The Caregiver

The Caregiver | 終焉介護 is a video game of investigation horror genre developed by Chilla's Art and published by Chilla's Art. It was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows on April 3, 2021.
== Synopsis ==
 The Caregiver | 終焉介護 is a psychological Japanese horror adventure game about a caregiver. 
== Gameplay ==
=== Prologue ===
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It was already dark when Sachie arrived at Souichi's house. Since no one answered the door when she knocked, she assumes the family was busy and entered herself. In the bathroom, she smells something strange. Sachie finds Souichi sitting on a wheelchair, staring out the windows unresponding. She tries to start a conversation with him, but she finds that he urinated as she talked, she then wipes it up with a folded cloth found in the bathroom. 
As she explores the house and gets rid of the garbage blocking her way to the stairs, she smells the same smell from earlier but stronger. She slides open a door to enter one of the rooms on the second floor and discovers a strange person sitting on a bloody tatami mat, making movements to get up. Sachie falls backwards onto the floor, unaware that a large incomprehensible creature stood behind her.
=== Day 1 ===
The next day, the narrative moves on to Naomi. At the front desk, Naomi is informed that due to the fact that they are short-staffed, she has to take care of Souichi, since Sachie couldn't be in charge of him anymore. Naomi reads Souichi's information on her desk and heads to his house.
* On the way to Souichi's house, you can meet a monk at a parking lot close to an ice cream store. The monk believes that Naomi has a good soul and invites her to visit the temple some time, saying that she should feel at home with the mount of conscience she has.
At Souichi's house, Naomi finds Souichi sitting in front of the irori (Japanese fireplace), he doesn't respond to any start to a conversation. She deals with various abnormalities throughout the house: a boiling kettle, a running sink, a television that had a white screen and let out deafening static sounds. After taking care of them all, a crow violently slams into the window, killing it upon impact. A paper clip can be found from the crow's beak, Naomi uses it to pick open a rusted tin box which kept a key.
The key opens a shed outside the house, it had a farm tool that Naomi used to retrieve a ladder stuck between the roof and a wall. She returns the ladder to the closet and climbs it into the messy attic, retrieving a stool. Naomi uses the stool to climb up to the window and pokes a plank off with the farm tool, as she tried to do so, she saw someone moving through the transparent bathroom door.
Souichi was sitting outside, Naomi took him back inside and helps him take a bath. In the bathroom, Naomi starts to hear quick ticking sounds and followed it outside and finds a delivered package in the mailbox as the truck was leaving. She alerts Souichi about the package and leaves it on the kitchen table. After that, Naomi takes Souichi to bed and the screen goes black.
=== Day 2 ===
Naomi is in the break room with Risako, she felt uneasy since none of Souichi's family members were home, Risako recommends Naomi to go take a look at Sachie's work diary. Naomi is also told that Sachie took a sick leave again and is suggested to visit her to see if she's doing okay.
Naomi finds Sachie's work diary (patient diary) on the front desk, which details visits to Souichi's house. 
Naomi goes to visit Sachie who lived nearby in the tallest apartment building in the area, at the entrance, an old man blocked her way and wouldn't allow her to pass until she wins a game of rock, paper, scissors. Despite winning, he still won't let her pass, he wants Naomi to give him a drug that Sachie had been getting for him. The old man wasn't able to get any more since Sachie had acted strange lately and runs off every time he asked for it.
Naomi returns to the nursing home and grab a bottle of morphine from the medicine cabinet in the office. She gives him the bottle and is now able to enter the apartment. Naomi visits Sachie who keeps saying that she's cold and agrees to Naomi's offer to make tea. Sachie still feels cold and thinks that she caught a cold. When Naomi asks about Souichi, Sachie panics and tells her to get out and that she doesn't want to get involved anymore.
Afterwards, Naomi hears Sachie scream, run out of her apartment and jump off the balcony.
=== Day 3 ===
It's raining outside and Naomi is in the break room, she walks around the nursing home but fails to find anyone. She then hurries to Souichi's house due to a bad feeling; the house was empty. 
As she explores the first floor, she sees rats crowding around a mattress, ripping it open reveals blood hidden inside of it as well as a van key. The package on the kitchen table was also open, a car jack crank was in it, Naomi uses the crank as well as a car jack she found in a broken van outside the house to force open the sliding door at the second floor. In the now open room, Naomi finds an altar sealed with red strings, a crowbar, and a bloody note.
Naomi pries open one of the tatami mats and discovers a large hole that goes down into a cave system underneath the house, there were candles lit everywhere. She finds an area blocked off with red strings, on a rock, dead crows piled into a heap as someone wearing a tengu mask was tied on a pillar. A bloody note was placed here as well.
A grandma with no eyes holding a knife starts chasing Naomi, she climbs up the ladder into the house, running away from the grandma and setting the 4 antique clocks in the house at the same time. After the clocks were set to the correct times, a box down on the first floor open, it reveals a religious dagger. Naomi stabs the person being tied on a pillar with the religious dagger and it turns out to be Souichi.
Naomi brought him of the pillar, he revealed that he was cursed the entire time and it didn't allow him to speak. A Raven was after him and using his wife to complete itself. The Raven was capable of interacting with the dead and coerced his wife's soul back to their world. The condition for the summoning was for the dead to perform the ritual on the person they loved the most.
Souichi asks Naomi to free his wife's spirit by getting his wife's bone box out of the house and thus making the Raven back away. Souichi trusted Naomi and believed in her good soul, he gave her scissors, saying that it should cut through anything. He told her the box was inside of an altar sealed with red string. As Naomi tried to leave the caves, she sees Souichi's wife kneeling on the ground with a knife lodged in her throat and blood leaving large stains on her clothes.
Naomi cuts through the red string sealing the altar and retrieves the bone box but as she leaves the room, she finds the Raven right behind her. It traps her in a dimension with unending rooms, she somehow managed to escape as the Raven chased after her. Naomi ran into the light and escaped the house, the sun had already risen.
=== Ending ===
Naomi escapes the house and runs to a temple, the monk released Souichi's wife's spirit. Naomi listened to the monk and buried the bone box in a grave. In the end, Naomi kept taking care of Souichi and days after, they went to visit the grave together. Due to the wings growing on Souichi's back, it is assumed that the Raven wasn't completely banished despite their efforts.
== Urban Legends ==
=== Karasu Tengu ===
In Japanese mythology, it is a type of yokai with avian features. Buddhism long held that the Tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forest. In the game he might have been seeking his true form, this is proven by his smoky form every time we see it. Though its most defining features did not change, a red face and a long nose, Souichi was wearing such a mask while he was tied up in the caves.
=== Vajra ===
A Hindu and Buddhist ritual weapon that legend has it was created to fight demons (lower spirits). It symbolizes the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force). Naomi used this religious dagger to free Souichi from the ritual.
== Characters ==
* Tomita Sachie (26) - She is a caregiver who took care of Souichi and later on committed suicide, influenced and driven insane by the Raven.
* Kuramoto Naomi (22)- She was thrown away and left in a tunnel in the middle of a forest when she was born, eventually found by a couple of urban explorers. Soon after, she was adopted by a welcoming family. She is now a hardworking and kindhearted caregiver who takes her job seriously every day.
* Risako - Works at the nursing home's front desk, she likes to gossip about her coworkers.
* Koga Souichi (83) - An old man who was cursed by a Raven, Sachie and then Naomi was assigned to care for him.
* Koga Haori - Already passed away, she came back to the realm of the living after being coerced by the Raven because she wanted to be with her husband.
* The Raven/Karasu Tengu - A yokai that attempted to complete itself by using Souichi's wife and possessing Souichi himself, it drove the members of Souichi's family to death one by one.
== External links ==
*The Caregiver on Steam
== Gallery ==
File:Care 1.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #1
File:Care 2.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #2
File:Care 3.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #3
File:Care 4.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #4
File:Care 5.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #5
File:Care 6.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #6
File:Care 7.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #7
File:Care 8.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #8
File:Care 9.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #9
File:Care 10.jpg|Official Picture on Steam #10
Category:Games
Category:Based off urban legends