Shinjuku Anomaly was released today: a horror game about a photo hunt for anomalies in Tokyo at night

Shinjuku Anomaly, a short horror novel from Japanese publisher AMATA Games, was released today, September 30, on PC.The official launch on Steam took place at 10:00 Japanese time.

Four rules for part-time work

The premise is extremely simple: the hero gets a night job as an anomaly photographer in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.The work is described by four rules:

• saw an anomaly, take a photo of it;
• come to a suitable distance to take pictures;
• but don't come too close;
• The film has run out, return to base.

It is on the third point that the tension rests.The closer the player gets to the subject, the better the shot, but the higher the risk that the anomaly will notice the photographer in response.

Clicks, film and return to base

The mechanics are presented in a visual novel format: all decisions are text commands that the player clicks on to move forward.Film is limited, so during a hike you have to choose what to shoot and what to pass by.When the frames run out, you need to return to base for a new reel.Apparently, the story takes place in an era before digital cameras.

The anomalies themselves in the screenshots look like dark silhouettes of a human form.Up close, they open up and turn out to be much stranger than a silhouette from afar.

The game has several endings, and the passage is stated to be short.The developers separately stipulate that the story is fictitious and is not related to real people, events and organizations.

Horror for one or two evenings

Shinjuku Anomaly continues the line of mystical visual novels published by AMATA Games.This is not a big horror game for the evenings, but a compact experiment for one or two approaches, with the expectation that the player will start it again for the sake of other endings.

What else is coming out this week, check out selection of releases.