DeVuego

Yuppie Psycho was a great game when it launched in 2019 and still is now. The Executive Edition successfully enhances the base game with an even more enjoyable story and gameplay content. Considering how this content has been added completely for free, there’s really no reason to not revisit Sintracorp, and even less of a reason for new players to abstain from purchasing.

All in all, Post Trauma is a commendable effort from a small indie studio that seeks to recall a golden age of survival horror, but it needs a little work around the edges to make this as great of an experience as it feels it could be. Even after it’s fixed, it’s not going to change the genre in any way, but may stand as a strong example of how to evoke the style of the era in a way that does it justice.

Calendula could have sufficed simply as an odd game within a game, an interactive creepypasta, but its narrative closes with an odd turn that feels a bit ostentatious. This doesn’t negatively affect the experience as a whole, but it did come out of left field as if the team wanted to wrap the game up with a suggestion that it’s all an allegory for something. If so, the puzzles may not have, but the symbolism went over my head. Perhaps it’s all in the name – Calendula – and has a cultural or historical significance I’m not aware of.

Overall, Ikai doesn’t provide much we haven’t seen in the first-person horror genre and falls flat at many things it tries to do, on top of having a lot of severe performance issues across the board. While many hardcore horror fans and lovers of feudal Japan aesthetics might have a good time for its short running time, it’s not easy to recommend this to anyone, especially at $35 for physical version. This might be one to wait for a sale or until all the issues are ironed out before delving in.