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Welcome to World of Horror! Welcome to the Horror Man's World. -Kyofu no Sekai- is a card-based horror game officially inspired by Junji Ito and uncreditedly inspired by Uno Moralez, which seems like the kind of slight that would make a guy crawl out of your mirror and into your eyemeats but hey, you do you.
The game has been in public playtesting for a year, but only recently got an official trailer and an announcement that the complete game is coming in 2019 to PS4 and Switch. But the contest ends in like 13 days so let's just play what we've got.
It's clear that the final game will feel more like a wide-open, randomized roguelike, but right now we have a pretty narrow scope and limited selection of events.
C'mon, grab your friends.
We'll go to very distant lands.
A bunch of the promotional material has brought up illegal street racing and I am here for it. Junji Ito's work has a hole in it, and that hole was made for tokyo drifting.
So! The demo! Instead of investigating mysteries all over the city, we have three self-contained adventures. The first, and simplest, takes place entirely within high school. As anime demands.
All WOH games begin by selecting a old god to race against. There isn't anything really implemented here yet, so we just pick a random one. What a handsome fellow. I like the cut of this old god's jib. Just a real good feeling about this guy.
[You knew your friend was up to something when he left you his notebook full of cryptic notes.]
['I can send her back where she belongs' he claimed.]
[After he disappeared too, you decided to study the notebook for clues.]
[It details a ritual that can stop the wicked woman once and for all. What's the worst thing that could happen?]
First things first, you need to access your item storage - not your inventory - and take your friend's notebook. There's nothing to tell you why or how to do this, or to do anything for that matter. The game, even in a demo that pretends to be holding your hand, is stubbornly inscrutable. This is either mysterious and disorienting or bad design.
Second things second, retrieve a baseball bat from your locker, without which we'll have a 0% chance of hitting enemies.
[Inside a locker, you find a baseball bat. Feeling you might need it later, you decide to pick it up.]
After that, it's on to the actual meat of the game. 'Explore' advances time and the story, and draws a random event card.
The most common type of events are simple Do This Or Do That choices.
[A mere thought of studying the old dusty newspapers makes your head hurt. There is no way you will waste a whole day in a library! [-1 STAMINA]]
Other cards are random encounters.
Hey, Kouji, have you seen the drama teacher? Our production of-
EAT BAT, BRIDE OF SATAN
Combat is a simple dice-roll. If you roll equal or higher than the enemy's 'power', you hurt her, if you roll lower she hurts you. We roll higher and that's a series wrap for Young Witch.
Every character's 'unique ability' at this point of development is to automatically lose two rounds to lower the enemy's power by one.
The witch drops her library notes and we immediately master the dark arts.
This is probably fine.
Stamina is your health. Reason is your brain health. You also have six attributes which you may have to roll against during random events.
Just explore, and you'll automatically continue the story, no matter what cards you draw. We find the blessed chalk, and here's the one trick to completing the first adventure.
You need to redraw the sigil until it matches the one in the diary or you'll get an anti-climactic bad end at the last boss.
[You back off from the toilet as the door slowly opens. A girl in a tattered uniform is standing there. Her head twists in an unnatural way as she makes a roaring rattling noise. Door behind you slams shut.]
Man. 'Toilet ghost.' That's hurtful even if it's true. Just got a bad mouth sound to it. Like something you would call a politician you hate. I'm not trying to get political, it's just a fact, toilet ghost sounds exactly like something you would call Ted Cruz.
Anyways, I'm going to beat you to death with a baseball bat.
I would never replace you with some magic spell, little buddy.
I LOVE YOU KOUJI. I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU.
[*knock*]
[*knock knock*]
[What's that?]
Now, see, that's an interesting question. I'm not pretending to be any kind of an expert on Japanese horror, but I've always thought it was interesting how often its villains are abused women, scorned wives, tragic little girls, characters that in western storytelling we expect to be defined by their gender, to be placed along a standard madonna/whore spectrum. It's always disorienting to enter a different cultural mode and be told, no, these aren't people, you can't sympathize with or transact with them. That's something I appreciated about the Gore Verbin- AHH TRIPLE FACE!
She starts out with 8 power, and we're rolling 1d4+4. But our love for bat is pure and true, so we let her hit us six times to lower her power to five, at which point we have a 100% chance of hiting her and 0% chance of getting hit.
Adventure A complete!
~
Adventure B!
Another random old god to theoretically oppose us. Now Edoga-Aran The White Worm, I can get into!
[You don't like the sound of it but your parents both agree, you need a break from all the stress.]
[Inside the letter, there's a bus ticket. 'What's the worst thing that could happen? you ask yourself as you board the bus...]
[DAY ONE]
[Just when you thought your stomach couldn't handle it anymore, the janky old bus stops at its destination. You get up and take a deep breath before looking around. Small village and the nearby fields is surrounded by a thick forest.]
[A fat man wearing dusty overalls approaches you. It's the INN OWNER, who promised to pick you up. Following close behind him, your eyes are drawn to his hands, which are so deformed they resemble claws more than hands...]
Now we're getting closer to a full game. We can choose different places to explore with different sets of cards.
First the village.
[You devour the steak. Who knew you had such an appetite?]
That went pretty well! Let's explore the village again.
'one bite won't hurt'
OK! Pretty cool village. Now off to the festival, and the most important part of this game.
We buy a sweet new coat from this 10/10 Game Of The Year shop-keeper and that's it for Day One.
[DAY TWO]
[A weird sound wakes you up. You step closer to the window and look out. You can't see anything and get ready to bed when suddenly, moon comes from behind the thick clouds.]
[Three hooded figures are standing at the forest's edge. One by one, they are lighting their torches and disappear behind the trees... What was that about?]
We can now investigate the forest, and that's the only trick to this adventure. If we ignore the figures and don't explore the forest at least twice before Things Go Wrong, we don't get a proper ending.
[[strength check: success] You manage to see some of the faces and hear the names of the gathered people. [+5 EXPERIENCE]]
Things that will be relevant in the final game include experience points for successes like this, and doom percentage for failures. 100 of one is a level up, 100 of the other is god returns and ends the human era.
i hunger
At the dawn of the final day, we return to the quaint, rustic village.
[You try to lose the masked man following you in the narrow streets of the village. You eyentually find yourself in a dead end. A branch snaps behind you.]
such a terrible hunger
Having had a nice walkaround, it's time for the big fair!
[NIGHT THREE]
[Trail of blood and sickly-smelling sludge leads to an outskirt of the village. Somewhere in the dark forest. there's an answer waiting for you...]
You need to explore the forest five times, counting from when the adventure started, to find where everyone's gone.
[[hard knowledge check: success] You are certain the missing people were here. You are on the right trail! [+5 EXPERIENCE]]
come, sister, into my maw
[rummmmmmmmmble]
I just feel like Vintage is a purer implementation of Richard Garfield's original vision. If you aren't serious enough about the game to assemble a set of Moxes, you can always go play Pokemon with the casuals.
your god blows
[BANG!]
Yes, this is the entire ending! Adventure B Complete!
~
Final adventure, and the one that feels most like a preview of the full game.
Eh. I've seen better.
We start pre-adventure this time! We can take a bath, watch TV, dress up in outfits.
I'm not going to front, one day there's going to be something when you look out this peephole and I am going to go hide in the bathtub for a month. I will throw my computer clear out the window.
Kirie Saito is the real deal. There's only one choice of mysteries on her string board, but having a board at all is a baller move par excellence.
[What was originally a harmless fun has turned deadly. A body of a boy has been found last week.]
[School director has banned the game but it only made it more popular. AKA MANTO must be stopped before another kid is killed]
Things start to get complicated here, with no explanation what you're supposed to do, but here's how it works: to do one of those actions at the top and progress the story, you have to go to the right location and 'explore' there.
First though, we want to follow the game's advice and gather gossip.
You can ask random students for gossip, ask them to join (they function as stat bonuses), or threaten them to join. Nobody is hardcore enough to hang with our girl.
This is the trick to this level, by the way. If you don't get this piece of information, you won't have the option to refuse him at the end and you get another non-ending.
Secondly we go to the school library and learn dark magics. Does anyone else resent the high school libraries of teen mysteries? My school had nothing but remaindered Robert Jordans and a photocopier than charged 50 cents to not successfully make a photocopy.
In a stunning twist, we actually learn something wholesome. Kirie Saito doesn't mess around.
After that, we're mostly set to just explore in the right places to further the story.
All I can see is the little :| face under his left eye. I don't like this either, li'l guy. I don't like it one bit.
Part two requires searching downtown.
And then the hospital.
[When the patient came home one morning covered in scars and babbling, the police had them committed. They are mumbling something quietly as you pass by]
Welcome to the party, Ikumi. We can talk to our party members, or ask them to leave the party.
Aw. We'll make sure to let Ikumi go once we've settled up with Also Known As Manto, she doesn't need this life.
[[4/8]] Sadly, you learn that he passed away last summer. [+2 EXP]]
[Your friend didn't come to school today and another body has been discovered. You pray it's not them.]
[[SNEAK OUT OF CLASS] or [VISIT NURSE]]
That's enough horror garbage. Let's get to the meat of the game.
We buy a steak knife and a camera (that lowers enemy power by one) in case any random dudes decide to attack us on the street.
[[5/8] You can't waste time. you decide to sneak out the class. [-2% DOOM]]
[Principal has ordered the school to be closed down for the investigation. You must get in and save your friend.
[[BREAK THE WINDOW] or [WAIT FOR THE POLICE TO ARRIVE]]
Help, someone has attacked this innocent toilet ghost!
[[6/8] You break the window and get in unnocticed (sic), cutting yourself in the process [-1 STAMINA]]
[You've successfully entered the closed school. Maybe you should prepare for what's coming?]
[[LOOK FOR ITEMS] or [PATCH UP YOUR WOUNDS]]
We immediately rub the strange lump of flesh against our body for 5 stamina AND a 'random effect'.
[[7/8] This could prove useful! [+ITEM]]
[The cursed toilet is locked by a janitor with a chain. You need to find a way to get inside]
[[STEAL THE KEY] or [GET BOLT CUTTER]]
Wait, did you say cursed toilet? ... again? Again with the toilet magic?
[[perception check: failure] Too late did you see the sudden movement to avoid the thing biting your ankle. It's not bleeding badly but you wonder if the black sludge getting into an injury will affect you in any way. [+INJURY]]
[Tall man in a red coat suddenly freezes.]
[sO Be iT]
As promised, Kirie Saito is the real deal and gets a pure, hero's ending.
As promised, she dismisses Ikumi from the party.
