Note: Discusses both the Switch and PC version ports. The Chinese in the title translates to "Ghost Hot Line". I'd also like to thank Kemco for the review key to this title.

A visual novel about ghosts and telephone switchboards sounds like an odd combination to base a visual novel around. To my surprise, 1f y0u're a gh0st ca11 me here! 幽铃热线 is actually a fun if quirky idea.

The basic idea is that a young lady in the underworld named Vanitas is hit up by a former Grim (as in, Grim Reaper) named Ars to take on a new job. Ars wants to try streamlining the job of getting ghosts who need to move on to the next life via Grims by having their calls for help forwarded to the appropriate Grim. There is some apprehension it will put Grims out of work, hence the job being experimental. Further, the job is complicated because Ghosts have to state their needs in five seconds and the switchboard has to field multiple calls.

The game takes place over the first inaugural week of this new system, during which the ending is determined by the average of calls successfully forwarded. Additional challenges get added as the days progress, including calls from humans that need to be disconnected as opposed to replying to. It's possible to go back to earlier days to improve your score, but this will reset all subsequent days after, so they need to be done again for a new score evaluation. After beating the game, a "Hundred Call Challenge" mode is unlocked, with one hundred calls in rapid succession.

The style of this visual novel is decidedly quirky. All the named characters are named after Latin terms, like Carpe Diem and Memento Mori. The setting is in the afterlife, though it curiously cribs from both Western and Eastern religious concepts of the afterlife.

Graphically, it uses a generally monotone color scheme. While mostly black and white, there are other monotone shades of color in some scenes, mostly the backdrops. It's obvious English is not the first language of the developers, though most of the text is fairly fluent sounding. The UI, on the other hand, is a bit clunky, as if it were run through Google Translate.

Sounds and music have a spooky synthesized feel. This is entirely on theme given the setting. Sound effects are simple but clear, mostly noises to confirm you made a correct choice or error noises to indicate otherwise.

This game is heavily mouse-driven. It can be played on the Steam Deck but will require using the touchpad for the mouse control. Given the Steam Deck touchpad is not very accurate, it would be better to use a real mouse or rebind an analog stick for mouse control. On the Switch, controls are mapped to the Switch keys. Both are relatively easy to learn, as the game does tutorialize the basics.

Stability is pretty solid. If you can turn on your computer, you can run this fine. This game runs natively on Microsoft Windows and will run on Linux via Steam Proton. It's not rated for the Steam Deck, but it ran fine out of the box for me. As mentioned above, controls are far from optimal on Steam Deck.

Morally, this game has some concerning content.

There is no depicted violence (though some is vaguely described), but there is some mild language with some mentions of d*mn and h*ll in dialogue. There is no sexual content, but there are references to the undead given the theme and mentions of Buddhism. Morally, you play as someone helping spirits move on to the next life. This is shown to be a morally responsible act in the universe, even if some are opposed to the means. There are some sparse references to alcoholic beverages as well.

Overall, this isn't a game I really enjoyed, though I did find the mix of visual novel and memory match gameplay interesting. It's technically sound aside from some UI issues. Morally, it has mild language concerns and mentions of the undead are frequent. If you like memory match games and don't mind it being mated to a visual novel, then this title is worth checking out.