I was fairly interested on this game, but having now played it I think I get why it never got too much attention or even left Japan. It's a pretty mediocre "horror" puzzle game with a serious backtracking problem. For real, I think that the game would only be like 2 hours instead of 5 if you took out all of the stupid ass trips back and forth across the whole school you are forced to do. The backtracking is particularly annoying because the next step for a lot of puzzles does not trigger until you go talk to someone or walk to some specific part of the school. The school is not actually that big, but your character is slow, and there's a lot of rooms of dubious interest because your next step is not always clear. The vibes on the school are decently tense, but I wouldn't call this game scary. You quickly learn you are almost never in danger, except for very specific scripted moments when you are being pursued and have to hide. And even then, the single possible hiding place each time is really obvious. Even when you see monsters around the school, you have to deliberately get closer to die and the game gives you a lot of warning. Speaking of, the death animations are all lame except for 1, which is a shame.
So what does the game have if isn't scary? A fuckton of Lovecraft references, I guess. I'm not the greatest fan out there, but I enjoyed some of the references and I think people more into the Cthulhu mythos will get a kick out of pointing and doing the soyjak face at all the things they recognize. There's a bit of replayability in seeing a slightly different story depending on your choices, that allow you to learn more about different characters, but I feel like you'd need a guide to really figure out which one you're doing. Besides that there's 3 endings with a very convenient save point at the final zone to easily do all 3. Each of them are all right, if not too special. I like how even the true ending doesn't end in a completely happy note, which really fits with the whole tone of most Lovecraft stories.
So what does the game have if isn't scary? A fuckton of Lovecraft references, I guess. I'm not the greatest fan out there, but I enjoyed some of the references and I think people more into the Cthulhu mythos will get a kick out of pointing and doing the soyjak face at all the things they recognize. There's a bit of replayability in seeing a slightly different story depending on your choices, that allow you to learn more about different characters, but I feel like you'd need a guide to really figure out which one you're doing. Besides that there's 3 endings with a very convenient save point at the final zone to easily do all 3. Each of them are all right, if not too special. I like how even the true ending doesn't end in a completely happy note, which really fits with the whole tone of most Lovecraft stories.