Gakkou Deatta Kowai Hanashi

"A Frightful School Horror!"

Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi ("A Frightful School Horror") is a sound novel, not unlike Chun-soft's Kamaitachi no Yoru series. If you don't know what a sound novel is, the closest thing I can compare it to would be those old choose-your-own-adventure books from the 80s, but with music, sound and graphics. It may sound boring to your average western gamer, but the Japanese can't get enough of them, and neither can I.

STORYLINE: 9/10

It's nearing the end of the school year at Tokyo Ayabie HS. It's been a rather uneventful term, much to the chagrin of the newspaper tea society. The club leader, Makoto (nicknamed CAMERA J) gathers everybody together in their meeting room after school one day for an important meeting. Everybody's to work their hardest to come up with one last big scoop, to finish off the year with a bang. One member chimes in that she's heard bizarre ghost stories told about the old unused school building on the far end of campus. After a discussion, everybody agrees that this is just the scoop that they need, and all five members shall investigate the old building on their own, and see what they can dig up. Unfortunately, they might just be digging up corpses...their OWN corpses! All five members of the club are playable throughout the game. Each narrates their own tale, and their personalities and character traits are so well developed that it makes the game all the much more enjoyable.

Believe it or not, this game is SCARY. Each adventure begins at the end of the afternoon, with our chosen character heading to school with their own theme music playing. Things start out normal enough, but quickly take a turn for the unnerving when doors slam, lights go out, voices are heard and odd shadows are spotted. This is generally accompanied by the fading-in of some very creepy music. And things don't get any better. You'll discover hauntings, bodies, poltergeists, the undead, and much much more...The atmosphere the game projects is fantastic, especially considering the rather limited medium. The game isn't without its lighthearted moments, though! It's not uncommon to go from a bone-chilling encounter in a haunted restroom to being asked by a meek-looking boy whether you'd like tomato juice or coffee. These silly moments take the edge off, and stop the game from taking itself too seriously. I loved `em!

GAMEPLAY: 8/10

The game takes place over a period of five days, with one character going to a designated part of the school per day. Each character's adventure must be played through to begin the endgame scenario. Which brings us to our next interesting point: Each character has a different adventure depending on the order they are played in. That's five different scenarios for each character. That's a total of 25 different main game scenarios, each playing out differently depending on the choices you make throughout. Not including the several different endgame scenarios you may end up at, I'd say that's a whole lot of replay value.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

This is where Gakkou shines. Chun-soft broke the mold with their sound novels by utilizing photorealistic backgrounds with featureless silhouettes as its characters. Gakkou has taken this a step further: everything in the game is photographed, right down to the characters! In my opinion, this makes the game all the more spookier: These are real people in real places. Dark, dilapidated hallways. The barren gymnasium at night. The only problem is that the colours are a bit washed out, due to the SFC's limited palette. Also, I've heard complaints that the actors aren't the most attractive out there, but they'd distract you from the marvelous storyline if they were too beautiful, right?

SOUND: 9/10

This is without a doubt one of the best and most atmospheric soundtracks I've ever heard on the SFC. Investigation is peppered with quiet, foreboding pieces, while encounters are punctuated by a schizophrenic synthesizer loop, giving a sense of urgency. The sound effects themselves are top notch, too. There's a very unsettling loop of a baby crying, and the various female screams aren't old stock sounds for a change! The only reason this hasn't gotten a perfect 10 is because I don't care much for the character theme tunes. They all use
the same prefab piano instrument, and are composed in a very similar manner to one another. And while they were quite jazzy, a bit more variety there would've been nice.

CONCLUSION:

You think a 16-bit game can't give you the chills? I didn't, and this game STILL freaks me out when I bop it in. Best of all, copies regularly go for £1 on ebay--in box, with manual. If you love horror and can read Japanese, get it immediately. And if you can't read Japanese, give it a try anyway: The price can't be beat, and the atmosphere of the game is sure to spook you, even if you can't read the text.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/07