Excellent narrative adventure Scarlet Hollow is getting a greatly expanded "soft relaunch"

Easily one of the best narrative adventure visual novels on PC, Scarlet Hollow is getting a big juicy update in March that's basically a "soft relaunch" of the game. From Black Tabby Games, they also made the very popular Slay the Princess.

The update called Scarlet Hollow - The Roads Untraveled, will launch on March 3rd. It comes with a whole lot including over "70,000 words of new story content" across Episodes 1 and 2 which allow you to explore previously unseen paths.

We're also getting an overhaul to the user interface and visuals, a small update to Episode 3 and 4 and they're hoping to also have a cut ending for Episode 4 make it in time too.

They said that "Not only will the first two chapters feel more dynamic once this update is out, but the new and expanded content will better position us to make Episode 5 hit just the way we'd like it to". Going by the Steam page, a total of 7 episodes are planned to be released eventually.

Scarlet Hollow has Native Linux support and is rated Steam Deck Verified.

A bit more about it if you missed it before:

• A heavily branching narrative where your decisions (actually) matter. The relationships you forge and the decisions you make will dramatically alter your journey.

• A complex paranormal mystery. Investigate haunted houses, strange sightings in the woods, a deteriorating mine, and more as you try and piece together what happened in Scarlet Hollow.

• Trait-based dialogue and role-playing. Scarlet Hollow's dialogue system is driven by role-playing elements that let you choose who you want to be. Are you quiet and observant? Hot and clueless? Can you talk to animals? 21 different character builds change how you interact with the world and how your story unfolds.

• A dynamic relationship system that reacts to your every choice and changes how your story unfolds. People won't just like or dislike you. Become friendly rivals, bitter adversaries, best friends, or mild acquaintances with everyone in town based on how you approach the story.

• Original monster designs inspired by Appalachian myths and cryptids.

• No jumpscares. All of the horror in Scarlet Hollow comes from dread, tension, and a sprinkle of disturbing imagery.

• A touch of romance. Whether you're into goths, dads, moms, paranormal investigators, mysterious recluses, or actual monsters, you'll find something waiting for you here. And if you'd rather avoid that entirely, your story won't be any less for it.

• Hundreds of meticulously hand-drawn and traditionally inked backgrounds. Every background in the game is hand drawn and inked by Ignatz-winning graphic novelist Abby Howard.

• Fully immersive art. Each major character has dozens—and often hundreds—of hand-drawn sprites that interact with backgrounds and capture a full range of lighting, emotion, environment, and outfit changes.

From the press release: “Before diving into Scarlet Hollow’s final chapters, we wanted to take the opportunity to make its opening act more reflective of the extreme agency and deep character writing that defines the later episodes,” says Tony Howard-Arias, co-founder at Black Tabby Games. “Episode 1 was the very first game we made, and while we’re so proud of the impact it’s had on people, we’ve also learned so much since its release. We’re better game designers, better writers, and we know our characters much more intimately now than when we started. We’re so excited to give old fans an opportunity to re-explore the beginning of their journeys, and we can’t wait for a whole new crop of players to enter the Holler for the first time.”