Pages of encyclopedia type information on different monsters are spread throughout the game, but the only time you are confronted with these creatures are jump scares, so you barely get to experience the folklore itself. I was excited about Ikai because of its focus on Japanese folklore, but the game does more telling than showing. And despite not liking horror, I am a big fan of folklore. I say this to prove that my adversity to horror games is not why I don’t like Ikai. While horror games are not really my thing (I always think I’m going to like it, and then the first scary thing happens and I’m out), my husband, Neal, has reviewed dozens over the years.

A plot twist at the end reveals why these creatures are attacking you and what you must do to stop them. The rest of the game is spent solving puzzles and writing seals to destroy the evil creatures. There are now monsters as they have somehow awoken. Upon awaking, you realize that something has gone terribly wrong. Upon picking up the knife, you accidentally cut yourself and pass out. However, while traveling outside of the village walls to the nearby river, you stumble upon a knife and a bowl.

You are cleaning the shrine and doing laundry before nightfall. You play as Naoko, a young girl who is left alone in a village as her uncle travels to another nearby village.

Ikai is a first-person horror game centered around Japanese folklore. When games like The Mortuary Assistant, Cursed to Golf, and I’m On Observation Duty 5 start appearing on the GiN front page, then you know that it’s getting close to that spooky time of year. You can probably tell that it’s almost October.

Does gone home have jumpscares