Best JRPG Psychological Horror Games on PC

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

I knew going into YIIK that it was a bad game. I’d heard all about how the developers were serial plagiarists who stooped to the level of stealing a song from Shadow of the Colossus for their previous game, Two Brothers. I’d heard about how they plagiarized Haruki Murakami and a random educational website in this game, and then put up an incredibly bitter bibliography that they hid in the corner of the “Press Start” screen. I’d heard that it was badly written and that the gameplay sucked. Then, I decided to do a screenshot Let’s Play of it.

– Real player with 30.6 hrs in game

Read More: Best JRPG Turn-Based Strategy Games.

GENUINE CONTENT WARNING - SUICIDE AND DEATH

JOKE CONTENT WARNING - YiiK

“Sarcasm and jokes were often the bottle in which clinical depressives sent out their most plangent screams for someone to care and help them.” ― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

Where do I start?

I played this game, on stream (https://www.twitch.tv/gabrieldavinci ) on the recommendation of someone who I thought was my friend, until I actually decided to play the game. I don’t know why he would want to hurt me like that, it just doesn’t make sense. Why, Dan? Why would you make me suffer through this, DAN? There is a man in a room with a gun, but that’s a story for another day. ANYWAY. Yes, I played this game, in its entirety, on stream, which is frankly the only reason why I am able to say that I finished this game. Let’s get down to it, shall we? Anyone who has played this game is probably already having flashbacks to all of the unnecessary monologues they had to endure, without reading this stupid fucking preamble to a review that will say nothing you haven’t read or heard before, couched in more articulate terms. But let this be a warning to anyone who might still interested in buying, or playing the game. The whole game reads like this preamble. You have been warned. Now, let’s actually get into it.

– Real player with 29.9 hrs in game

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG on Steam

Savior of the Abyss

TL;DR - Cute anime girl runaround the research facility to survive the nightmare and creature.

If you have spare money and time to kill then not a bad choice to try it.

Translation a bit off right now so it make story hard to understanding.

Overall the game itself not that bad pretty straight forward with multiple ending. The puzzle isn’t hard but the hint is make the player confused sometime. Horror in this game combine with sound is quite good.

– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game

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”A Nod to Lovecraft Horror Experience and Question of Morality”

Savior of the Abyss (SotA) is indie horror adventure game developed by small Korean team. You play as a young girl named Stella; suddenly wake up in some kind of underground facility which is now full of corpses and bloody massacre. Guiding Stella to escape the nightmare and avoid unknown threats is the ultimate goal of this game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2587958912

As you progress through the level and learning story from notes and events. SotA heavily takes inspiration from Lovecraftian / eldritch horror represented in RPG maker style and anime character sprite. The mixture between Lovecraft element, paranormal, and splatterpunk horror is well executed that sometimes catch me off guard or punish your curiosity. It’s an unforgiving experience, but intriguing by its settings, lore, and ethical that shift between horror and thriller with multiple endings.

– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game

Savior of the Abyss on Steam

Legend of Moros

A lot beneath the surface

So first and foremost, I do know the dev personally, and I played this game previously from Itch.io. If you wanna call me biased that’s fine, but just wanna be open with ya on it.

I see a lot of posts here about the graphics, and to be quite frank that is the worst part. Locations look NES era FF to me a lot of the time, characters fair better, and monsters can be hit or miss, but some of the designs are pretty original and remind me of things out of Earthbound. Everyone’s first impressions are going to be from the screenshots here, but personally I found a lot of enjoyment to thisgame and wouldn’t judge a book by its cover alone.

– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game

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This is a competently written yet fun old fashionedish JRPG style game. It has plenty of oddball humor and craziness as you attempt to find Justice and learn what has happened. The fighting mechanics and abilities are inventive and keep the game from becoming just a slog of a typical RPG grind. Unless you play in hard mode. Hard mode is… a grindfest extraordinaire. I would suggest sticking with Normal or Easy, as it has no bearing on the story.

Instead of typical enemies found in these style of games they are uniquely designed and use non stock art, which is a relief from so many RPGmaker games simply using base assets. Because the enemies aren’t your typical RPG fare, you have to experiment as the usual kill x by using x doesn’t apply, leading to less boring fights as you learn the game. The stamina system is a nice system as well, I’ve not seen it used this way in very many games.

– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game

Legend of Moros on Steam

Ann

My man RongRong, I was already a fan of your animations since the Payday 2 one, long ago.

When I heard you made a game, let alone a 2D horror, holy crap I came running.

I loved what you did here. Even if i didn’t know you beforehand, i’d have appreciated the effort you put on everything. The animated cutscenes, the art, everything.

The undertale-like music at the end too haha.

The only things I didn’t exactly like was, first, the escape moments. I think they were too harsh at some point, took me two days to finish the game because i was tired after so many constant restarts.

– Real player with 16.0 hrs in game

I see, where the inspiration comes from, and this game is a good attempt towards that direction.

So, this is a horror RPG on paper, but it’s very light for that. (Also a short one, compared to others.) It has some chase scenes and a few jumpscares, but it doesn’t have the (dark) atmosphere to call it horror. (The music is sometimes interesting for a horror game.)

It’s an escape story, so don’t expect a deep story or lore now! But it’s probably an early attempt, so it’s okay. That is also the reason, why the goal of the story doesn’t feel strong or deep.

– Real player with 4.4 hrs in game

Ann on Steam

Echoed Memories

It’s a great game with lovable characters and a fun, yet very emotional story. There are many accessability options to keep the game available to a wide audience. There is a also a difficulty setting for hard, normal, and casual - with casual making the game VERY easy if you are only interested in story and don’t really want to fight a lot of difficult battles.

Overall, Echo607 has knocked another great game out of the park, and I highly recommend this game for any RPG Lovers. Don’t expect another Final Fantasy clone. It’s so much deeper than that. Also flirting, lots and lots of flirting.

– Real player with 80.5 hrs in game

It was a joy to play through this adventure. It was such a satisfying conclusion to an adventure that was years in the making. Especially for someone who has been following the development of both games for years. Congratulations Echo for completing the story you wanted to tell!

– Real player with 62.9 hrs in game

Echoed Memories on Steam

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning is what happens when you put a visual novel, dungeon crawler, RPG mechanics, survival elements, and base building into one unique experience. After spending all this time on this game I can safely give this a recommend, however due to the unique nature of the game it won’t appeal to everyone.

The gameplay, especially combat, is one of the things that definitely will not appeal to everyone. Combat is in real time and relatively simplistic, which can make the gameplay segments of the game feel like a slog or just filler between bits of interesting story. Further into the game gives more variety to combat but for the most part you’ll be using melee attacks and charged attacks to break parts off of enemies while dodging attacks. For me, I was initially turned off by the combat but I did eventually get used to it and enjoyed it but I would highly suggest watching gameplay of the combat or (if you have a PS4) playing the demo. There are five difficulty levels in the game (I - III available initially, then IV - V are unlocked later) that scale the difficulty of combat and the survival elements of the game. Difficulty I gets rid of all enemies in dungeons and lets you one shot bosses while Difficulty V will provide a significant boost to the amount of enemies and their stats in the dungeons while providing better loot so the game does provides the option to just enjoy the story or give yourself a challenge.

– Real player with 109.9 hrs in game

Wow. Just… Wow.

I have a lot to say about this game, and 98% of it is amazing praise. Let’s jump right into it.

Let’s start with the story!

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning draws you into the story shockingly fast. From meeting your fellow party members and learning the truth behind the strange, metallic X-Keys on your stomachs, to discovering each heart-wrenching plot twist and back story, you won’t want to take a break, except to process and maybe cry a bit, something I possibly… maybe… DEFINITELY had to do. I can’t think of a single moment where the story lulled behind, and the second half of the game finds more ways to invest your attention.

– Real player with 60.9 hrs in game

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning on Steam

DISHARMONY

Set in a world inspired by music, DISHARMONY takes you through an adventure filled with smiles, tears, and maybe a few scares along the way. Expect to see various towns and cities, quirky characters, mind-bending puzzles, and plenty of cats.

DISHARMONY allows the player to explore the dreams of some of the game’s characters. Can you help them overcome their nightmares…?

Going through these optional sequences will teach you more about the characters and their personalities, as well as allow you to uncover the deeper secrets hidden in the game’s world.

The game’s battle system is a mix of classic turn-based combat borrowed from old JRPGs and gameplay typically found in rhythm games. Defeat your enemies with the power of music!

DISHARMONY may be a fairly serious game at times, but it also has a lot of goofy and lighthearted humour. Did someone say “puns”…?

No…?

Oh.

Well, there’s loads of them.

The game features an aesthetic inspired by classic games from the 80s/90s, as well as segments featuring hand-drawn art, frame-by-frame animation, and claymation. There are loads of secrets and easter eggs to find, as well as references to various bands and musical artists. The game also features an original soundtrack!

The game’s world features elements of both fantasy and science fiction.

WARNING:

This game features flashing imagery that may cause discomfort or trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.

It also features dark and potentially disturbing imagery.

DISHARMONY on Steam

I Have Low Stats But My Class Is “Leader”, So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord

A simple, lighthearted tongue-in-cheek adventure that, though repetitive in terms of gameplay, was a generally fun experience for me. I don’t regret helping to fund this game on Kickstarter.

– Real player with 21.2 hrs in game

This is another in the weird and insane lineup of games that Cannibal Interactive have put out. The gameplay is intentionally overly complicated and intended to be an experience rather then fun, and in that it certainly succeeds. With no grinding, no leveling, a SMB3 map system, and no real major item management you are left with two things: story and combat.

The story and writing in the game is a real strong suit. With fully fleshed out characters that if you can remember and tell apart, have actual meaningful relationships with one another. The game introduces all the characters right from the start so trying to juggle 99+ characters is a mindfuck, but worth it if you put the effort in.

– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game

I Have Low Stats But My Class Is Leader, So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord on Steam

Emi & The Super Boba