Recommended by C_F as part of this list.
On the cusp of the 11th century, you are brought into this world, writhing and bare within the desolate outskirts of the Japanese countryside, neck-deep in the overgrown grass and surrounded by the ravenous gaze of demons. The alarmingly-familiar stench of death brings you to your senses quick, and a quick crane of your neck puts you face-to-face with a mummified cadaver, its dried-out face gripped with fear and frozen with rigor mortis too familiar for comfort. Dawdling in this endless expanse of overgrown weeds and youkai as you are now is a death wish, so you'll have to do what you must: Rob the strikingly familiar corpse of its earthly possessions and make your way into the inner walls of the nearby capital. Within, walls of beggars & vagrants line the run-down streets, and demons await the unfortunate around every turn, devouring the unsuspecting and luring countless victims into deathtraps for their own amusement. Thieves and rouges patrol the barren alleyways, no better than the supernatural fiends they contend with for survival. Death here is a commonality that spares none, no more uncommon than the rising and setting of the sun. Welcome to the capital of Japan: Heiankyo.
Cosmology of Kyoto is ostensibly an adventure game, but more aptly put, it's an interactive cultural archive of Heian-era Japan, a loose collection of vignettes and folktales representative to the era, complete with a database of historical facts and folklore so in-depth it has an actual bibliography. As an unnamed wanderer, you will experience the many sights and sounds of this blighted town besieged by despair, encountering mythological and historical figures and bearing witness to their many antics and deeds. Whether it be through run-ins with youkai or the wayward blade of a bandit, you will die, and depending on your actions, be sent to one of the many accurately-recreated hells and afterlives described in Buddhist mythology, and get reincarnated back into the world of the living, picking the possessions off your last cadaver like you did when you first stepped foot into this world, and continue to explore every corner of this decaying capital.
The setting and atmosphere of this fictional recreation of Heiankyo is where Cosmology of Kyoto truly shines. From the moment you step into this world, it is made abundantly clear how unimportant you are: Events are quick & abrupt, and your avatar is rarely ever the provocateur, often being delegated to a mere observer as either a spiritual folktale or a random act of brutality takes place in front of their eyes, before life goes on and you continue walking. There's this sense of detachment that, while a negative in any other "immersive" experience, works heavily in Cosmology of Kyoto's favour, as you really feel like an observer to this world, transplanted to bear witness to this sparse moment in history, and just as quickly as it starts, its over, leaving you with a deep-rooted feeling of confusion and discomfort to take with you long after the journey is over.
If you let it, Cosmology of Kyoto will take you hand-in-hand in its beautifully crafted world of mysticism, and the overwhelming sense of atmosphere packed into this roughly 3 hour package knocks its contemporaries both past and present out of the park. If you like to truly get lost in a game and take in the atmosphere of a setting, Cosmology of Kyoto is a masterclass example of such an experience and I cannot recommend it enough.
On the cusp of the 11th century, you are brought into this world, writhing and bare within the desolate outskirts of the Japanese countryside, neck-deep in the overgrown grass and surrounded by the ravenous gaze of demons. The alarmingly-familiar stench of death brings you to your senses quick, and a quick crane of your neck puts you face-to-face with a mummified cadaver, its dried-out face gripped with fear and frozen with rigor mortis too familiar for comfort. Dawdling in this endless expanse of overgrown weeds and youkai as you are now is a death wish, so you'll have to do what you must: Rob the strikingly familiar corpse of its earthly possessions and make your way into the inner walls of the nearby capital. Within, walls of beggars & vagrants line the run-down streets, and demons await the unfortunate around every turn, devouring the unsuspecting and luring countless victims into deathtraps for their own amusement. Thieves and rouges patrol the barren alleyways, no better than the supernatural fiends they contend with for survival. Death here is a commonality that spares none, no more uncommon than the rising and setting of the sun. Welcome to the capital of Japan: Heiankyo.
Cosmology of Kyoto is ostensibly an adventure game, but more aptly put, it's an interactive cultural archive of Heian-era Japan, a loose collection of vignettes and folktales representative to the era, complete with a database of historical facts and folklore so in-depth it has an actual bibliography. As an unnamed wanderer, you will experience the many sights and sounds of this blighted town besieged by despair, encountering mythological and historical figures and bearing witness to their many antics and deeds. Whether it be through run-ins with youkai or the wayward blade of a bandit, you will die, and depending on your actions, be sent to one of the many accurately-recreated hells and afterlives described in Buddhist mythology, and get reincarnated back into the world of the living, picking the possessions off your last cadaver like you did when you first stepped foot into this world, and continue to explore every corner of this decaying capital.
The setting and atmosphere of this fictional recreation of Heiankyo is where Cosmology of Kyoto truly shines. From the moment you step into this world, it is made abundantly clear how unimportant you are: Events are quick & abrupt, and your avatar is rarely ever the provocateur, often being delegated to a mere observer as either a spiritual folktale or a random act of brutality takes place in front of their eyes, before life goes on and you continue walking. There's this sense of detachment that, while a negative in any other "immersive" experience, works heavily in Cosmology of Kyoto's favour, as you really feel like an observer to this world, transplanted to bear witness to this sparse moment in history, and just as quickly as it starts, its over, leaving you with a deep-rooted feeling of confusion and discomfort to take with you long after the journey is over.
If you let it, Cosmology of Kyoto will take you hand-in-hand in its beautifully crafted world of mysticism, and the overwhelming sense of atmosphere packed into this roughly 3 hour package knocks its contemporaries both past and present out of the park. If you like to truly get lost in a game and take in the atmosphere of a setting, Cosmology of Kyoto is a masterclass example of such an experience and I cannot recommend it enough.