Burial

Hello!
Burial (葬) is a short adventure/mystery/horror game made by Tokiiro Kaeru (時彩 蛙) made with RPG Maker 2000 in 2014. The game was later translated into english and shared by Patchy Illusion Team, so here we are playing this game!

Burial starts with our alter ego protagonist Kai in front of a tombstone: he doesn't know how and when he went there but apparently it's because his parents died in a car crash, while he survived. Anyway suddenly a girl arrives, pursued by a fermale ghost armed with a knife! Kai then helps the girl escaping and they both start and underground voyage together into a mysterious gothic realm...

Ok, that's the plot, and basically the game, as many others horror/mystery adventures I reviewed, will involve exploration, solving puzzles and... guess what? Yeah, chasing sections! Having no life bat this means that being caught by the giant hands means instant game over. But do not worry too much, since there are many crosses places in several places, that can be used to save the game.


Mind this dialogue choice since it will have a repercussion in the later parts of the game!

Overall this game isn't too difficult or long (took me more or less an hour for the first playthrough), I mean that dying is not as probable as getting stuck when you have to solve a puzzle. Uhm not that puzzles are too difficult, maybe I am a bit rusted in any case I was able to finish the game, the problem is instead that in some parts you have to explore every single location carefully, or know exactly where to look at, or have an incredible attention to tiny details. By the way a walkthrough is included, if you really need some help.
But do not worry, some tasks are instead pretty easy and simple that cannot even be considered puzzles, so it's a mix of difficult problems and easy things to do, so this is not necessarily an increasing difficulty as you proceed but a constant shifting of difficulty. Apparently to get a particular ending (there are four of them) you need to complete the game in 90 minutes, not too hard at all if you already played it once (first time I played I got the ending 3, the bad one!).

Visually the game is pretty nice: there are both classic rpgmaker sprites that you may have already seen, and some custom art that is very pretty and cute. Also custom facesets (also note that each character has a color, and this is also the color of the font when they speak, a nice detail) and... video cutscenes! Yes, well done, this is a very pretty game. Mapping is ok, pretty simple and functional, anyway there's a cool atmosphere due to the use of particular effects that show apparitions, ghosts and other weird happenings that I wasn't sure they could be harmful or not. But they add a lot to the atmosphere, that is scary without the need of grisly details or jumpscares. A great atmosphere with lot of suspance, really still I did not understand how some rooms changed after a certain action.
Is there a reason? Well maybe but this is not sure due to a problem...

That problem is the story, that is really confused and weird. I mean I do not know if it is due to the translation, but I guess not since the game seems translated pretty perfectly... it's just that some things are vague, others never explained, and I think that in the end it's supposed to be left a bit to the interpretation of the player. Well that's something I can guess due to the fact that's a really confused story (or badly told, I dunno if I missed something). Anyway that's probably the only true problem I have with this game.


No, thanks I don't need... a hand!

Final Verdict
Burial is a well made game with a great atmosphere, very good aestetic choices and a story that is a bit... meh! Well it's the aspect I liked less, while the gameplay is ok. From this point of view I admit that there are some parts I liked a lot, and others I liked less, but I think it's very subjective, anyway if you like horror/mystery games (and I mean those with a nicely done atmosphere, not the ones that throw a bunch of jumpscared and gratitious gore and blood!) and puzzles well that's the game for you. In my opinion the game deserves more than 3/5 (that's what I'd have done if this used just Rtps or had less interesting visuals) due to the valuable aestetics, videos and custom art, so 3.5/5 it is!