"You are a mind-reading goblin mage whose citizen score has fallen below the threshold of social acceptability. Normally, you would spend the rest of your life in the Corrective Camps of the State of New Order, but you have volunteered yourself for an expedition into the Inverted Spire.
"The Spire is an unearthly architectural marvel stretching many leagues below ground. It has no known origin, and has been altering the surrounding landscape into an unlivable wasteland. Your Council has been sending groups of prisoners into the structure for decades with the stated intent of investigating and destroying it. This is the sole opportunity for wards of the state to have their crimes forgiven, scores reset, and citizenship fully reinstated. None have ever returned. But you, and the six others who have been 'volunteered' alongside you, are determined to be the first survivors!
"Read minds. Form alliances. Break them. Find true companionship. Make true enemies. Become the person you always wished you could be, or succumb to your darkest urges. Anything is possible in the uncharted depths of the Spire."
One of the most amazing visual novels I've ever seen, taking into account how early in development it is -- and the demo still has quite a bit of gameplay and worldbuilding to give you a taste. As condemned prisoners in a dark fantasy dystopia, you're sent into a physically impossible dungeon to play Dirty Dozen, find the dungeon's core, and destroy it.
Rather than yoking all of this to pure CRPG mechanics, instead the crucial statistics reflect your personality and your connections to your six fellow prisoners. You'll never achieve your mission if you can't work together, but the chafing of oppositional personalities and philosophies will lead to shifting allegiances and infighting unless carefully managed.
Who do you side with? Whose words do you heed? When do you allow events to play out, and when do you intervene?
The art, the writing, the worldbuilding ... it honestly doesn't get much better than this. RPG when?
(And yes, ALL the art is of the same type and quality as the banner. No bait-and-switch.)
CW: You name it, but the largest are oppression, body horror, prejudice, mythological cannibalism, drug use, and abusive relationships. Play with caution if you have sensitive triggers.
Windows/Mac.