Cosmic and Lovecraftian horror PS1 horror

WORLD OF HORROR

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A 1-bit roguelite of cursed mysteries as the Old Gods wake over a Japanese town.

Platforms: PC, Mac, PlayStation, Switch
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (8,831 of 9,865 reviews positive); Metacritic 77 on PC
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse (point and click); controller on consoles.
Made by: panstasz (Paweł Koźmiński)
Released: 2023

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store Nintendo eShop (Switch)

What frightens In the seaside town of Shiokawa, Japan, as the Old Gods wake, you investigate mysteries in hospitals, schools, apartments and forests and run into figures straight out of Junji Ito: a too-tall masked man asking about red or blue paper, faces in windows, bodies twisted out of shape; every encounter can wound your body or your reason, and doom rises with each day.
Content: gore, body horror, mutilation, smoking.

WORLD OF HORROR is a 1-bit roguelite horror RPG inspired by Junji Ito and H. P. Lovecraft. In 1980s Shiokawa, Japan, you solve randomly chosen mysteries through events, choices and turn-based fights, keeping your stamina and reason up as doom creeps toward the end of the world.

About WORLD OF HORROR

WORLD OF HORROR is the work of Polish developer Paweł Koźmiński, known as panstasz, published by Ysbryd Games (and Playism in Japan). It entered Early Access on PC in 2020 and came out in full on Windows and Mac in October 2023, with PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch versions a week later. Its art is drawn entirely in MS Paint in stark black and white.

The Old Gods are returning to Shiokawa, a seaside town in Japan, and strange things are happening across it. Each run you pick one of 14 characters and work through a set of mysteries drawn from a pool of 20, investigating locations, meeting townspeople and facing whatever has taken root there. Events are drawn like cards, choices can help or hurt you, and fights are turn-based. Most mysteries have several endings, if you survive long enough to see them.

The fear comes from its encounters, most of them homage to Junji Ito's manga: wrong faces, strange obsessions, bodies changed in horrible ways. Every one costs something. Your stamina and your reason drain, doom rises as time passes, and when any of them runs out the run is over. With unlocked characters and rituals you try again.

It suits players who like roguelites, horror manga and cosmic horror, and who do not mind a hard, random game where death is common.

How to play WORLD OF HORROR

Buy it on Steam (Windows or Mac), the PlayStation Store or the Nintendo eShop.
Choose a character and an Old God, then start investigating the town's mysteries.
Visit locations to draw events, make choices and gather items, spells and allies.
Fight in turn-based combat by filling a sequence of moves and launching it.
Keep stamina and reason above zero and solve five mysteries, one for each key to the lighthouse, before doom reaches 100 percent.