The gaming exhibition "Tokyo Game Show 2023" was recently held in Japan.
Let's take a look at the new Japanese and Chinese horror games that were shown there.
Homicipher
"Homicipher" is a point&click adventure game with some visual novel elements.
This game is being created by Japanese artist Yatsunagi.
This game is being created by Japanese artist Yatsunagi.
The main character is a young girl who wakes up from sleep and discovers herself inside some strange underground labyrinth.
And soon the girl realizes, that she is not alone in that labyrinth. Several weird psychopaths also live here, and they all speak in some foreign, incomprehensible language.
An unusual feature of "Homicipher" is that during the game we will have to communicate with psychopaths and try to decipher their language. If we misunderstand some of their phrases or answer something wrong, then our heroine can be killed.
Another feature of the game is a slight touch of sadomasochistic otome romance. The psychopath characters are invented in such a way that they not only frighten you, but you can also fall in love with them.
To be honest, I don't usually like otome games, but this project looks intriguing. The concept is quite original, and the art is atmospheric.
The game will be released on PC, but the exact release date has not yet been announced. A free demo with a prologue is available now on Steam.
Hotel Barcelona
"Hotel Barcelona" is a joint project of two famous developers: Hidetaka Suehiro (creator of Deadly Premonition) and Goichi Suda (creator of Moonlight Syndrome and Shadows of the Damned).
The game is being developed by Hidetaka Suehiro's own studio - White Owls.
The plot of "Hotel Barcelona" tells a story about a girl who finds herself in a hotel where all the maniacs and serial killers of America gather.
But suddenly our heroine turns out to be not a defenseless cutie - but a fierce fighter, wielding an axe and pistols.
The game will be an old-school platformer in a bloodthirsty horror setting similar to SplatterHouse, with a lot of references to horror movies from the 80s and 90s.
The main character has to go through 7 levels (each level is like an alternative world inside the hotel), and at the end of each level she must fight with a maniac boss. In the interview, the developers note that each boss will symbolize a different subgenre of horror movies.
The idea is interesting, but the game clearly suffers from the blurry and inexpressive 3D graphics. In my opinion, everything could look much nicer with 2D art.
It’s also worth noting how much the project has changed during development.
The "Hotel Barcelona" project was initially announced in 2019. At that time, the developers planned to make an adventure game, inspired by the films of David Lynch and the plot of Forbidden Siren. And they even wanted to invite Keiichiro Toyama (the creator of Siren) to the project.
But in the end, the project went somewhere in the wrong direction and mutated beyond recognition. Now, four years later, we get a funny arcade-style platformer with splatter-horror content. And this is not exactly what I hoped to see from Swery65 and Suda51.
The game's release is scheduled for 2024.
"Hotel Barcelona” should be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X\S.
"Hotel Barcelona” should be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X\S.
Fall Into Decay
Indie horror game from Chinese developer "Grey House Studio".
It is a two-dimensional adventure game with a top-down view and cute anime-style pixel graphics. In many ways, this project is similar to Corpse Party.
"Fall Into Decay" tells the story of several people who find themselves in an abandoned mansion, inhabited by a murderous axe-wielding maniac and a strange purple bear.
Throughout the game, we will have to explore the mansion, flee from a maniacal pursuer, and solve puzzles. The developers promise that the game will have several endings, and our actions during the game will influence the outcome of the story.
Fall Into Decay will be released on PC, via Steam.
But the exact date is still unknown, and it is unclear whether the game will be translated into English (only Chinese language is currently listed on the game's page).
But the exact date is still unknown, and it is unclear whether the game will be translated into English (only Chinese language is currently listed on the game's page).
Candlelight: Lament
A two-dimensional side-scrolling black and white adventure game, similar to Cat Lady.
The development is carried out by a small Chinese indie studio Lawsquare Games.
The game takes place in the 1970s and begins with an elderly man named Edward trying to find out the reasons for the disappearance of his granddaughter.
The story of "Candlelight: Lament” will be shown from different perspectives. During the game, we will be able to play not only as Edward, but also as other characters.
The author of the project notes that "Candlelight” was strongly influenced by the work of the famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, as well as indie games from the Spanish developer Octavi Navarro.
The game will be released on PC, but the release date is still unknown. A demo in English language is now available on Steam.
Laughing to Die
Indie horror game with an unusual visual style from Chinese developer "Good Luck Studio".
The game's creators describe the genre of their project as a "Chinese-Style Horror Game" and say that the cute childish graphics will contrast with the dark themes of death.
The main character of "Laughing to Die" is a little girl whose parents brought her to the funeral of her deceased grandmother.
But suddenly the girl begins to see the ghost of her grandmother, tries to catch up with it, and finds herself in a surreal world where some strange banquet is taking place.
The game will be played in the format of a two-dimensional side-scrolling adventure. Playing as a girl, we must explore the world around us, solve puzzles, and try to understand what happened.
An unusual feature of the game is that the screen is divided into two parts. An eerie "banquet” will constantly take place in the lower part.
"Laughing to Die" will be released on PC, but the release date is still unknown.
Judging by the trailer, the game will most likely be translated into English.
Judging by the trailer, the game will most likely be translated into English.
Resident Evil 4 Remake:
Separate Ways
Among other things, the exhibition also showed a new DLC scenario called "Separate Ways" for the Resident Evil 4 Remake.
When RE4 Remake was originally released, many gamers wondered: where is the episode about Ada Wong, which was present in the PlayStation 2 version of the game? Why wasn't it included in the remake?
Well, now we know the reasons: the cunning guys from Capcom just wanted to sell the episode about Ada as a separate DLC. You can buy it for $9.99 now.
Although, for the sake of fairness, it is worth noting that the episode about Ada became noticeably larger in the remake. In the PS2 version it took around 1 or 1.5 hours, and now it takes 3-4 hours to complete.
But where is Silent Hill???
Before the exhibition, there were many rumors that Konami was planning to show new materials on Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill F. But, unfortunately, all these rumors turned out to be far from reality. In the end, nothing about the SH series was shown at the exhibition.
Also at TGS2023, we hadn't seen anything about SlitterHead - a new game from the creators of Silent Hill, which is currently in development.
Let's hope that we will hear some good news about these projects soon.
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