World of Horror takes inspiration from the works of cosmic horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and Japanese horror mangaka Junji Ito. This indie horror title utilizes RPG elements and turn-based combat with a roguelike system alongside its unique aesthetic and storytelling to provide a variety of exciting experiences.
The visuals have a multitude of display options, from functional to cosmetic to capture its retro style. Some examples are 2-bit vs 1-bit graphics, different border styles, a wavy background effect on the pixels to imitate the CRT appearance of old computers. The viewing perspective also reinforces this design decision, as even on the settings provides the display of an older monitor around the game’s play window.
Players are presented with options at the start of a new story, the “Extracurricular Activity” is meant to be a playthrough built for introducing new players while “Quick Play” is the true mode to generate a new randomized story, and the final option “(customize the playthrough)” allows the players to tweak their new game’s initial parameters for a personally tailored experience.
As a nice added detail, surprises may await players who tab out of the game’s window for too long, but blink and you’ll miss the visitor on your screen.
In the demo, all the scenarios start in the same location and time, the city of Shiokawa, Japan during the 1980s when a variety of incredibly strange and disturbing experiences have begun to take place. These events range from cultist gatherings during the cover of nightfall, disappearances of citizens, or perhaps the appearance of creatures that defy understanding through the limited perceptions of our human minds. The intro states that eldritch gods, ancient beings that once held power over the Earth in eons long past, have reawakened and are causing reality itself to change in incomprehensible ways. As one of several player characters, you will enter into a world with only your intellect, the few limited clues you can gather, and if you are lucky a few items, to begin with. By solving the mysteries surrounding this town, you hope to put a stop to whatever plans these ancient abominations have.
At the start, your playthrough the eldritch god and its effect that has taken root in your reality are explained. An example is Cthac-Atorasu the spider with it’s “Eternal Web” preventing a player from fleeing once they enter combat. From there, your adventures and descent into insanity begin. Since this is an RPG every character has stats, the most important being STA or stamina which serves as your health points for the playthrough alongside REA or reason which represents your mental health. Should either of those stats reach zero, through combat or the random events you will encounter throughout your exploration, you will either die or fall victim to the madness encompassing the world. The other stats are STR (strength), DEX (dexterity), PER (Perception), KNW (Knowledge), CHR (Charisma), FND (Funds) and DOOM. Each stat plays a certain role in different types of interactions you can have with the world, such as STR dictating if you can equip heavier weapons for combat or PER limiting things your character may discover during a random event. DOOM is an important stat, as each major action you take such as resting or progressing an investigation will raise the DOOM meter which will add different effects to the town, often ones that will negatively affect your ability to progress easily, and slowly pushing the town closer to its destruction.
Aside from stats, the game includes items and an inventory system as well as allies that can be recruited to your party to help with investigations. Items can be acquired through events, solving quests that are provided during your investigations, or by taking time to visit locations such as the town shop that sells a variety of items at the cost of your FNDs. In some cases, these items may be invaluable in discovering solutions to an investigation that would otherwise be impossible to complete properly. An example is an investigation into a strange plague that is causing people to slip into comas and any who interact with their bodies will soon succumb to the same fate. By completing its related quest, you will be given dust that reveals the true cause of this mystery if you continue the right path. Allies are also helpful throughout the experience, as they can provide stat bonuses to the party and can assist in combat. These helpful people can be found at the schoolyard, but you may need enough CHR to convince them to help you and be careful not to lose them in combat.
Each playthrough can provide different mysteries for the player to investigate and each is a unique experience in many fashions. Some of these investigations may even take you into areas outside the main town, such as one that took me to a strange festival for a “vacation.” Of course, as such things tend to go, this vacation was riddled with mystery as I spotted cloaked individuals congregating in the forest outside the window of my hotel room before they retreated into the darkness. After choosing not to pursue these figures, I was met with the unfortunate aftermath of my actions and left with a mystery I could hardly label as solved. As you complete each investigation, be sure to check your mailbox back at your home. Inside you may be gifted with a strange key from an unknown individual. These keys open the locks of the town’s haunting lighthouse, one which the player character knows little about. At the time of this writing, I have yet to open the lighthouse, and I’m not sure if I’m intended to be able to in the demo. However, I get the impression the lighthouse is the ultimate mystery to uncover.
Other systems fill out the game’s content, but I’ll leave those for new players to discover and explore.
My only complaints stem from a lackluster tutorial, issues with the equipment system, and the unrelenting difficulty. The tutorial doesn’t completely explain many of the systems and could use with some expansion into subjects such as ways to recover health, obtain items, the leveling system or trading EXP for funds at the police station. As such, I felt very overwhelmed at first and struggled to understand what I was doing wrong in my approach to the game. However, over subsequent sessions I slowly began to discover new features to alleviate some problems. The issue with the equipment system is that I found at times, especially when the inventory is full, I may try to equip an item or pick one up and the game will act as if I have obtained or put the item on my character only to display the same items I already have but read the description information of a new item. Another larger issue is that once an item is equipped, I found no way to unequip it and place it in my inventory. Finally, the difficulty feels a bit overbearing. There are so many ways a player can be harmed, given a negative status, and otherwise just beaten down throughout their playthrough while means of recovery are extremely limited and only restoring some small fraction of your health or status. For instance, I started a custom game with a character whose max STA and REA were 21. I investigated 4 mysteries with absolute caution, took every action to mitigate risk such as recruiting allies, obtaining stronger weapons and reporting info to the police to limit combat instances and still I died on the 4th mystery as the enemies simply had far too much health and dealt way to much damage alongside the plethora of events that de-buffed my character or harmed him in general. Having a challenging game is fine and can be rewarding, and the sense of impending doom fits a game with a theme such as this, however, it certainly isn’t fun to be beaten down in nigh unavoidable ways only to receive one point of REA or STA by taking a shower or maybe getting pills from the hospital. This coupled with the fact that some systems had an inherent risk/punishment for using them to gain other effects drove me away from ever taking a risk at all.
In short, World Of Horror is incredibly engaging and rewards a player for being thorough and thoughtful about their approach to each situation. I found myself fascinated with uncovering the problems of Shiokawa and understanding the otherworldly nightmares that plagued it. The pixel art is detailed and beautiful, even when its displaying creatures with the most terrifying visage. The soundtrack for the game is quite impressive, providing an excellent sense of excitement, suspense, and terror when appropriate while also simply being overall appealing. All together these pieces craft a superb take on this kind of horror and the menu elements imply support for modding as well as user-generated content. This is promising for a lot of extra playability for this title. Just beware of the consequences for being too eager in the pursuit of forbidden knowledge, heed the warnings of H.P. Lovecraft: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
