My relationship with Gregory Horror Show harkens back to when I was very young and stumbled upon a YouTube channel that had uploaded all of the episodes of the anime.
The unsettling nature of the show that bordered on horror without actually being grotesque captured me and I binged all three seasons in one night.
Then, I simply forgot the name of the series, but it would still manage to occupy my headspace for years to come. Years went by where I'd try to find the show again, but to no avail. When I was in my late teens, the name "Gregory" randomly popped up in my head one night when I was trying to sleep, and I hurriedly hopped out of my bed to see if I'd be able to find the anime on YouTube once more, which I did. Not only did I find the anime that I'd searched for so long, I also found out that it had a game made by Capcom, and I knew that I had to have it in my collection. It must have been fairly unrecognized at the time, because I got it for real cheap, and now it's one of my most prized possessions in my PS2 library.
But that's just my personal anectdote. What did I actually think about the game?

It's not mind-blowing or anything, but it is a neat experience. The goal of the game is to deliver 12 souls to Death. In return, he'll help you escape from the hotel. The game is split up in chapters -- labelled as "Nights" -- and the game progresses to a new chapter for every 3 souls delivered. At least 3 new guests move in for every chapter in the game. Some guests are split up into 2 entities, since they move in together, but they only come with 1 soul.

The game centers around sneaking around and spying on the guests. While you're observing them from a keyhole, they'll talk to themselves about their weakness, or a weakness of another guest. It's up to the player to collect enough information in order to exploit their weakness and steal their soul. I like the fact that a guest carrying a soul usually tries to run away from the player until they have their soul stolen. Once their soul is stolen, they become hostile and chase the player instead. This means that the more you progress, the more hostile entities have to be taken into consideration. You're pretty much helpless against your enemies and the best way to deal with them is to run to safety. Each guest has a pre-defined daily schedule that they follow, and by observing them at specific times, an entry is added in your notebook in your room, which helps you catalogue their daily activities. Some guests simply have to be encountered at a specific time and place in order to steal their soul, while others require you to have a specific item.

That's where the shop comes in. Some of these critical items can be purchased in the shop run by the hotel manager rat Gregory. Although, he doesn't sell items per se. Rather he trades goods in exchange for items and consumables found around the hotel. Items can be found on the ground or by knocking on furniture, and each item has a value measured in stars. Items in the shop can be traded for by exchanging one or several items from your inventory that is of equal or higher value. Some items can only be found once, while others are restocked and can picked up indefinitely by returning later, meaning that the player essentially has infinite resources.
Speaking of items, their purpose is to heal the player's mental gauge or status conditions. By simply running around the hotel, the player's mental gauge drops. A significant chunk of the mental gauge can be shaved off if you are caught by one of the guests as well. If it drops to 0, you go insane and have to reload a previous save. Status conditions can be inflicted by staying awake for too long, or by being caught by a guest. Health can be restored by consuming items such as herbs (they even come in green, red and yellow, nice RE-reference, Capcom), by reading books, or by sleeping. Books have the additional trait of boosting the size of your mental gauge. Status conditions can be restored by consuming medicines or by handing over a soul to Death.

Of note is that this game is fairly short. I spent about 8 hours on my first playthrough, but this can easily be expanded by trying to find all 50 books, or by filling the entire memo with the guests' daily schedules. I don't believe that you unlock anything of significance from 100% completion, but by filling the memo you unlock figures of the guests that can be observed in your room, if you like that sort of thing.

I don't think that Gregory Horror Show is a masterpiece by any means, however I usually don't take the time to write reviews as long as this, which must account for something. It is a game that I enjoyed from start to finish, and I can definitely see myself returning for another run. Highly recommended if you enjoy the level of horror found in kids' shows like Courage, and games where you have to map out people's daily schedules and plan accordingly à la moon: Remix RPG Adventure and Chulip.