October Buildup: .flow

.flow is a Yume Nikki fangame that basically ups the horror by 140%. There are very few thing in this game that aren't horrifying to some extent.

You see the screenshot above? It only gets worse from there. What sets .flow apart from Yume Nikki is in part that .flow is more complete. Yume Nikki had controlled areas but was almost 100% free roaming, whereas .flow is mildly more linear but much easier to get lost in. There's a lot of parts where the only way to figure out the path is trial and error, and also several large mazes.

Yume Nikki may have been graphic, but just about every other area in .flow is either covered in blood or rife with disturbing implications. The game takes nightmare fuel to an art form, and doesn't stop there. It is a definite contender for the most unsettling game ever created.

The game basically plays the same as Yume Nikki, but it's more claustrophobic, confusing and morbid. The soundtrack consists of repeating grating noises with a heartbeat-like pulse. Even the level design is trying to frighten you, with its aforementioned claustrophobic spaces. I wouldn't recommend playing it for extended periods of time unless you want nightmares.

However, I would recommend that you try it out. It's a game that manages to blend style with substance almost flawlessly, and is the perfect choice for surreal Japanese horror.

Hey, look at that! October Buildup is over! There's four more days left until Halloween, so stay tuned in case of extra entries into this series.