Review: World of Horror Awakens the 80s Retro Vibes

The Old Gods are awakening. As they rise from their long slumber, they bring with them otherworldly horrors that rattle a seaside Japanese town as it slowly descends into madness. People begin to mysteriously disappear, villagers don strange masks and perform occult-like rituals, blood flows from shower heads, and flashes of horrifying faces appear in mirrors. As these strange phenomenons begin to tear apart reality and the sanity of the townspeople, the player must investigate multiple mysteries in World of Horror in order to either save the town or doom it to its horrific fate.

Screenshot by Siliconera

World of Horror, by Panstasz and published by Ysbyrd Games, has been in early access since February 2020, which was rather apt time for a game about world-altering horrors to come out. As a part of a friend’s pandemic birthday celebration, he asked my best friend and I if we wanted to watch him play over Discord and, despite us not knowing much about the game, we both said yes. I was instantly mesmerized by the retro vibes of World of Horror. The 1-bit graphics, hand-drawn artwork, creepy Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft-inspired story, and art direction called out to me in a way very few games do. It felt like the magic of discovering something as interesting as Homestuck, Undertale, and Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love” all at the same time. I swore that I would play this game once it was out of early access, but I didn’t realize it would take another three years before it would finally be released fully on PC and consoles. Now that I’ve had the chance to play through World of Horror, I can easily say that I’ve loved every moment of it, even with its flaws.

The gameplay of World of Horror is straightforward yet full of nuance as players advance through the story. Players can choose between five characters to play as in order to explore five randomly selected mysteries per playthrough. Each mystery has a set amount of endings, and those different endings influence the overall outcome of your playthrough. In order to undercover each mystery, you have to explore various locations and investigate them. Sometimes while investigating, random instances can happen that lower or raise your character’s Stamina and Reason depending on if you pass certain skill checks. Stamina is your character’s health points, and Reason is your character’s ability to perceive reality and cope with the horrifying events going on around them. Once you lose all Stamina, your playthrough will end, and in most cases if your Reason drops down to zero, the player character will be sent to an asylum for a mental break. Other skill checks may allow you to find clues to solve the mystery, gain experience points, avoid being harmed by a random enemy, or find items that will help you on your quest. These actions may appear as strange woman with no eyes bumping into you, or even something as mundane as finding a piece of paper on the ground. Most actions taken will increase the Doom counter in the game, which alters the state of the world as the player advances the story until the Old Gods awaken and you get an instant game over.

Screenshot by Siliconera

While much of the game is random and solving some mysteries may not happen in initial playthroughs, as you play you maintain certain bits of information and skills that carry over into future playthroughs similar to some roguelikes out there. The more endings you uncover and the more clues you obtain, the more likely it is for you to solve the various mysteries in the game and obtain better endings or clear the game before getting a game over. There are also combat segments that allow the player to face off grotesquely infested schoolgirls, creepy clown stalkers, and other mutilated creatures. The player gets a certain amount of actions per turn, and depending on the cost of an action for a certain weapon or attack, you can get more or less attacks in a turn. Players can also cast spells to increase their stats, attack enemies with stronger attacks at the cost of their Doom counter going up, and beyond. When the player levels up in World of Horror, they can also earn perks that assist with increasing EXP, stamina, and other stats. Conversely, there are curses that can befall the player and slowly decrease their Reason or cause damage to the player over time among other functions. 

World of Horror doesn’t immediately make you aware of how to play it properly. It is clear Panstasz clearly wants the player to experiment and engage with the game’s systems and learn the best way to approach playing it with hands-on experience. After all, the game is meant to be played repeatedly throughout multiple playthroughs, and each playthrough can run between thirty minutes or two hour depending on your familiarity with the game or how far you delve into a mystery. Also not all segments of the game will play out with the same sort of style. At one point I was no longer exploring the streets of Shiokawa but instead was attending a strange festival where people seemed to be disappearing. I had to navigate the festival and areas surrounding it to uncover a cult’s plans to sacrifice people to the Old Gods. It felt like a beach episode from some sort of anime but instead of a fun beach day with friends, it was a creepy forest and a bunch of occultists staring from the distance at my chosen character, Aiko, as she looked for her friends. 

Screenshot by Siliconera

As somebody not generally affected by horror, I can’t say I found anything in this game overly frightening, but the more gory aspects of the game could definitely creep people out who are sensitive to that kind of imagery. The good thing about the World of Horror is that it doesn’t try to scare the player with random jump scares or overly grotesque visuals. There are odd, off-putting visuals that pop in briefly, but they never felt like they were trying to outright make me jump out of my chair. It utilizes more subtle yet bizarre visuals to instill a sense of horror to the player. For any H.P. Lovecraft, Junji Ito, or Koji Suzuki fan, you can really see the inspirations in the long limbed characters climbing out of vents, people with spiral-shaped lacerations on their face, and floating tentacle creatures in the sky. 

While I love the 80s aesthetics of this game, there were times where some information seemed a bit indecipherable on screen at times. There are so many buttons and things to look at. It all starts to blend together and if you aren’t really paying attention, you can lose track of your mouse or just feel overwhelmed by everything that is on screen. It is made worse in the 2-bit mode which feels like it adds too much unnecessary visual information for the player to process, although the added colors do add to the ambiance of the game. 

Screenshot by Siliconera

The chiptune music paired with the visuals of World of Horror is where everything seems to come together perfectly. The haunting loop of synthesized music that harkens back to the more mysterious ambient music found in games from the 80s and 90s enhances the experience. As story events start to become tense, the music will shift and become more unsettling. 

While the horror in World of Horror wasn’t frightening to me, I really loved the vibes of this game. Everything from the visuals to the story to the music all come together to create this wonderfully crafted tale that intrigues you and makes you want to keep learning more about this doomed seaside town and the bizarre people who live in it. It is astounding that Panstasz hand drew the art of this game in MS Paint and made this game all on his own because it accomplishes so much through its simplistic design and presentation. World of Horror is absolutely an instant cult classic, making it perfect for people who love adventure games or have an appreciation for grotesque, Eldritch horrors.

World of Horror is available on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC.