This game is best gone into blind.

I'm a bit sad at the flack the slice-of-life segments seem to get in the "slow-burn horror" genre of visual novels, they can compliment the deeper themes of a visual novel well - Onikakushi is a shining example of this. One could call the more down-to-earth sections "boring", but I feel like that's both missing the point and downplaying the effectiveness with which Onikakushi writes these scenes. From walks home from school chit-chatting with Rena and Mion, to Keiichi's deep thought process during club games, the game truly does an amazing job of putting you into Keiichi Maebara's shoes and giving you a deep sense of love for the village of Hinamizawa and its people and quirks.

This is all, of course, to assure the maximum amount of pain and confusion possible when this idyllic little village is slowly warped and twisted in front of your eyes. Onikakushi does a brilliant job of very slowly inundating you into the horrors of its world. Like a frog in a boiling pot, a side suggestion becomes a passing story becomes a mysterious incident becomes an enthralling cage of terror, until you truly feel exactly like Keiichi - the world you've grown to love falling apart around you. His arc is written amazingly as well. He never feels like an unwitting hero or a feckless coward, he always feels exactly as he is - a kid trying to reason through a bizarre and hopeless situation. You can feel his trust and hope decay in the most arresting way as you progress throughout Onikakushi, and this sense of crescendo is really what makes Onikakushi such a great game. This part leaves you watering at the mouth for more, the perfect teaser of what's to come.