Review for World of Horror. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Steam, the video game was released on 20/02/2020
There are games you just don't expect. There are the titles emblazoned and flaunted to the four winds and then, as if by magic, there are small pearls that appear almost out of nowhere. World of Horror it is precisely one of these.
With World of Horror, an indie title developed by Panstasz, we are facing a graphic adventure in a strongly retro style. The ultra minimalistic 1bit graphics and the hypnotic chiptune soundtrack will please all lovers of the Old School, bringing them back to a pioneering period full of charm.
However, the thing that is most fascinating in World of Horror is the setting: we are talking about a disturbing mix between the classic Cosmic Horror atmospheres so dear to HP Lovecraft and the disturbing scenarios created by the mangaka Junji Ito, whose suggestions often draw on low man in Japanese folklore.
World of Horror takes us to an unspecified period of the '80s (and here too, nostalgia a go go) in an apparently laughing Japanese coastal town that actually hides shocking horrors and various atrocities (you didn't expect it, did you? ), where we will have to try to solve five strange and terrifying cases.
Each of these narrative lines will involve learning about unspeakable Horrors, monstrosities that inhabit the very folds of our reality and other such amenities. All this, of course, trying not to leave the skin and sanity. Each investigation, which constitutes a real narrative arc in its own right, will have two endings, depending on which many aspects of the setting and characters will be changed, thus making the progress of the game very "alive". Technically speaking, we are faced with a graphically archaic game, but with a technical realization that to define flawless is really an understatement. The pixel art that is shown is frighteningly suggestive, extremely suitable for the kind of adventure we are facing. Very often, it seems to leaf through a real horror manga from a few decades ago.
World of Horror, it must be said, is anything but an instant play. A certain cumbersome in the controls and in the management of the menus could discourage in the immediate future, but they are venial sins that will not be much noticed, once you become familiar with all the mechanics. World of Horror, available for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PRAÇA su Steam, at the moment it only supports English and Japanese, but it is not excluded that other translations will be introduced in the future.
If you want to experience a disturbing adventure with a very marked retro style, and you are a lover of Lovecraftian nightmare universes, then World of Horror is the title for you, even net of its (few) defects. Recommended!
► World of Horror is an RPG-indie game developed by Ysbryd Games Panstasz and published by Ysbryd Games for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Steam, the game was released on 20/02/2020
