Who said that horror games needed to have 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:top-notch graphics to be scary? Sure, seeing every pore on someone's skin as their face contorts into a grimace of terror is cool, but there's something to be said about being effective with limited resources. Besides, we all know that what's scariest is what we don't see rather than what we do.
RPGMaker, an accessible software that enables anyone to make any game they want, has a thriving horror community that has existed since the 1990s. Some games are short, some are long, and some are so cerebral you must actively search for the scares. Rest assured, they're there. And they're waiting for you.
10 🌼 Angels𝄹 Of Death
Angels of Death has you taking control of Ray, a young girl who finds herselfꦡ in a mysterious tower. Each floor is guarded by a different unhinged killer, with a torturous game for you to play. As Ray moves ❀through the Tower, searching for a way out, she comes across a bandaged killer named Zack.
See, the thing about Ray is that she really wants to die, and hey, Zack is a murderer, so they make a deal. And seeing a girl barely beyond her childhood act so detached and apathetic is a horror unto itself. Also, there's a guy who collects real human eyes, and he would really love to get his hands on yours.
9 The Witch's House
There's a lesson to be learned from The Witch's House. Mainly that it's effortless not to wander into the forest and befriend strangers. Especially if you're a very kind-hearted child and the stranger is a powerful witch. While 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:not all powerful witches are bad news, this one is certainly less-than-benevolent.
The Witch's House is more of a puzzle game, with elements of horror sprinkled throughout. Still, the atmospheric titular house, coupled with the downright tragic backstory you unlock, leaves a profound impression. Sure, there are scary things all around. Yet, the real fright comes from the characters' interiority and what led them to this point.
8 Corpse Part🐬y 🎐
Hey, wouldn't you love to be in high school forever? Especially one that is an eldritch, haunted location full of viscera and ghosts who are hellbent on catching you and your unfortunate friends? If that sounds at all appealing to you, Corpse Party may be to your interest.
Centering on a group of students who find themselves trapped in a strange, twisted version of their school, you must navigate through the oppressive hallways, solving puzzles and outrunning both creatures and your fellow humans. They want nothing more than to trap you in this hellish existence. Your only goal is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:to survive your ordeal, pre꧒ferably with all (or most) of yꦦour friends in tow. High school never ends, right?
7 Ao Oni
Teenagers have to stop inviting themselves into creepy locations for their own good. Ao Oni, from 2007, is about a group of teens who decide to investigate an abandoned mansion. If that doesn't get your horror-sense chirping, who knows what will? Ao Oni spun off into a franchise, including anime adaptations and a feature film. It's the little RPG Maker game that really could.
Of course, it's terrifying. RPG Maker games thrive on implacable enemies you must constantly be looking for. Ao Oni's titular monster lives between "I can't look at it" and "I must look at it." Now that you've seen it, well, sweet dreams!
6 Hello? Hell…o? 🦩
Navigating maze-like hallways is one thing. Dealing with a room that is constantly shifting is another. Hello? Hell…o? Takes place in one room, and you have a set number of tasks to complete. Except, things keep moving around. And there's a ghost. And you're alone, in a room, with a spirit who probably doesn't have super pure intentions.
That's just the start. Hello? Hell…o? is a game about missing things, first and foremost. The items you need sometimes disappear. The ghost is a fragment of someone you once knew. The apartment that was your space has shifted in their absence, and you miss what it was before. The horror can't end until you find what you're looking for or you let go.
5 🉐 ♐ LISA: The Painful
LISA is not a straightforward horror game, but its apocalyptic setting and gruesome content colors it so. LISA comes in three parts, each more harrowing than the last. This is not the game 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:for the faint of heart, and it expects you to keep pace with it. Even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard. You're not going to get jump-scared or have creepy creatures chasing you in LISA.
No, you'll have a terrifying look into the shattered psyches of the characters you inhabit. But, while there is gore and frightening imagery, that is not where the horror of LISA lies. What can be scarier than looking into the abyss of humanity's depravity, after all?
4 🅘 🌺Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki, a freeware game released in 2004, is more cerebral than scary, putting you in the shoes of Madotsuki, a young shut-in who has taken to lucid dreaming. There's no overarching plot, and while you do collect "effects" as you travel through the world of Madotsuki's imagination, there are no actual goals. It could almost be relaxing if not for how surreal it can get.
Yume Nikki is unsettling, with its janky movements, echoing soundtrack, and the lonely emptiness that is Madotsuki's dreamscape. You never know what will happen, what seemingly mundane actions will lead you to a staircase full of hands or a twisted, monochrome face frozen in a grimace. Yume Nikki does not rely on straightforward scares, but it gets into your veins regardless.
3 .Flow
A lovingly cr🐻afted fangame to Yume Nikki .flow uses much of the groundwork laid by its inspiration to the fullest extent. Released in 2009, .flow has you controlling Sabitsuki, a girl who, like Madotsuki, cannot leave her room. She wanders the surreal world inside her computer, plagued with strange beings with gaping holes where their faꦯces ought to be, among others.
Like Y🤡ume Nikki, nothing is ever explained to you. In🌃stead, you must rely on your ability to interpret the surreal horrors you bear witness to. Or, you can just go along for the strange ride.
2 Ib
Generally, you'd think an art gallery would be a relaxing, comforting place to spend some time. Not so in Ib, initially released in 2012. Picture this: you're a little girl, your parents have brought you to a gallery to enjoy some art, and then, when you're admiring said art, the light flickers ever so slightly, and suddenly you're in a warped world. And you're alone. And all that art you were just gazing at? It wants to kill you.
It's not all bad, though. You'll find allies and form friendships. But Ib is fascinating because you, as Ib, have done nothing. So much horror relies on the concept of transgression, and you haven't done anything to deserve this. You were right where you were supposed to be, yet the world turned hostile. What can be scarier than that? You know, other than the living, bleeding artwork?
1 OMORI
OMORI, from 2020, is directly inspired by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Earthbound and Yume Nikki, so you have an idea of how strange things will be. You play as the titular Omori, the monochrome, dream-world alter-ego of a young boy named Sunny who is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:struggling with his mental health.
OMORI's unique visual style, blending pixel and hand-drawn art, adds to its strange, surreal nature. It feels discordant, a mesh of two things that shouldn't work together as well as they do. The unease follows you from world to world, the pastel color palette doing nothing to ease your mind. OMORI is deceptively cutesy, with a deeply unsettling story waiting to unravel before you once you gain the courage to face your fears.