After finding the cursed play ‘The King in Yellow’, Trixie Glimmer Smith, a slacking student at Bluebell University recounts the terrible events that set her a week behind in her coursework.
This story follows on from the events of Parsnip (free download here) with a host of new characters and an expanded world, although you can still enjoy it without playing Parsnip.
Trixie is around 3-5 hours long, if you want to play all the content.
Throughout the game events may start to take their toll on Trixie’s mind.
As Trixie gains insight her narration becomes ever more unreliable.
Unlike many sanity systems, Trixie’s insight system is hidden, meaning you never know for sure when you are being affected by it. This system also means additional playthroughs of the game may vary!
Can you really trust anything Trixie sees? Can you afford not to?
Title: The Testimony of Trixie Glimmeresmith | Developer: Digital Poppy | Release Date: N/A | Genre: Horror | Style: Visual Novel | Platform: itch.io | Source: Self-Purchased | Content Warning: See Below the Review | Starred Review
The Testimony of Trixie Glimmersmith Review
This is actually going to be a two-in-one review of both Parsnip and The Testimony of Trixie Glimmersmith. Parsnip is rather short and would be hard to do a full review on but I didn’t want to leave out that bizarre little bunny so you guys get a double today!
Parsnip
I found out about Parsnip from my son’s girlfriend. The three of us like playing games together, particularly visual novels and RPG Maker games. We take turns with the voices and it’s really fun. Of the three of us the Tiny One has the best voices, but, I digress.
Anywhat, she thought I would like it because she knows I like stories based on or in the world of The King in Yellow. The references are light in Parsnip but they’re there and it was fun to try to find them all.
The characters were really fun and I was surprised at all of the unique dialogue they had. My favourite characters were Le Rose and the Shady Sheep (that’s not their official name). Tiny Tentacle liked the Magpie and Parsnip himself was a fun bun to play as.
It’s a fun little game and free so I recommend checking it out. You don’t have to play it to enjoy The Testimony of Trixie Glimmersmith but why not give it a shot?
Trixie Glimmersmith
After we played Parsnip I had to play The Testimony of Trixie Glimmersmith (ToTG from here on out). The Tiny One Said it was longer and had more story branches to it so how could we resist?
First off I want to say that the writing is top-notch. A lot of care went into the world-building and character creations and you can tell the creator is very familiar with the source material. Trixie is a character that you want to spend time with and the side characters are all unique.
We really liked the art style, as well. It had a low key style that completely fit the tone of the game.
I can’t stress how good the writing was. The story wasn’t ‘scary’ exactly but the descriptions and the dreams were eerie. And some parts were downright disturbing.
We took the Gregg path and all I will say is MEAT. GOLEM. I’m not going to say anymore, you’ll just have to experience that particular bit of horrifying for yourself. Westill need to do the Heidi and Belle paths but I’m looking forward to it to see what lies in wait on their stories.
And you really should. The writing is excellent and flows well. The tension ratchets up at an even pace. I particularly liked the writing during the dream/premonition scenes. They were very descriptive and you could imagine the scene vividly when no pictures were present.
The sound design was excellent, as well. There was music to fit each unique character and it was perfect. I particularly loved the trumpet for Parsnip’s character. The music during the eerier scenes was on point.
If you’re looking for a visual novel with creative and diverse characters, a fully realized world and a love of The King in Yellow then I highly recommend The Testimony of Trixie Glimmersmith.
Content Warning (from the creator’s description of the game): Trixie Glimmer Smith contains a few mild descriptions of violence, horror, implied sexual content, some exploration of negative trans feelings and some bad language.
GracieKat was the first co-host of Sci-Fi & Scary, Lilyn’s partner-in-crime, and sub-head of the Kali Krew. She reviews horror books, movies, and games for the site. She also does a weekly Focus on the Frightful feature, and is the site list-maker. She is also in control of the Sci-Fi & Scary podcast which will relaunch soon.