Ikai Reviews
Ikai does a great job of incorporating Japanese folklore into a claustrophobic psychological horror, with some smart puzzles throughout.
Ikai is a first-person horror adventure that provides an interesting starting point to understand a little more about the figures we continually encounter in ancient Japanese culture.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Ikai is a first-person psychological horror game that isn't so much scary as it is confounding. It wastes its effectively chilling setting by simply getting you lost in it. You'll be annoyed more often than frightened, confused more often than entertained.
Great sound design and solid atmosphere hampered by subpar English localization and some obtuse puzzles.
Ikai is a wonderful entry into the psychological horror genre. The story is intriguing and beautiful in its own way. The spooky music kept me feeling on edge, giving away no hint of any looming dangers, adding that much more to my sense of unease. I just wish there had been more of it.
Ikai's interesting setting and unsettling atmosphere are let down by its clunky gameplay, mundane and repetitive structure, and several technical issues.
Ikai had a great first half with great pacing and providing enough mystery and heart-racing moments but fizzled out by the end.
Even about 3.5 hours in (admittedly, a pretty short length), the ending felt rushed, confusing, and underwhelming. Maybe others will be able to puzzle out some of the finer details in the plot, but there were far too many details left unspoken for and strange plot holes that left me somewhat upset and disappointed. I wanted to love Ikai, and there were some parts of it that I was really fond of, but by the end, I felt cheated. It’s not necessarily a bad game, but I wouldn’t put it up there with any of my top favorites in recent years.
Ikai pays tribute to Japanese folklore and delivers a faithful representation of feudal era. Nevertheless, is seems like a game that comes out from a couple of generations ago.
Review in Italian | Read full review
An independent horror from feudal Japan offers a view of exotic folklore full of bizarre ghosts. But it doesn't contain anything we haven't encountered many times before in other games.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Ikai smells a bit like the atmosphere of Fatal Frame, but the interesting ideas and emphasis on Japanese folklore pale a little with a visible to the naked eye, limited budget. For fans of the topic, however, it can be an interesting experience.
Review in Polish | Read full review
While Ikai’s a missed opportunity, it’s not one that necessarily should be missed. It’s not overlong, has some vivid imagery, and while the puzzles are almost laughable at times for how out of place they are, the actual design of them remains interesting right throughout. I’m glad I played Ikai, but I doubt I’ll play it again.
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't necessarily a bad game, but I'd strongly suggest playing it elsewhere if possible.
We take a look at Ikai, a new indie horror title from Spain's Endflame studio, featuring themes of Japanese mythology into some first-person horror
Joining a number of other titles that have put themselves into the psychological horror category on Switch, Ikai is at least consistent with many of them in terms of overall quality...
It’s not very often I get sent physical copies of stuff, so you can imagine my joy when I was offered a physical copy of Ikai to review. Having not known anything about it, knowing nothing of its form or function, I was happy to give it a bash. Unfortunately, this is where most of my joy ended.
Ikai is a horror game with a solid atmosphere and that's its main strength. Unfortunately, its tendency to jumpscare and poorly implemented puzzles cause the game to lose its momentum. Because of this, much of the gameplay feels more like an inconvenience than essential to the experience. Even so, fans of the genre will probably enjoy it a lot.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Ikai fails to utilize its Feudal Japan setting properly and despite the potential, in the end it's just forgettable.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Ikai was a horror title I was actually really looking forward to. A game steeped in Japanese folklore in a self contained location could (and to be fair, should) have made for an absolutely terrifying and unique experience. However, it just didn’t manage to make the cut: its short runtime, generic gameplay loop and complete lack of scares resulted in a really underwhelming and, more often than not, frustrating, horror title you should avoid.