Fangirling over a video game that I probably will never play

I originally posted this on my TikTok (link) back in November 2025. Now I’m posting it here.

I’ve always enjoyed legends and urban legends. I think it started back in kindergarten when my older sister told me a story about a photo of the old principal in our school’s auditorium that would cry blood when the lights were out. Plus, it was the mid–late 90s, and TV shows about the supernatural were big back then. My sister, our friends, and I went through a phase one summer where we would borrow books about vampires, ghosts, and otherworldly creatures. We would tell each other ghost stories to creep each other out and make up games like Vampire Tag (basically freeze tag, but you could use items like a cross or garlic to stop the person who was “it” for a bit). It was a pretty good time to grow up, having your imagination run freely.

The first time I heard about Yuuyami Dōri Tankentai was through the Twilight Syndrome series. Both games have similar gameplay where you play as students trying to figure out whether the supernatural rumors you hear are true or not. With my enjoyment of urban legends and interest in the supernatural, these games were right up my alley. The downside: none of these games were translated into English. I had to wait and rely on people releasing video essays about the games.

A few days ago, Dungeon Chill released an almost five-hour video about Yuuyami Dōri Tankentai. I watched the whole thing (it took me two days), and wow… that game was an emotional roller coaster. It’s a slice-of-life story mixed with horror and supernatural themes (getting bad grades at school and dealing with bad omens). The characters were fleshed out, and I noticed the personalities of the two main female characters were similar to younger me. The ending of the game was very moving—I had to sit in silence for a bit to process the emotional whiplash from the ending and the game as a whole. Now I really wish a team would work on a fan translation.