Kodansha Creators Lab published the indie game BAN: The Prologue of GUCHA GUCHA on Steam on October 24. The title was developed by VTuber, music producer and solo game developer Ichimatsu Suzuka, whom AUTOMATON recently had the opportunity to talk to.

Ban: The Prologue of Gucha Gucha is a third-person horror adventure that boasts a retro Japanese setting and surreal, gory graphics. You play as college girl Shoko Yuki who, after being attacked by a strange monster and losing her dog, gets entangled in the events of a town with a cruel and horrifying history.

Ichimatsu has previously released successful indie horror titles like GOHOME and YASO: curse of soirée, and their latest game is the first part of a new trilogy – the Gucha Gucha series.

Talking to AUTOMATON, Ichimatsu says that their goal for Gucha Gucha’s prologue is to have players feel the beauty in scary things. In fact, they even say that the game’s gory and grotesque visuals are not in the function of creating horror – but rather the opposite. The horror genre lent itself to the aesthetic and worldview that they aspired to create.

“No matter how beautiful I find the things I make, I know that people who like this kind of thing are in the minority, so I thought it would be more easily accepted if I delivered it in the form of a horror game. Rather than wanting to scare people and gross them out with gore, I want to deliver my creation to a target audience that will accept and like it.”

But aside from its gory visuals, BAN: The Prologue of GUCHA GUCHA includes equal amounts of suspense and thrills – with the first half of the game being dedicated to building tension and foreshadowing that something bad is about to happen. In the latter half, players are chased by a terrifying killer. The game can also be enjoyed without gore in its safe mode, or toned down in its low poly “Retro Mode.”

BAN: The Prologue of GUCHA GUCHA is available for the PC (Steam).