Whether it is RPGs, action games, or even movies, the Japanese have a different way of doing things than the west. It’s those differences that are hard to describe that make them unique and distinctive.
Whether it is on film or in gaming, that distinctiveness is ever more present in the horror genre. It was Japanese developers Capcom that coined the term “survival horror” as a sub-genre with their first Resident Evil which in turn was inspired by the 1989 Japanese horror game Sweet Home as well as Alone in the Dark.
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After the release of Resident Evil, several other Japanese developers followed suit and released their own horror games. Many of these would become just as influential as Capcom’s effort with some being even more terrifying using terror and fear in a variety of effective ways.
Updated by Michael Llewellyn on May 19, 2021: The horror genre comes in many forms and Japanese creators have been experts in its execution for over twenty years. Whether it's a reliance on action horror or psychological fear, the developers in Japan seem tuned into what works well. The genre goes back a long way, yet the effectiveness of terror and jump scares never seems to age even if the visuals do. Be it modern or classic titles, Japanese horror games are plentiful and often terrifying.
15 Clock Tower PS1
Released in 1995, Clock Tower on the PS1 is actually the second game in the series. It’s a point-and-click survival horror game created by the Japanese Studio Human Entertainment. The series is often credited as being the inspiration for the Resident Evil series.
Despite not being an action-based game like the Resident Evil series, Clock Tower on the PS1 is still a very creepy title worthy of its legacy. The atmosphere is unrelentingly tense and the story is superior to many modern games in the genre.
14 Mad Father Remake
Released in 2020, the remake of the freeware horror RPG/puzzle game Mad Father is available on the Nintendo Switch and the PC. The game was developed by small Japanese indie studio Sen and it seems to take inspiration from titles like Corpse Party.
Just like Corpse Party, Mad Father is a very creepy game despite its simplistic-looking visuals. It prefers to rely on psychological fear rather than outright jump scares. The game’s narrative is developed around an 11-year-old protagonist named Aya as she discovers that her father is some kind of mad scientist with a laboratory full of horrors.
13 Shadow Corridor
Released in 2019, Shadow Corridor is a first-person horror game from Japanese indie developers KazukiShiroma. It’s currently only available on the Steam platform for PC, but for players with capable machines, it’s absolutely worth seeking out despite its low budget.
The game is set in a Japanese city which takes the player into back alleys, temples, and theater. Despite the familiar-looking locations, it still feels very much like the player is trapped in a horrific maze. Additionally, Shadow Corridor is complemented by a great sound design perfectly implemented to scares its players out of their skins.
12 Corpse Party
Corpse Party is a survival horror game that was created using the RPG Maker tools. It was originally released for the PC in 2006. Its remake titled Corpse Party: Blood Covered and Corpse Party Blood Covered: Repeated Fear on the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo 3DS respectively.
Gamers shouldn’t be fooled by the almost simplistic-looking 2D sprites, Corpse Party is a strange and often disturbing horror game. While the visuals are low budget, the sound design isn’t, and playing the game with a good set of headphones is enough to draw any player into its horrific story.
11 Parasite Eve II
Released in 2000, Parasite Eve II is a survival horror RPG that drops the active time battle system of its predecessor. As a result, the gameplay is more in line with survival horrors like Resident Evil and only added to the game’s atmosphere and jump scares.
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Interestingly, Parasite Eve II was directed and written by Kenichi Iwao who also wrote and directed Resident Evil. Developers Square wanted the sequel to be more in line with Capcom’s popular horror series and was a departure from the RPG mechanics of the first game.
10 Resident Evil Village
Released in 2021, Resident Evil Village is available on last and current-gen platforms. It was one of the most hotly anticipated horror games since its predecessor. While it isn’t as frightening as the seventh entry, Village is a more tense game in its execution.
As a horror game, Resident Evil Village is more comparable to the action-oriented Resident Evil 4 in terms of action and atmosphere. However, when it comes to scares Resident Evil Village still throws them at the player with great effect.
9 Clock Tower 3
Clock Tower 3 is a survival horror that was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003. Despite the Clock Tower series being one of the most influential horror series in the 1990s it never quite gained the same amount of recognition as Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
While the third entry still wasn’t a commercial success, it is praised as being the best and the scariest game in the series. Granted the game is short when compared to its rivals and the control system uses the same tank controls that are familiar to the genre at the time. However, the tension never lets up and there’s no padding in terms of storytelling.
8 Resident Evil Remake
First released on the Nintendo GameCube back in 2002, the Resident Evil remake is still one of the most effective survival horror games of all time. It uses pre-rendered backdrops but thanks to its incredible attention to detail and stunning visuals, Resident Evil looks amazing in HD on the PS4 and Xbox One.
The level design is still as superb as it ever was, with its interconnected areas that open up in similar ways to the Dark Souls series. Players that were introduced to the series via Resident Evil 7: Biohazard or Resident Evil Village should definitely go back and play this gem.
7 Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse was released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in 2008. It is a remake/retelling of 2003’s Forbidden Siren. Blood Curse was released episodically before getting a full disc release in 2008 after the series was complete.
Blood Curse was an early experiment in episodic gaming content and it was implemented so well due to the TV show style execution of the game’s narrative. It places the player in the shoes of several different protagonists in different but intertwined scenarios. Each of which is filled with the creeping dread of not knowing what is hiding around the next corner which is made more convincing in the game's incredible art and character design.
6 Resident Evil 2 Remake
Released in 2019 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the PC, the Resident Evil 2 remake is a ground-up re-imagining of the 1998 original. It is the second game in the series to receive a full from the ground-up remake after the first Resident Evil remake in 2002 that first appeared on the Nintendo GameCube.
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Unlike the first remake, however, Resident Evil 2 dropped the traditional fixed viewpoints and tank controls. Instead, the game uses a third-person over-the-shoulder perspective in fully 3D environments. The Resident Evil 2 remake has long been requested by fans of the series and the wait has been worth it. Not only is it one of the scariest games of the generation it is one of the best and has some of the best visuals seen on the PS4 and the Xbox.
5 Zero Escape Series
The Zero Escape series is a trilogy of visual novel horror games called Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, and finally Zero Time Dilemma released in 2009, 2012, and 2016 respectively. The series has appeared on the PlayStation Portable, Vita, PS4, Nintendo DS, 3DS, and the PC.
To go into too much detail about the series would spoil it. However, the premise is like the Saw film series where the player has escape rooms locked behind twisted puzzles and is faced with moral choices that affect other characters in the game’s story.
4 The Evil Within Series
The Evil Within and its sequel The Evil Within 2 were released in 2014 and 2017 respectively for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3. They were developed by Shinji Mikami’s Tango Gameworks studio and published by Bethesda. Shinji Mikami’s previous work includes Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, and Dino Crisis.
Mikami’s expertise in the survival horror genre is on full display in The Evil Within series with the first being a very effective horror experience that brought the psychological and jump scares to the table. The sequel, however, improved on every on the first game with a more open game world that was packed with plenty of scares and surprises.
3 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was released on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the PC in 2017. It is the second Resident Evil title to appear on this list because it was such a departure from its predecessors. Moving away from action horror and back to survival horror, RE7 brought back the puzzle-solving and exploration from the older titles.
However, RE7 implemented a new first-person perspective and made it PlayStation VR compatible. As a result, it is one of the most claustrophobic and terrifying VR experiences ever made and a true demonstration of what VR is capable of.
2 Silent Hill 2
Developed by Konami and originally released on the PlayStation 2 in 2001 Silent Hill 2 remains a favorite among survival horror fans nineteen years later. Where horror games like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis focused on jump scares Silent Hill 2 was psychologically scary.
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Although it’s not short of jump scares of its own but Silent Hill 2 is unnerving and the foreboding atmosphere is only elevated further by the game’s incredible art design. It’s perhaps best played in the remastered Silent Hill HD Collection that was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012.
1 Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly was first released on the PlayStation 2 in 2003 with a director’s cut to follow on Xbox in 2004. The game was released again as Project Zero 2: Wii Edition in 2002 for European and Japanese territories only.
The player is placed in the shoes of two young sisters trapped in a ghost town and their only defense is a mystical camera known as the Camera Obscura. Fatal Frame gives players a sense of helplessness that only adds to the game’s fear factor. It’s still regarded as one of the most terrifying videogames ever made and ranks among the best in all Japanese horror mediums easily on par with Ring and The Grudge.
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