Summary
- Experience first-person horror at the hands of Japanese ghosts, monsters, and yokais.
- Focus on drawing wards of protection over haunting sounds and events happening around you.
- Test your wits against multiple puzzles that will try to stop you.
- Ikai is now available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
Fear and turmoil reign supreme as the darkest tales of Japanese folklore come to life in this first-person psychological horror game final flame, an independent developer based in Barcelona, Europe. Set in a feudal era, Ikai revolves around Naoko, a shrine priestess who struggles to defeat the spirits of her past and present.
Ikai pays homage to the psychological horror genre as you take control of a defenseless main character who is unable to attack. However, it explores a new sense of terror by forcing the player to confront the monstrous threats head-on rather than fight or flee. Any mechanic from Ikai is designed to evoke that understandable sense of helplessness and create an incredibly tense atmosphere throughout the player’s journey through various world mysteries.
with Ikai Since it was EndFlame’s first game as a terrified team of four, they wanted to take something out of the horror genre that…really no one has equaled before. With no spoilers (of course), the developers wanted to do something different and with that in mind, they opted for a defenseless main character. Pulling the protective seals as the main mechanic encourages this sense of helplessness with slow, precise, natural and focused movements.
“Every mechanic in the game is meant to evoke that understandable sense of helplessness and create a tense atmosphere,” says Laura Ripoll, producer and designer at Endflame. The slow, precise movements as a mode of interaction resemble real life to encourage immersion like nothing else. Inspired by games like Bloober Team layers of fearto movies like The glowthe main source of inspiration for the team was an anime called Inuyasha. “Inuyasha is the manga and anime series set in feudal Japan and a world filled with evil creatures from Japanese folklore that hunt the fragments of a sacred jewel that was secured by a priestess until it shattered into hundreds of fragments . From there we took the idea of world building and the role of a priestess as protector and responsible for restoring peace,” says Rippoll.
Be still, don’t disturb the evil… Or just run away, run away from everything if you can. Ikai
Ikai
PM Studios, Inc.
☆☆☆☆☆
3
★★★★★
$14.99
Ikai is a first-person psychological horror game inspired by Japanese folklore. Experience the horror at the hand of its formative yokais and delve into the superstitions of the past, powered by a unique story and exploration. Ikai embodies the spirit of the classic psychological horror genre with a defenseless protagonist unable to attack the evil creatures. However, it explores a new sense of terror by forcing the player to face the threats directly, neither fleeing nor attacking. Every mechanic in the game is designed to evoke that understandable sense of helplessness and create a tense atmosphere. The slow, precise and natural movements as a way of interacting are similar to those in real life to encourage immersion in the eerie world of Ikai. FEAR: Experience first-person horror at the hands of Japanese spirits, monsters, and yokais EXPLORATION: Wander around a feudal Shinto shrine and explore the story behind DRAWING: Focus on it, protective sigils over the strange sounds and draw events that happen around PUZZLES : Test your wits against the different puzzles that will try to stop you. STEALTH & RUN: Be silent, do not disturb the evil…or just run, above all, run away if you can…