SENSEs: Midnight

The retro survival horror aesthetic has potential, but it's completely bogged down by terrible, uninspired game design. Fighting the painfully clunky controls and awkward inventory management makes basic movement feel like a chore rather than a scare. Frankly, the spooky atmosphere isn't nearly good enough to make up for how frustrating it is to actually play.

This game is awful. The whole point is to run around in circles in an area, looking for items, but you can only carry 4 items at a time. I’ve had to start over twice because I couldn’t find the 6 coins the first time. I managed to find them later, but now I can’t find the 3 stones. It’s incredibly frustrating. That stone could be anywhere. I couldn’t even find a walkthrough because it’s hard to tell when the player picks it up. But if you look past those issues, it wouldn't be a bad game. It has a nice atmosphere, but having to search around so much ruins the whole thing. 4/10 Check more dark games: Check Group page for more unique games: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45665580 and part 2: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/46219602

SENSEs: Midnight is a sequel to Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story (CGS). Let me start off with a disclaimer: the developer intends to make Sense an anthology series. Unfortunately, they decided to extend the title from Sense to Senses, then inexplicably created a new developer account with a slightly different name (SUZAKU Games instead of Suzaku), both of which made finding this game much harder. I’m sure this is one of the main reasons why Midnight has only, at the time of writing, 30 reviews while the predecessor nearly 500. Unlike CGS’s 2D hand drawn style, Midnight is an old school 3D survival horror with tank controls and cinematic camera angles. CGS stood out from its indie contemporaries while all Midnight has left is the cyberpunk aesthetic which, again, the game does nothing interesting with. The raunchiness was significantly toned down and is now limited to the protagonist and small posters which are well visible only in first person. Speaking of the protagonist, Kaho’s design seems confused: she’s in-between being realistic and an anime character; it’s just off. Story is simple, but intriguing. It borrows a lot from Japanese ghost folklore and even features ghost photo s…

SENSEs: Midnight, developed by SUZAKU Games and published by Eastasiasoft Limited, is a small but ambitious survival horror experience that attempts to resurrect the eerie charm of early 2000s horror games while injecting a distinct modern aesthetic. Acting as a spiritual successor to Sense – A Cyberpunk Ghost Story, this entry moves from that title’s 2D visual novel structure into full 3D exploration and real-time survival gameplay. The result is a short, atmospheric journey through urban legends and supernatural terror, evoking the sense of isolation and unease that defined classics like Fatal Frame, Silent Hill, and early Resident Evil. It’s a love letter to that era of horror, though one that often struggles to reconcile nostalgia with modern execution. The story follows Uesugi Kaho, a college student and member of an occult research club who returns to Japan and becomes involved in investigating an ominous urban myth surrounding “The Midnight Door.” The location—an abandoned district in Batou-ku—is shrouded in rumors of restless spirits, and Kaho’s curiosity leads her into a supernatural trap where she must uncover the truth behind the hauntings while surviving encounters wit…

Eh wasn't for me. Nothing against the game. The game has that Unity Engine jank and I'm not a fan of the fixed camera style of games. The art style didn't bother me and the game has a cute MC in a Cyberpunk style Ikebukoro. I like how the story sort of unfolds in a live chat, where teh MC is I suppose streaming to. The ghosts are creepy and the game does have that unsettling eerie vibe of J horror games. I didn't get far enough to deal with the inventory management.

Tank controls are far beyond the acceptability of tank controls. Too much tutorial interruption. Terrible UI with the constant text window popping open and closed. Way too much to read on screen constantly. Overall aesthetic is great, but gameplay is more frustrating/annoying than fun.