Nanashi No Game (Squaresoft DS horror)

[importaku]

Had this since last week & it's pretty good, first things first due to it having a cero C rating it's not aimed at anyone under 15 meaning its kanji city so expect reams of text although the game is pretty easy to get through as the text is used for the story, theres no hard puzzles to solve or anything, the story i can only understand tiny fragments of it but what i can understand i love. Hoping square release it in the west but theres no gurantee they will so for the time been i'll stick to the jpn version. (crosses fingers though)

Basically this is a horror game that blatently rips off ideas from 2 japanese horror film classics, the ring & the grudge.

This is actually very creepy in parts & has made me jump countless times, far more than biohazard ever did, the sound is amazing & very atmospheric & constantly puts you on edge. At one point in the game the ghosts of previous victims of the game start to call your name as in actually speak it out, it's very creepy to hear your name been whispered as they come for you.

The story is about a cursed game that if you play you will die (lol ring, anyone), the game has no name & is this bizarre oldschool 8bit rpg, the game was unfinished & full of graphical glitches & screwy sound, nobody knows where the game came from as the title screen is all corrupted but you discover more of the story about the game as you play. You discover that there were previous victims of the game & the story is played from each of the previous victims perspectives (like the grudge)

In the game everyone carrys a DS but in this game its called a TS it has an exact duplicate of a DS menu screen but a few of the options are different, & in the game slot is the mysterious cursed game.


The game is split into two parts you have the real world where most of the game takes place & you hold the ds on its side & both screens are used to provide a 3d view of the world, then on your TS you have the cursed game. As you wander around, the cursed game will ping & come to life & you go onto your TS to play it. It usually takes you to an important scene where something disturbing usually happens & until you play it out you can't return to the real world. Theres something very creepy about the game, you you get this weird distorted static on the screen when one certain grey ghost character appears in the game it looks like a sprite but it's moving very oddly like it shouldn't be there. It appears in certain scenes & when it does something bad usually happens.

The 2 worlds are connected & the game has the ability to cause things to happen in the real world, for example in one part your on a train & theres signs hanging all over but as you go from carriage to carriage you notice the signs start to rot away & eventually become soaked in blood. You keep hearing this weird chanting & as you go round you discover that you seem to be going round in circles as you keep getting brought back to the same carriage, then all of a sudden the cursed game comes to life & you go into your ts to play it, you find your in a single screen with an exit on each side & as you go off the screen you appear on an identical one a bit like the first zelda game. You look closer & notice some flowers at one of the exits, you follow these & the game eventually releases you into the real world again. Now back on the train you notice something odd, on one of the doors are some flowers exactly like the ones in the game. Going through this door takes you back to real reality & a normal non looping train carriage.

The game seems to serve a second purpose in the real world, the ghosts of previous victims will be wandering in the real world if your near to one, you can usually hear it whispering but if you go to your ts & play the game there will be interferrance on the screen if theres one nearby, you cant actually hurt them your only defence is to run as if they touch you, you end up as a statue in the game with all the other victims.

Heres a youtube video someone has made of the first level, few things to bear in mind the vid has been recorded using an emulator so the screen looks funny as thres no gap between the screens & the sound is a bit clicky. So you cant hear the excellent creepy sound effects too well, also at the end its meant to be in darkness with you only having a torch to see a bit but the emulator video can't replicate that.

Heres a quick spoiler rundown of the first level explaining some stuff that you cant see/hear in the video.

->Open Spoiler<-

You goto visit one of your friends that hasn't been seen in school recently, you ring the doorbell but nobody answers so you try the door only to discover that its locked on a safety catch, as you close it you hear someone come running to the door to open it.

When you go inside you realise the place is apparently empty & hasnt been lived in, in a while. As you go to the living room you see your friend looking through the glass, as you enter the living room you find out for some reason all the windows & vents have been taped up, you wander round & you hear someone run into another room & turn on a tap so you go back out & into the bathroom next door, only to discover theres nobody there & the bathroom is covered in green slime on the floor from water been left to run for a long time also you notice theres loads of hair in the sink that has been cut off, for some reason all the mirrors in the apartment are either covered in mold or are broken.

As you leave the bathroom you hear a strange sound like someone playing a game, as you follow the source of the noise it leads to a storage room, you look around but you can only see some flickering light above on the upper floor someone is playing on a ts, theres water dripping from the floor above. (its meant to be dark btw)

At that point your own ts chimes & as you go in you discover it has a game in the slot, you go in & load it up to discover a 8bit rpg game & theres some weird ritual at the river going on, on further talking & searching a mysterious ghostlike figure appears at the well & after talking to her you end up back in the real world & have a light. You now make your way up the ladder & see something hunched in a corner with a blanket over them, as you get closer the thing falls back & you discover that it's your friend & he's been dead quite a while & it looks like he has drowned as he's covered in water.

Was it the game that drowned him, connected to the ghost of the girl who was killed & thrown in the well? & who was the thing you saw in your friends apartment if he has been dead for a while.

Yes i love this creepy ****

[abigsmurf]

This needs to be localised. Damn squeenix can create some creative software at times...

[briareos_kerensky]

Agreed, even if it takes as much time as it took to localize The World Ends With You. I hope the localization of Theresia will prompt them to challenge on this market, I'm sure all DS users will appreciate that.