Last year one of the highlight of PAX East proved to be World of Horror. The role-playing roguelike horror title appeared on Steam in early access in 2020 and has only grown in popularity since. Last year, publisher Ysbryd Games showcased two chapters in the game that have since gotten added to the Steam version. Now, the developer has added even more content and the title will arrive finished this summer.
So what has changed since last year? World of Horror has a console build in preparation for its release on consoles in addition to PC. It has new mysteries and new old gods—overarching adversaries that affect a given run. As a roguelike, each run consists of five randomly generated mysteries drawn from a pool of many, many more.
New additions also include cosmetic changes. The game has a whole bunch of color palettes now. For my play through I went with the blood moon one, a creepy mix of red and black visuals. There’s also an option for a one-bit and two-bit mode, with the latter adding more shadows to the display.
World of Horror will come complete with a default story mode and an endless mode. The default story mode will resolve upon completion while the endless mode will let players see how long they can survive solving mystery after mystery. As such, many of the mysteries involve combat. During combat sections, players can use weapons to fight monsters, cast spells learned in the library, or attempt rituals involving a combination of bowing and clapping in a set order.
That said, during a normal run, it’s possible to find one or two endings that don’t involve combat. Back in the house area, players can go to the mystery select screen to see how many endings each mystery has and how many they have yet to experience—denoted by question marks. Complete a mystery and the ending will get added to an encyclopedia. Fail a run and you’ll have to start over.
That said, even failing a run provides useful information. Failed runs will still add enemy info to the encyclopedia, one of the only aspects to carry over between runs. And World of Horror contains well over 100 unique enemies, so this information should prove valuable.
In booting up the final game, players will be able to choose between a tutorial mode, an “extracurricular” mode, a randomized mode, and a custom mode. The randomized mode will put in a random set of mysteries while the custom mode will allow players to pick and choose those they encounter during a run. And as they play, characters and old gods will unlock. The spider god, for example, prevents players from running away from battle encounters.
During my playthrough this year at PAX East, I encountered everything from headless mannequins to creepy fisherman. Unsurprisingly, World of Horror has both subtle and over references to the works of Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft. But you don’t have to go alone. The game now has allies that players can recruit in the schoolyard to aid them ever so slightly in their journeys.
It’s not often I get to see a game in two different states of completion from one year to another. But based on how the latest build of World of Horror has only expanded on an already intriguing game, I’m excited for the full release this summer. World of Horror will arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.
