[Chilla's Art] Parasocial

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You stream for strangers. One of them knows where you live.

Platforms: PC
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (94% of 1,720 reviews)
Players: 1
Controls: WASD to move, mouse to look and interact; W, S and Enter to use the phone
Made by: Chilla's Art
Released: 2023

What frightens Nina streams games as a virtual avatar from her small apartment. After she plays a game a viewer sends her, her real face appears on stream, and from then on texts from an unknown number, a note through the mail slot and a chat user who knows her every move make it clear someone is watching her.
Content: stalking, threatening messages.

Parasocial is a first-person Japanese horror game by Chilla's Art about a live streamer. You play Nina, who streams games as a virtual avatar until a viewer's download shows her real face to the chat, and then the messages, the notes and the man who keeps turning up begin.

About [Chilla's Art] Parasocial

Parasocial is a short Japanese horror game by Chilla's Art, the Japanese studio known for its everyday Japanese horror games in a lo-fi VHS style. It came out on Steam in August 2023, with full Japanese voice acting and text in many languages.

You play Nina, a young woman who lives alone and makes her living streaming games as a virtual character. Her days are ordinary: texts from her friend Asuka and from her disapproving mother, leftovers in the fridge, taking out the trash, coffee at the cafe. During one stream she downloads a game a viewer links in the chat, and when she finishes it the chat is full of comments about her face. Her camera has been showing her real self. Then the texts from an unknown number start.

It plays in first person and in chapters, saving at the start of each. You walk around Nina's apartment and her neighbourhood, do her chores, check her phone, read the chat and play the small horror games on her screen. Little is openly violent; the dread comes from details: a voice in the chat that knows what you ate, a stranger who stands too close, a leg glimpsed through the peephole.

It suits players who like slow, realistic horror built on everyday life and the fear of being watched, such as the Fears to Fathom episodes. The VHS filter can be switched off, and the makers allow streaming and videos of all their games.

How to play [Chilla's Art] Parasocial

Buy and install Parasocial from Steam on a Windows PC.
Move with WASD, look with the mouse and interact with objects to go through Nina's day.
Check Nina's phone for messages; use W and S to choose and Enter to open, Space to close.
Start each stream from her computer and play the small games on her screen.
Keep going chapter by chapter; the game saves automatically at the start of each.

Screenshots

Nina's dark room with a white desk, two monitors and a pink gaming chair

A man in a suit stands at a convenience store magazine rack, staring toward the camera

Asuka sits across a table with coffee and cake in a dim cafe

Tips

Read every text and the stream chat; that is where the story and the warnings are.
Look closely at small things such as the peephole, mirrors and people in the background.
Turn off the VHS effect in the options if the noise bothers your eyes.
Answer the door and take out the trash when the game asks; the story moves forward through Nina's chores.

Questions

What is Parasocial about?

You play Nina, a streamer who uses a virtual avatar, whose real face is exposed on stream and who is then threatened and watched by someone among her viewers.

Who made Parasocial?

Chilla's Art, who developed and published it on Steam in August 2023.

Can I turn off the VHS filter in Parasocial?

Yes. The makers say the VHS effect can be turned off in the options menu.

Is Parasocial on consoles?

We found it only on Steam for Windows PC.