a place where they belong, and both the Stay and Return ends offer the player the chance to see just what that looks like for each of the characters.
Though that doesn’t mean there aren’t any bad outcomes in The Town of Nie. There are several bad endings you can get, that range from the mundane like, Hisora dying to some pretty out there graphic monster porn… yes, despite this game being censored to hell, dramatic create let the tentacle porn slide through, which was a choice. For reference, if you’ve played through any of the NitroChiral games or some of the more recent JAST localizations like, Paradise or Masquerade Hell Academy, you should be fine.
To balance out some of the darker themes, the romance in The Town of Nie is actually pretty wholesome for a boys love game. Is it sweet innocent fluff? No, this is a BL, so expect a more adult experience. But, as far as BL goes, it’s a nice counterpoint to the graphic horror in the game.
The romance in The Town of Nie isn’t always pretty, and the relationships tend to start physical and transition into something deeper as the story progresses. But, that doesn’t mean the writers forego actually developing the bonds between the characters. Hisora is usually the one putting in the work to get to know the guys on a deeper level. His naïve and earnest nature is the main driving force behind developing a relationship with the love interests. The romance stems not from casual attachments, but from understanding and embracing all sides of their partner. Seeing beyond their individual trauma and working together to heal and grow.
Now, that said, I did want to point out that while most of the guys admit some degree of interest in other men—Koko is open to any partners regardless of identity and Naruomi specifically says he leans more towards men—most of them never considered entering into a same-sex relationship. While the game handles the romance without too much internalized homophobia or conflict, some characters take a bit longer to come around to developing feelings for another guy. Hisora has a few moments where he doubts his feelings for the other guys or writes the romantic situations off as just platonic bro stuff. It’s especially funny when after getting dicked down by one of the guys, Hisora will rationalize it as platonic homie activities, when the other guy will clearly say he’s in love with Hisora.
Of course this is a BL, so the characters do smash, but unfortunately The Town of Nie is heavily censored, with entire sex scenes either cut to hell or omitted entirely. The publisher, dramatic create doesn’t do 18+ content, so it’s a wonder why they even picked up this game in the first place instead of letting another publisher like MangaGamer localize the game like they did with Hashihime of the Old Book Town. Me thinks it has everything to do with maximizing profits internally, but we move. It’s just frustrating, since the sexual content in boys love games are a huge part of the romance narrative and removing that content really takes away some of the impact of the relationships as a whole.
On top of that, the way dramatic create censored The Town of Nie is inconsistent. The consensual scenes either fade to black and pick up post coitus or they are removed altogether leaving a confusing hole in the story that is never explained. In the event that a scene is left intact, then the CGs are edited to hide the naughty bits, either with a weird white-out effect or they redraw the clothing in, which looks lowkey ridiculous in some places.
But, funnily enough I did notice that the non-con bad end sex scenes are left pretty much untouched. Dramatic create is fine actually showing Hisora being SA’d with a bottle or penetrated by a tentacle monster, but god forbid we see him getting some sweet sweet lovin’ from someone he actually loves. And if you are hoping that the Steam version is uncensored, you are out of luck, because it’s just as heavily censored.
Can you enjoy The Town of Nie without the sex scenes? I mean, sure, you can, but at what cost? I usually come to BL for the smut and the plot, because the genre isn’t afraid to offer a more adult experience compared to other romance visual novels. And since the sexual content is usually such a big part of these types of stories, its omission does take away from the overall experience. Though, not enough to make The Town of Nie unplayable. I just wish we were given the option to toggle off the 18+ content or hell even have it censored with mosaics.
For the folks that care about the localization, The Town of Nie is one of the better ones from HuneX/dramatic create. There were a few instances of lines that were left untranslated (not nearly as bad as Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri) and some awkward phrases every now and again. But, not enough to raise a fuss about (I was more put off by the censorship).
Is The Town of Nie Worth Playing?
Overall, I did really enjoy The Town of Nie! While the censorship and the ridiculously high price may have put a lot of folks off of playing this one, I definitely recommend picking it up. The story has a nice balance between some of its heavier themes and more lighthearted moments, and I genuinely loved all the main characters (though some of the side characters deserve to burn in the deepest pits of hell). However, be warned, this game does lean heavy into the psychological horror and gore, so it isn’t for everyone. But, if you can stomach some of the more gruesome elements of the story, The Town of Nie is a really great play for the BL lovers (especially with the fandisc/sequel coming soon)!
Wow, I was looking for this game so interested and now… meh.
I can’t fathom they give you a complete bottle-rape but If you want to see a well deserved sweet moment… they censhor it??
Well, no thank you, sir.
In this kind of games I normally kind of… bear with violations and whatever for the sake of the plot, but what I really want to see in terms of spicy scenes is precisely the sweet ones. The least I ask is a balance between them, not a festival of violence because violence.
Your analysis has completely ruined my excitement about this game. Thank you, because you have saved time, money and a good anger :__D
Yeah, the way this was censored took me all the way out. But, that said I think it is a really great game. I love the story and the characters and at least until 14th The Town of Nie is 50% off on Steam and it’s definitely worth it at that price.
Nah, really, hard pass for me. I’ve been investigating other forums, and it seems the scenes do indeed exist. It’s just that they’ve decided to cut them out because they felt like it, but that hasn’t stopped them from selling you the game for twice the price of the fully censored version.
If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve decided not to support this kind of practice with my money, I would PREFER to buy the censored version. But after knowing what I know, I’m not going to buy anyone at all.
Of course, this isn’t your fault. On the contrary, I’m so grateful because you’ve saved me from a huge headache. If I had paid that money and had found this now, I’d want to throw my computer out the window.
It’s so curious and illogical how censors work. Like, here, they took a vanilla blowjob scene and turned it into a foot fetish scene, which is just as sexual and now has kink. Or like how webcomics show the sex, but turn the cocks into glowsticks. When everyone knows what’s underneath, who is that censorship for? So very odd. Dream create’s choices sound so bizarre that I wanted to comment. I think you nailed it when you said they chose the title because of its potential popularity and toned the positive sexual elements down due to either corporate discomfort with the material or to snag the PG-13 rating and include teens in the intended audience. The fact the game still shows extreme violence and sexual assault makes me roll my eyes. Dear Lord.
With that out of the way, stellar review as usual! You really gave the game a fair shake, despite some serious obstacles.
Censorship with BL is always funny, either you get none whatsoever or they completely butcher the game with the cuts.
It’s especially noticeable how badly they censor media aimed at women. Eroge games aimed at men don’t nearly get half this level of scrutiny.
Glad you liked the review!! I had a lot of fun with the game (censorship aside)!
Actually, Dramatic create is the Taishou Mebiusline company as well and this game has a lot of hot sex scenes. Well, I played it in Japanese.
I don’t get why bl game are even censored since most of them are R18. Why don’t companies censor eroge then? ¬ ¬ so unfair.
Same. And it seems that games aimed at a female audience are always censored. Even when the main release is on Steam that is FLOODED with hentai aimed at men. Then to add insult, nobody ever really comes out with an uncensor patch for the better ones.
(Insert my long ass rant about how R18+ games aimed at women ALWAYS get censored. But of course men’s don’t and if they do there’s an Uncensor patch 2 seconds later.)
Also I really don’t want MangaGamer to touch anything. Considering what they do publish usually has the font changed, the translation is.. less than stellar and a LOT of their productrs aimed at men are HIGH in sexual assault. It just seems anti-thetical to localize anything aimed at women when a good portion of their games treats them like sexual objects. (But that’s my opinion. I’m betting a “But if they didn’t do it who would?” is going to be a response. But that’s how we ended up with Lunar in the state it’s in.)
I haven’t had too many issues with mangagamer’s localizations. While they do focus more on eroge titles, every now and again we will get a few titles aimed at women. Hashihime of the Old Book Town was really well done and kept the adult content in. I also really like what I’ve played of Sona Nyl of the Violet Shadows which has sexual content, but also has a really great story. Then there is also, Steam Prison (and the FD) which are standard otome. So, I think it depends on the title.
I’m really sad. I found the Switch demo by chance and was really impressed. I mean, the game is already rated 18+, so why does it have to be censored? Which is true, I forgot that genitals are more traumatizing than blood and violence *warning: irony*. I think it makes more sense to get the Steam version than the Switch version, because the Nintendo website only says something about rude language. So the censorship is probably even worse than on Steam. Well, in Germany, I always get the short end of the stick anyway.
It was quite an enjoyable play with an interesting concept but would have preferred it to be uncensored as originally intended and I agree some of the censorship choices were bizarre I’m surprised that foot fetish CG made it onto the switch, if they were going to go with that then they might as well have just had the original scene intact. I only went for the switch version as it was cheaper than steam and both are equally censored.
With regards to the routes I didn’t think anyone would top the loveable idiot Mios route and then we got Asuka who I grew to love as a character despite his questionable actions, I’m currently playing through Kokos route he seemed like such a nice guy until you get to his route and he’s proper seedy so now I’m wondering how his route will turn out. Now I think mr nice guy Naruomi is gunna have some dark skeletons hiding in that closet.
Ahhh ok, both are equally censored. good to know.. but sad. mby i try to buy the jap version
So happy to hear that you are liking The Town of Nie so far! I agree it had a lot of things working against it, but the story and characters are really, REALLY good!
Koko’s route can be rough, the man has been through a lot! But, Naruomi is on another level.
I’ve been so torn about getting Town of Nie for so long now, and seeing your review makes me even more conflicted! The artwork, characters, and story all seem like things I would really enjoy – it seems like a great game, and I think I would have a lot of fun playing it.
And I feel really strongly about supporting BLVN localization! I talked to the Jast table at a convention years ago, and I remember them saying “oh man, we love you guys!” about their BL fans. BL games are constantly in their top weekly games section. Even as of this moment, Slow Damange and Dmmd are in the 1 and 2 spots, with four BL games in the top ten. BL games are also usually in the top for MangaGamer when they have a new release. So I feel like fans really do send a message when they buy BL games!
But that’s why I’m really hesitant to support a game that’s been censored (especially in such weird ways). If they had a patch for adding adult content back like Jast Blue did with Nitro+Chiral games for Steam, I wouldn’t have any problem with getting it. But I don’t want to see more 18+ BL games get picked up and censored by dramatic create or any other publishers who think this is a way to reach new markets or maximize profits. Which is a shame, because I really want to play Town of Nie!