Knowing more

This game developed by Endflame offers us a first-person psychologic terror based on Japanese culture, here we are going to run away from the yokais with our main character, Naoko, since we can’t fight them, I mean, we don’t have weapons and have to play running and using stealth mode for hiding.

The history starts with our character in a little Shinto shire where she lives, where we find her sister as a child and play with her, and later we will find her again, but I’ll let you explore without spoiler, after that, we have to leave this place and go towards a river to wash clothes, in this way the hell on Earth will begin, suddenly everything becomes heavy and frightening, where we have to defeat 4 different yokais from the past with really interest mechanics.

Seeing from another perspective, the gameplay isn’t long, around 3 hours if you understand the mechanics, and handle well the various puzzles offered by Ikai, but even in this short time the jumpscare and tense atmosphere that comes with the history in case you play with your friends is guaranteed or even a certain relief that it all passed.

Offers more than a simple narrative

Besides, of course, the main history, Endflame was worried to show us different and exploitable things during this gameplay. The most outstanding one for sure is the information about these yokais, showing a little about the Japanese culture as notorious and present, in some collectible items spread in random places.

But what also caught my attention is the mechanism of having to draw during this game to be able to progress, yes, that’s it, to defeat the enemies we have to draw symbols to seal up them. Different, right? Still talking about the Japanese culture, I can’t forget to mention the environment, very well build and familiar with the tradition of the oriental country, with houses stereotyped, made of wooden, old, with those doors that open from both sides on all the rooms, tables on the floor and such, all in the sanctuary is well build and characterized!

With all of this, Ikai doesn’t fail to offer the thing that all terror games offer, the puzzles. These are going to drive you mad, because here you’ll have to discover the logic behind everything in well-done challenges, either with tips in the environment or inside the challenge, anyway, you have to rack your brain and pay attention to the details. It’s all in front of you!

Some technical details that fail in parts

Changing the subject to a more formal one yet really important during the game, Ikai gives us an excellent sound, something really important to contribute to the player’s psychological terror, with jumpscares and tension songs well-placed, but, one negative detail caught my attention, besides the voiceover and subtitles are not available in Portuguese (just Japanese and English are available), our character dubbing is crude and doesn’t have emotion to it, sounds like “Oh my God, I’m scared” in some reading in the middle of the library, without any emotions at all.

About the art, unfortunately, it doesn’t explore the potential of the PS5 as a whole (that’s where I’d played), isn’t ugly, on the contrary, if you consider the environment, but, the animation when we defeat the yokais and some other details give a not so well-done experience and open to criticism. That is because it seems like the developer prefer to prioritize other game spaces and didn’t care about this, something that is important in my opinion to contribute to the whole, imagine you defeat a yokai that tormented you for so long and not be granted with a beautiful art stating their death.

Continuing on the more formal part, regarding the controls, they are simple with a few commands, since it does have fights, your main concern will be to run, squat to stay in the stealth mode, and draw the fast as you can (this may look like it’s complicated, but don’t worry, you don’t have to do a work of art or at least something like an objectified design).

In the end, it’s worth it

Although it’s not a work of art because of the issues we talked about, Ikai offers us different gameplay, without fights, with interesting puzzles, a well-built history with a direct and participative line. And there are jumpscares and tense moments well-placed, of course, this is an obligation of this gender, but between all the terror games.

I’ve played I’d had a lot of fun playing this one, the mechanics were surprising with a history that is not tiring, because of the interesting narrative line and because it’s a short game. My tip is always to search, explore and interact with everything, all the doors and wholes, this can surprise you in a good way.
   

Ikai is available for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC.

We thank PM Studios and Endflames that provide us with an access key and made it possible to create this content.