I Can Smell You From Here

You tell your first-ever match from a dating app one small lie to sound more interesting, and three questions later you are inventing details just to protect it. That is the engine of I Can Smell You From Here, a short visual novel where every answer at the dinner table has to survive the next one. Your date is Idimya, she is charming, she is visibly hungry, and the evening only works if your story stays consistent.

Holding a Lie Together in I Can Smell You From Here

The loop is easy to describe and tense to play. Idimya asks something, you pick from a short list of replies, and each pick becomes a fact you must remember. Confirming a choice means holding Enter, Space or the left mouse button instead of tapping it, which turns every answer into a small commitment. Players who plan ahead notice that the hold gives them a beat to reconsider, and that beat is where most of the anxiety lives.

The scroll wheel is the quiet hero. Spinning it back through recent dialogue lets you check what you actually claimed a few lines ago, which matters in a game about keeping a story straight.

Most newcomers treat the first run like a standard dating sim and pick whatever sounds nicest. That backfires, because kindness and flattery do not automatically move you closer to Idimya, and the evaluation at the end tends to surprise them. Early in the game your opening answers set your direction and later lines mostly nudge it, so narrative-first players who enjoy branching dialogue will find that a nervous first run can lock in an outcome before the date really gets going.

Reading Idimya’s Alignment Compass

After each run, a psychological evaluation shows how close your pin landed to hers on the alignment compass. The pin can never fully overlap with Idimya’s, and that is intentional, so the goal becomes getting as near as the story allows. The evaluation is far more precise than a short visual novel needs, which is a big part of its charm.

Completionists enjoy this part most, because the compass turns replays into small experiments. One approach is to chase the closest possible pin, while the opposite approach is to drift as far from her values as you can and still leave the restaurant alive. Both are worth trying once.

Community advice agrees on one point: be assertive early. To reach the Rival side you need values very different from hers, and answers that make you sound curious and respectful about studying humans rub her the wrong way. If you want the Rival ending where she spares you, try steering her toward pacifism or a vegan diet.

Five Endings Under Four Labels

The five endings are sorted by players under four labels that match the alignment system. Here is how they break down in practice.

Prey is the ending where the lie collapses and Idimya treats you as dinner. There is a single Prey ending, and it is the one her appetite has been promising all evening.

Rival means your values clash with hers badly enough that she sees an opponent. Two endings sit here, and one of them pairs Rival with Crush so that she spares your life.

Ally means you convinced her you are on the same side. Two endings sit here as well, including the Ally Crush ending that several players report reaching on a first run.

Crush works less like a separate ending and more like a layer on top of Rival or Ally. Even then Idimya stays a monster, nothing fixes her, and no canonical happily ever after exists.

What Divides Players in I Can Smell You From Here

The content warnings are real: body horror, violence, cannibalism, references to murder, strong language and sexual themes. The setup of a nervous man on his first date has also drawn heated discussion from people who never played it, while those who did mostly talk about the anxiety of keeping a lie clean.

The endings split opinion too. Some players wanted the good outcomes to go further, while others value that the Ally and Crush results stay unfinished and leave room to imagine what happens after the date. A run is short, so the real cost is replaying to find every branch.

Art and sound are the other common topic. Idimya’s design, the way the dark part of her eyes shrinks, and the ambient music get constant praise, and horror fans who prefer dread to jump scares will find the atmosphere carries the game on its own.

I Can Smell You From Here works because every small lie feels like the one that could get you eaten, and Idimya never stops being dangerous while she laughs at your answers. Replay with a different pin on the alignment compass, aim for the Rival ending where she spares you, and see how far apart your values can drift while the date still ends with you walking out.