This is an interesting J horror game (officially a "sound novel") from Chunsoft, published by Sega, whose demo just hit Japan's PSN store. I highly recommend checking it out if you can. It's the very first icon under the far-left tab (忌火起草). You can also check out the game's Japanese website here:
http://www.chunsoft.co.jp/games/imabiki ... novel.html
TGS trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJB-WSM3gY4
I played it late last night (big mistake), also with surround sound (another mistake). Seriously, though, both add incredibly to the atmosphere. It's unclear if this will ever make it out of Japan, but I think you can get somewhat of a feel for it through the demo, even if you don't know any Japanese. It's best summed up as an audio-visual novel. The graphics are a combination of live-acting (though it has a sort of filter over it and you don't really see their entire faces) and CG/hand-drawn art. You have text displayed on screen, accompanied by voice acting in places. There's also sound effects and music, with the occasional "make a choice" segments where you have a limited amount of time to choose a fork in the story, though how much your choices impact what occurs later on is unclear (the website says quite a bit).
Anyway, a summary of the game... You play a young man named Hiroki whose friends have learned about a mysterious drug called "Vision" that causes its users to later die of spontaneous combustion. They start taking it, and as you'd expect, bad things happen. Apparently the answers to the mystery lie in an old mansion, which is where Hiroki and Manami, a female friend of his, eventually head. There are three excerpts from the game you get to play in the demo. I'll summarize them for those who can't play it, so spoilers below, I guess. You can also watch a playthrough here, if you can tolerate the mood-dampening narration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1rfmgLk7R4
The first takes place at a movie theater you visit with Manami, who Hiroki secretly has feelings for. They sit down to watch the movie and it starts, only the theater is suddenly filled with fog and the movie changes to a scene where people are being hung from chains and burned alive in a pit of fire. He starts to get up to complain to the manager, only he is completely paralyzed and can't see Manami next to him. He feels like his body is bound in chains, and feels as if he's being carried over to the pit as well. His body starts to burn, only he doesn't lose consciousness. The sensations of everything around him become so intense, then suddenly he finds himself back where he was with Manami next to him. He guesses he dozed off during the movie.
The next scene you can play is at a restaurant they go to after the movie. It actually is run by the father of one of their friends, though Manami apparently doesn't know this. It's a nice restaurant and Hiroki is able to relax a little after the experience at the movie theater. Their dinner comes, which starts with a soup. He puts the first spoonful in his mouth, though it doesn't taste like it should. It tastes terrible, though Manami doesn't seem to have any problem with hers. His fingernails have also turned black. He reluctantly swallows it and continues eating so as not to cause a scene. They leave the restaurant, and Hiroki makes it home. He tries to go to sleep, only he starts to hear somebody else breathing. It gets more and more intense, and he soon senses a presence behind him. A voice asks him, "Who... who are you?" and he jumps out of bed to confront whatever is there, only nothing is there. Then his cell phone rings, scaring the shit out of him (and me!). You can choose what to do with the phone here (A: Slowly reach out for the phone, B: Grab it and throw it across the room, C: See if anything else happens), then he goes back to sleep with the covers over his head.
The last scene takes place in a parking garage. You're there with some other friends, Asuka and Kazuko, and it's here you see the ultimate effects of Vision. Asuka and Kazuko kiss, only she suddenly throws him against a car, breaking its windshield, then starts regurgitating a black liquid into Asuka. Then she bursts into flames.
Anyway, those are basic summaries of the three different scenarios. Obviously it's much scarier if:
1. You understand everything that's going on.
2. You play it at night.
3. You play it with surround sound.
So hopefully this game will get an overseas release (and a good localization if it does).
Imabikisou
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