Kamikakushi

Goodnight!
Well, after comedy adventures and epic games about fantasy heroes, I guess it's time to play a horror game! Kamikakushi by TobiObito4Ever is the name of this dark 2019 RPG Maker VX Ace adventure loosely based off the horror story "A Sick God" translated by Saya. You can read it HERE, and as you will notice it's a short story... so expect a short game, my playthrough in fact took just an hour from the beginning to the end (58 minutes, to be precise! And I got the True Ending).

Kamikakushi is a sort of mystery adventure, not a real horror with gore and other morbid (even if just pixelated) details, the only real scary thing you will see here are some dark creatures and blood, lots of blood. But that's all (that's not to say that there are no tense or scary situations).


Well, I guess that if we want to progress the answer will be YES!

The story begins in 1948, when the young Yasu, that is a young Miko (a shintoist priestress) in training is forced by two classmates, Ueno and Yamazawa (obviously two bullies!) to enter a shrine. Clearly weird things will happen there, and when all hope seems lost, she meets a strange smiling man named Shin who claims he's the god of the shrine. Can he be trusted? The place looks dangerous but Yasu will learn the secrets of the shrine and escape or die there...
Ok, so this is nothing new, the classic story of the young one entering the adandoned and cursed mansion, but in this case it's a shrine and not a mansion of course, anyway that's just a detail. The important fact is that monster do exist and they're there, even if here they're the typical japanese Yōkai.

What about the gameplay? Being this a mystery/horror adventure expect a classic mix of exploration, puzzles/tasks and chase sections. But don't worry too much, these are EASY, really, and this may make the game boring/uninteresting by those players that seeks real challenges. On the other hand it's not bad, I mean the Yōkai aren't exactly all serial killers like the western horror bad guys (Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Myers, Leatherface or the Creeper) despite their monstrous appearances (even the villain of the story does not seem that menacing), so I do not mind that in the chase sections they're pathetically slow (as a normal walking speed) and running is enough to leave them behind (not that there were other actions possible).


This game looks more like a mystery tale about the japanese folklore and myths than a real horror. But I don't complain!

Concerning puzzles I'm still happy they're not too difficult because this avoids getting stuck and lets us concentrate more on the story and what's going on. There are not many rooms to explore and it's often very clear what you're supposed to do, so it's a player friendly game, clearly also good for those who have not played many rpgmaker horror games. Anyway story and characters are interesting, Yasu is a coward and sarcastic girl, Shin is almost always smiling, Yasu's mother is... nah I won't say more, but let's skip to the graphics.

Visually the game is pretty good, there are some dark areas but there isn't the excessive use of darkness and/or for typical of many rpgmaker horror games, on the contrary there are some bright areas and this is appropriate for a game that's not exactly a gritty adventure. Unfortunately I found some passability errors in some maps, but nothing game breaking, fortunately. The busts used to represent the characters are pretty good, but oddly some appears above the dialogue window and some behind, and in some case are strangely stretched, not to mention the fact that there is a mix (and a little clash) of different styles for what concerns the charsets (some looks taken from Rpgmaker XP, others from MV...).


Oooooooh! What's that thing that is chasing us? Well let's run to the...

Final Verdict
Despite the flaws I mentioned, that are mainly mapping imprecisions and little graphical issues, I found this game pretty enjoyable and fun. It doesn't offer nothing new, just exploring, collecting items and avoiding monsters, but I believe that this is exactly what a player can expect when starting a rpgmaker horror game.

As mentioned in the review it's also quite easy and player-friendly, makind it perfect for newcomers and maybe not so appealing to veteran players that expect some real challenge, but for those who want to enjoy a little mystery story it's perfectly fine!