"Open your eyes. Look...at me."
You are trying to fall asleep.
In the midst of a silent night, a shadowy being approches your bed.
You can't see it... but across the darkness of your eyelids, a silhuette forms nonetheless.
It seeks one thing: for you to open your eyes, and tell them how they look.
Will you comply? Or will you refuse to see them for what they are?
The choice is yours.
In the midst of a silent night, a shadowy being approches your bed.
You can't see it... but across the darkness of your eyelids, a silhuette forms nonetheless.
It seeks one thing: for you to open your eyes, and tell them how they look.
Will you comply? Or will you refuse to see them for what they are?
The choice is yours.
(Don't) Open Your Eyes
is a short horror visual novel by via01 in which you are an ordinary person who knows your room like the back of your hand, and can envision it when you go to sleep perfectly, so long as nothing is moved or changed. But one night, some... person has invited themself to your room. They're not out to hurt you... yet. They're happy to talk about themselves and share their life experiences, and ask you what they think they look like (allowing you to customize their appearance within your imagination) or what you think of them.
All they have is one big request- open your eyes. It is up to you whether you want to do so. What will you see? Can you risk it? Will you go mad from what you see? Will you run in fear? Or... will you simply refuse to look?
This visual novel contains examples of:
- Arc Words: "Open your eyes". The visitor constantly asks you to do this to see what they look like, and whether you do decides your ending. If you refuse, eventually it becomes sort of a Madness Mantra for them.
- Character Customization: Played with. You can alter the appearance of the creature's eyes, hands, and mouth, but you are only doing so within your own imagination while your eyes are closed. The creature's actual appearance stays the same no matter what- not that you ever get to see it.
- Eldritch Abomination: Your mental visualizations of the creature end up somewhere between these two. It has a human figure by default, but even that looks somehow off, not helped by the game's sketchy art style. The features you choose for the creature can include tentacles for hands and what should be an Eyeless Face given shattered eyes instead.
- Madness Mantra: In the true end, the creature goes from telling you to open your eyes to just repeating the word "open" when you close them again.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is there some unknown creature lurking in your room, or is it all just in your head? The two endings each imply something different: if you choose to open your eyes early on, you'll see your room as normal. If the creature MAKES you open your eyes, well... there's something there.
- Multiple Endings: Two, depending on if you open your eyes or not.
- If you do open your eyes, you see nothing - the room is empty and the intruder is nowhere to be seen, and the novel ends abruptly.
- If you keep your eyes closed, the intruder will get mad that you are refusing to look at them and attack you, slamming your head into the walls to see your eyes until your ability to see is forever damaged, so they give you something that you can't see as a parting gift and leave.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The core of the horror is the fact that, since your eyes are closed, you cannot see what the intruder is like and can only imagine it (with said mental image changing depending on how you answer certain questions) while they tease you about how they desire you to see them. You also never get a good look at it in either ending- at most, you briefly get to see some of its face in the true end.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: The Creature. They talk in a gentle and whisper-like tone throughout the course of the Visual Novel. But soon, they tell you that you're a liar due to you not opening your eyes, yet describing them only within your mind. The real ending makes the creature bash your head against your own bedroom wall, it's only then that their quiet voice grows to a threatening growl as they demand you open your eyes to look at them.
- Tragic Monster: The Creature just wants somebody to see it for what it is (whatever that actually is). But they are so inhuman that nobody wants to, and it's become afraid of showing itself to people, so it will accept whatever you imagine as the truth, at least initially. Its sheer unhappiness becomes clear the longer it describes itself. That drives it to desperation... and ultimately, you may end up paying the price for its unhappiness.
