rynling | Entries tagged with horror games

Escaped Chasm
https://tuyoki.itch.io/escaped-chasm

Escaped Chasm is a 25-minute dark fantasy narrative adventure game created in RPG Maker with a mix of retro Game Boy graphics and anime-style cutscenes. Originally released in 2019, it’s the first stand-alone project of Temmie Chang, a longtime friend and collaborator of Toby Fox who contributed character designs and graphics to Undertale and Deltarune.

You play as a young teenage “Lonely Girl” who doesn’t leave the house and lives vicariously through her dreams and art. Her parents appear to have gone missing, and she doesn’t know what to do. To make matters worse, she’s tired all the time, and a strange man has started appearing in her house.

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Symbiosis
https://spicaze.itch.io/symbiosis

Symbiosis is a free-to-play RPG Maker horror game about a murderous mad scientist living in a house in the woods with an adorable child. The story has two endings, and it takes about 25 minutes to play through the game once.

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Symbiosis tells a short but grisly story through simple narrative adventure gameplay intercut with stylishly illustrated cutscenes, and I enjoyed it enough to go back and see both endings. I definitely recommend this game to fans of gothic horror, demonic women, and questionable scientific ethics.

Flesh, Blood, & Concrete
https://waxwing0.itch.io/fbc

Flesh, Blood, & Concrete is a free-to-play RPG Maker adventure game that bills itself as “an apartment building exploration simulator.” During its 45-minute playtime, the game delves into themes of isolation, mental illness, and existential dread within the confines of a decaying apartment complex.

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As an aside, I was just thinking that I’d love to see more games set in Eastern Europe. Flesh, Blood, & Concrete is a universal story, but the specificity of the game’s Russian setting adds a unique and interesting flavor. I also appreciate that this “apartment exploration simulator” takes the darker aspects of mental illness seriously but still delights in the playfulness of its morbid style of creative expression. It's one of the more intriguing RPG Maker horror games I’ve encountered, and I’d recommend giving it a shot if you can handle the (literal) viscerality of its imagery.

Bloodbark
https://sirtartarus.itch.io/bloodbark

Bloodbark is a free forest horror game that takes about half an hour to play. You play as a lumberjack camping out in a small cabin next to a state park where a new type of tree has been discovered. Although these trees look like normal birches on the outside, their wood is bright red and fetches a high price. The lumberjack’s job is simple – he needs to find the special trees on his employer’s fenced-in property, cut them down, and return the timber to his cabin.

Still, given how much blood is involved… Are you really sure that it’s trees you’re chopping?

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Whispering Willows
https://akuparagames.itch.io/whispering-willows

Whispering Willows is a 2D adventure game set in a haunted mansion. There’s no combat, and the game takes about three hours to finish. It’s a small indie game made in 2014, and it’s not perfect. Still, I enjoyed the time I spent in Willows Mansion, and I’d recommend giving this game a shot if you’re into spooky gothic stories.

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Whispering Willows definitely feels like an indie game, but it’s got a delightfully grisly story and an excellent sense of atmosphere, and it’s worth checking out if you’re interested in Wild West Gothic from an indigenous perspective.

As a side note, this was apparently the game that launched Akupara Games, a publisher that specializes in quirky indie titles with a strong sense of style and setting. Two of my favorite games they’ve helped get off the ground are Rain World and Mutazione, and it’s cool to know that this was where they started.

Apartment Complex
https://kinerus.itch.io/apartment-complex

Apartment Complex is a short and free-to-download narrative exploration game set in a mostly abandoned apartment building. The only human occupants of this building are its two landlords. You play as one of the owners, who is middle-aged, jobless, and depressed. In an effort to do something with his life, your character takes it upon himself to check in with the tenants, who are not even remotely human.

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From its eye-catching color palette to the dry tone of its humor, Apartment Complex makes me nostalgic for Welcome to Night Vale in the best possible way. This is a chill and creative game about monster friends and postmodern malaise, and honestly? It’s super relatable.

Vacant
https://doublecrow.itch.io/vacant

Vacant is a free-to-play 2D narrative adventure game that takes about 35 minutes to finish. You play as a camerawoman named Elena who accompanies her friend Priya to a hotel that was abandoned shortly after it was built. Priya runs a ghost hunting video channel, and she wants to make it big by solving the mystery of the unexplained disappearances of Masthill Lodge.

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There’s no way to save your progress, so you’ll need to sit down and play the whole story in one go. I didn’t mind, as the game is so well crafted that it’s easy to become immersed in the fiction. If you’re a fan of the character writing of Night in the Woods or the magical realism of The Magnus Archives, I’d definitely recommend checking out Vacant.

Blackout
https://freshgames.itch.io/blackout

Blackout is a Halloween-themed point-and-click adventure game that you can play in your browser or download for free.

You play as a teenage witch who falls from the roof of a house while trying to snatch a feather from a crow. She loses her memory during her tumble to a second-floor balcony, and she’s surprised to find that the house is filled with corpses. The electricity seems to have been cut, and it’s too dark to see anything clearly. Your job as the player is to guide the witch through the haunted house and get the lights on so she can figure out what happened.

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Don’t Let Her In
https://flowerstudio.itch.io/dont-let-her-in

Don’t Let Her In is a free ten-minute horror game that you can play on a Game Boy Color emulator or directly in your browser on Itch.io.

You play as a teenager who hasn’t set foot outside the house in several weeks. Their father left a note on the kitchen table with a simple warning: Don’t let her in. As the player, you move through the house while interacting with various objects. You have one job, but you won’t be able to keep yourself safe forever.

Alternatively, you can ignore your father’s warning and invite the creepy woman inside the house as soon as she knocks on the kitchen window. This also leads to a satisfying story, although I’d recommend playing the game straight the first time around. The slow lead to the twist ending is wonderful, and having already experienced this twist makes the second ending much more satisfying.

The game’s graphics are simple but effective, and you might be surprised by how much body horror a few pixels can generate. The subtle worldbuilding is quite intriguing as well. There’s no good ending to this story, and its tone is bleak – there’s no irony or campiness, just horror. Don’t Let Her In may be short, but it's remarkably effective at creating an atmosphere of loneliness and dread.

Fantastic news! I believe I've found an acceptable outfit for Leon Kennedy. It's a bit classier than full frontal nudity, but it still gets the job done.

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It's also worth noting that Mara is visually modeled on Tifa. I don't have any feminist objections to girls walking around in miniskirts, of course, but the costume design still feels uncomfortable. I mean, that's not what I would personally wear to Rusty Nail Tetanus City, especially if there are zombies about.

I feel the same way about Tifa btw. There's just so much rusty metal in Midgar. And so many giant leeches.

Playing Crow Country made me irrepressibly nostalgic for Final Fantasy VII, so I downloaded the FFVII Remake on Steam Deck. I'm enjoying it way more as a handheld game than I did when I played it on PS4 with a big-screen tv; it's like the cringe is minimized. I also don't mind Tifa's clothing in the remake, as Barret has his own giant tits on full display. God bless.

What I propose is that we get some gender equality in survival horror as well. Specifically, I want Leon Scott Kennedy to have full frontal nudity. I want him running around swinging in the wind, because I think it's important to both the plot and the gameplay for the player to know why this character is referred to as Chad Thundercock on AO3.

ETA: Well, good news:
https://www.thegamer.com/resident-evil-4-remake-mod-nude-willy/

Crow Country is a retro-styled 32-bit survival horror game that takes about four hours to play. What I love about Crow Country is its Story Mode, which removes all enemies and allows you to enjoy the game as an atmospheric adventure in an abandoned amusement park.

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Crow Country isn’t a cozy horror game; there’s no learning or friendship or beautiful autumn leaves or anything like that. That being said, the horror elements are very mild. Despite the atmospheric creepiness of its setting, Crow Country is less of a horror story about zombies and more of a speculative fiction story about how we as individuals process the reality of climate change. I’d actually love to write an essay about this sometime soon.

I wasn’t expecting Crow Country to be so fun to play, or for it to be so creatively designed, or for its story to hit so hard. I have zero patience for stupid "intentionally inaccessible" retro game bullshit at this point in my life, but Crow Country is all killer no filler. Since it’s so short and inexpensive, I’d recommend the game to anyone who’s interested. Even if you’re not into abandoned amusement parks, Crow Country is the return to Final Fantasy VII’s rustpunk city of Midgar that you didn’t know you needed.

Tales of the Black Forest
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1093910/Tales_of_the_Black_Forest/

Tales of the Black Forest is a 16-bit RPG Maker narrative adventure game whose tone is split evenly between wholesome cuteness and graphic horror. Although Tales of the Black Forest features a few simple puzzles, a few short chase sequences, and limited elements of exploration, it may be more appropriate to call it a “visual novel” instead of a classic “adventure game.” Tales of the Black Forest takes about three and a half hours to play, and more than half of this time is spent reading character dialogue as you progress through a linear story.

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Tales of the Black Forest isn’t perfect, but it’s a solid 7/10 game that’s elevated to an 8/10 by virtue of the love and care that the two-person development team put into every aspect of its creation. Tales of the Black Forest caters to all the Japanese pop culture nerds who are fans of both cute anime characters and creepy urban legends, and I’m surprised that it hasn’t attracted more attention since it was released in 2019. In my eyes at least, this game is a small but shining hidden treasure.

NextDoor
https://broelbrak.itch.io/nextdoor

NextDoor is a spooky 2D interactive story game based on one of Junji Itō’s short horror manga. It’s free to download or play in your browser, and it takes about ten to fifteen minutes to read.

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There’s one (very mild) jumpscare in the game, and it’s a cameo from what’s actually my favorite Junji Itō manga, Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu. Yon & Mu is exactly what you would expect from a cute autobio pet manga drawn by Junji Itō, and it’s marvelous. (Here’s a link) to a nice and clean PDF of the translated manga on my personal Dropbox. I’ve got viewer tracking turned off for this file, so please feel free to download a copy if you’re interested.

Last Train Home
https://hby.itch.io/last-train-home

Last Train Home is a short and spooky creepypasta story game. It’s free to play in your browser, and it takes about five minutes to complete. You play as a salaryman who finds himself on a near-deserted commuter train in the dead of night.

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As an aside, Philadelphia has a subway and an underground trolley, and they make the New York subway seem cozy. I wouldn’t say there are urban legends about the SEPTA underground tunnels so much as there’s a dedicated Reddit board with daily posts supported by photographic evidence. Last Train Home is yet another horror story that doesn’t feel like horror to me because, idk, this is just where I live. It’s not that bad honestly. You get used to it.

A Man Outside
https://litrouke.itch.io/a-man-outside

A Man Outside is a short vocabulary quiz game. This twist is that, while you play, a creepy man watches you from outside your bedroom window. You’re tasked with doing three sets of ten vocab cards as spooky ambient sounds play in the background, and you can look out of the window at any time to see if the man has gotten any closer. Between quiz sets, you can text a friend to complain and get help.

I hope it doesn’t spoil this game to say that there are no jumpscares. The vocabulary gets progressively creepier, though, and there are fun distortions in the quiz interface. The vocabulary game itself is quite good, even without the added attraction of the creepy man. Necrophagy is my new favorite word.

Based on what I’ve seen in YouTube playthroughs, your vocab score doesn’t matter, and the choices you make simply add a bit of extra flavor. In order to get the true ending of the game, you have to play it from start to finish three times. Each run only takes about seven or eight minutes, but I don’t think the second or third ending is anything special. The first ending is perfect.

As an aside... As someone with ADHD, I often have to pretend that someone is watching me in order to get past executive dysfunction. I used to “have someone watch me” by going to coffee shops, but that only worked in Tokyo and DC, which are beautiful and walkable and filled with cafés. Philadelphia is not like that. Now, if I’m having trouble sending emails or whatever, I have to conjure an amorphous imaginary person who’s standing in the room like some sort of sleep paralysis demon. So, for me, playing A Man Outside was kind of comforting. Cozy, even. Honestly, this might actually be a decent way to study vocab.

One Hell of a Maid
https://bun-tired.itch.io/one-hell-of-a-maid

One Hell of a Maid is a free, ten-minute RPG Maker horror game about a college student out on his first job with an at-home maid service. Unfortunately, the apartment he’s been contracted to clean belongs to a group of cultists. Using a handy set of cleaning tools, you rid the apartment of blood on the floor, eldritch horrors in the bathtub, and coffee stains on the couch.

The apartment has three rooms, and each of them has a (very) mild jumpscare. I love the monster designs, and I also love the poor college student’s no-nonsense attitude regarding the horrors. He has a job, so he might as well do it. For some reason he has to wear a maid outfit, but it’s probably best not to think about that too hard. When the cultists finally come home, they are adorable.

One Hell of a Maid is not for everyone, but...

Actually who am I kidding. The appeal of this game is universal. What a fun and tasty snack.

Rental
https://smarto-club.itch.io/rental

With the spooky season upon us, Smarto Club decided to take a break from being wholesome and turned spooky with Rental, an eerie game about the risks of renting beach houses.

Rental is a 32-bit game about a family of cute bunnies who rent a vacation house in the woods. This isn’t a horror game, necessarily, but it’s strange and lowkey creepy. I’m going to say it takes about fifteen minutes to play, although it might take longer for people who are out of practice with PlayStation One style 3D spatial navigation (such as myself).

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There are no jumpscares in this game, and it’s not challenging. Probably the best way to describe Rental is to say that it's a short but spooky treat for connoisseurs of perfectly normal houses that are ever so slightly larger on the inside.

Rental
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2796550/Rental/

Rental is a short and spooky adventure game about the dangers of renting a house in an unknown place.

Lunacid
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1745510/Lunacid/

Lunacid is a first person dungeon crawler inspired by old FROMSOFT games like Shadow Tower and King’s Field.

I'm especially excited about Lunacid, as I've always been interested in King's Field IV but (a) I have no way to play it and (b) I am bad at games. Lunacid is supposed to be significantly easier than King's Field IV; and, like King's Field IV, it has a surprisingly good ambient soundtrack. Unfortunately, the only way to get the Lunacid soundtrack is on Amazon (here), but an early version is on YouTube (here). This is wonderful music to write to, and I've been listening to it on loop for the past week.

WHEN IS MY STEAM DECK GOING TO ARRIVE. WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN.

An unannotated playlist, sorted by playtime:

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Rynling R&D

Entries tagged with horror games

Escaped Chasm

Symbiosis

Flesh, Blood, & Concrete

Bloodbark

Whispering Willows

Apartment Complex

Vacant

Blackout

Don't Let Her In

Re: Crow Country, Part 2

Re: Crow Country

Crow Country

Tales of the Black Forest

NextDoor

Last Train Home

A Man Outside

One Hell of a Maid

Rental

Relevent to my interests

Free Horror Games on Itchio for Summer 2024