家屋探索 -Japanese House Exploration-

About 家屋探索 -Japanese House Exploration-

家屋探索 -Japanese House Exploration- is by Sealio, released for Windows on Steam in August 2024. The store page calls it a first-person mystery horror adventure set in a Japanese house, playable in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and its maker says it is their first game.

The story starts with a disappearance. A boy's friend did not come home from school, and there were no witnesses. The day before, she seemed strange and said she was being called to that house. He knows there should be no house there, but when he goes to look a traditional Japanese house is standing in its place. Scared but determined, he steps inside.

You explore the house room by room: warm, lamp-lit corridors, tatami rooms with scrolls and tea sets, an old television, cabinets and drawers. You pick up items, read memos and work combination padlocks to go further, and the house is not empty. The scares come from what is glimpsed down a corridor and from the quiet of an ordinary-looking home that should not exist.

Sealio puts a run at 60 to 90 minutes and lists four endings, plus one added after release, so it suits a single evening and a second run. It will appeal to players of Chilla's Art games and other short Japanese horror set in everyday places.

How to play 家屋探索 -Japanese House Exploration-

1. Walk through the house in first person and look closely at drawers, cabinets and objects to find items.
2. Open your inventory to check the items and memos you have found.
3. Use the clues you collect to open locks, such as combination padlocks you turn with W, A, S and D.
4. Keep exploring the house to find out what happened to your friend, and watch the corridors.
5. Play again to reach the other endings.

Tips

• Read every memo: the codes and the story are both hidden in them.
• Look back down corridors you have just walked; the house is not empty.
• If you are stuck late in the game, the maker links a walkthrough video from the store page.

Questions