Have you ever played these games?

I apologize for the poor picture quality. I took this one myself and can't find a better photo (or any other photo at all) on the net. But even supposing the picture is poor quality and you can't read Japanese, don't these just look like horror games?

In celebration of the ghastly holiday this Saturday, I want to quickly highlight a rare game and its genre in general—a visual novel entitled Za Shinri Ge-mu (the one on the right).

Translated roughly, ザ・心理・ゲーム means The Psychological Game or The Mentality Game. It is a visual novel published in the late 90s that probably no one bought. Well, except the one guy who sold his copy to the used game store where I found it. It was appropriately stuffed in a bargain bin at a used game store in Kobe, Japan, underneath the railroad tracks downtown. Where else could this game find the slimy, dark environment it thrives in? I read the back which says “I looked into my own eyes and saw fear,” and figured I could part with a few hundred yen for the old PlayStation game.

I knew the graphics looked terrible. I figured the game would have terrible controls. It being terrible in general was not a problem. I just wanted to know what it is and why it exists.

I thought it was a D clone. It was not. It turned out to be a visual novel, that elusive genre that can't seem to leave its native Japan.

I started the game and was delighted by the intro: nothing more than what you see on the cover (a man in an orange jumpsuit looking shocked at the the mysterious object on his plate that is hidden by a flash of light) only spinning around. From that point on, you press start and text scrolls. After every few screenfuls of text, you are able to choose what you do. For instance, you approach a dark hallway and hear footsteps. You can leave, walk farther down the hallway, or go in some other door (I think).

The backgrounds are slightly creepy, and always dark, stills of doors and rooms and so on. The music is minimal—it's mainly this shrill, high-pitched, persistent tone over some grumblings.

I cannot comment on the story because I haven't read it yet. Small, blurry kanji are surprisingly intimidating.

The visual novel genre is a unique one—it reflects the combination of media in a literal way. A book is presented through a video game disc—simple as that. And while western developers have leaned heavily toward non-stop interactive action in video games, Japan still produces visual novels. 99 Tears is a funny example for the DS. Pheonix Wright is a franchise of games that try to highlight interactivity but is in many ways a franchise of visual novels. Western-developed text adventures of the 1980s were similar, but much more interactive. Considering the difference between Metal Gear Solid 4 and Fable II, Japanese game developers seem to want to tell you a story whether you like it or not while Western developers want you to have (at least the illusion of) some choice in the outcome of the story. (Incidentally, it is dubious whether the choices made in Za Shinri Ge-mu have any effect on the subsequent story.)

I can't yet comment on the effectiveness of a non-interactive game versus a highly interactive one. I only wanted to spotlight this incredibly rare game to tell you Bitmobbers that stuff like this exists in the pantheon of horror games.  Isn't it wonderful?