Secrets fester in the shadows. A rumour is moving through Tokyo's H City. If you bear the cursed Mark, you will die. It appears seemingly from nowhere, taking the appearance of a dog's bite. First the bearers of the Mark suffer from amnesia and then, within days, they die. Unless, that is, they can appease the spirit that gave them the Mark. Or, perhaps, destroy them...
At first glance Death Mark looks like a standard Japanese visual novel, with painted backgrounds overlaid with text and various options to choose from. As you progress, however, you'll need to investigate the particular spirits you're tussling with by exploring different locations and searching for clues and objects that will help you. This plays out as first-person exploration and it feels more like a Phoenix Wright game than a traditional visual novel.
Each encounter with a spirit has a potential 'good' end or a worse one, and figuring them out (and which one to pursue) is up to you. Sometimes you can talk your way to a happy(ish) ending, but sometimes you'll need to do battle with the vengeful spirit you're up against. Sometimes there are worse ends to an encounter than death, and defeating a ghost might have consequences that make you wish you hadn't...
There are multiple different endings to Death Mark. Will you have the constitution to take the Mark and enter the fray again to discover them all?