(Winner of "Friday Night Frights" for scariest game of 2023, speech below)
Okay /v/, let's address the elephant in the room:
Yes, World of Horror does draw obvious inspiration from the works of Junji Ito. But as we all know, how pretty a game is has nothing to do with how good it is... or how scary. That said, World of Horror's aesthetic is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and the game clearly leans into the old adage of 'what you don't see is scarier than what you do'.
In a year filled with boats, bunkers and daycares, World of Horror gives us something new through a uniquely nostalgic spin on the roguelike: combining a 1-bit manga aesthetic, a minimalistic soundtrack, and mechanics harkening back to old-school adventure games. And leave it to a dentist to know how to build an atmosphere of dread: watching the cast of oddball characters encounter increasingly bizarre horrors in a city slowly becoming more twisted makes survival feel that much more daunting, to say nothing of actually solving the mystery. The game gives you all the time you need to make your decisions, but only an eternity to regret them.
That this game was basically developed by one person from /agdg/ should, on its own, put the rest of the industry to shame. That the game is actually scary, and fun, should put them in the grave.
Okay /v/, let's address the elephant in the room:
Yes, World of Horror does draw obvious inspiration from the works of Junji Ito. But as we all know, how pretty a game is has nothing to do with how good it is... or how scary. That said, World of Horror's aesthetic is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and the game clearly leans into the old adage of 'what you don't see is scarier than what you do'.
In a year filled with boats, bunkers and daycares, World of Horror gives us something new through a uniquely nostalgic spin on the roguelike: combining a 1-bit manga aesthetic, a minimalistic soundtrack, and mechanics harkening back to old-school adventure games. And leave it to a dentist to know how to build an atmosphere of dread: watching the cast of oddball characters encounter increasingly bizarre horrors in a city slowly becoming more twisted makes survival feel that much more daunting, to say nothing of actually solving the mystery. The game gives you all the time you need to make your decisions, but only an eternity to regret them.
That this game was basically developed by one person from /agdg/ should, on its own, put the rest of the industry to shame. That the game is actually scary, and fun, should put them in the grave.