If You Play That Game, You Will Die a Week Later. Mystery of the Cursed Game.

Mitsuki Nonaka
2 min readAug 25, 2023

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#13 Horror Game 100 story challenge

Image credit: Taken from Amazon, gamesoft package

Title: game with no name(ナナシノゲエム)

Genre: Horror Adventure

Compatible Hardware: NINTENDO DS

Publisher Release Date: SQUARE ENIX 2008.7

One day, the main character, a college student, received a game from his senior, Okada, on his TS (a game console with communication capabilities). Okada was so absorbed in this game that he missed long periods of university lectures. The main character was asked by Rico, Okada’s girlfriend, to go check on him. The main character visits Okada’s room. There, he encounters a mysterious phenomenon and discovers Okada’s dead body. This was the beginning of the incident…

The story is about a game called “Play this game and you will die a week later,” a structure reminiscent of my beloved Koji Suzuki’s Ring (I love this setting!). I have never played this game, but it is so impressive, because the commercials for this at the time of its launch were very creepy and interesting. In particular, I thought that the content of the game was novel, as it was about conquering a game in a game world.

The game system is divided into two parts: a mode in which the main character solves the game’s riddles and a part in which he or she attacks the game. The puzzle-solving part of the game is in first-person 3D, like “The Mist” released in 1993. Noteworthy is the strategy part, which uses a 2D side-scrolling screen, for example, it is a royal road RPG like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy of the family computer(As the player progresses through the game, the world in which the main character exists and the events in the game will be linked.)

The game has a sequel being released, so be sure to check that out as well! The popularity of the game has made it a premium price and somewhat expensive… but it must be worth it! This is definitely a masterpiece!

See you tomorrow!

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Mitsuki Nonaka

Freelance writer/blogger 🖋 loves horror 👻 beloved horror novel, comics and films.