ITAKO_WORKS is a wonderfully weird, silly and hilariously badly translated Japanese third person horror game where you allow ghosts to possess you while you and a ghost fox investigate a supernatural mystery.
In ITAKO_WORKS you take on the role of a young paranormal investigator who cas been called to check out a disturbance in a family household. As you explore the house you search for useful objects and use your supernatural “Kuchiyose” ability to solve puzzles and uncover more of the weird secrets the house contains. You may struggle to keep up with the story though as ITAKO_WORKS features some of the most glorious badly translated dialogue you’ll ever encounter. It seems like the original Japanese script has just been fed into Google Translate and it makes for some hilarious reading (and also adds to the charm of the game).
Your Kuchiose ability allows spirits to possess your body, allowing you to see and interact with certain objects in the spirit world. You have to be careful when doing this though as there are other spirits that you have to avoid while moving through the house (often requiring a whole lot of crawling as you sneak under them). On your adventure you’re also joined by Inari, a cheerful and cheeky little ghost fox (who looks like a cat) who chats to you and assist you now and again.
ITAKO_WORKS is more of a comedy horror game than a full on horror game, so there aren’t many moments that are scary but it has a nice spooky atmosphere. Avoiding the ghosts while using your Kuchiyose ability can get really annoying, but otherwise it’s a great little adventure with interesting puzzles, quirky characters and a delightfully weird narrative. A madcap Japanese ghost story full of spooks and silliness.
Note: ITAKO_WORKS comes with two .exe files. One is for the VR version and one is for the non-VR versions.
Controls: WASD – Movement, Mouse – Look, Shift – Run, Ctrl – Crouch, LMB – interact
Available On: Windows
Gameplay Video: Here