Author’s disclaimer: I backed the NightCry Kickstarter for $120 USD during the campaign. It is my intent to report and inform on this game and leave it to each individual to decide if they would like to play this title.
NightCry started off as a Kickstarter for Project Scissors: NightCry, so named by director Hifumi Kono to honor his timeless Clock Tower series. Just a year after the end of the campaign, the survival horror game is slated to come out on PC next week. In preparation, we’re here to give to a crash course in monsters with giant scissors and escapology.
Aboard the cruise liner Oceanus guests are taking in the sights and luxuries of the ship. Three specific passengers are about to experience a nightmare on open sea as the immortal demon known as the ‘Scissorwalker’ starts chopping up fellow vacationers. You play as the somewhat shallow student Monica Flores, the passionate anthropologist Leonard Cosgrove, and his withdrawn relative Rooney Simpson (who is also Monica’s classmate and detractor). The fates of the protagonists will intertwine as one small action from one character can doom another. Your choices will determine if you can escape the Oceanus alive and if Leonard can figure out the occult origin of the Scissorwalker.
NightCry features two distinct styles of gameplay: exploration and escape. While exploring your surroundings you’ll come across clues, puzzles and other survivors as you try and get to the bottom of just what’s happened aboard the ship. However, at any moment you can find yourself running for your life from the seemingly omnipresent Scissorwalker. In escape mode you must either hide or use environmental hazards to lose your pursuer. This isn’t your modern day survival horror, as the demon can only be slowed down and not killed. Not only will exploration mode seamlessly dissolve into escape mode but the camera angles will intensify the experience. The fixed perspective of searching the ship will suddenly switch to following right behind you as you scramble away. You will also have the ability to switch the camera to look behind you in escape mode to amp up the tension and just maybe help you survive.
The modest $314,771 USD raised during the Kickstarter (not including PayPal pledges) allowed Hifumi Kono and Playism Games to bring some impressive staff onto the project. This includes notable filmmaker Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge) as a co-creator, both Nobuko Toda (Final Fantasy XIV) and Michiru Yamane (Castlevania) working on sound, and famed horror designer Masahiro Ito (Silent Hill series) working on creature designs. And while there is no doubt that this is a spiritual successor to the Clock Tower series with an antagonist that carries huge scissors and a run and hide mechanic, the unique cruise ship location and employees from a wide array of video game series means that NightCry will be its own beast.
Playism was even able to get an endorsement from horror-comedy icon Sam Raimi:
“Takashi Shimizu’s NightCry is the type of experience that makes you sleep with the lights on: a killer premise supplemented by fantastic visuals. Knowing the great work being done in video games today, I can’t wait to be fully immersed in this seafaring horror.”
NightCry will be available March 29 at exactly 9:00am PDT. The game will come in a number of different packages including $24.99 USD for the game only, $39.99 USD for the game and digital soundtrack, $49.99 USD for the game and digital soundtrack and digital art book, and $59.99 USD for everything listed plus additional art contents. The game will be available from Steam and Playism’s site for the PC.
