It doesn’t always take a big budget, hack-and-slash, jump scare-filled games to make something truly terrifying. Sometimes, a game is set out to mess with the player’s head, question both their motives and that of the player, and make them think about some truly unsettling things.
These psychological horror games sometimes even masquerade as cute little things until some context starts coming in. It’s a perfect medium to explore and showcase various mental illnesses, abuse, neglect, and other themes deemed too mature or dark by the rest of the gaming community and is sure to leave players thinking about them well into the night.
10 Ao Oni Has The Protagonist Locked In A Mansion With A Blue Demon
Ao Oni is a terrifying survival horror game where the protagonist is locked in a mansion trying to escape a strange blue demon. He has to try and save his friends before the demon gets to them which is sometimes easier said than done.
There are multiple Onis throughout the game too, each one trying to kill the player and their friends. If the Oni manages to get one of Hiroshi’s friends, they too become an Oni and join in on the danger. The worst part about it is that after the player has seen the main blue demon once, they can show up again at random, issuing a shrieking chord as they follow them. It really messes with the player’s head as they try to figure out the puzzles and get everyone out safely for sure.
9 Dreaming Mary Never Wants To Wake Up
Dreaming Mary is a game with a dark theme of abuse hidden behind a cotton candy exterior. Mary loves to dream and sleeps away all of her days while avoiding her abusive father, and one day she ends up trapped in a dreamscape. Depending on the choices the player makes and the tasks they choose to complete depends on if Mary ever manages to break free of both her dream and her abusive situation.
It takes a while for the reveal to happen, making it horrifying when the player realizes both what’s going on and what mistakes they’ve made along the way.
8 Ib Is Alone In An Art Gallery
Ib takes place in the mind of a young girl who was taken to an art gallery with her parents and ends up ensnared in a painting. She then has to explore the cursed museum and try to escape with her new friends who are also trapped within the fabricated world of the paintings.
However, one of her new friends is really a painting themselves and is trying to entrap real people and sacrifice them in order to become human, enter the real world, and try to make all sorts of friends. It brings to mind many themes of neglect while hiding under the guise of a game.
7 Mad Father Has Players Questioning Who’s Worth Saving
Mad Father follows a young girl who wants to honor her mother’s passing, only to find out that her father is a deranged lunatic who is obsessed with keeping things beautiful— to the point he will kill them and turn them into dolls.
At first Aya is startled by all of the dolls suddenly appearing around her house, but as little hints get dropped throughout the game, it is revealed that she too has some of the same mental issues as her father, making for all endings to become more unsettling the more they’re thought about.
6 Omori Can Be Either A Pleasant Dream Or A Nightmare
Omori takes place inside of the dream world of Sunny, a young boy who has become a massive recluse after the death of his older sister. His friends have all scattered and changed, but inside his dreams, they’re the same as he remembers.
Depending on the choices the player makes throughout the game determine whether or not Sunny’s dream alter-ego Omori manages to overpower him or not, and whether or not Sunny is able to move past his own mistakes. There are serious themes of depression, anxiety, suicide, and trauma in this one but it can be hard to notice with its extremely slow reveal.
5 Paranormal Syndrome Investigates The Cause Of Strange Happenings
Paranormal Syndrome follows a girl who suddenly had a bunch of paranormal events happens around her after she ends up accidentally summoning a malicious spirit due to her unknown heritage as an exorcist.
She ends up teaming up with some paranormal investigators, gaining some awesome abilities, and figuring out the real cause of the events and who was really at fault. It’s creepy and really messes with the player’s head, having them question themselves at every turn.
4 Wadanohara And The Great Blue Sea Has A Mega Fanbase For A Reason
If there was ever a game that blended a cute exterior to some of the freakiest horror out there, it would be Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea. It starts out pretending to be a fun little fantasy RPG, but then flips it on its head with themes of violence, assault, and body horror enough to really freak out anyone who was underprepared for it.
Wadanohara is initially tasked with fixing a barrier to prevent an invasion from a neighboring state. Every time she fixes an orb, however, she mentions that something doesn’t feel right, but then is distracted by the banquet the city throws her. The most interesting part is this game is banking on the player replaying enough to watch most of the endings before the true ending is revealed.
3 The Witch’s House Blends A Lot Of Different Types Of Horror Into One
The Witch’s House looks like a typical game using the RPG Maker engine, but it quickly proves it to be much more than that. A girl wakes up in a forest with all roads out blocked by roses, forcing her and a strange black cat to try and survive a witch’s house in order to escape.
Throughout the game, the player is forced to make some cruel decisions in order to progress, read over some disturbing diary entries, and reach one of four endings based on their choices.
2 The White Chamber Was Originally A School Project
The White Chamber is a point-and-click horror game that forces the player to really consider the consequences of their choices. It’s interesting as it started out as a school project, blooming into a full-scale game later.
Within the game, the player takes control over a girl trying to escape a room in the third person, really showing that she isn’t much in control of herself and driving home just what a player does to the character as the game progresses.
1 Your Turn To Die Hits Players In The Face With Constant Failures Ending In Deaths
Your Turn to Die is a death game coming out in parts and forces the player to make a lot of heavy choices in an attempt to save as many people from their entrapments as she can, only to repetitively fail.
What’s even more depressing and creepy than the whole concept of a death game in the first place is watching how the other characters unravel and decide who is going to die based on superfluous means. It really sticks with the player, all the way until the next chapter gets released.
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