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Today we’re going to talk about The Children of Clay, a very short horror adventure game that came out earlier this year.

You play an archaeologist studying a strange artifact. After a brief bit of text to set up the premise, you’re given control to start investigating.

You have a magnifying glass, a collection of reference books, and a few other tools. With only a bit of guidance, it does a good job of making you feel like a detective. To use the reference books, for example, you have to type in the key word you want to look up.

It also uses stop motion animation, which is interesting.

Now, when I say it’s very short, I mean it takes less then 15 minutes to complete. However, it packs an impressively creepy atmosphere into those 15 minutes. Without being a truly Lovecraftian game, it captured that sort of essence of investigating the unknown. I’d love to see what this developer could do with a full-length horror game.

The Children of Clay is short, free, and creepy. It’s the perfect game to check out this October.

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A few years ago, I picked up a bundle on itch.io that included a horror game called Immure.

Immure is a side-scrolling horror game about a man who finds himself trapped in a strange mansion. After seeing a glimpse of his past, his exploration takes him into another space entirely – an apartment building where a monster roams the halls.

You’ll find items you need to use to get past obstacles and unlock doors, notes that shed light on the events that happened before the game, and places to hide from the monsters. In addition to hiding, you can stop monsters temporarily by shooting them.

There’s another mechanic as well, a mysterious crystal that acts as your light but can also be used to reveal secrets.

What really stood out to me is that you can choose whether to save or destroy the monsters by making use of the information you learn about them, which reminds me a bit of the Spirit Hunter series. I enjoyed it there, and I liked seeing it here, as well.

Now, after playing for about an hour, I finished the apartment section and returned to the mansion, and that’s when I learned that what I actually got in the bundle was Immure Part 1.

Part 2 is only available on Steam, as DLC for the first part, but since Part 1 is free on Steam, I could download it and buy Part 2. However, it seems the remaining parts will probably never be developed, so even playing Part 2 will leave me with an incomplete experience. It’s a shame to see that it didn’t work out, especially since the game seems so promising!

I might still get Part 2 one of these days, but in the meantime, the first part of Immure is an enjoyable horror game worth taking a look at if you don’t mind knowing its mysteries may remain unresolved.

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Earlier this year, I learned about a short horror game called ZENO, so I decided to play it this October!

(I mistakenly thought it was an RPG because of the way it’s described, but it’s really more of a horror adventure game. It was just made with RPG Maker.)

Two young men wake up together in a mysterious facility, with no memory of who they are or how they got there. The door is locked and won’t open until they’ve been handcuffed to each other, after which point they leave and find files telling them who they are – and one of them is a genius psychiatrist while the other is a homicidal maniac.

They have to work together to get out by solving puzzles to unlock each new floor of the facility.

There are threats in the facility, as well, so from time to time you’ll be chased and need to run from screen to screen until you lose your pursuer.

While not excessively dark, the story deals with horror themes like murder and cannibalism. It has some interesting twists and quite a few endings. After I finished the game with the normal endings, I used a guide to get the true ending (although there are still several endings I didn’t seek out).

My one criticism of Zeno was going to be the English translation, since a lot of lines were awkward or used abbreviations (“sth” for “something” was a common one, but a character responding to a very serious revelation with “I C” made me laugh out loud), but after finishing it I learned that in the time since I downloaded it, a newly proofread version was made available. That’ll teach me not to download a game months ahead of time and not check the page again before playing it! I haven’t tried the proofread version, but it should be an improvement.

Anyway, ZENO is an enjoyable short horror game that I was already going to recommend playing despite the translation issues, so now I’m even more confident in my recommendation. It seems there are also some side games, so I may check those out sometime as well.

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We’ve got another free horror game to discuss today, this time an adventure game called Elevator Hitch.

It’s your first day of work, but when you get into the elevator with one of your new co-workers, it gets stuck before you can reach your destination.

What follows is a highly surreal and often unsettling horror experience.

It’s a point-and-click adventure game, although the controls are a little unusual, using a combination of keys and the mouse. (I also spent several minutes at the start trying to figure out how to move the camera up and down, since the instructions said to use the Fn key and I thought my keyboard didn’t have one. It turns out it does, but anyway, PgUp and PgDn also work.)

The first thing I discovered once I figured out the controls was that I could call for help with the elevator. They said help would arrive, and a countdown appeared. Curious, I let the countdown run out, at which point help arrived… and killed me. Game over within minutes of starting. I then clicked “New Game” and found myself already in the elevator, with the protagonist struggling to come to grips with the memory of dying.

That sets the tone for Elevator Hitch. There are numerous ways to die, each of which counts as a separate ending, but anything you’ve picked up or unlocked before your death stays with you when you start again.

Beyond that unique approach, the gameplay is standard enough for an adventure game. As you check each floor the elevator can reach, you’ll encounter puzzles to solve and obstacles to overcome. Little by little, you uncover more secrets of this definitely-100%-normal elevator and office building.

Elevator Hitch only takes about an hour to complete, but it’s a surreal and inventive horror game well worth experiencing.

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A few days ago, I saw an article about a newly-released free horror game called The Night is Long, so I decided to check it out.

The Night is Long begins with a fairly stylized opening cutscene in which a man suffering from grief sees a woman in the road and follows her into a strange mansion.

The rest has a more standard graphical style, and you play in the first-person as you explore the mansion.

Exploration has a somewhat linear approach, as most parts of the mansion are locked until you follow the path the game wants you to follow. This was most noticeable in the second that gives you a series of keys, most right ahead of reaching the door each unlocked. There are a handful of puzzles, however, and I did spend a little while wandering around trying to figure out what I’d missed.

There is a sanity system, although it only affects the number of supernatural incidents you encounter. While nothing stood out too much, it has some nicely atmospheric creepy moments and a couple of well-timed jumpscares.

It describes itself as having Lovecraftian inspirations, but it felt more like general supernatural horror to me. I enjoyed the story’s gradual development through discovered notes, even if the plot itself didn’t stand out much.

The Night is Long is a short horror game that takes under an hour to finish, and while it might not do too much to stand out from the genre, for a free game it’s an enjoyable enough addition to this year’s October lineup.

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Not to be confused with Corpse Party (although the name did throw me for a loop the first few times I saw it), Corpse Factory is a visual novel I’ve been curious about ever since it came out.

It recently had a good sale on the eShop, so I picked it up to play this October.

Corpse Factory is about a mysterious website where it’s claimed you can submit someone’s picture and phone number to request their death, and not only will they die, but they’ll also receive a photo of their corpse first.

That sets up what sounds like an eerie urban legend with the hint of something supernatural at work… but that’s not really the sort of game this is. After the prologue, which sets up the concept, the game switches to the viewpoint of Noriko, the woman running the site, and we learn she uses incredibly realistic photo manipulation to create the corpse photos in the hopes of shocking/scaring the target into suicide.

It’s clear pretty quickly that Noriko is… somewhat unbalanced. Her viewpoint, her visceral glee at the thought of indirectly causing people’s deaths, and her occasional breakdowns create an unsettling and often macabre atmosphere.

I also absolutely love the eerie song used for the intro.

Eventually, she realizes she’ll need help if she wants this to be as successful as possible, and so she forms a team with a couple other characters willing to assist her questionable operation.

For quite a while, Corpse Factory has an intense atmosphere due to following characters whose goals are so disturbing, with a persistent sense that things could come crumbling down at any moment.

Unfortunately, in the later parts of the story, it doesn’t hold up as well. Some plot points feel a bit too contrived, and some twists seem almost like they were added to solely be a twist, without enough care taken to make sure they fit with everything else.

Click for major Corpse Factory spoilersAoi being behind Corpse Girl’s successes just felt weird. It’s an interesting twist that Noriko was just delusional about her success even back then, but it takes something away from those early parts of the story. And if she and the Human Removal Service are basically just hitmen, how do they stay undetected for so long?

In general, the early parts have a sense of paranoia that Noriko will slip up and bring the police down on her head, but in later parts it seems like they can do just about anything without the police figuring it out. How did Junpei steal all the corpses from the morgue without it leading to a huge investigation? For that matter, once Noriko & co started leaving the corpses at the scenes, how did the police not determine the identity of any of those bodies and trace them back to the morgue?

Speaking of bodies not being tracked down, how did Kojiro drag his girlfriend’s body through the street back to his apartment with numerous witnesses seeing them, and yet no one ever investigated what happened to her body?

And speaking of Kojiro… I liked the epilogue twist that he was Nobel Sinclair, but making him the leader of HRS felt unnecessary and confusing. It doesn’t make sense that he was their leader during the main events of the game, so if this is a recent development, who was in charge before?

(Despite those criticisms, I liked Kojiro quite a bit… even if I felt the story started to fall apart a bit in the second act, I enjoyed getting his point of view.)

While I have some criticisms with how the later parts of the story turned out, I did enjoy the journey there. It’s worth playing for the early parts of the story and the characters, if nothing else. Three choices during the game determine which ending you get, although I was able to watch all the endings from the menu after I finished.

In short, Corpse Factory falls apart a bit in the latter half of the game, but it’s an eerie visual novel worth checking out nevertheless.

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I know, I know, I once again waited a year before continuing Higurashi.

As September neared its end, I suddenly remembered my intention of finishing Higurashi before playing Silent Hill f… so what better way to start out Celebrating All Things Spooky than with Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 7: Minagoroshi?

When we last left off, Higurashi had once again played mind games with me by giving me an explanation that sounded legitimate but was just a little too convenient. This time, it stopped playing games and actually started answering questions.

Chapter 7 is mostly split between the viewpoints of Keiichi and Rika, and since Rika has been one of the most mysterious characters for a while now, that clarified a lot.

Click for Higurashi Chapter 7 spoilersMy theory that Rika was either jumping timelines or resetting the timeline is essentially correct. After her death, she and Hanyuu are able to rewind time to try again, although they’re now restricted to only going back a few weeks.

This was, surprisingly, one of the most upbeat Higurashi chapters for a good portion of time. It still had heavy themes, but it was going in a much more positive direction. Of course, the existence of an eighth chapter stopped me from getting too optimistic about how things would work out.

What stands out to me the most is how it answers questions that I’ve had ever since I played Chapter 1, mysteries that have been lurking in the back of my mind ever since. Getting answers after all this time was such a good feeling.

Click for major Higurashi Chapter 7 spoilersTakano was one of the characters I’d been the most suspicious of, but I still wasn’t prepared for the reveal and just how ruthless and cold she is. I’m curious if the next chapter will expand more on her motivations, because her scenes were some of the most interesting (in a twisted sort of way).

(The irony is that earlier in this chapter, I’d been thinking, “Maybe Takano actually is a good person, just with morbid interests.” Okay, well, maybe not.)

I’m also fascinated by the fact that Higurashi has routinely thrown out various possibilities–is it supernatural? is it all just paranoia? is it a big government coverup?–and the answer appears to be “yes.” Rika’s foresight and Hanyuu’s presence have supernatural explanations, Hinamizawa Syndrome induces hallucinations and intense paranoia, and the people studying the illness have a secret military force that erases all evidence when things go bad.

All the time I was playing the earlier chapters, I was torn because picking any single explanation didn’t feel like a good enough answer, so it’s interesting that it’s actually a mix.

I don’t know how well the explanations in this chapter are generally received, but personally, I enjoyed it quite a bit. This was one of the craziest chapters to read, and I loved it.

The ending was so intense and exciting that I couldn’t stop playing it. I had to find out what was going to happen this time. And now that I’ve finished Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 7: Minagoroshi, I can’t wait to get into Chapter 8.

Seriously. No long wait this time. It’ll be soon, because I need to see the resolution.

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October is here, and I’ll be honest, I was tempted not to do Celebrating All Things Spooky this year, considering how backed up my backlog has become even by my standards!

But with some good horror games looming over me, I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Just be aware that I might not be able to stick to my usual pace of reviews (although I’ll still try). So let’s get started with Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025!

Contest

As usual, there will be a contest! Be sure to pay attention to the rules, as some details have changed.

Prizes:

Alan Wake (gift sent through Steam)Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (gift sent through Steam)Not It: Spookiest Edition (gift sent through Steam)Silent Hill 4: The Room (gift sent through GOG)Dead Age (Steam code)Lakeview Cabin Collection (Steam code)eBook copy of The Book at DerniereBook copy of It Came Back$15 sent through PayPalYou pick a game for me to review!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in November.

Rules:

No purchase is necessary.Only comments made between October 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM EDT and October 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM EDT will be counted.1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Spooky blog post, including replies to other comments or posts from previous years = 1 point.You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.You must earn at least 5 points to qualify for a prize.The top 3 qualifying point earners will win prizes.The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.The winner will be contacted by November 2, 2025.Sale

Meanwhile, you’ve got some sales to watch out for again! For the rest of this week and up through the weekend, my zombie comedy novella The Zombie Mishap is available on Amazon for just $0.99!

Looking for something a bit scarier? As we get closer to Halloween, watch for similar sales on my horror novellas The Book at Dernier and It Came Back!

When it comes to the visual novels I’ve worked on, the lighthearted supernatural otome game The Last Act is currently on sale on Steam! Meanwhile, I don’t know if the horror visual novel Not It will get a sale closer to Halloween or not, but I’ll keep an eye out.

Conclusion

For the rest of the month, I’ll highlight horror games and other spooky games (and sometimes other media) as often as possible, giving this blog a spooky feel in honor of Halloween. I’ll try to cover a variety of game types and styles, so stay tuned.

The scariest thing facing me is my backlog, but don’t worry about that. Let’s get Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025 started!

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For me, the best announcement from TGS was Yakuza Kiwami 3 and its unexpected companion game Dark Ties, starring Yoshitaka Mine.

A few more details have surfaced since then, mostly through a Famitsu interview with director Ryosuke Horii.

(I’m relying on Google Translate here, just so you know.)

They’d originally intended to make Mine’s story something that could be watched as a video (maybe it as originally planned to be new cutscenes added to Kiwami 3, like the added Nishiki scenes in the first Kiwami?), but then they decided it would be better if he was playable. It seems this decision was at least partly made because of how popular Mine is.

When they announced Dark Ties, they described Mine as having an antihero approach in his substories, and Horii touches on that in the interview, saying that Mine doesn’t approach substories with the “defeating evil and protecting the weak” attitude that the other games’ protagonists have.

Overall, it sounds like they intend Dark Ties to be a darker story, which sounds pretty interesting.

The interview also describes the nature of Kiwami 3 as a remake, and how they felt if they kept it too close to the original Yakuza 3, it would feel boring/pointless since Yakuza 3’s remaster is readily available. Therefore, they approached it differently than the previous Kiwami games and treated it like a new work, and they don’t intend for it to replace Yakuza 3.

Another interview emphasized that as well, with Kiwami 3 involving bigger changes than Kiwami and Kiwami 2 had. Sadly, it also confirms the removal of the Revelation system.

(I’ve been hoping Revelations would come back to the series and appear in newer games, so I’m especially disappointed that they won’t even be in Kiwami 3.)

Moving on from the interviews, there’s also one big piece of information that has surfaced from TGS – the length of Dark Ties. Since it’s packaged with Kiwami 3, I thought it might be significantly shorter than the previous Gaiden games. I was hoping it would at least be the length of the Kaito Files, not as short as Kiwami 2’s Majima Saga. However, some previews mentioned being told it will be similar in length to Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

If it really ends up being that long, that’s incredible. I’m really looking forward to it.

What are your thoughts on the latest details about Dark Ties? How do you feel about their approach to Kiwami 3 as a remake?

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Professor Layton and the New World of Steam got a new trailer at TGS… and also a delay announcement.

It’s not a huge surprise; getting this late into 2025 without a release date made it seem pretty likely it was no longer set for this year.

On the other hand, I still remember being disappointed that it probably wouldn’t be out in 2023, and since then its 2024 release window has been pushed to 2025 and now 2026.

(Let’s just hope this isn’t a repeat of the Inazuma Eleven situation, with its constant delays.)

All right, with the delay news out of the way, let’s take a look at the new trailer.

The trailer doesn’t have subtitles yet, although the description says they will be added later.

As it is, we get some great new shots of Layton and Luke, and we also get to see some gameplay. It’s a short segment, but it looks very Layton – visiting a location from the map, tapping a character to get a puzzle, etc. Unfortunately, there isn’t much new shown.

The music choice is also… unique, and I cracked up listening to it. A Professor Layton rap was not on my bingo card.

There also was a playable TGS demo, and some players have uploaded videos, such as this one:

For me, the demo footage was great to see, because it really feels like Layton. There were some concerns when it was first announced, but it doesn’t look like they’ve made any drastic changes to the gameplay we know and love.

I’m looking forward to Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, although I can’t help but worry about it with all these delays. Still, Fantasy Life i saw numerous delays as well and came out to great reviews (I haven’t played it yet), so maybe the same will happen here.

What do you think of the latest New World of Steam videos?

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