RPG Maker is a tool that allowed creative minds to have their games come to life in the vein of JRPGs of the SNES era. Without any knowledge in coding, you’re able to create your own narrative with interactive set pieces and gameplay.
Of course, many people took advantage of this glorious tool and made some of the best games out there. I had the privilege of playing most of them back when RPG Maker horror games were all the rage.
The best RPG Maker horror games like Mad Father and Ib are undisputed classics of the genre. However, there are several more that deserve a chance in the spotlight.
Mad Father
This RPG Maker horror game is an emotional tale of a little girl and her family’s insane tribulations. Mad Father is a truly remarkable experience that proves that art comes in all shapes and sizes.
Explore the eerie hallways of the Drevis residence, a terrifying mansion with a dark history. The story is depicted amazingly well, with twists and turns along with horrifying implications.
A classic in its own right, Mad Father was incredibly popular back in the day, and for a good reason. It manages to engage the player in a way that not many horror games can. Being an eleven-year-old girl, you have to rely on your wit to survive and uncover the mansion’s secrets with only a few tools at your disposal.
Ib
Ib is a very unique and creative horror RPG Maker game focused on puzzle-solving, exploration, and intrigue. Ib is a little girl pulled into a fantastic yet sinister-painted world after going to an art gallery with her parents.
Ib’s life is now linked to a rose, and every petal you lose corresponds to your health bar. On your journey, you’ll find other people trapped in the painted world, Garry and Mary, who are also linked to their corresponding roses.
This game is as literal as metaphorical in the way it presents everything to you. The characters, challenges, objects in the world all have a story to tell, and a beautiful one at that.
The surreal atmosphere really adds a sense of dread and wonder simultaneously. There are a lot of small details, and every area will have you scratching your head as you overcome the obstacles. It’s the kind of game where you’ll have to think outside the box and use the surreal setting to your advantage. Definitively a jewel of a game.
The Crooked Man
The Crooked Man is the first installment of a series of RPG Maker horror games called The Strange Man. You play as David Hoover, a shy young man suffering from depression that moves into a new apartment next to his friends.
As he starts to settle in his new home, he finds that bizarre things are happening. Suspicious rumors about the former tenant force him to investigate further. David tries to balance his crumbling love life, failing career, and family issues with the unsettling realization that his new place might be haunted.
Like most good horror RPG maker games, The Crooked Man explores its characters’ psychological aspects, focusing on their internal struggles while they overcome trials and tribulations. David is a flawed character that is forced to take a deep look within himself.
Misao
In this messed up game, you play as Aki Narukami, having the option to play as a male or female, a regular student whose world turns upside down after Misao, a shy classmate, goes missing. You are teleported into another dimension with a handful of your classmates and teacher.
In this twisted world, you have the task to collect the six missing body parts of Misao (gruesome, I know) in order to break the curse that trapped you there.
Although, I have to clarify that it occurs that way in the original version. While improved in a lot of ways, the remade version is a bit less gory, opting instead to have you finding different items of sentimental significance to Misao rather than her body parts.
This story emphasizes the pain that Misao had to go through as a victim of bullying and neglect by virtually everyone except the protagonist.
One thing that I really like about this game is that the personality of the main character fluctuates depending on the gender you choose. Most games would just leave it to you to fill in the blanks or have a default cardboard personality for the main character when giving you the option to choose a gender, but here it’s different.
The female version of Aki is cheerful and it’s willing to do some pretty nasty things to get rid of the curse, while the male version is more reserved and not as likely to do harm.
Without spoiling much, I would say that Misao is a go-to game for anyone who has a love for RPG Maker games, and the way it introduces its horror elements, while grisly at times, it’s handled pretty effectively.
Ao Oni
Ao Oni, translated from Japanese as “Blue Demon,” it’s a horror game with a pretty straightforward setting. It’s about a guy and his friends investigating a mansion that it’s rumored to be haunted. While the game mechanics are pretty simple and the story it’s nothing to write home about, the simplicity of it allows the player to be more focused on the experience as a whole.
The game plays like a cat and mouse chase. You are trapped in a huge mansion with a deformed and ominous creature that will try to catch you at every turn. There are several different versions of this game, four to be exact, with each one offering a different array of puzzles, areas, set pieces, and endings.
While it’s not innovative by any means, it’s still considered a classic and beloved by RPG Maker veterans.
Corpse Party
Personally, one of my favorite horror RPG Maker games of all time, Corpse Party is legendary for its execution (no pun intended) of how a close group of friends can suddenly fall into despair after a very innocent ritual that was supposed to bind their friendship together.
Much like Misao, the ritual results in an earthquake, and the entire group to be transported to a twisted, alternate version of the school, full of nightmares and hellish spirits out for blood.
Corpse Party delivers on the promise of its title, and in a way that’s not only terrifying but heart-wrenching. Your choices will determine the fate of everyone around you, and no one is safe from suffering daring consequences.
Combine the freedom of exploration this game gives you with an ever-present ominous atmosphere and a storyline that unfolds masterfully in each chapter, and you have the recipe for one of the most popular horror games of Japan.
Schuld
The story of Schuld revolves around Aaron, a man waking up in a desolate street with no recollection of how he got there. Soon, he realizes that the bizarre world around him is dying, which adds a layer of mystery to an already dubious situation.
This game’s suspense is ever-present and more of a slow burn compared to other entries in the list. While there are some really well-timed action segments here and there, the game mostly relies on subtlety to get on your nerves.
The story is incredibly well-paced and intriguing the more you learn about the situation and the world around you; the setting decaying even further with each step towards an answer. With clear atmospheric inspirations from Silent Hill, Schuld is a short but sweet game that is really well-made and deserves any horror fan’s attention.
Desert Nightmare
From the same creator of Schuld comes Desert Nightmare. This time we play as Sandra, a girl who’s apparently been left behind by her parents and decides to head to the nearest city, Dusty Creek.
It’s not long before we realize that something is seriously wrong with this town. It’s easy to see where this story’s inspirations come from, yet its simplicity and sometimes predictable nature don’t take away from the experience. Engaging yet flawed characters are the horror genre’s bread and butter, and Desert Nightmare does a good job as a horror experience.
Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki is an odd entry. And while every RPG maker game is unique in its own right, Yume Nikki is a very different experience from the rest.
You’d think that a game with no dialogue and virtually no action would have a hard time being engaging or even conveying anything to a player. But Kikiyama, the game’s creator, proves us wrong in our assumption.
You play the role of a ‘hikikomori’ girl called Madotsuki, who enters her own dream world. Hikikomori is a Japanese word for someone who stays in their house for long periods of time and avoids socializing as much as possible. It’s a growing issue in Japan, and one this game doesn’t have any qualms tackling.
Rather than horrifying or downright scary like most games on this list are, Yume Nikki is more disturbing, more unsettling than anything else, with an eerie vibe that crawls under your skin.
The Witch’s House
The Witch’s House is another beautiful RPG maker horror with a tragic yet scary story. You play as Viola, a young girl who wakes up in the middle of a forest and is instantly drawn to a mysterious manor. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that this is the witch’s house and that there’s a lot of terrifying secrets waiting to be uncovered.
Like a lot of 16-bit games of this genre, The Witch’s House relies on the shock factor of many of its game Over screens, as often the deaths are sudden and gruesome. The player has to be careful since it seems like any new room you enter is littered with traps.
While short compared to other games of the same caliber, it’s definitively worth playing.
To The Moon
With a heavy emphasis on storytelling and an incredibly drawing narrative, To The Moon is more akin to a visual novel than an RPG. This emotionally-charged tale doesn’t pull away from asking the real questions of life, the ones we’ve all wondered at some point and haven’t had a satisfactory answer for. And it does so in such a sincere manner that it really touches the player in their core.
Unlike other stories where these subjects are just glossed over and added some pseudo-philosophical ramblings to make it seem deep, To the Moon instead tells the story of an old man on his deathbed, where the doctors taking care of him have the peculiar job of giving their patients a final wish.
And this man’s final wish is to go to the moon. The more you play, the more clues you uncover about the man’s past, and the more you understand him. To The Moon is one of those experiences you’ll remember fondly for years to come and make you ponder about things going on in real life.
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