2D horror Horror puzzle Psychological horror Anime horror

Re:Turn - One Way Trip

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Five friends, one empty campsite and a ghost train that waits for its last passenger.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (79% of 132 reviews); 66 on OpenCritic from 20 critics and a Metascore of 67 on PC
Length: about 5 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Red Ego Games
Released: 2020

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store (PS4)Xbox (One and Series X|S)Nintendo eShop (Switch, Europe)

What frightens Saki wakes at night to find her four friends gone from their forest campsite and is drawn onto an abandoned train that seems to have been waiting for her. As she searches it, the train slips between its decayed present and the past when it was full of passengers, and a vengeful spirit born of unrequited love hunts the group.
Content: blood, violence, strong language, mature content.

Re:Turn - One Way Trip is a 2D side-scrolling horror adventure by Red Ego Games. When her friends vanish from their campsite, Saki searches an abandoned train that drifts between the present and its past, solving puzzles while a spirit with a grudge closes in.

About Re:Turn - One Way Trip

Re:Turn - One Way Trip is a horror puzzle adventure by Red Ego Games, published by Green Man Gaming Publishing. It came out on Steam for Windows on 14 October 2020, and it's also sold for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It follows five college friends on a camping trip after graduation, maybe their last time together before adult life.

Saki wakes in the middle of the night to an empty campsite. Following a shadow she takes for one of her friends, she finds an old train standing silent in a forest clearing. As she searches its cars, the barrier between past and present breaks down: one moment the carriages are rotten and full of cobwebs, the next they are lit and full of passengers from the train's last journey, and Saki can take what she learns in one era back to the other.

You walk Saki through side-scrolling pixel-art scenes, talk with the people you meet, collect items and solve puzzles such as maze locks and coded safes. Dialogue is shown with large anime-style portraits. There are chase scenes, and reviewers note that you save manually at a couple of fixed points on the train and that walking speed is slow, with some backtracking. An optional VHS render mode gives the picture an old tape look.

PC Invasion's review explains that the train was destroyed in air raids during the Second World War, and the ghosts you meet are its passengers from that last trip. Items can't be combined, and notes and diary pages scattered around hint at the answers. Saki can't even run at first. That gets unlocked later. The store also lists two playable characters. Expect around five hours for the main story, which HowLongToBeat backs up.

Critics praised the story, its sound and its atmosphere more than its puzzles; TheSixthAxis compared it to Silent Hill by way of Japanese horror. It suits players who like story-led 2D horror such as Detention, The Coma or Yomawari, and a ghost story told at a slow pace.

How to play Re:Turn - One Way Trip

Buy it on Steam for Windows, the PlayStation Store for PS4, the Xbox store or the Nintendo eShop for Switch.
Walk Saki left and right through the forest and the train cars, and examine anything that stands out.
Pick up items and read the notes and diary pages you find, since they hint at the codes and puzzles that block each car.
Watch for the moments the train shifts into the past, and use what you find there in the present.
Save at the fixed save points on the train whenever you pass one.

Screenshots

Five pixel-art friends stand around a campfire between two tents in a dark forest at night

Saki stands by a glowing green lake in the dark forest and asks what is floating in it

Saki stands in a pool of lamplight in a run-down train car while a huge red eye stares in through the window

In the train's lit past, Saki meets Ayumi, a girl in a pink kimono, in a dining car with red curtains and candles

A rusted locker holds a safe with a round maze lock that Saki must solve

Saki stands beside a hanging white cloth doll with a bloody smile drawn on its face

Saki calls out for her friends Sen, Yuuta and Kanae as a dark figure looms in a round tunnel opening

Tips

Play with headphones; several reviewers single out the sound design.
Save every time you reach a save point, since saves are manual and few.
When stuck, go back through the cars you have opened: many puzzles need an item from the other era.
Read every note and diary page twice. One safe code hangs on a diary page that even a reviewer struggled to work out.