Shiokawa, much like Kurôzu-cho, is a cursed town. Every night, you take a bath, look through the peephole and prepare to investigate. Will you ever get used to that... thing staring at your apartment's door from the shadows? No matter.

Every run of World of Horror is taken straight out of a horror manga or one of Lovecraft's stories. Long forgotten gods, bizarre people and Japanese urban legends monsters plague the liminal spaces that act as scenarios to this game. Every frame contributes to creating a chilling and foul atmosphere, and every time the screen flickers you know you're in for a sight.

There are some games that are clearly more than a sum of its parts, but World of Horror kind of feels like the opposite for me. Its parts are fantastic: the soundtrack and sound design, the writing, the random events, the character and environment design, and the art style, which is where the game shines. However, the combat feels so weird and disconnected from the rest of the game that I can't seem to wrap my head around it. It's simple enough, sure, but I can't help but feeling its mechanics don't work well with the flow of the game. Switching the combat system for a card-based combat as seen in Slay the Spire would've been an interesting design choice, but alas, we wouldn't have this game as it is, paying homage to early text-based RPGs. In the end, you get used to the combat system and it never really becomes an obstacle to enjoying the game at all.

All in all, World of Horror is a game that MUST be experienced by manga horror fans and just about anyone interested in horror really. The storytelling, the writing and the visuals are fantastic... I just wished the gameplay would be more down my alley. Nevertheless, it's a very fitting game for Halloween and one that will leave durable imagery in my mind.