Tatari: The Arrival is a demo for a horror game and it’s pretty darn rough. It doesn’t even feel like the game has reached an alpha phase and we’re just getting a look into a concept. Let’s just say there is a metric ton of jank in the demo.
Most things are a placeholder so far. The game has AI voice acting as of now until they get professionals to do the dialogue. The AI voice acting is so terrible that it turns the game into an unintentional comedy. You can turn it off but I’d actually suggest leaving it on as I personally find it funny.
Portions of the levels seem like straight up asset flips and a lot of the mechanics feel very rough. Even basic movement did not feel very good. The movement speed was too slow and there was this nauseating camera bob that was on by default.
Now this may sound terrible but thankfully the demo seems to have been made to get feedback at the earliest stage of development and the devs are making constant updates to the demo. For example, the movement speed and camera bob issue were taken care of after a few days from release.
As for the game itself, it’s essentially a combination of walking simulator and puzzle game. From what I’ve seen so far, I can sort of get what the developer’s vision is for the game. You essentially get spirited away into another realm where you explore a small, haunted Japanese village for clues to other missing people and also to find a way out.
While the game looks very unpolished, if they manage to update the graphics and feel of the game, I can imagine a very spooky atmosphere since the game is supposed to be very dark and you use a lantern to look around, sort of like the Amnesia games I suppose.
You also stumble across occasional puzzles like the wood block sliding puzzles and such. If they can create an atmosphere that’s uneasy but chill enough where you can solve puzzles at your own leisure, then I can see the potential for this game. I did find the more relaxing pace of Tatari: The Arrival a lot more palatable than the annoying mechanic of hiding from a monster that infects so many so called horror games.
The demo is very short and can be completed in around thirty minutes or so. It’s hard to say whether or not the game will turn out to be good but it’ll definitely be interesting to keep track of its development. Best of luck to the developers.
Additional Info
Steam Store Page : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2496460/Tatari_The_Arrival/
Review Score: 69% positive with a total of 123 reviews as of this writing (10/11/23)
Developer: Hidden Tower Studios
Publisher: TheGamesFortress
Release Date: Oct 3, 2023
MSRP: Free
I received a key from keymailer. Thanks to the spoopy ghost for giving me a key!
Time spent: 1.4 hours
Achievement Score: N/A (This is a concept demo)
Ducky Obrien 