Walk, Kazumi Games Studios’ anticipated PS1-style horror game, may be getting a full game announcement soon

Japanese indie dev Kazumi Games Studios has suddenly started dropping more posts about their nostalgically creepy horror adventure game Walk. The game has been in development for over 3 years and previously received a playable demo.  

After being silent on their X account since March 2023, Kazumi Studios suddenly started adding more posts about the game this November. This suggests that we may get an announcement about the full game’s release soon. 

Titled Sanpo in Japanese, Walk is an old school horror game in which you play as a Japanese elementary school girl who has to get home before nightfall. Played out against grainy, videotape-like images of suburban neighborhoods, it plays like an adventure game in which you must pick up items, solve puzzles and stay hidden from a tall, crow-like creature with a grinning white face.   

The game combines the low-res, compressed aesthetic of early 90s FMV horror titles like Phantasmagoria or The 7th Guest with the creepy atmosphere and fixed camera angles of iconic PlayStation 1 Japanese horror titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil.  

Walk was one of the games featured in the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc 2021– a sampler of free PS1-style indie games that are playable on PC. Offering about 30 minutes of gameplay, the demo received positive feedback, with commenters eager to see a fuller, more fleshed out version. Kazumi Studios planned to run a Kickstarter for the game back in April 2021- with aims to add spoken dialogue, lengthen the story and add inventory management mechanics. At this time, it was announced that the game would eventually be released on PC, Mac, Linux and consoles. 

With the recent increase in posts about Walk on both Kazumi Games Studios’ X and Bluesky accounts, it seems that Kazumi Studios is gearing up to make an announcement about this anticipated indie horror soon- so watch this space. 

Verity Townsend
Verity Townsend

Automaton West Editor and translator. She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. Aims to keep Automaton fresh and interesting with a wide variety of articles.

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