[Chilla's Art] Shinkansen 0 | 新幹線 0号

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Ride the bullet train to car 0, and turn back when something is wrong.

Platforms: PC
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (85% of about 1,150 reviews)
Players: 1
Controls: WASD to move, left-click to interact, right-click to zoom, Shift to run, Esc for options
Made by: Chilla's Art
Released: 2024

What frightens On a Japanese bullet train late at night, you walk car by car looking for anomalies: turn back if something is wrong, carry on if nothing is, and a single mistake sends your count back to the start.
Content: blood.

Shinkansen 0 is a first-person anomaly-spotting horror game by Chilla's Art, set on a Japanese bullet train. You walk from car to car, looking for anything out of place and choosing to go on or turn back, with two endings to find.

About [Chilla's Art] Shinkansen 0 | 新幹線 0号

Shinkansen 0 is a horror game by Chilla's Art, the Japanese studio behind short horror games such as Aka Manto and Parasocial, released on Steam in March 2024. The makers called it their take on the genre of The Exit 8 and I'm on Observation Duty: a game about spotting what has changed in a place you thought you knew.

The place here is a Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train, late at night. You walk down a passenger car and study it: the seats, the windows, the other passengers, the attendant with her trolley. If something is out of place, you turn back; if the car looks normal, you go on. Get one wrong and your count resets. A review describes getting through eight cars to reach a break, then the first-class cars, where the rules change and you must push on through a car with an anomaly and turn back from one without.

The train is drawn in detailed, modern 3D rather than the VHS look of many Chilla's Art games, which makes the small wrong details stand out. Passengers talk to you and steer you toward one of the two endings, and near the end a choice of direction decides which one you see. It autosaves each chapter, and there is an easy mode on the main menu.

It suits players who liked The Exit 8 or Platform 8 and want the same careful looking with more story, in a Japanese setting.

How to play [Chilla's Art] Shinkansen 0 | 新幹線 0号

Buy it on Steam for Windows and start a new game; pick easy mode from the main menu if you want it.
Walk through each car of the train with WASD and look closely, using right-click to zoom.
Turn back if you see an anomaly and walk on if the car is normal; a wrong call resets your count.
In the later cars, follow the changed rule the game gives you.
Choose a direction near the end to reach one of the two endings, then play again for the other.

Screenshots

A pale woman in a checked dress leans out from a blue train seat and asks which way you want to go

A boy in a hoodie sits in a blue bullet-train seat beside a woman slumped with her face hidden

The vestibule between train cars, with a green arrow on the floor pointing ahead and toilet signs on the wall

Tips

Learn what a normal car looks like on your first walk through; every anomaly is a change from it.
Use the zoom to check the far end of the car and the passengers' faces before deciding.
Read the rules again when you reach the first-class cars, because they reverse.
Motion blur and head bob are off by default; leave them off if you need a steady view.