Okaeri

This game contains serious themes in which some may find sensitive towards. This includes: suicide, death, and depression. Viewer discretion is advised.

## Okaeri

### Genre

Horror

**Okaeri | おかえり** is a VHS Japanese psychological horror game developed by Chilla's Art and published by Chilla's Art. It was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows on September 7, 2019.

## Sypnosis

Okaeri is a VHS Japanese psychological horror game about a junior-high school student who is returning back home. She and her mother had recently moved into to a new house, so things will be very different for the two. A new life, new town, new friends, things may go well here...right?

## Gameplay

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YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

The game starts with a junior-high school student, (name unknown), who is returning home from school. She and her single mother had recently moved into a new town and is trying to remember where her home is. In the neighborhood, are many different small houses that all look the same. With most areas leading to dead ends or leading the protagonist to go back in circles. Crows are also seen circling around the area, and no one is in sight to help.

*Tip: This is how to get back home:*

At the start of the game, walk straight and then turn right. After walking a bit, take a left. Upon walking on this path, you will notice a narrow passageway on the left. This is where the protagonist's home is.

Upon arriving back home, she calls out to her mother that she's home, but gets no response. This doesn't concern the protagonist, so she decides to look around her new home for a bit. Though most of the rooms are locked, both upstairs and downstairs. Moving boxes are also scattered everywhere in the house as they haven't finished unpacking. But after trying to open the doors upstairs, she hears the sound of a door creakingly open somewhere in the house. Turns out the door leading to the kitchen and the living room had opened. The protagonist assumes that it's her mom and decides to head into the kitchen. But no one is there, so the protagonist assumes she is imagining things and decides to look around for her mother. She comments in the kitchen that she has to clean up some of the mess. In the living room, she looks at a picture of her mother to which she claims that her mother hasn't been feeling so well. On a bulletin board right next to it, she points out that it's been a week since they moved into their new house. Then she looks at the TV and questions when was the last time she watched TV. Since her mother isn't in the living room nor the kitchen, she opens the folding door behind the couch to see if her mom is in the tatami room. But she isn't, but upon checking the closet in the room, the only thing she could find is a stray cat! Since her mother is not in the tatami room either, she decides to leave the room and head back to the front door. Only to hear the sound of loud stomping coming from upstairs!

The protagonist decides to head upstairs to investigate the noise, but she doesn't find anyone upstairs. But the door leading to her room is now open, so she decides to head there next. She grabs a flashlight from her desk as it has gotten dark now and decides to continue investigating her house for her mom. Upon looking in her mother's room (across from the protagonist's room) she finds a wooden chest on a shelf. Since it's locked, she needs a combination in order to unlock it. Exploring around the other rooms, (which have all been unlocked), she can find the combination number written on the walls in the house in kanji. In the guest room, the protagonist can find the combination order on a piece of paper in which the numbers much be arranged. The paper reads:

* Kettle
* Toilet
* Tatami
* Storage
* My room (mother's bedroom)

Upon exploring the house for the numbers, the protagonist hears a pair of footsteps coming from somewhere in the house, and when she goes into the kitchen/living room, the entire living room had unexpectedly been flipped upside down! And even when she explores the tatami room, she hears the sound of something rustling in the house, like objects and papers being moved. (Which was later revealed that papers are now scattered around the floor by the stairs). However, the protagonist doesn't react to them and decide to focus on finding the numbers for the chest.

In the room with the red kettle, (the room adjacent to the guest room), the number 4 (四) is written on the small table. In the bathroom, (downstairs next to the laundry room and the kitchen) the number 2 (二) is written on the wall. In the tatami room, she discovers in the closet that it's empty and the stray cat is gone. But she does find the number 9 (九) written on the closet wall. In the storage closet, (next to the tatami room), she finds the number 7 (七) written in the closet. Finally, the number 7 (七) is also written inside the mother's bedroom. Thus, giving the combination: **4, 2, 9, 7, 7**.

Now knowing this, the protagonist can finally open the wooden box inside her mother's room. She discovers that inside the box are a bunch of papers that shows that she and her mother are unfortunately in debt! After examining the papers, she hears the sound of a loud bang coming from somewhere inside the house. The protagonist heads back downstairs and notices that laundry room is opened. And there, she discovers something...her mother...hanging on a noose on the laundry room light. Her eyes crying with blood. The protagonist, completely shocked by what her mother did, is completely at a loss of words and starts shaking. She also notices a suicide note on the sink and reads it...

## Ending

Four hours after discovering the body of her mother. The protagonist is now in a forest in the middle of nowhere. She proceeds to walk down a dirtied path and notices a temple with a pre-made noose hanging on there. Because the protagonist has nothing left in life to live for as both her mother is now gone and that she is now in debt. She has no choice but to take her own life. The sound of the rope swaying in the wind can be heard as the "The End" card displays on screen.

## Controls

* WASD - Move the protagonist around.
* Mouse - Look Around.
* E-Button - Interact.

## Characters

* **Protagonist** - A junior high school student (name unknown) who arrives back home from a long day at school. She and her mother moved into a new house a week prior to the events of the game, most likely due to the ongoing debt that she and her mother have inherited. (Unbeknownst to the protagonist). Not much is known about her personality, but it likely she is simply an average person. She unfortunately kills herself in a forest at the end of the game after discovering that her mother killed herself as she no longer has anything left in life that is worth living and that she was now in debt.
* **Protagonist's mother** - The single mother of the protagonist (name unknown) who unfortunately was in debt. She kept her debt in secret in fear of how her daughter would react in the hopes that things will get better. Unfortunately, her hiding her feelings caused a whirlwind of emotions, which ultimately led to her taking her own life only a week after she and her daughter moved into a new house. After her daughter discovers her body in the laundry room, she follows the same path as her mother.

## Trivia

* This is one of the few games where it doesn't end well for the protagonist.
* This is one of the few games where only one ending occurs.
* This game is amongst the several Chilla's Art games to have the smallest number of characters within the game.
* The term "Okaeri" is the shortened version of the interjection, “okaerinasai”. Which means "Welcome Home" or "Welcome Back" in Japanese.
	+ This is fitting as the protagonist arrives back home from school.
* The crows that appear at the beginning of the game is commonly symbolized with death.
	+ This is a foreshadow, as the protagonist later finds out that her mother has taken her own life. And later she does too.
* While the forest in the game is not specified, it is implied by some fans to be the "Aokigahara Forest", a.k.a "The Sea of Trees". But most infamously known as The Suicide Forest. A forest located near the outskirts of Mt. Fuji, where it is known for a mass number of suicides that happen every year.
* Interacting with the mirror in the house will have the protagonist jokingly say the infamous quote from the Evil Queen from the movie Snow White: "Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who's the fairest of them all?"
	+ Doing so will also grant the player an achievement.