Kowai Shashin - Shinrei Shashin Kitan (Playstation)

 Or "Scary Photos: Tales in Spirit Photography" in English. This is actually a game that was on my "to play" list for a few years, after I saw a clip of it in an "every Japanese Playstation game" video, and it looked like it wouldn't have too much of a language barrier. It turns out that procrastination worked in my favour on this occasion, since in 2021, an English translation patch came out!

 

Now that I've played it, there's technically not much stopping you from getting through the game without being able to read the text, though you would be missing out on a large part of the experience. Playing the game has you moving a cursor around a haunted photograph, trying to find the spot where a ghost is lurking, then exorcising the ghost. This part is done first by doing a couple of simple quick time events to block the ghost's attacks, followed by some high speed precision button pressing to chant the words to seal them. The chanting requires you to press the right buttons in the right order, but only asks that you do so as quickly as possible, rather than keeping to a specific rhythm.

 

So, with the story and atmosphere removed, there really isn't much of a game here. But they haven't been removed, so we can look at this as a complete package. As a complete package, it's pretty entertaining! It's got a similar feel to it as other urban legend-themed low budget Japanese horror, like the animated shorts Yamishibai, or the charmingly cheesy live action faux-tabloid mockumentary Tokyo Videos of Horror series. Furthermore, some of the stories behind the photos you exorcise seem to be lifted from real life urban legends that I'm sure I've heard about in the works of Japan-focussed folklorist Tara A. Devlin

 

Though the scenes showing your character are CG, the photos are actual digitised photos with ghosts edited into them. OR ARE THEY? Because, of course, this game has an urban legend of its own attached to it: according to this legend, one of the photos in the game (the one of the guy in the subway station) is a real ghost photo, and because it was used in something as frivolous as a videogame, the game is now cursed. Unfortunately, this photo is as silly-looking and obviously fake as the other photos in the game, so the legend is probably not true. It's easy to see how it could have spread, though: not only is it a spooky-themed game that uses real photos, but it also appeared late in the console's life, meaning it most likely had a small print run and wasn't as easily available as most games. So a rumour that a friend of a friend's cousin played it and died a week later could definitely spread with no easy way to play the game and disprove it.

 

Of course, that small print run means prices for a legit copy are now absolutely ludicrous online. But a legit copy ouldn't be in English, so if you're reading this, you'd probably be better off emulating anyway. And if you like Japanese horror (and you're not a snob about it), you probably should give it a look! It's not a great game, but it's a fun little diversion for an hour or so.