Chilla’s Art is a Japanese indie game developer that has released various horror games with retro graphic styles. Currently, they have released many horror games that successfully make players feel deep fear. Some of these Chilla’s Art games can be a recommendation for those of you who are looking for a retro horror gaming experience.
Chilla’s Art games generally combine urban legends and folklore with suspenseful situations. It uses an element of discretion, by providing a basic framework for the storyline, before giving the player the freedom to interpret the rest of the game.
The game’s clues are presented through various elements such as newspaper cuttings, symbolic items, notes from diaries, quirky character conversations, and changes in atmosphere, all of which give an idea of the theory of the story that you as a player can understand.
Of course, the developers of Chilla’s Art encourage players’ freedom to explore, but on the other hand, they also limit their audience with an ever-lurking sense of paranoia and fear.
Chilla’s Art Horror Game Recommendations
Below are some recommended horror games from developer Chilla’s Art, which is well known among streamers. These games are suitable for those of you who want to experience a new atmosphere in horror games.
12. Yuki Onna
Yuki Onna games retain the concept of ‘permanent death’ or one-time lives, but simplify the means of escape. This means that if the player fails, the game will start all over again.
This game tells the story of Jin, a child who goes missing along with two other girls. As the police search for them, you as the player find a photo showing the three children, complete with a mysterious inscription that threatens to freeze them if they don’t come.
Feeling desperate, the player decides to embark on a terrifying rescue mission to an abandoned inn in the terrible cold mountains.
11. Okaeri
Okaeri is a walking sim horror game from Chilla’s Art, which manages to create an eerie atmosphere of horror for its players.
In this game, you play a middle schooler who has just moved into a new house with his mother. When you return home at 6pm, instead of a warm welcome, you discover secrets about your family’s crushing debt and your mother’s despair that led to her suicide.
With a simple plot and no jumpscares or terror from ghosts or monsters, Okaeri manages to make us feel the nightmares and despair experienced by the main character.
10. Stigmatized Property
The next horror game from Chilla’s Art is Stigmatized Property. The story in this game is inspired by a haunted apartment room in Japan. The apartment is famous for its low rent, but it holds various murder mysteries inside.
In this horror game, you’ll enter the apartment and investigate to uncover the facts behind the mysterious murders.
9. The Caregiver
Released on April 3, 2021 by Chilla’s Art, The Caregiver takes about three hours to complete if you play at a leisurely pace. However, if you choose to play faster, you’ll only need about an hour and a half.
As the name implies, this game is a Japanese psychological thriller that requires you to find a ward where your character plays the role of a caretaker in an old house that is falling apart.
Chilla’s Art creates horror games with dark settings and a tense atmosphere. They focus on photorealistic graphics and utilize sounds, ranging from weather to creepy noises, to enhance the gaming experience. Players need to keep their cool while searching for equipment and useful items to complete the game.
8. The Radio Station
The Radio Station is a psychological horror game from Chilla’s Art that combines highly realistic 3D graphics with a VHS-style aesthetic, creating a distinctive retro atmosphere.
In this game, you play the brother of a radio host named Masaki Onikawa. You have just received news that Masaki has passed away. The police are treating the death as a suicide, but you don’t believe that at all.
You feel that something is not right on the show. Therefore, with the key you obtained from Hashimoto, you decide to head to the radio station in the mountains, where your brother works.
7. The Night Way Home
The Night Way Home is a game set in a train station, following the story of Rina, a girl who realizes many girls have gone missing. On her way home, Rina is trapped in a creepy world and faces horrible creatures that threaten her life.
While being chased by the ghost, Rina must try to return home safely. But, will she make it back safely? It all depends on your decisions as a player
Unlike many games from Chilla’s Art that are usually quick to finish, the horror game The Night Way Home takes about 3 to 4 hours to complete.
6. Missing Children
Missing Children is an adventure horror game from Chilla’s Art. The story focuses on a woman named Sato, a famous detective, who is asked by the police to help solve a mysterious case.
There are three middle school girls, Mizuki, Kanae, and Akiko, who have gone missing after running away. In their online conversations, the reason behind their escape is revealed. Now, it’s your job to find the three girls and uncover why they ran away from home.
5. Hanako
Hanako is a Japanese horror game that was released in 2020. Developed by Chilla’s Art, the game tells the story of three schoolgirls who plan to curse their classmates.
Instead of succeeding, they are trapped in the school and subjected to Hanako’s curse. The game creates a tense atmosphere with audio support such as the sound of footsteps and screams coming from a distance, which definitely adds to the fear of the players who have to escape from that place.
4. Night Delivery
Night Delivery may be one of the games from Chilla’s Art with a storyline full of mystery and enough to make players wonder. This game presents the story of a night shift worker trapped in a surreal world of horror. In addition to significant visual and artistic enhancements, the game also offers a much scarier experience.
The Night Delivery game tells the story of a courier who has to deliver packages in an apartment. However, there is one room of the apartment that is very mysterious and players are required to solve the mystery.
3. The Convenience Store
Furthermore, among the various horror games that Chilla’s Art has released, The Convenience Store is probably the most famous. Arguably, this game is what made Chilla’s Art famous.
This game tells the story of a woman who works nights in a shop, where the atmosphere is quite calm but also creepy. While guarding the shop, you’ll encounter a variety of eerie things, including a mysterious VHS tape that contains a short story about the area behind the shop.
2. Parasocial
Chilla’s Art presents a story about the dark side of a creator’s life. This Parasocial game tells the story of a steamer and Vtuber who becomes an obsessive target of his fans.
The game tells the story of Senra Nina, a vtuber who broadcasts herself in 2D animation and lives alone in a condo. Nina’s life seems ordinary like any other creator, but she has to keep her true identity a secret from fans.
Nina, a streamer, finds herself trapped in terror by a mysterious fan who invades her privacy. This figure continues to follow and interfere with her life, making Nina feel insecure and uncomfortable.
1. The Bathhouse
The Bathhouse is Chilla’s Art’s most classic horror game in Japan. While the original title is well known in the atmospheric horror genre, The Bathhouse received a major update in 2024, and the experience is now better than ever.
As a player, you work in a public bathhouse and experience a warm and humid atmosphere with the sound of dripping water and eerie Japanese cityscapes. The Bathhouse showcases the best elements of Chilla’s work, being a prime example of what fans of the indie studio love.
Those are some indie horror games from Chilla’s Art that can make players feel the tension with a very scary horror atmosphere. Well, which horror game do you dare to try?
