Forbidden Ground - Lair of Aooni -
Release date: Aug 28, 2025
Developers: HYDE, Inc.
Publishers: HYDE, Inc.
Genres: Action, Adventure
Categories: Single-player, Steam Achievements, Full controller support, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing
Supported languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese

[Game Outline] This horror adventure game is based on the motif of “Ao-oni” and is set in an abandoned school that still retains the atmosphere of the Showa period (1926-1989). The player controls Himari, the main character, and Komari, a Japanese doll inhabited by a grudge spirit, as they search for their estranged family and classmates in the school, where blue demons roam. The past memoirs and records obtained in the school will reveal the horrific events that took place here in the past, and Himari and Komari will escape from the approaching blue demons and rescue everyone. Can Himari and Komari escape the approaching blue demons and rescue everyone in the end? ...... [Story] In search of their missing parents, the children visit a place called 'no-footprints land. This is the abandoned school “Koshiwa Elementary School,” which emerged from the bottom of a dam that dried up due to the dry season over the past few years. This area once had a sad history of sinking to the bottom of the water along with the construction of the dam. One day, some children enter the abandoned school and are drawn there by the sight of their parents who have never returned. One of them, Himari, stepped off the collapsed rubble and fell, and when she woke up, she was paralyzed and unable to move. When she opened her eyes in the darkness of the school, she found a Japanese doll speaking to her. Who are you? After this encounter, Himari and the Japanese doll “Komari,” in which a grudge spirit resides, wander around an abandoned school where the awe-inspiring “Blue Demon” roams. The adults who have disappeared, records of the past scattered around the abandoned school, the existence of the Blue Demon, there is something about this place. ...... Searching for their missing classmates, “Himari” and “Komari” begin their mission to escape.