Turtle Head is a new addition to the line of the ever-growing RPG Maker Horror genre. The story is that three students explore their school at night in hopes of taking a picture of an elusive ghost who is rumored to have been spotted by other students and faculty alike. However, they encounter unexpected difficulties when the front door becomes locked and now must find a way to escape before they're killed. Yep, that's your typical B-movie plot where the fictional characters are just asking to die by going to a haunted area but even those can be interesting if you implement them in an innovative way.

Though if you ask me, I think the true horror lies in the fact that the urinals in this school are so high!
Peeing has never been a more frightening process when you need to stand on a stool to reach a urinal!

Graphics:
Lockers, bookcases, desks, etc. all of is plain and simple. Not beautiful, cool, or creepy, it's just there. Not that they need to do anything more than furnish the rooms.

The character portraits are nice but you won't really see them much. So that leaves us with the eponymous monster whose silhouettes and initial CG scene are the best this game has to offer. SPOILER (meaning don't read this until you've encountered Turtle Head for the first time):

Story:
The mystery of Turtle Head is told through the classic method of finding journal entries scattered around the school written by people documenting the strange events that happened to them on the premises after hours. Reading them may make you nervous but it's the only way to unravel the truth behind the so-called ghost.

Characters:
You take the role of a black-haired girl by the name of Harriet who is a silent protagonist. This means that while the other characters can understand and respond to what she "says", you never actually see any words come out of her mouth. Well, dialogue box but you get what I mean!

Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for players to care about her beyond the fact that you obviously want her to succeed in escaping if only to see what happens.

Her friends aren't much for flavor text either. Perhaps having them tell you of humorous or interesting events that happened in their lives might not be important in the grand scheme of the game but it certainly gives them personality. Which goes a long way in making them not be just another faceless victim that might up getting killed. SPOILER (Meaning don't read this unless you got the True Ending):

Puzzles:
There isn't actually much thinking needed on your part while playing. There are three passwords you need in the game and two of them are written out for you while the remaining one just requires you to fill in the blanks which isn't too hard with the letters you're already given.

The rest of the game is just finding keys or items to open doors where you can find more keys or items inside to use to repeat the process. But considering that's a staple in these type of games, the issue lies not in that you need to run around unlocking doors but that there aren't any puzzles to stimulate your mind.

On the bright side, there aren't any Ao Oni 'Moon Logic' puzzles. Those would have you running around all over the place and bashing your head against the wall at how illogical some of the solutions are. Nothing breaks immersion like a frustrating puzzle that makes you want to consult a walkthrough.

Atmosphere:
There is no background music playing except during chase segments, while reading what happens in the endings, and one particular area. It's silent the rest of the time but that's not a bad thing. While you may get tired of hearing keys click in the locks or slamming doors open and shut, you'll find that it does emulate real life. After all, there is no background music playing in real life. And from personal experience, I've been in my old house after everything had been removed and moved to our new residence. Even though I knew it was safe, there was just something unsettling about being able to hear my own footsteps echo throughout the rooms...

But I digress. The atmosphere didn't make me fear the dark or worry that I might get killed in my sleep but I still found it be somewhat effective. The few jumpscares didn't get any reaction out of me but I suppose they weren't that jarring. SPOILER (Meaning don't read this unless you got the True Ending):

Rating:
Well, I obviously can't give it a 5 or 4.5 cause that many stars would require it to be an epically-crafted masterpiece. I'm not giving it a 4 because the game just didn't stand out that much to me. I know you've put a lot of work into making it different from others in the genre but it still felt like you followed the cookie-cutter formula too much. So I think 3.5 is fair.

By the way, I've always wondered about why I needed a flashlight for that one dark room. Like, the whole school is dark. What makes that room so special that it's darker than the rest? Then I realized those were windows next to the clocks in the classrooms letting in light. Still doesn't make sense since the radio room has no window but you need to go in there to get a battery. There's no window in the computer room either and you can go in there before getting the flashlight.