Oct 222025
Rental came to my attention as a free horror game described as “Animal Crossing x horror,” although I’d say the only reason it gets the Animal Crossing comparison is because the characters are cute anthropomorphic animals.
(On a side note, I’m amazed that looking up “rental horror game” actually worked to find it.)
You play Umi, whose family has just rented a cabin for vacation. Once she heads inside, however, she finds herself trapped, with no way to escape except by performing an exorcism.
The gameplay is simple and requires you to search the house for the items you need for the exorcism, with occasional spooky disturbances. I would have described it as a nice, mildly creepy game that only suffers from the camera being pulled in a little too close to the camera for this type of exploration, but then I encountered the maze.
Partway through, you have to navigate a mirror maze, and I got turned around and had so much trouble finding my way through that it soured my impression of the game.
Nevertheless, Rental is a decent spooky game that should take you about half an hour to complete, unless you get lost in the maze like I did, in which case it might take an hour instead.
I can immediately see the Animal Crossing aesthetic based on that bunny in the cover image. Is the game first-person, particularly for this apparently-frustrating mirror maze?
It’s third-person for the house exploration but switches to first-person for the maze.
You somehow willed an Animal Crossing New Horizons update by just mentioning it!
And getting lost is my specialty, that’s a spooky experience in itself! Yay!
I’ll take credit for that, sure. You’re welcome!
I remembered the Animal Crossing story!
Welcome to Camp! It’s insane. Just if you’re curious.
Oh yes, I read that once! I forgot about it until today, haha.
oh you did?! dang it. Oh well
Anyway, it needs a sequel…or its own game!