Can this horror be a sleeper hit?
When a good deed goes awry you and your fellow students are Locked inside your school at night, hunted by a killer janitor and Haunted by the troubled souls of the dead. Can you remain hidden, solve the clues and uncover the dark secrets of the building’s past to survive the deadly threats? or will the after-class horror claim your life before you can escape?
I hadn’t heard of White Day: A Labyrinth Named School before, it started life as an Android/iOS game back in 2015 before getting a PS4 and PC version a few days ago. You play as Lee Hui-min as he enters the school late at night to drop off some chocolates for his crush and return her diary, but is soon locked in and must avoid the killer janitor by hiding. You also come across possessed teachers and ghosts, while discovering paranormal events over the years, as well as the dark past of the school.
Lee doesn’t get any weapons and the game is set in first-person, so you have to be stealthy to avoid the killer janitor. When I first saw the opening cinematic for White Day and saw it to be cutesy Japanese anime, I thought it surely couldn’t be scary…how wrong I was. This game is creepy with a capital C. The atmosphere is brilliant and you never know to expect. The game also has eight endings that are affected by choices made in conversations with other characters.
The game also has different difficulty settings, Hard will eliminate any clues coming in from your mobile phone as text messages and fewer items are available, while obviously Easy will give you both in abundance. Visually, you can tell that White Day is an older game and designed for mobile devices, but it’s impressive despite this. The audio quality is pretty good too, while the soundtrack is impressive overall.
The Verdict
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is a surprise hit on PS4. It’s scary, atmospheric and truly memorable. It has good replayability in the form of multiple endings and harder difficulties. If you’re looking for a good horror, look no further.