WORLD OF HORROR

Even though I love J-horror and games that remind me of my gaming days as a kid in the 80's this is not the kind of game I usually go for. I guess you can describe it as having a card-battle type dynamic which is not my thing. You can customize your adventure from a randomized seed and selecting the number of "decks" that contain cases and monsters. When I started playing it kind of grew on me like a Junji Ito horror creation! The game has a good horror/mystery vibe and can be quite punishing at times. You have to find the right combo of traits and weapons (both conventional and magical) to make it to the end, which I have not yet. The game allows you to save (at "home") after you finish a case, but there seems to be only one save slot as starting a new game deletes your current saved run. I love the artwork and music as well! Some event encounters (including recuperating at home) will cause the "Doom" meter to advance, hastening the approach of Doomsday and losing the game. The melee system allows you to program your moves (melee weapon / magic/ and kick, etc) then execute them with a click, The only thing so far I don't like is that the game will show you where you need to go to find clues. I can see the need for it to be like this but it would be more challenging if you had to figure out where to go while the Doomsday clock is running down. I also have this game on itch.io so you can tell I like it. I carry it around on my USB drive so I can play it anywhere there is a moment and a computer. In addition to the full game content I hope there will be more locations and more case/monster decks to add via update or DLC in the future.

The game system itself is a mixture of J-RPG, point-and-click adventure, and turn-based combat system. Each character has two sets of points representing their health and sanity, when either one reaches to zero, it's game over. In the beginning of each run of the game you choose your character, and the Elder God that you will be trying to stop for that particular run. Game phase consists of going home, choose from a list of five quests ( In each run you have to solve five randomly chosen quests to get to the final location to stop the Elder God.). In between the quests you can head home to rest and replenish your health and sanity), and finally face the boss of that particular run. The amount of quests available is quite amazing, I have played five different runs so far and haven't seen too many repeated quests. Each quest has its own unique storyline and interactions. While in quest mode it plays like a hybrid of visual novel and point-and-click adventure. Each event happening in the game gives you two to three options to choose from, of which the game then compare you character's stats (strength, dex, per, etc ) and make a roll. If you succeed, you usually get a item or stats boot that will help you in game. If you fail at the roll, the game can take points away from your health/sanity, or destroys your item/penalizes your character stats. During gameplay, you get experiences. You can upgrade your character's stats each time you level up, during level up you can also choose what skill you want to give to the character you are playing. You can also get NPCs to join you to help you with your quests. Each NPC can have different special abilities that help you during the game. The art style is quite similar to the J-horror manga artist Ito Junji's style. Overall,if you like J-Horror, Lovecraftian genre, turn-based combat system, point-and-click adventure, and visual novel, and retro style graphic, you have to give this gem a try.

I really like this game - in theory. But as it is at the moment, I can hardly bring myself to play it, due to the lack of a save feature. You have to play an entire run of the story in one sitting or just give up. By the time I'm in the latter parts of a storieline, I usually lose interest and just click through it or just end it right there. Both leaves a bad taste in my mouth The decision of not allowing saving the game was not made due to artistic reasons, but just done because of technical issues. The original save function was buggy, so they just scrapped it and called it a day. The developers had plenty of time to fix this, but they don't. So I wouldn't recommend the game for the asking price. Get it on sale, because you'll probably only play it a few times.

I'm not really one for Early Access games, but WORLD OF HORROR is a one man show that wears its influences on its sleeve. It is a passion project first and foremost, so I gladly decided to try it out. As it stands as of the date of this review, it is a wonderful horror game with a cool look and some compelling storytelling methods. It is a full experience, albeit a very unfinished one. The first thing you'll notice about this game is the sound and music. It has a 1-bit or optional 2-bit graphical style emulating the look of an early 1980's Macintosh. I don't feel it's a requirement for any nostalgia experience if you are a fan of quality pixel art in video games. I love the chiptune soundtrack, but it is not for everyone. Dev, if you're reading this, I want to buy your soundtrack ASAP. Beyond the graphical style, the game itself is essentially a narrative driven digital board game. The basic premise is that you, the plucky protagonist, must solve a series of mysteries related to an Old God. You get five to solve. So far, there are a limited amount, but the dev promises to add more. You select various areas of the town, which act as game boards. The mystery then has you enter a building, which presents a series of rooms where you must react to. Sometimes this leads to combat, which is not very well balanced. You manage various resources, spells and items, which you can gain and lose. Depending on how well you do, you will receive an ending, which gives you an unlockable for future runs. This ultimately serves a narrative horror experience all in service of the story, art and sound. Ultimately, I feel this Early Access game is worth full price of $15 USD, which is something I never say lightly. I believe based on what I have seen, the game is mostly feature complete but far from content complete, which should expand exponentially. I give WORLD OF HORROR a 4/5 with plenty of room for improvement.