Serafini Productions’ horror short story anthology series, BrokenLore, continues with its second instalment, BrokenLore: DON’T WATCH, which follows Shinji, a hikikomori who finds himself unable to leave his apartment, even if he wanted to, as a monster awaits for him outside. Taking a similar tone to BrokenLore: LOW, DON’T WATCH is a psychological narrative horror game that’s just over an hour long.
DON’T WATCH mostly takes place in Shinji’s tiny Tokyo apartment which is piled with takeaway trash and the video games he uses to escape from reality. As mentioned before, Shinji is a hikikomori, a Japanese term for young, socially withdrawn people who shut themselves off from the world, usually in their parents’ homes. Shinji lives in his own apartment, but his parents pay the bills. On the night that DON’T WATCH takes place, his parents finally put their foot down and inform Shinji that they’ll be cutting him off financially and that he’ll need to find work if he’s to continue paying his bills. This same night, an old friend of Shinji’s, Junko, reaches out, expressing concern for a mutual friend, Hideo, who thinks his apartment is being broken into. Once again the series taps into Japanese folklore in its creature design; this time the main character is haunted by a Hyakume, a Japanese yokai (a supernatural creature in Japanese folklore). The Hyakume is a creature covered in eyes which often guards places from thieves. Here, though, the Hyakume wants something else from Shinji, and won’t let him leave his apartment until he figures it out.
While Serafini Productions collaborated with a psychologist when developing DON’T WATCH, I do think it could have delved further into the themes it explores (anxiety and social isolation) and maybe why the hikikomori phenomenon happens. I had a similar take when playing LOW, which often refers to the history behind the village its set in but never actually covers this. That being said, I did enjoy this storyline more than LOW’s as I felt like it built tension up better and felt better paced despite being the same length.
I did really like the level design in DON’T WATCH, and much preferred it to strolling down the never-ending, empty streets of Kirisame-mura in LOW. The close-knit level design meant there was much more focus on the plot and the anticipation of what would be behind the door viewer every time Shinji took a peak. There were some creative uses of horror elements, such as the creepy smile of the pizza delivery person which was seriously unnerving, and electronics turning on and off in the apartment.
Using a similar visual style to LOW in the Unreal Engine 5, DON’T WATCH doesn’t make the same mistake of over-relying on facial expressions during cutscenes which is a great improvement, as the droopy facial expressions which are so common on the Unreal Engine 5 weren’t as noticeable. Shinji’s apartment was also well put together, feeling dingy and claustrophobic – it was overall a great setting for a horror game as short as this.
While the majority of the game doesn’t have a soundtrack, there are a few tracks towards the end which sounded great. The game is voiced entirely in Japanese with English subtitles which I also really liked, it felt more immersive into the setting and the voice actors also did a great job all round.
That being said, similar to LOW, there was another long, drawn out retro section which really wasn’t needed. While this segment was somewhat shorter and less frustrating the LOW’s, it was still pretty tedious and could have really done with being shorter, even if to simply to prevent the novelty of the enemy prowling around that section from wearing off.
Overall, BrokenLore: DON’T WATCH follows on from its predecessor and lines up nicely in what is looking to be a great anthology horror game set. I hope the BrokenLore series will be sold as a bundle once complete as I can see this being a series best to consume as a whole.
Jess played BrokenLore: DON’T WATCH on PC with a provided review copy.
