Panacea: Rebirth
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Logline: On the outskirts of a small village, a sickly girl explores the forest in secret day after day. Are the creatures from the woods as dangerous as the rumors claim?
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In a small village called Amber Stone, right on the outskirts of the Dark Forest, where it's rumored to be lurking with dangerous creatures, a sickly young girl named Lacrima lives together with her family.
As alchemists, Lacrima's parents are constantly working on their potions and medicine for the village, which she'd like to help them with but she always receives the same answer: 'you need to rest'.
Bored and lonely, Lacrima seeks comfort and adventure in her regular visits to the Dark Forest, where she meets her friend Nox, a mysterious owl creature, and Angis, a non-human alchemist boy who is prone to blushing.
One day, Lacrima overhears her parents talking about an essential ingredient needed for their potions: the moonflower, a plant that only blooms in the Dark Forest during full moon nights.
Determined to mend her relationship with her parents, Lacrima slips out on the night of the full moon in search of the rare flower.
Note: This game was made in one month for Spooktober's 2022 game jam.
If you have any questions, please check out my FAQ + General Information section on my Carrd first. It's very possible they might have been answered there already 🌸. Thank you~
- Alchemy ⚗️
- Around 8k words
- A female protagonist
- A rich mystery with horror elements set in a dark fantasy world
- 3 endings (2 death ends with variations and 1 true end)
- Compelling characters who may or may not be human
- Difficulty modes that let you enjoy the game in the way you prefer
- Chase scenes with timed choices
- Original sprites, backgrounds, CGs & UI
- Original music (with the exception of a few themes) & SFX
- Mild cursing
- Chase scenes (timed)
- Mentions of chronic illness
- Blood, murder & death scenes
- Strong violence (graphic, textual & some SFX)
- Pri Karin: Project Lead, Vice Director, Audio Director, Game Tester, Writer & Editor
- YuukiPudding: Project Manager, Director, Extra Mini CG & Edits, Silhouette Sprites, Logo & Itch Page Art
- Mochipie: Code Magician
- Anta: Sprite Artist
- Yui: Background Artist
- Rin: UI Design
- Kyle: Main CGs, Cover Art
- Jello: Mini CGs
- Florisam: Extra CG & Mini CGs, Forest chase backgrounds
- Philow: Sound Effects Designer
- Matías Jara: Background Music
- Purple Planet: Additional Music (Royalty Free)
- Amacha Music: Additional Music (Royalty Free)
This visual novel is a remake of an old RPG Maker game demo from a few years ago, so many changes have been made but the essence of the plot remains. Panacea: Rebirth is the prequel of the main story.
Panacea: Remake was created as a Fable Novel game but it will continue being worked on as a solo project. Read this post for more info.
Updated | 25 days ago |
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Rating | Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars (52 total ratings) |
Authors | prikarin, Fable Novel, Jello, Matías Jara, Pilar Hidalgo Lopez - Philow, Yui Enajori, Anta |
Genre | Visual Novel |
Made with | Ren'Py |
Tags | 2D, Anime, Dark Fantasy, Female Protagonist, Horror, Monsters, Mystery, Narrative, Romance, Story Rich |
Average session | About an hour |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
Download
Development log
- To Panacea Fans: Pri, the writer, now has a Monthly Newsletter!Jul 08, 2023
- News regarding PanaceaApr 10, 2023
- Postmortem rambles from Pri KarinOct 30, 2022
- New Playing/Difficulty Modes!Oct 05, 2022
- Chase scenes' walkthroughOct 03, 2022
Comments
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Wow, this game is great, I really hope the main project one day comes out because I have high hopes
does the game have any voice acting
theres no windows ver?
need to see this game soon …. WILL be pulling up :3 this looks so good i will be supporting more of your works 🫡🫡🫶🏽
made this account for the only purpose of commenting (apologies for my grammar not english)i had alot of fun with this the music was really nice too listen too the story excites me i like this and im excited for what comes :D
That's really sweet of you, thank you so much! Panacea has gone back to being my solo project and is currently on hiatus but I'm working on a spin-off called Potion Pleasing! You can see more on my twitter with the tag #PotionPleasing <3
Thank you for the kind comment!
Looking forward to your sequel.....I have finished all your games(including beta and demo)that I really like your plot which is really attractive❤
I am pity that there is no bilocation in the world,or else you can finish your games with speed x n.I hate waiting o(╥﹏╥)o
Hi, thank you for your kind comment! ❤ Panacea will continue as my solo project, but since it's quite big, it's currently on hiatus. Still, it makes me really happy you like this story!
Also, in case you're interested, I'm currently working on a spin off set in the same world of Panacea (Essentia). It's called Potion Pleasing~
Was that the anya reference ?
I loved you are really talented
It's just me or enyone else ship Angis x Lacrima? lol they are sooooooooooo cute
(soory if it has eny wrong grammar, English is not my first language)
Hello! Pri the writer, here, hehe. Thank you for the sweet comment! I'm happy you like the pairing between Lacrima and Angis too! <3
PS: Your English is good, don't worry!
How can I not love them?
PS: this is reassuring
Do you have any idea when the sequel will be released?
Hello, hello! Panacea is now going to be a solo project under my name but, since the story is quite ambitious, I'm first going to be releasing a number of spin-offs set in the same universe. But I'll be sure to post any updates on my twitter and devlog <3 Thank you for your interest in this project! It might be the least popular but it's the most special one that I have, so it makes me happy when people like it (♡ˊ͈ ꒳ ˋ͈)
PLEASE TELL ME YOU WILL DO A SEQUEL
I NEED ONE!!!
Hi! Pri, the writer here! Thank you so much, it makes me really happy that you want a sequel! ☺️💕 Yes, Panacea: Rebirth is only the prequel of the story, so we have plans to make the continuation eventually.
Great!!!
In my illusion I haven´t said what I liked the most about the game, and it is honestly...
ALL
The art is exquisite and precious, the worldbuilding is so well done that it makes you feel that you are being told a little story of a world where every day different stories happen in each place to each person and it is your duty to discover it, all the characters are charming and you immediately fall in love with them and suffer with them, and the story leaves you wanting more.
The only thing I didn't like, is that the parents, the vampire, neighbor or other neighbor's son, didn't have sprites on their own or their cgs were just "shaded profiles", it seems to me that the story gives them enough credit and importance to earn a face to be able to tell them apart (I mean, I didn't realize that the son of "I don't know who", was the vampire and he killed the neighbor when Lacrima caught him killing, because the neighbor told the parents about the flower, I only found out when end when one of the neighbors mentioned the identities of the vampire and the victim), although I understand that it is a prequel and the main story will no longer have the parents, but in my opinion it would help in the immersion of this game.
For everything else, this game is PERFECT <3<3<3<3.
Thank you so much for your comment and feedback!
Yes, I agree that non-shaded profiles would have been better for the game T_T Since we did it for a one-month game jam, there wasn't much time, unfortunately, but the main story will definitely have proper sprites for all the important characters <3
Thank you so much for your sweet words! <3
it felt like an opening for a great adventure and bigger story.. do you guys plan to expand the lore of this vn ? like making a rpgm or another visual novel?
Pri the writer, here! Thank you so much, we're happy you enjoyed it! ☺️💕 Panacea: Rebirth is actually the prequel to the whole story but we're planning on working on the sequel! It will a visual novel too. Thank you for playing it, it was a lot of fun watching your gameplay! 🥰
This is so good!!! How come it only has 8k words? I liked it so much that the scene where protag spoilers is literally my wallpaper now
Am I insane or is the cg just really pretty?
I was so full of myself that I got the first quick-time event scene right first try that when I reached the second I just had to get every choice wrong... some twice
Pri the writer here!
That's so sweet of you thank you so much!! Really happy to know you liked the story!! ☺️💕
Hehe we're overjoyed to know you liked the art and the quick time events as well!!😊🌸
Very charming and charismatic characters, the visuals are wonderful and mix very well with the sounds, well... A amazing VN, the only problem is having to wait for more! ^^
Thank you so much, Hto!! 🥰❤ We're really happy to know you enjoyed it so much and dhxhshxhs your fanart of Lacrima that you shared on Twitt€r looks amazing 😭
Hehe, we hope that you'll like the continuation as well when we release it!! 🌸
EDIT: I go on about the chase sequences a bit in this post, but 'yrea' in the replies has revealed that it was my fleeting attention span that mostly caused my grievances with them. For transparency, I won't delete what I wrote, but feel free to ignore all my criticism. And apologies if any of it was hurtful.
ORIGINAL:
Loved the title screen and the UI. A lot of care and consideration was poured into it and it shows! The mouse pointer is a really nice touch too.
So much world building going on too! It’s obvious this is just a tiny snippet of a story from the main epic. Definitely get a sense of something much grander happening.
The art is really great. Particularly (what I’m presuming is) Kyle’s art. Some real pro looking stuff there. I didn’t exactly love that the parents were just silhouettes. They seemed like main enough characters to warrant detailed sprites. But maybe this was intentional for a reason I didn’t pick up on. Or maybe it was a victim of time constraints. It didn’t hurt the experience too much. Just felt a little odd to me.
Music was really nice and fitting. Sound effects were great too.
The chase sequences were super effective with all the motion. But I really didn’t like the ‘trial and error’ nature of it. Personally I feel this approach kind of deflates all the tension and makes the sections a bit tedious and chore like. It might have been better if the player had 3 chances before dying and game over. Or maybe there was a visual cue to look out for that suggested which way was the right way to go. Also, on my laptop the framerate absolutely tanked during those scenes and it wasn’t actually obvious it was time based. So sometimes I was failing thinking I had gone the wrong way which led to a lot of confusion when retrying. Not that me playing on an older laptop is the game’s fault in any way.
Arrgh, sorry to focus so much on the complaint, I imagine you probably got a lot of feedback about that, and I don’t want to add to any negativity too much. It’s good that the ‘difficulty level’ option was implemented.
All in all, awesome effort by the team. Well done!
We were given directions before the chase sequences happened.
Oh. Uh... yeah... that's on me then. Damn my goldfish memory and attention span. Original post updated.
Hey, don't worry about it. It happens.
Heyo! We're happy to know that you enjoyed the game, thank you so much! 😊
Yeah, unfortunately the time constraints made it difficult to add proper sprites to Lacrima's parents 😅 but maybe some other time we'll be able to update them 💪
About the chase sequences, it's okay! The puzzle can be tricky, but we're glad it didn't ruin the whole experience for you.
Thanks for giving our game a try! 😄
Yeah, definitely not ruined. Although considering I spent about a third of my post complaining about it, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise 😅Apologies again!
It ended so suddenly tho...I really wanted to see more of this characters and the adventure ahead, but I'll wait patiently because it was so good, keep the good work!
PS: Never getting tired of the Gidget references!
Thank you so much for your comment and such a fun gameplay!! It was really fun seeing your reactions 😊🌸 Super overjoyed to hear you liked the worldbuilding, story and art!!
For the quick time events it seems you have to click the mouse hard for the click to register, sometimes 🤔, cause you actually solved the puzzles correctly! This is very helpful feedback, we'll keep it in mind for next games that may have similar puzzles (I think I'll mention it on the walkthrough too, just in case). Glad you still had fun with them!! 😊
As a writer it makes me really happy to know you want to see more of the characters and the world!! You're right, the prologue did end a bit abruptly 💦; if we ever release this on Steam I'll try to flesh it out a bit more 💪
Will do my best for the writing of the main story too!!
Again, thanks so much for your review and your gameplay!! They honestly made my day 🌸🌱
PS: Happy to see you enjoy the Gidget references! It's a lot of fun including them 🐸 We may put some Hummingbird's Crown references in the main story as well 👀
I really enjoyed this game! The music and sound effects were very effective, and I liked the art, especially the multiple sprites. Story-wise, I liked both Nox and Angis's relationships with Lacrima (the hug was very cute), but I did question the setup behind Angis and Lacrima's CG--it wasn't clear if it was actually necessary, but that may have just been me reading too fast. I also am not sure if the prologue is needed since I was expecting the ending. But overall, great game and I am excited for the story to continue! Very good job, dev team.
Thank you so much for giving our game a try and for your feedback!! We're really happy you enjoyed it!! 🥰❤
As predicted, I loved it ^-^ It's very beautiful and dreamlike. All of the art is so pretty, the story is engaging with a lovely mixture of cute and humourous moments alongside darker themes (also I don't wanna spoil anything, but loving the references, hehe.) The music is enchanting (I'm actually sitting with the game still open on the main menu as I type this because it's a very relaxing tune!)
I got a bad end first pretty early on, haha. Admittedly, I'm one of those people who detests quick-time events in all games, especially VNs >.< but that's a personal preference thing! And I can't even moan about it because it was done really well + I'd be a hypocrite since I've put them in some of my games xD I just like to be able to sit and relax when I'm playing a VN, so I generally don't like anything in a VN that isn't just reading x3 It wasn't tooooo intrusive though, so I didn't get annoyed or anything with it, and I do really love the way it's animated :3
I think I've managed to unlock everything in the gallery. I do have a few favourite images, but I won't say what they are here cos I don't wanna spoil anything x3
But yeah, I love everything about it (apart from the quick time stuff x3 but again, that's not a complaint or anything cos it was done brilliantly! That's just me, haha.) It's going straight on my recommendations list <3 Really awesome job to the whole team!! ^-^
Thank you so much for your detailed review MariMel!! We're really happy you liked it!! ❤️💕 😊
Hehe, quick time events certainly can be tedious at times 😂 Glad you liked the animation for chase scenes!!
Thank you for such a sweet comment!! 🥰❤️
I'm in love with the whole vibe of this game!! I loved how even just opening it gave you that fun and immersive intro with the map. And then the GUI, my heart!! Everything about this game is so lovely and polished and just WORKS SO WELL together! It really adds to the whole atmosphere of the game, that's simultaneously warm and mysterious with tinges of horror rumbling beneath the surface.
Lacrima was so lovable as the main character!! I really enjoyed seeing her reactions to the different situations she finds herself in. Especially her interactions with Nox and Angis! Absolutely in love with Nox tbh. I may or may not have gasped slightly when the cloak came off dkfajlsdkfajsd 🤭💕 And Angis was so adorable!! I loved how shy he was around Lacrima, and the CG of them was probably one of my favorites in the game!
THE DARK TURN THOUGH. This started out with a somewhat sweet and innocent feel and then it was just like BANG. Such a great moment, and I really loved the build-up! The chase scenes were also so intense! I def died more than once and had to redo them lol The effects were so great though. They were super immersive and really added to the creeping tension that grows throughout the whole game.
Overall this was just absolutely lovely!! I'm so invested now in seeing where Lacrima's story is going to go, and I assume we'll be seeing a lot more of Nox and Angis in the future, too!! Wonderful job all around—I loved it so much!! 💕
AAAAHHHH CARROT YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE US CRY 😭💘💖
Thank you so much for such a detailed and sweet review!! We're really happy that you enjoyed it!! ❤❤❤
Hehe, the artists did an amazing job with the UI, sprites, CGs and backgrounds and Mochi the programmer killed it with that chase scene, I'm so glad you enjoyed all these!!
It also makes me overjoyed to know you liked the intro, the characters and the build up for the dark turn!!
And I agree, Nox is super handsome 😏. As the writer I have to say I honestly feel like my senpai noticed me and I'm over the moon shxhwhxha 😳💖😭We'll do our best for the continuation too!! 💪💖
I played the game and Agnis is soo cuteee ı also liked Nox alot he really looks like big brother to Lacrima actually ı was pretty sad when game suddenly finished while ı was expecting more. Then ı learned ıts actually not finished! ^^ I will wait for the main story patiently. thanks for the hard work!
Aaaahh dksgbjsbg your comment made my day, you're so sweet, thank you so much!! 😭❤️
It really means a lot to our team knowing people enjoy our games (and, as the writer, it motivates me a whole bunch to know people want more of the stories I write 💘)!! Really happy to know you liked Angis and Nox!! 😊
We'll do our best for the main story too!! ❤️
Lacrima x Angis look cute together~~ Nox looks hot uwu
I wasn't expecting the rising action. It became very interesting! Would there be a continuation?
I also especially love the timed choices. It was fun!
Aww thank you so much!! ❤️ We're happy you enjoyed it!!
Yes! This would be sort of like a prologue for the main story so there are plans for the continuation! 😊
Hehe, I had a lot of fun writing Lacrima & Angis' interactions and want to dive further into their romance in the next part!
And Nox is indeed very handsome 😏
Thank you for giving our game a try!
Just gave this a go, and this is a very pleasant little VN. Lacrima is so cute; I love all her expressions - especially her trollface Anya-inspired one, haha ;;
Her relationship with Nox was very cute, too!
Thank you for making this. For a horror VN it was quite sweet!
Aaah thank you so much 😭💖 we're happy to know you liked it!! 🥰💕
Hehe the Anya inspired troll face was really fun to add! It was Anta's (sprite artist) idea! ☺️
Cutw