Yuppie Psycho, a brain hacking horror game with manga style Junji Ito

It is a pity that legendary horror manga author Junji Ito has never been involved in video game development. With Silent Hills being canceled, many people thought they would never get the chance to play a game with a bizarre horror style like this author’s manga. But with Yuppie Psycho, the “survival horror game” just released on Steam, this is probably the game closest to the atmosphere of Silent Hills.

Developed by Baroque Decay, the game has many influences from the works of Ito: You play as Brian Pasternack, a ‘minor’ employee who has just been accepted into a prestigious company. This rather boring setting is one of the best ideas in modern horror games.

WORK AND LIFE BALANCE

Brian’s first day on the job soon brings the character into the spooky world. Instead of slowly getting lost in the dark, Yuppie Psycho adds a twist that forces you to take control of the story and fight for yourself and those around you.

The character’s new job doesn’t require you to do paperwork or sit in a bored office. Instead, Brian must find and kill the witch who has infiltrated the company and is slowly taking control of everything. The plot is revealed at the beginning of the game and is the main theme throughout the game’s journey. Brian is just an ordinary character, neither strong nor talented – but that’s what makes this adventure so terrifying.

Witch hunting requires you to find useful items, solve mini puzzles and chat with characters. The game has a few other survival horror elements, like sneaking past colleagues who have been turned into monsters. Everything had to be done in secret so as not to reveal himself to the witch or any of his minions – mixing with ordinary colleagues.

While searching for secrets, you still have to function as usual. Players will brew coffee to heal, search the archives for correspondence, and make friends with other colleagues. You do it while having to go in and out of a horror and spooky office; Some early game areas are completely covered in darkness or a deadly blue fog. Bloody lines are hidden in drawers, and some of your associates are trapped in boardrooms, trying to find a way out. We don’t know who locked them up.

At first, you’d think Yuppie Psycho is a simple pixel game – it’s hardly an effective scare. But not true, you will be chased in a dark corridor by a strange humanoid beast. You are hunted in a dimly lit library by a monster that lays mines with its eyes. You will be devoured by the giant mouth – which is worshiped by colleagues in only their underwear.

The photo above is in Ito style. The giant mouth on the wall with red lipstick is really scary. In the game, colleagues not only accept it, but also worship this monster. Meanwhile, many people in uniform were sitting on the chair next to it, lamenting that they had not yet been swallowed by the mouth. The conversations were so casual, as if they were holding a company performance report. This horrifying reality is all too common for every character in the game, except Brian, to show Ito’s eerie atmosphere.

Yuppie Psycho is filled with many of these moments, bringing unexpected horror into the game. However, the game has a small point that can make the game beat slow down.

In some encounters, like meeting monsters in the hallway or giant mouths, they can kill you instantly. Dying will bring you back to the save game you saved yourself before – the game has no checkpoints. You cannot save the game unless using two limited resources at the save points, forcing the player to consider when to save the game and where to save. This can be annoying, but the save game process is fun: You copy your soul onto a piece of magic paper.

In addition to the above inadequacies, it is almost impossible for you to stop playing to discover what surprises Yuppie Psycho will bring, or if there will be any twists like in the horror story of the famous author Ito.