In my younger days, my impression of 90s Japanese horror/thriller movies is that they went all-in on atmosphere, sometimes at the expense of plot. A tad reductive, but I think there's some truth to it - and that quality is evident in this matriarch of Survival Horror. The 'creepy mansion' vibes are immaculate, and the idea of using the main character's psychological state in lieu of a health bar is a masterstroke. Even the game's slow pacing adds to the atmosphere, with your character's slow walk cycle emphasizing her frailty, but also the long stretches of time without running into Scissorman ratcheting up the tension, something akin to the panic that sets in when you realize your kids in the next room are being abnormally quiet...

With vibes like these, I'm totally willing to put up with the slow gameplay and the relative lack of ways to evade/hide from Scissorman. However, I feel like the game is extremely skimpy on lore. The point-and-click interface is the perfect medium for making every object and room tell a story, and it seems quite underutilized, even accounting for details getting left out in the fan-translation. While it is possible to piece together everything that's going on in the mansion through contextual clues, it will typically take a few playthroughs, and that's more than enough time for the atmosphere to wear out its welcome.

Endings unlocked: S/C/D/G