Island

About

Island is a visual novel from Frontwing that layers mystery and folklore into a complex narrative. You take control of a man who washes up on Urashima, a remote Japanese island masking a fractured history. The story splits into distinct routes as you engage with three girls linked to the island’s fallen ruling families. A flowchart system lets you track decisions and clues, figuring out the cause of a mysterious illness and long-standing local legends. Choices ripple outward, affecting relationships and the island’s fate through branching consequences and multiple endings. The game earns a 6.8/10 on Metacritic, praised for its ambitious structure and emotional depth but critiqued for slow pacing. Over 40 endings encourage replayability to explore all connections between characters and lore. Available on PS4, PC, Switch, and Vita, it leans heavily into tragic themes and dense dialogue. While some players find the weighty script demanding, others appreciate the interwoven stories of love, tradition, and sacrifice that define the island’s legacy.

Storyline

Urashima is a small island, far from mainland Japan. It’s a true utopia, blessed with rich natural beauty. But the island harbors a difficult past, and it’s about to be erased, silently, from history. Soot blight syndrome, an endemic disease, has brought about a rift between the island and the mainland. An offshore platform intended for marine research has long been left abandoned; five years ago, three separate incidents brought the once influential Three Families of Urashima to near ruin. Rumors about children being spirited away have become part of the local folklore, alongside another legend, one that has been repeated on the island since time immemorial… “Let me tell you the legend of this island: it’s a story of tragic love…” The key to saving the island lies with three girls, each of whom belongs to one of the Three Families. These girls aren’t able to change the fate of the island by themselves, but might they succeed with the help of the young man who’s just washed ashore? Claiming that he’s traveled back in time, the man immediately sets out on a lonely path, challenging the longstanding traditions of the island, and seeking to change the future. But those aren’t his only goals… How will his presence transform the lives of these three girls, the future of the island, and the fate of the world…?