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PlayStation Horror Sound Novels

In direct contrast to the Super Famicom's somewhat paltry selection, there is a fairly healthy number of horror-themed sound novels available on the PS1. Retrieving information on some of these is difficult due to varying obscurity levels and virtually no English language coverage, so any information you may have on these titles would be appreciated. This list is largely considered finished. If you have any relevant suggestions, feel free to send them my way. Thanks to jenny for translation assistance with certain titles.

Story of the Blanks thoughts

MILD THEMATIC SPOILERS follow if you somehow haven't managed to be spoiled on Story of the Blanks yet.

Some of the most effective horror games coming out now aren't the ones being produced by multi-million dollar studios but much smaller crews. Most would agree, for instance, that the indie darling of 2010, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, is much more of a successful 'horror game' than something big-budget like Dead Space 2 when it comes to affecting the player. However, not even a budget on the level of Amnesia's is necessary for a horror game to succeed when it comes to affecting the player. For an example of this, you need go no further than Story of the Blanks.

Super Famicom Horror Sound Novels

This entry will list and briefly discuss the horror-themed visual novels available on the Super Famicom/SNES. If there are any notable titles that you feel I have missed, feel free to inform me, and I will be glad to add what I can on it. My translation 'skills' are also less than adequate, so feel free to correct me on any obvious issues.

I feel I should clarify that though I refer to them as 'sound novels', referring to them as 'visual novels' would probably work just as well, given that the two are largely one and the same. 'Sound novel' was a genre introduced by Chunsoft and is thus something of a copyright of theirs; 'visual novel' was introduced as a work-around of sorts.

WhiteDay (Demo)

WhiteDay (화이트데이)

System: PC
Publisher: Sonnori
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: 09/25/01

In Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the holidays of Valentine's Day and White Day work in conjunction. On Valentine's Day (February 14th), women are expected to give chocolate gifts to men. On White Day (March 14th), the opposite applies; men are expected to give gifts to women, and as an unspoken rule of return, said gifts are generally expected to be more expensive in cost.

The game itself apparently opens around said holiday, as our protagonist is seen to approach an apparent crush by the name of So Young.

...Iru!

...Iru! (・・・いる!, lit. "...Coming!")

System: PlayStation
Publisher: Takara
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: 3/26/98

Consider the situation: you and an apparent friend are working on a stand of some sort for an upcoming school festival. You spend so much time on this task that, by the time you are 'done', it has become late; the windows reveal that darkness has fallen upon your [Japanese hamlet of choice]. You decide to leave, but find that the ways out have been blocked. The teenage drama than begins to build around you; the students that aren't actively looking for a way out seem to have a tendency to either shy away from you or slug you in the face.

Junji Inagawa

Or, as translated here, Junji Inagawa Taxi Of Midnight.

This is a title I recall seeing in a video compilation of various survival horror titles (which is apparently no longer online), and though my interest was piqued, I was unable to find any information pertaining to it.

I randomly came across an eBay auction for the title, but with 'Junji Inagawa' attached, and searched up on that. There was an official page which is down now, though Archive.org does have some of the screenshots and the basic text saved.

A Google translation of the JP Wikipedia article on Junji Inagawa seems to refer to him as an award-winning radio broadcaster of ghost stories. Apparently, several of the movies, television shows, games, and whatnot that he has been involved in involve ghosts. The one title in particular that I was originally interested in had the following as a description (rewritten for grammatical clarity):

The player is a taxi driver, and hears mysterious conversations from their passenger. The 'mysterious conversations' are apparently connected to Inagawa's own recordings.

So... yeah. Interesting stuff, to say the least. If anyone has any further information relating either to Mr. Inagawa or what he has done, please don't hesitate to contact me.

(Transcribed entirely from here.)