Review of World of Horror: an evil and otherworldly game
Our Verdict
World of Horror is an ambitious and impressive little horror gem that reads as a love letter to the works of Junji Ito and Lovecraft. Revolving around gorgeous retro vibes, twisted tales, and RNG-fuelled gameplay loops, it’s a morbidly moreish experience that’s hard to put down.
I love cosmic horror and Junji Ito so much that I'm almost an obsessive fan, so it should come as no surprise that I've been watching World of Horror closely since early access launched in February 2020. Therefore, writing this World of Horror review for the complete release more than three years later, in the middle of the scary season, seems almost therapeutic.
This unusual experience draws heavily on Ito's classic works, with a dash of Lovecraft added in the form of Eldritch "old gods" and apocalyptic themes. You would be gravely incorrect, however, if you assumed this would be a straightforward visual novel with a few jumpscares thrown in. It's a mash-up of gameplay components that blends aspects of text-based adventure, roguelite, role-playing games, and visual novels to create a stunning creature akin to Frankenstein. It's all contained in a vintage 1-bit (or 2-bit) packaging with a '80s-'90s style user interface. That may seem crazy, and it is, but it really does work, I assure you.
In the primary narrative mode of World of Horror, Extracurricular Activities, you assume the character of a protagonist who lives in the Japanese seaside town of Shiokawa. Every game starts with the calling of an ancient deity, which causes a lot of strange things to happen in the town.
Five randomly chosen mysteries await your investigation; each has many possible outcomes, although they seldom ever alter much beyond the final text panel. The mysteries have a resemblance to Junji Ito's short tales, without being blatantly copycat; rather, they draw inspiration from them and transform it into something entirely new. The end product is a collection of captivating stories that perfectly encapsulate Ito's personality and read like a love letter to the horror icon that we have all grown to love.
The mainstay of most investigations is you exploring certain locales to find information and advance the plot, while some mysteries, like Vicious Verses of a Violent Vigil, deviate somewhat from the formula. For every mission type, there is an additional side task that entails exploring a different region twice or sometimes abandoning two things. These usually provide you a little bit more knowledge that might facilitate the latter phases of your study or lead to a completely different conclusion.
The dread counter is another thing to consider. The dread counter changes by a fixed proportion in the absence of modifiers. Every action you do has the potential to either raise or lower your dread level. Certain events or choices will raise your doom level even more. The game ends when you reach 100% or more doom, and the old deity triumphs. Numerous other variables, like as spell casting, town status effects, and character curses, may further accelerate the rate at which your dread level rises.
Location exploration produces random occurrences. They may take many different forms, such as multiple-choice questions and fights with some of the game's many foes. Most multiple-choice questions depend on you either possessing a certain item in your inventory or passing a particular stat check.
A lot of the statistics in World of Horror are text-based RPG or D&D-like. Your primary numbers are reason and stamina, which function as a kind of health metre; if you run out of either, the game is finished. The secondary stats, on the other hand, include things like charm, perception, and knowledge. These improve your odds of passing the randomised event stat checks and may also affect other aspects of the game, such your ability to get others to join you.
Turn-based combat is facilitated with an action bar that indicates your next move. You can do a variety of actions to fill this action bar, such as using your weapon to attack (each weapon has different damage, speed, and chance to hit), getting your allies to attack, preparing to attack (which ensures the attack will hit regardless of chance), and restorative actions. You don't need to utilise any of your action bars to cast spells or use objects outside of these sequences.
All in all, it's a rather straightforward method that becomes even more automatic after you understand what each symbol represents. It does, however, sometimes call for some tactical thought, whether it's figuring out what would defeat your opponent more quickly, striking a balance between reason and stamina via restorative activities, or figuring out what pattern of bows and claps will drive away a ghost. Injuries and curses may sometimes come from combat; for the latter, you usually need to visit the hospital for treatment; otherwise, their effects will simply worsen over time.
As you explore, you level up. You may choose one of three randomly selected bonus cards after reaching 100 EXP. These provide you with a benefit or stat increase in addition to a title that may aid you in certain situations. The Art Knowledge perk, for instance, gives you +1 perception while also enabling you to interpret artwork during an event without being alarmed. You may choose one stat to boost in addition to the perk card. All of this gives your gameplay a pleasant dimension, but you'll often find yourself cursing yourself for missing out on a benefit later on.
Above all, World of Horror is a RNG-based game, as you have probably already guessed. Basically everything else is more up to the whims of the RNG gods than the Eldritch ones, though the customisable playthrough option gives you some more control over how your game begins (you can choose which Eldritch god you're going against, which character you play as, and what "background" your character has). You can also reroll which mysteries you're investigating at the beginning of any story mode playthrough.
This randomised aspect does have some drawbacks. For example, many achievements that unlock useful items are dependent on you finishing particular events with particular items in your inventory, defeating particular enemy types a predetermined number of times, or equipping particular equipment during particular investigations. Rerolling things at the town's stores raises your gloom level since even they are randomly selected. And good luck if, after doing everything else, there are still one or two events you haven't played; it might take you hours and several plays to get them.
If you'll pardon the pun, it may potentially ruin certain playthroughs right away. Quite early in the game, you could get the worst occurrences, town status reports, and a tonne of curses; at that time, there really isn't much you can do to rescue yourself. Even if your character suffers from many illnesses that often lower their stats, you lack the money to see a physician? Have you reached 70% doom before the conclusion of the first mystery? At that moment, you have the option of either beginning again or waiting for your Eldritch friend to annihilate you.
Positively, however, it does greatly increase the game's replayability. I can honestly say that no two playthroughs have been exactly the same, even when delving into a similar set of mysteries or coming across some of the same events. I've lost count of the number of playthroughs I've completed since getting my hands on World of Horror, both in the story mode and in the custom mode.
Even after completing the majority of the accomplishments, the game continually surprises me and offers me new experiences, and I like that—especially as I continue to unlock gods, artefacts, characters, and more. You shouldn't worry if you've already played the early access version since the final release also seems to have additional material.
The Spine-Chilling narrative of School Scissors is a one-time inquiry that serves as an introduction to the game, in addition to the main narrative mode and custom play. (you may, of course also receive this mystery in the complete playthroughs). Then there's rapid play, which begins a fresh game with a backdrop, an ancient deity, a character chosen at random, and other features. Last but not least is the challenges mode, which, as you would expect, lets you complete a variety of tasks with unique guidelines to add some excitement to your gameplay.
You may alter the game's look in addition to its gameplay. The graphics of World of Horror are mostly 1-bit and displayed in black and white. It's interesting to note that the game's creator, Paweł Koźmiński, created all of the in-game artwork using MS Paint, which is astounding given how stunning everything appears. However, you may choose between 1-bit and 2-bit from the menu or at the beginning of a game; the latter offers a greater degree of shading and depth in addition to a selection of several colour profiles.
Though there are many excellent possibilities, as you can probably notice from the review's photographs, my personal favourite is the black, white, blue, and pink palette since it gives off a kind of pop art atmosphere. The artwork is exquisite overall, showcasing some masterful opponent and environmental designs that perfectly reflect the spirit of Ito's renowned style and meticulous attention to detail—a really remarkable achievement considering the format and resources used.
It demonstrates an amazing degree of detail-oriented attention to detail and commitment to preserving that vintage vibe in terms of sound design. Everything contributes to the atmosphere, from the electronic music to the crisp.midi-style cry that plays when you choose a character to the loud motherboard beep that plays when the game first launches. I promise you won't need the bone-chilling Colin Stetson music from the forthcoming Uzumaki anime or complete voice acting here. Everything works well together and does an amazing job of simulating the nearly analog-horror-esque feeling of turning on a bulky PC from the '90s. I really like it.
I regrettably was only able to get a Steam key for this one, thus I am unable to comment on how it performs on other platforms. However, given its effective simplicity, I doubt it will falter or suffer in any situation.
I've also played a few games on my Steam Deck, but the only issue I had with it was that the aspect ratio wasn't fixed at launch. On the Steam Deck, a 3:1 scale causes half of the text to extend beyond the screen; however, that was an easy fix, and other than that, everything worked perfectly. There's no resolution option here, just a quirky, retro window that appears with the option to choose between 1:1, 2:1, or 3:1 scale.
however the game does sometimes involve some clicking, and I always find that to be a bit of a headache with an analogue stick, I do hope that the Switch version includes touchscreen controls. Other than that, however, I'm very confident you're going to have a nice experience regardless of whatever platform you select.
Nevertheless, modding is one advantage of the PC version that I don't think the console ports will have. There seems to be an incredible amount of attention to modding this small gem, with a tonne of incredible experiences accessible via the World of Horror Discord. I haven't had a chance to properly explore the enormous selection of stuff available yet. However, as is often the case with modding, you must first tinker with the game files to get them to function. You can access any mods you've added to the files using the mod option in the menu. Who knows, maybe supported mods will be available on consoles through this menu in the future. However, if you want to customise your experience and take advantage of all these amazing features, you might want to go with the PC version.
All things considered, World of Horror is a very fun game with plenty of interesting encounters and a lot of replay potential. It reads like a special love letter that nevertheless manages to retain its own distinct character because of its impeccable aesthetic, vibes, and atmosphere, as well as its respectful treatment of the source material that influences it. I feel like I've grown to enjoy each playtime more than the previous, much as when I leaf through Ito's Masterpiece Collection for the thousandth time. If that doesn't speak to the unfathomable horrors this game has to give, I don't know what does.
Well, I think I best sign off now as my dread counter is reaching dangerously high heights. But if you're looking for more spooks, be sure to check out our guides toFNAF games andPoppy Playtime characters, as well as our list of the greatesthorror games and my feature on whyindie horror games are so fantastic. If you want to continue riding the Ito train, you can read my digression on our sister site, The Digital Fix, on why I felt the Junji Ito anime on Crunchyroll was a bit of a letdown and why I thought everyone would have been better off waiting for the release of Uzumaki.