Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Level-5’s Horror RPG Ushiro is Alive and Planned for the Switch

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 242018
 

Last week, Level-5 teased the revival of a cancelled or inactive video game project, and it turned out to be Ushiro.

Ushiro was originally announced in 2008 for the PSP. It appeared to be a horror turn-based RPG, and it focused on a spirit that could possess and control people.

Then Level-5 stopped talking about it. In 2010, the official website was deleted.

In 2014, they reported that they were considering new developments for it. Ushiro got a novel series after that, followed by a manga. It seemed like the game itself would never be released.

…Until now, because Level-5 claims it might still be made. According to the interview with Akihiro Hino translated by Gematsu, they still want to make Ushiro. Instead of the PSP, it is now planned as a Nintendo Switch title.

The information is a bit vague, and it doesn’t sound like they actually have it in development right now… but on the other hand, they have ideas for it and they want to make it a reality.

I wasn’t familiar with Ushiro before, but it sounds like a cool idea. A turn-based RPG with horror elements? I’m on board with that. It also feels like some of its inspiration went into Yo-kai Watch, so is there a chance for Ushiro to take those ideas in a darker direction?

Here’s hoping we hear more about Ushiro soon and that the Switch version fares better than the PSP version did. Do you think Ushiro will really be released?

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Tacoma

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  9 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 222018
 

Who told me Tacoma was a horror game?

Oh well, exploring an abandoned space station to investigate a mysterious incident is a creepy enough premise to count.

(On that note, a lot of the non-horror games we end up looking at in October tend to be “creepy” rather than exactly “spooky.” Maybe I should have called this Celebrating All Things Creepy.)

I had my doubts about Tacoma, because I didn’t enjoy Gone Home. I found the ending disappointing and the love story less-than-stellar. Fortunately, Tacoma proved to be a pleasant surprise.

Aboard the space station, you tap into its AR digital recordings, which essentially let you see moments of the crew’s activity actually unfold. These recordings included multiple points of additional AR information you could grab, and you could restart, rewind, or fast forward each recording as you pleased.

This is a really cool way to handle that sort of storytelling. I enjoyed following characters through a given recording and then rewinding to see what the other characters were doing at the same time.

It’s a short game, taking me about 2 and a half hours to play, but that’s enough time to learn about the crew, their relationship, and the incident, leaving you invested in the outcome as the station’s final recordings play out. It ended up being much less creepy than I expected – I’d call it a science fiction story rather than sci-fi horror – but it was an enjoyable experience.

I enjoyed it so much more than Gone Home, I’m baffled as to why it got lower review scores. Walking sim? Sure, but one with a good story and a neat method of storytelling. At least it sounds like Fullbright is still developing games, because if their next game is like Tacoma, I’ll definitely give it a try.

What did you think of Tacoma?

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2018 – Top 5 Upcoming Horror Games

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Video games  9 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 192018
 

In 2014, we looked at 5 upcoming survival horror games. Three were released, one was cancelled, and poor Routine is still in limbo.

In 2017, we took a look at 5 more horror (not exclusively survival horror) games. Only one of them is out, to mixed reviews, but the other four remain promising.

So while Allison Road, Call of Cthulhu, the Resident Evil 2 remake, and Moons of Madness are definitely still horror games I have my eye on, let’s take a look at 5 more upcoming horror games.

Honorable Mention: Luigi’s Mansion 3

First off, an honorable mention. I can’t really include Luigi’s Mansion 3 on a list of horror games, but it certainly fits the spooky theme of this month, so it deserves to be named. Here’s hoping we learn more about it soon… and that it’s structured like the original Luigi’s Mansion rather than Dark Moon.

Now, onto the list proper.

5. Man of Medan

Somewhere, deep in the dark depths of games that haven’t even made it to my backlog yet but that I want to play someday, you’ll find Until Dawn. So when the developers announced a new horror game, I was intrigued.

Man of Medan is the first in a series of short cinematic horror games called The Dark Pictures. It’s based on an actual legend about a ghost ship, and the first trailer was intriguing. I’m looking forward to learning more about this game. It’s due out in 2019 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

4. Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient

I definitely want to play the Corpse Party series someday… as soon as I figure out which entries to play, since there are remakes and re-releases with different content… (Is the 3DS game the definitive version of the original?)

Moving on from that, however, we have a new entry finally making its way west this year for the PC. Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient is apparently being released chapter-by-chapter in Japan and isn’t complete yet, but the English version will ship with Chapter 1 and Extra Chapter 1 (which is what is currently available in Japan).

I’m not sure how I feel about the episodic-style release, but the Corpse Party games have always struck me as an interesting horror series that I need to just play already.

3. World of Horror

A retro horror RPG inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Junji Ito? Yes, you have my attention.

World of Horror features turn-based combat, branching stories, and what appears to be investigation-style gameplay. It also mentions roguelite elements, which isn’t my favorite thing, but I’ll give it a chance for something like this. Between its inspirations and unique aesthetic, it looks promising.

Check out the announcement trailer here. World of Horror is coming to the PC, Switch, and PS4 in 2019.

2. Observation

Not to be confused with the horror game Observer (a mistake I nearly made while writing up this post), Observation is a game planned to release in spring 2019 for the PC and PS4 from the developers of Stories Untold. The player will control an AI on a space station after a mysterious event leaves only one member of the crew on board.

I reviewed Stories Untold for MonsterVine and enjoyed it, so I was excited to hear they had a new game coming out. Now, Observation is described a “thriller” rather than a horror game, but the reveal trailer is creepy enough that I think we can count it.

And that brings us to my most-anticipated of these five horror games…

1. Devotion

When the horror game Detention came out on the Switch, I reviewed it for Nintendo Chit Chat and fell in love with its atmosphere, exploration-based gameplay, and puzzles. Despite the lack of combat, it had the survival horror mechanics I love.

(Detention is one of the games you could win by leaving comments on my blog this month.)

This year, the developers announced Devotion, a first-person horror game. All that’s available so far is a short teaser, without platforms or a release window announced yet, but I enjoyed Detention enough to already be excited for Devotion.

Conclusion

Those are my latest top 5 upcoming horror games, but I’m sure I missed some. What horror games are you looking forward to the most? Which of these do you want to play? Let me know in the comments.

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