Junji Ito-inspired roguelike unlocks new fears for Halloween
Today marks a terrifying event for horror genre fans around the world: WORLD OF HORROR, the unsettling cosmic horror retro RPG from developer Panstasz and publisher Ysbryd Games, is now available for desktops worldwide.
With a 1-bit aesthetic inspired by 90s Macintosh graphics and drawn entirely in Microsoft Paint, this game takes players to the eerie and heart-pounding world of the seaside town of Shiokawa, where unimaginable horrors lurk beyond the veil of serenity.
From 14 playable and unlockable characters to 20 procedurally generated mysteries, the game offers endless replayability and gives players the chance to create custom cases from a plethora of modding tools. Players must make strategic decisions to survive, weighing each character’s stats and perspectives to their advantage, and make decisions in turn-based combat, using both improvised and bought weapons.
Inspired by the works of horror greats like Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft, the game is unlike anything gamers have seen before.
POLYGON notes the game, “captures the feeling of playing an RPG Maker game from 1999” while PCGAMER states that ‘WORLD OF HORROR blends genre classics with curious Japanese weirdness”.
“Reaching the end of development on WORLD OF HORROR has become a massive achievement years in the making, and a journey I do not regret for even a second,” said Pawel Kozminski, founder of Panstasz.
WORLD OF HORROR is now available on PC, macOS, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4|5 (via backwards compatibility) for $19.99. Those in Japan can also join in the horror today, while those in North America and Europe can purchase the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4|5 (via backwards compatibility) versions when they launch Thursday, Oct. 26. The game offers language support for English, German, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.
So, if you’re a horror enthusiast who wants to solve grisly mysteries and battle cosmic horrors, look no further than WORLD OF HORROR. Visit the official website to learn more.