The Curse of Utaho (Utahonotatari) English Translation

Cursed day to you all!
The Curse of Utaho -Utahonotatari- is a game made by Payaaaaan and translated into english by MikoEffect. This is a classic japanese horror game made with WOLF RPG Editor, first of a series of... two parts I think, I'm not sure if there are other episodes or related games before the two ones, and the second isn't translated yet (but you can find walkthroughs for both games on youtube, for the original japanese version, of course).

The Curse of Utaho starts with a short prologue of a little perfect family in Japan. All goes well until grandma, that was taking care of a little altar at home (so she was probably a miko, a priestess), disappears mysteriously. And then things go downhill: our protagonist, Utano, comes back from school and soon discovers that something happened to her father, mother and sister... but is this reality or just a creation of the mind? Well, she starts investigating through a path that will bring her to visit three different locations, looking for clues in three different chapters (the second is the longest due to the biggest location).


Uh oh... sorry, I think I'll leave soon! This guy with the cute eyes is present in various instances and guess what? When you see him you know you have to RUN!

The game clearly begins at Utano's house, and that's probably the safest place, because it's the only one where I did not die. The game is in fact a sort of classic horror game with the usual jumpscares and chase sections that you may like or not. Do not look at the interface that shows Utano's level and stats, since being touched by an hostile creature means instant death.

The Curse of Utaho includes also some puzzles that are technically easy, I mean the one with the drawings is more or less automatically solved just with some interactions, the code one is a bit harder to figure out since I needed to watch a walkthrough to recognize the shapes of the numbers... that part, like others, was VERY dark. Anyway puzzles are easy (you will find a lot of documents during the game, but no one of them is apparently relate to e puzzle so you may read them to learn more about the story, but it's not mandatory), the hard part is figuring out what to do and where to go, it's true that the rule is "when you find a key, immediately find what it opens", but it's also true that some items appears from nowhere so it's necessary to revisit some place and check locations you saw before to see if something changed and some roadblock disappeared. At least Utano walks very fast and that's good since you will have to walk back and forth, and being faster than any other creature helps, since monsters often appear very close (it's amusing that the locker room is introduced first to show a shortcut that later you will need to run away safely from a creature).


Oh hello, handsome! What a lovely smile! Nice to meet you!

Mapping is pretty much good (aside for a passability error I found on a wall of a suite), the assets used for the hotel seems a bit bizarre (really colorful with these blue and reds) but I guess there were no better tilesets available to the dev, even if for example I perfectly remember some tilesets, used in lots of rm2k3 horror games that are perfect for an old style hotel. Also there is a strange choice of inverting the facing of the charsets when going up or down the stairs of the hotel, with the result that, due to the fast walking speed mentioned before, you will often climb the stairs and go back, climb and go back! Same happens when go down the basement stairs... oh so annoying! On the other hand there are many nice custom made cutscenes and documents you can check, they are all competently made, even if I really did not understand the cutscene at the lockers... I mean Utano is scared but... WHY? She mentiones her mother but WHY? She already saw her corpse torn to pieces hours before and was upset, but in the end not even so much.

Music is eerie and unsettling and there are many scary sound like the cries of the monsters. A part that left me puzzled is when a doll laughs because the text says "she's laughing". Ok, but after so many eerie sounds and screams this time wasn't possible to have a sime laughing track? Weird.

Unfortunately, while the translation is decent for the most part (I do not understand the meaning of the discussion in the beginning between father and daughter, also "a line of books that makes no sense?", what does that mean? Um but ok) there are a TON of cut sentences for example right at the beginning after the prologue, when examining an item in grandma's bedroom, in the spare room when checking the candlestick, and then at the end of the first chapter!


I dunno, but sometimes the answers to the inteactions make little sense!

Final Verdict
The Curse of Utaho is a weird game, because it leaves a lot of question unanswered and not just about the plot. For example WHY can you sleep in your bed since there is no way to be hurt (or you are healthy or you are dead)? It has no use and considering the situation it's unlikely that our heroine can be able sleep, but ok. Another question is why she can approach the monster from the front, but when she approaches the same monster from behind is almost an assured game over? WHAT happens if you choose to go to the police after the first chapter? The game ends abruptly and we do not know if Utano was arrested or simply forgot abour everything and lived free or... well no, nothing! Still better than being crushed by a giant hand, I guess!

The final boss appearance is also pretty ridiculous, I wonder if it was based on the developer, since it would be fun. Yes, it made me laugh out loud, unlike the other beings met before (even if some have cute googly eyes, but uh they can kill with a touch!).

About the dialogues these are a bit confusing but I do not know if it's the original story or if it's a problem of translation, in any case the story is clearly confused also in the original version, but I cannot judge it too harshly, due to the presence of the sequel that MAY answer to some questions. Or not. After all it's still a horror story, and it's normal ending with a cliffhanger, showing one of the characters met during the story with an implied "to be continued".

In the end this is a pretty easy game, just remember to save often, because death come swiftly and few second can determine your gate.