Headache, an abandoned museum exploration horror game, is coming to Steam Nov. 19

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-11-18 18:50 (JST)
Translated by. Ryuki Ishii

Independent Japanese developer MONZEN officially announced their new horror game Headache (頭痛). It will come out on November 19 PST for PC (via Steam) as a free download. The game only supports Japanese.

Headache is a first-person horror game set in an abandoned museum in Japan. Players will explore the building to uncover the mystery behind the infamous museum that was closed more than 20 years ago due to a series of complaints made by visitors who fell ill at the locale. The protagonist is there to look for a missing person, and judging from the trailer, they will encounter a number of supernatural occurrences while searching the place for clues.

More details about the game can be found in the trailers above. It looks like the museum was built to archive and preserve historical records of an abandoned village called Fukanemura, which was discovered in the 1960s. The museum displays some interesting materials, including relics of a clinic/pharmacy that had existed since the Edo period (17^th ~ 19^th century). It is said to have attracted many visitors for its peculiar concept, but its reputation withered after the aforementioned incidents.

There are five endings in total, and you’ll reach a different outcome depending on your actions. Some endings will uncover more details about the museum’s mystery than others. There’s no game over state in this game, and once something bad happens to you, the game transitions to one of the endings. You can skip the beginning portion of the game from the second playthrough onward, so it’s easy to replay and seek other endings.

The game is being developed by MONZEN, a university student living in Japan. MONZEN previously released a horror adventure game called Singularity World in July of this year (related article). Headache will be their second game to release in 2021, and it is set to launch on November 19 (PST) for Steam. It is planned to launch on the Japanese free game distribution site Freem! as well.