Look, I love a PS1 horror throwback as much as the next whatever Gonzo is, but they don’t all have to look like Silent Hill or Resident Evil, do they? There have been some aesthetic divergences in the renewed interest in the pseudo-genre, like with 2024’s excellent and queer as hell Sorry We’re Closed, but I’m hungry for more. Hence my interest in NEHCROMIA, a high-contrast survival horror set in a castle made of memories that aren’t yours (a seizure warning is in order for the trailer below).
I would probably first describe NECHROMIA as chromatic aberration made playable. That’s in part because of the presence of the actual effect, but also because of the style of the castle you explore; everything you can see is either in black, white, blue, red, or yellow, every drip of light made utterly clear by the aforementioned high contrast style. In the, you play as an as yet unnamed young woman, armed with only a lantern for any and every eventuality. This applies to combat, puzzles, and even exploration, though how that all works exactly isn’t so clear as it appears to still be early enough days for the game.
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From the looks of developer 2dchaos’ Bluesky page, combat will be inspired by the likes of Parasite Eve, finding itself in company with the VA-11 Hall-A devs next game .45 Parabellum Bloodhound. In NECHROMIA’s case, it seems like you can flash any enemies you come across, blinding them in turn. An older gameplay demo from about a year ago also suggests that your lantern will be used to reveal hidden items to pick up, so presumably that’ll be applied to other elements too.
Other mechanics are teased on the Steam page too. There’s something about entering paintings “inspired by sin, grief and memories,” (so not Mario 64 style then?), manipulating time, sacrificing your sanity to restore your health, all sounds quite interesting, and I hope we get to see some of that in action soon. Beyond the striking style of the game, I like the look of the locales too. Some nice, appropriately haunted vibes about the whole thing.
NECHROMIA doesn’t have a release date just yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam in the meantime.
