[3] Non-player characters' perception of the protagonist is dependent on a hidden five-variable system (open/closed, agreeable/adversarial, insightful/dull, bold/passive, and reliable/unreliable) that shifts based on their responses.

[4] The protagonist is invited to the funeral of their estranged Aunt Pearlanne by her daughter Tabitha, the new head of the once-affluent Scarlet family.

They travel to Scarlet Hollow, North Carolina, a small town supported by the Scarlet-owned coal mines.

On Day 3, the protagonist has dinner with Kaneeka and Stella’s friend Reese, a chronically ill young man who is mostly confined to his house.

The group meets up at Oscar’s house and find it is haunted by the ghost of Charles Shaw Jr., the lover of the protagonist’s ancestor Edwardine Scarlet who was later killed by her.

Charles demands that either Tabitha or the protagonist repay their family’s debt to him by sacrificing years of their own lives and becoming middle-aged.

The protagonist secretly visits Reese and may discover that his mother has been poisoning him with ricin for years, causing his illnesses.

That game, Slay the Princess, released in 2023 and proved successful enough to fund the rest of Scarlet Hollow's development cycle.

[10] Reviewing Episode 1, PC Gamer's Emma Matthews praised the game's setting and implementation of the trait system.

[11] John Walker of Kotaku named the early access version of Scarlet Hollow as one of 2021's best games.