Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 96

Suda51 and Swery65 Are Planning a Horror Game

As announced during a recent IGN Japan live stream, game developers Suda51 and Swery65 are planning to make a horror game together.

For a long time, I frequently got the two of them mixed up due to the similarity of the names and their reputation for making “weird” games, but that doesn’t happen much now that I’m more familiar with their work.

Suda51 is the man behind games such as The Silver Case, which I reviewed last year, Killer7, Shadows of the Damned, and the No More Heroes series. Swery65 is the man behind Deadly Premonition, Dark Dreams Don’t Die, and The Missing, which I reviewed for MonsterVine, as well as The Good Life, which we’ve discussed before.

(So they’re responsible for a bunch of games that I’ve either played or want to play in the future, especially if they get re-releases, *cough*No More Heroes*cough*.)

Anyway, the two are teaming up to develop a horror game tentatively titled Hotel Barcelona, potentially about a magazine writer visiting a hotel. They want the game to be “light and easy to play,” and possibly involve multiple timelines that will be pieced together for the narrative, as well as multiple protagonists.

Keiichiro Toyama might also join them for this project. He is the creator of the Siren series, as well as the original Silent Hill.

During the live stream, they said Devolver Digital would be publishing the game, but Devolver later tweeted that the game had yet to be pitched to them.

Hotel Barcelona is clearly still in the earliest days of its development, with concepts for the game still being worked out, but the names behind it are enough to have it intrigued. Here’s hoping we’ll be discussing Hotel Barcelona in more detail sometime in the future!

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

There are three games I routinely get mixed up: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, and What Remains of Edith Finch.

We discussed What Remains of Edith Finch last October, and so this year I decided to finally play The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

(I’ll probably never play Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, since I haven’t enjoyed the developer’s other games, unless someone wins the contest and asks me to review it.)

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a story-driven mystery in which you play an occult detective investigating the strange incidents in Red Creek Valley after receiving a letter from a boy named Ethan Carter.

As you explore the area, you’ll come across crime scenes and similar disturbances. Using your supernatural abilities, your goal is to learn what happened. This usually consists of recreating the scene as it was before by finding any missing objects or other changes, then correctly ordering the ghostly images that appear. Once you’ve put the scene in order, the entire thing plays out.

These scenes, along with notes and documents you find, teach you more about Ethan Carter, his relationship with his family, and the events leading up to his letter. You soon learn that Ethan awakened a supernatural force known as “the sleeper,” which caused his family to turn against him and try to kill him due to the influence of this evil force.

Piecing together the crime scenes was fun, and the story seemed to be going in a creepy direction. But have you ever had the sinking feeling that a story you’re enjoying is building up to a conclusion you won’t enjoy at all?

After the first few notes, I realized a possible direction the story might go in. That concern hung over me like a shroud for the rest of the time I played, despite a few glimmers of hope that it wasn’t going there after all. Unfortunately, my prediction was right.

Click for major The Vanishing of Ethan Carter spoilersI’d said to myself, “I hope this isn’t one of those stories where the supernatural incidents turn out to just be a metaphor.”

See, the notes had given me the idea that at least some of the scenes were based on stories Ethan had written and the flashback conversations made me wonder if his family actually turned against him because… uh… he’s a writer?

That was not nearly as interesting to me as the creepy story about “the sleeper,” so I really hoped it wouldn’t happen.

But yes, that’s how it turned out. Ethan’s family considered him weird because he liked to write stories, none of the murders actually took place, and even the protagonist is a fictional character invented by Ethan, who is dying after getting trapped in the old house.

Writing this actually made me dislike it even more. Edith Finch might have left its curse ambiguous, but at least the incidents themselves actually happened. None of the murders in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter actually happened!

I would have much preferred an ambiguous horror story about “the sleeper.”

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter does a good job of foreshadowing its twist, I’ll give it that. It’s just the one twist I was hoping not to see, because I was much more interested in the direction the story appeared to be going at first.

In the end, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter certainly fit my theme for this month and had a lot of creepy potential (including a Lovecraft reference I enjoyed), but the conclusion left me disappointed with the game overall.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Whispering Willows

Over the weekend, I played the side-scrolling horror adventure game Whispering Willows.

Whispering Willows puts you in the shoes of Elena Elkhorn, a girl who heads to the mysterious Willows Mansion after her father goes missing there.

She soon learns she is descended from a shaman who once lived in the area and has the ability to enter the spirit realm. This ability is a core part of the gameplay, because as you explore the mansion and its grounds, you’ll need to frequently leave your body behind to solve puzzles in areas you can’t reach.

Entering spirit form also gives you the ability to talk to ghosts, which sometimes just provides a bit more dialogue but often plays a role in the puzzles you must solve.

Numerous notes left behind by various characters flesh out the story of what happened in the mansion, and it really is a somber story. Once again, this is a horror story that ends up feeling more sad and haunting than anything else. Overall, I enjoyed it, although the final sequence feels a bit rushed.

Click for Whispering Willows spoilersIt felt to me like Wortham gave up a bit too quickly. I liked the idea of showing him how past events would have gone if he hadn’t reacted the way he did, but I thought some of those moments needed more weight, especially when he learned that Flying Hawk really would have helped him talk to his wife again.

He’d been built up throughout the story as the driving force behind all the terrible events there, so really having him see the consequences of his actions would have made the climax feel stronger.

Meanwhile, the gameplay is pretty solid. It’s simple and the puzzles are fairly easy, but it has that nice gameplay loop I like of getting keys to unlock doors and gradually being able to explore areas that were blocked off before. The final chapter had some frustrating parts, but not enough to damage my impression of the game.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily call Whispering Willows a horror game, but it’s certainly a spooky one that has its share of creepy moments.

So if you want a spooky game about ghosts, a haunted mansion, and the tragic events that occurred there, it’s worth giving Whispering Willows a try.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Born from a Wish

Are we still talking about Silent Hill 2? That’s right, we aren’t done yet.

The version of Silent Hill 2 I played was the Greatest Hits version, which includes the sub-scenario Born from a Wish.

Born from a Wish is a short prequel in which you play as Maria prior to her meeting up with James in Silent Hill 2. This is an interesting decision for a side story, considering the nature of Maria.

It’s short, taking about an hour to complete (a little more or less depending on how much you explore the town), and it mainly focuses on Maria’s encounter with a mysterious man named Ernest Baldwin. Maria, who is searching for a way to escape the insanity of Silent Hill, begins exploring the Baldwin mansion and learning more about Ernest.

Since it’s so short, there’s not much I can say about the story without spoiling it. I will say that it feels a lot different than a typical Silent Hill story. Like the main story of Silent Hill 2, it’s also sad.

More than anything, it raises questions about Maria. From Silent Hill 2 alone, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Maria isn’t a “real” person in the same way the others are, but Born from a Wish shows that she has her own hopes and fears – and that she might be concerned, on some level, about the nature of her existence.

Gameplay-wise, it’s pretty much just more Silent Hill, and that’s always a good thing.

So if you have time and a copy of Silent Hill 2 that includes it, it’s worth playing through Born from a Wish to see a side of Maria that doesn’t come through in the main game.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Silent Hill 2

With as much as I like the Silent Hill series, it might surprise you to know that this month was the first time I ever played Silent Hill 2.

I got into the series by watching Let’s Plays, so I was familiar with the game and its story, but I hadn’t actually played it myself.

This year, however, I picked up a used copy of Silent Hill 2 (and 3!) and sat down to play it as one of my spooky October games.

Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic game and one of the best survival horror games out there. I know everyone says that, and I still personally favor Silent Hill 4, but Silent Hill 2 really is great. It’s mechanically sound, and its structure and game design are still fantastic.

When I think of the Silent Hill gameplay formula of exploring, solving puzzles, and unlocking doors while following clues or trying to reach your actual destination, Silent Hill 2’s structure perfectly demonstrates what I have in mind.

That might sound a little weird, but that’s really one of the things I love about this genre.

The atmosphere is great, too. Silent Hill 2 isn’t the sort of horror game that’s filled with jump scares or will have you hiding in dread, but it builds up a wonderfully unsettling atmosphere. The nurses in particular stood out to me. I had never realized just how freaky the Silent Hill 2 nurses are until I had to stand there, waiting to strike while they lurched closer and closer.

A lot of modern survival horror games choose to make you a helpless protagonist instead, but games like Silent Hill are proof that you can have the ability to fight back but still never quite feel safe.

And can we talk about the radio? The radio is a great gameplay feature, because it lets you know when there are monsters nearby, but that also increases the tension. Whenever I heard that radio crackle, I knew I couldn’t let down my guard.

Story-wise, Silent Hill 2 isn’t disturbing so much as sad. It’s really a sad story, not only for James, but for the other characters as well. Even though I knew how everything goes, I still loved watching each scene and even thought of some new things about the story’s foreshadowing that hadn’t occurred to me before.

Click for Silent Hill 2 spoilersI had always wondered why Silent Hill 2 references Walter Sullivan not once but three times. They can’t have planned his role in Silent Hill 4 that far back, right? As of Silent Hill 2, he’s just a random backstory character, yet he gets undue attention.

Then last night, as I was finishing it up, it occurred to me: it’s foreshadowing the truth about James.

Walter is a murderer. He’s seen Pyramid Head. He has a grave in the graveyard.

What if the recurring references to Walter are meant to point toward the inevitable conclusion, that James, who has also seen Pyramid Head and has a grave in the graveyard, is also a murderer?

Regardless, I like it, not only because of the connections to Silent Hill 4, but also because the quiz show part of the game is so bizarre and surreal.

In short, Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic, atmospheric survival horror game that still holds up well today, and if you haven’t had a chance to play it, I really recommend you do so.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: FAITH Chapter II

A week ago, we talked about the indie horror game FAITH, and now it’s time to discuss its sequel.

FAITH: Chapter II is not free but can be bought for a minimum of $1.00, and it improves on its predecessor in many ways.

You still walk around and lift your cross to exorcise items and/or demons, but it didn’t have any point where I felt like I was wandering aimlessly in search of random objects to exorcise. It’s a more focused experience, more like the second half of the first game.

Set after the events of the first game, although I’m not entirely sure which ending(s) it considers canon, FAITH: Chapter II has you once again investigating demonic activity. Instead of dealing with a single house and the woods around it, it features more locations and events – such as notes left behind by paranormal investigators in a seemingly-haunted church.

I was more interested in the story this time around, and I started trying to piece together events to try to figure out where the story is going next.

It also was much creepier. The creepiness of the first game didn’t really hit me until later on, but the sequel has some great horror moments that are executed in a fantastic way.

Click for FAITH: Chapter II spoilersThe one that stands out the most to me is when you’re reading a note, just like any other note in the game, and it gradually shifts from being a normal newspaper article to addressing the main character directly.

Breaking the game’s normal format like that took me by surprise, and it was a pretty creepy moment when I realized what was happening – especially since I didn’t know what to expect after that.

There are multiple endings again, but this time it’s not quite as straightforward. The two main endings are easy enough to get, but there’s also a third secret ending that makes you work for it a bit more.

And while there’s still some degree of ambiguity, I feel like FAITH: Chapter II comes down a bit more strongly on the “yes, there is definitely something supernatural going on” side of things.

The only thing I dislike about the game is that you have to fight enemies, but you die in a single hit. When a single mistake in a battle means you have to start the battle over (and not all of them auto-save right before the battle), it starts to feel tedious after a while.

Anyway, there’s a third FAITH game currently in development, and since FAITH: Chapter II left me interested in the story, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the third entry and how it improves upon this one.

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Detective Game Murder by Numbers Has Some Familiar Names

I wasn’t able to post this yesterday because I was finishing up a freelance project. Sorry for the delay!

Anyway, today we’re taking a quick break from spookiness to talk about a newly-announced detective game called Murder by Numbers.

Murder by Numbers is being described as a “90s-themed detective game,” and it stars an actress who teams up with a robot to clear her name after she’s accused of murdering her boss.

From the trailer, it looks like it’ll be similar to Ace Attorney in design, being a visual novel with investigation segments (as well as some sort of picross puzzles).

Detective games always catch my interest, but there’s a specific reason I decided to blog about this one, and that’s the team behind it.

The director worked on Swords of Ditto, which I’m not too familiar with, but the characters were designed by Hato Moa – yes, the creator of Hatoful Boyfriend! Meanwhile, the composer is Masakazu Sugimori, who did the music for the first Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick, among others.

So if nothing else, this game should have a good cast of characters (although Moa might have only done their designs) and a good soundtrack, which is enough to move this game onto my list of games to keep track of.

Murder by Numbers will be out in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch and PC.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Saya no Uta

If you like visual novels, boy do we have a creepy one to discuss today: Saya no Uta ~ The Song of Saya.

Earlier this year, I reviewed Saya no Uta for my other website, Lovecraft Video Games. It’s a horror eroge, meaning it has sex scenes, but they have since released an all-ages version on Steam as well.

It’s probably one of the most disturbing games we’ll discuss this month.

Saya no Uta begins on an unsettling note right away as you’re introduced to a nightmarish world of horrific abominations – who in their garbled voices are talking to the main character as if they know him.

His perception of the world has been twisted in a terrible way, making it nearly impossible for him to interact with the people he once considered his friends. He sees everyone around him as a monster except for one person, a mysterious girl named Saya.

While it doesn’t start out feeling necessarily Lovecraftian, that tone really starts to develop later in the story.

Some scenes are told from Fuminori’s point of view, while others are from his friends’ points of view. This creates a nice contrast and really works well to tell the increasingly disturbing story as Fuminori’s circumstances and bond with Saya take their toll on his mind.

I knew a spoiler going into the visual novel (just from the premise, you might be able to guess), but fortunately it was revealed much earlier than I expected and then the horror developed from there.

I also was a bit uncertain about it since this was the first uncensored eroge I’ve played/read, but the sexual content actually made everything even more unsettling. Most of the scenes were uncomfortable, fitting perfectly with the horror. As I mentioned at the start of the post, a censored version is now available from Steam, although due to the nature of the story, it still needs to talk about the sexual content. It just isn’t explicit.

(I have not played the censored version, so my assessment there is based on descriptions I read from people who have.)

Saya no Uta goes to some dark, disturbing places with its story, but if you like horror, it’s really a delightful read. I know I haven’t been saying much beyond the premise and “It’s disturbing!” but since it’s short, I don’t want to spoil it.

It takes a few hours to finish, and there are only two choices to make, leading to three different endings. But it’s the sort of horror that sticks with you. I kept thinking about it after I finished. Even now, thinking back to it for this post, I find myself thinking about just how messed up it was.

So if you like visual novels and horror, and you don’t mind a story that takes many disturbing turns, I absolutely recommend Saya no Uta ~ The Song of Saya, either the uncensored version from JAST or the censored version from Steam.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: FAITH

A friend recently recommended that I check out the FAITH series of horror games, so when Ocober arrived, I went to itch.io and picked up FAITH.

(It’s available for free, but paying at least $1.00 gets you the Deluxe version that comes with some bonuses.)

FAITH has simple, retro-style pixel graphics and pretty simple gameplay.

Set in the 1980s, you play a priest who participated in an exorcism that went badly a year earlier and now returns to the house in search of answers and closure.

There are two controls: you can walk, and you can raise your cross to exorcise things. The start of the game didn’t impress me too much. You’re walking through the woods leading to the house, and you can exorcise objects in the environment to get notes that flesh out the story a bit.

Once you get to the house, you’re still collecting notes, but you also begin to have more direct confrontations with the demon plaguing it, which adds more tension.

It took me a little over an hour to finish. There are multiple endings, but it comes down to a fairly straightforward choice at the end. Some of the endings imply different things about what happened during the game, adding to the ambiguity already present because of the premise.

Anyway, I walked away from the game thinking it was a bit creepy but nothing special, but the ambiguous story details ended up lingering in the back of my mind longer than I expected, keeping me up as I tried to sleep. It left me interested enough to try the sequel, so we might be discussing that this October as well!

In the meantime, if you’re interested in a short, minimalist horror game, FAITH is available on itch.io.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Fatal Frame

As usual, October will be filled with horror game reviews, starting with one that’s long overdue.

Remember five years ago when I started the original Fatal Frame? I got stuck and gave up on it not long after that, but this year when I got my PlayStation 2 out, I decided to give it another try.

Fatal Frame is a classic survival horror game following a girl named Miku who heads into a haunted mansion in search of her brother (who himself went inside searching for another character). The mansion is filled with ghosts, most of which are hostile, but Miku can fight back by using the Camera Obscura to photograph them.

It’s a pretty interesting twist on combat. You need to keep the ghost in your sights to power up your shot, and taking the shot at the last minute deals extra damage.

As expected in a survival horror game, you have limited “ammo” in the form of film you find in the mansion. Fighting ghosts also gives you points you can use to power up your camera or unlock special attacks, which made it feel oddly like it encouraged combat more than other survival horror games, but at the same time every encounter felt deadly.

I got better at the combat the longer I played, but that never removed the dread. There’s something scary about a ghost advancing toward you while crying out about its death, then fading from sight as you desperately try to find it again before it attacks.

(Some can teleport. And they can go through walls!)

Adding to the sense of dread is that you don’t have a mansion full of wandering enemies that you can clear out. Many fights are scripted encounters, and then there are also random ghosts that can appear anywhere, even in rooms with save points. You can run from the random ones, and one random ghost that began appearing near the end was dangerous enough that I fled every time it arrived.

Of course, the fact that you’re encouraged to take the shot in the moment right before the ghost’s attack also increases the tension.

The gameplay also has all the survival horror mechanics I look for – puzzles, exploration, an environment that gradually opens up – and uses its supernatural premise to add to these. Locked door? You might need a key, you might need to solve a puzzle, but then again, you might need to take a photograph to get a clue and then go fight a ghost whose power is sealing the door.

Finally, Fatal Frame is just disturbing. The atmosphere is unsettling, the story is dark, and the more you learn about the events that occurred in the mansion, the more twisted everything feels. I’m actually surprised they got away with a T rating.

I often give survival horror games a pass on story compared to other genres, but like with the Silent Hill series, Fatal Frame is one where I really enjoyed learning more about the story (mainly backstory) as it unfolded.

Five years ago, I gave up on the original Fatal Frame, but now that I gave it a second chance, I ended up really loving it. It was the perfect way to kick off this Halloween season.

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