The story is told better through environments than spoken dialogue. All of Naoko\u2019s lines are delivered with a level of deadpan obliviousness that causes some scenes to veer into borderline comedy. She comes off as being drugged or half asleep for most of her lines. That being said, the rest of the sound design is quite excellent. It is consistently unnerving with everything from subtle twig snaps to eerie cries from the dark. It’s an effective soundscape, especially with headphones. At least, that is, so long as Naoko herself isn\u2019t ruining the mood. <\/p>\n

Despite a few faults, I\u2019d generally consider Ikai on the better end of linear horror games like this, largely thanks to its excellent atmosphere. However, the Switch version really doesn\u2019t deliver on the underlying design. The resolution is extremely low and the image is always muddy regardless of whether you\u2019re playing docked or handheld. Frame rate, likewise, always hangs very low. The combination of these two issues makes exploring the world a real chore. If you\u2019re sensitive to frame rates, especially in first-person games, this is one of those that will likely leave you with a headache after extended play sessions. <\/p>\n

This leaves me with what I feel is a very different impression of Ikai than I\u2019d have playing it on other platforms. Poor resolution and performance make moving through the world an annoyance. And unfortunately that\u2019s the entire gameplay loop. Even just catching a glimpse of an enemy can be hard from far away given the resolution, and effectively navigating the halls of the shrine to escape is much more difficult at twenty frames per second. So while I could forgive some of the more repetitive encounters and lackluster voice acting, everything compounds into a very unimpressive showing. This isn\u2019t necessarily a bad game, but I\u2019d strongly suggest playing it elsewhere if possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some Yokai are harder to watch than others. I\u2019ve always found Japanese horror particularly effective when it comes to the psychological side of the genre. Ikai looks to provide precisely that, with a story set in feudal Japan. You play as a young priestess, Naoko who finds her shrine beset by demonic yokai after she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"http:\/\/www.nintendoworldreport.com\/media\/60008\/1\/2.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[576],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nintendo"],"yoast_head":"\n