Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/466130/White_Day_A_Labyrinth_Named_School/
Playstation Store: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en...hool/cid=UP4293-CUSA08269_00-WHITEDAY1US00000
Trailer:
First 30 minutes of gameplay on PS4 *Spoilers of course*:
Digital version releasing worldwide on Steam on August 22nd, and on PS4 on August 29th in America, August 24th/Korea in Japan, and August 25th in Europe.
(There is a physical edition for the PS4 version, but it's being handled by different publishers in different regions so I'm not going to link to individual countries store fronts here. Also it's looking like potentially the American physical edition, which seems to be Amazon exclusive, may not release until September. If anyone has confirmation on this, would love to hear it to update this.)
Review Thread is here, which I'll update with reviews as they hit: http://www./forum/showthread.php?t=1421216]Review Thread
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School (2017) is a PS4/PC remake of a cult classic Korean survival-horror game that released only in Korea in 2001. The game has since become a cult classic among horror enthusiast, including an old thread I made on GAF which brought some attention to the title. The studio went under after the release of the original game due to it under-performing (and cancelling a planned international release and mobile port in the process), but almost 15-years later almost all the original team of the game had saved up and reformed their studio, reobtained the rights to their franchise, and began work on a remake of their 2001 cult classic, believing it'll find an audience more now than it did during its original release. They announced in 2015 that they were going to do a remake of White Day for PC/PS4/Mobile. The mobile remake released last year in 2016, and did incrediably well for them, becoming the #2 top selling paid app in Korea ever. The PC/PS4 release has new content that wasn't in the original game or the mobile remake, including some new ghosts, new locations, a new character, a new ending, and more.
White Day had a reputation as being up there as a scary game, though this of course is subjective. It actually holds a spot in history as the first proper hide'n'sneak horror game, Clock Tower can technically hold this title but White Day did things in 2001 that would only be popularized much later in the genre in 2010 with Amnesia: The Dark Descent. However, I myself and many horror enthusiasts consider it one of the best in the hide'n'sneak horror genre and solves various issues the subgenre has even to this day despite coming far before, including issues with pacing, dullness of hiding, variety in gameplay, and other things through interesting design elements I will not spoil here, but know if your response is to be turned off by hide'n'sneak horror as a concept you may be pleasantly surprised here. It also has various elements of old-school horror games in it partially probably due to the era it released it (FYI, the original game released two weeks before Silent Hill 2), including inventory management, limited saving, and adventure game elements.
The game also had quite a reputation for its atmosphere and how it handled its horror with difficulty levels, which brings us to...
White Day has a rather genius system when it comes to difficulty levels which extends and is expanded in its remake. There are five difficulty levels in White Day; Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Hell. Each difficulty doesn't just superficially add difficulty with more damage, but actually has some pretty drastic changes to the game. Here's a breakdown of a few elements different between the difficulty levels:
Very Easy: Various enemies, scares, and segments of the game are removed, there are tutorial messages and hints you're given to help solve puzzles and how to progress if stuck. The darkness of the game is very bright to make it much easier to see. There is an eye icon that displays when an enemy is within a pretty wide radius to let you know you're not safe, but it disappears to let you know when you are safe. There is a surplus of supplies, and the AI of the janitor is made stupider. You also have almost infinite stamina, but some endings are unobtainable.
Easy: Similar to Very Easy, but there's no more eye icon to let you know when you're safe or not, the supplies are still plentiful but not quite as much as Very Easy, and one enemy that was cut from Very Easy is put back in to Easy and above.
Normal: The normal difficulty of the game. The AI is set to moderate difficulty for the janitors, various enemies cut from the Easy difficulties are implemented back in, there is no longer any hints given in gameplay, the game is a bit darker and not as easy to see in, and some segments cut from Very Easy/Easy are put back in to normal. There's also access in this difficulty and above to some optional side content in the game. Stamina is put to normal.
Hard: The AI is set to hard difficulty to be much more intelligent and observant, there are some new enemies and hidden scenes and scares not in Normal difficulty or below, there's new story notes you can find to learn more about the lore and background of the game, and supplies are very limited.
Hell: This difficulty is an unlockable. The AI is set to an even crueler level for the game, you lose the ability to save the game, but there's new hidden items, including collection items to unlock costumes and such in this difficulty.
In general, more stuff becomes available the higher difficulty you play on, but there's also greater risk. They made the easier difficulties more accessible and digestible for more casual audiences who just want to play for story and atmosphere rather than the full challenge, but give more scares, story, scenarios, and things to uncover for those who want to take on the challenge.
Outside of these difficulty level options, the game also has the following features in terms of replayability:
-The remake has 9 endings.
-There are 2-3 'paths' you can take in the game, some early game choices put you on a different 'route' through the game. Which route you take will change cutscenes, gameplay scenarios, and change item location and objectives slightly.
-In the remake, the puzzles have several variations and randomization so you won't always have the answer from the last playthrough.
-There are various randomized events in the game, though many are locked until normal difficulty and higher. These are to ensure that different playthroughs may never quite be the same and there may be surprises in store.
-The game has hidden scenes, ghosts, unlockables, and more to uncover as well.
A feature of the original game is there's various dialogue branches when you converse with other characters.
This is the 'final' version of the remake, there is new content in this than from both the original 2001 game and the mobile remake. To mention, here are some elements which are new from both previous versions of the game:
-There is a new character with new story path/scenes and involvement in it, her name is Yoo Ji-min. Her route is accessible after getting one of the endings in the game that let you access the Labyrinth.
-With the above new path, there's two new endings with new content attached to them.
-There is some new locations.
-There are new ghosts.
-The graphics have been improved for this version of the remake from mobile.
-The Hidden Ghost have been altered and changed locations since the mobile release.
-There are new unlockables (plus support past release which has added even more since release).
-There apparently are some other surprises in the PC/PS4 remake for those who've played the original/mobile remake as well.
The full extent is not known yet, but if you've played a previous version and wonder if there's something new here for you, the answer is a resounding yes.
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A lot of the game is best experienced going through it yourself, it's certainly not flawless and I think this is a game some older horror game fans may enjoy than casual audiences due to it having various things in common with older horror games some audiences may find 'archaic' (though this very element is what some horror fans actually want). The mobile release found some success, and I'm hoping this game will get more attention with this remake's release. To see how people view it to the original, and see how new players think of the game as it is a remake of a 16-year old game now, and does have some rather old-school design decisions.
Also, if you don't get the name, White Day is the name of a holiday in Korea/Japan that's like Valentine's Day. In those countries, Valentine's Day is for girls to give boys chocolate, while White Day is for boys to give girls chocolate.
