Junko is a young girl whose traumatic experiences during her youth have caused her to withdraw from the outside world. She has become a social recluse, something that has unfortunately become increasingly common among today’s youth. Living alone in a tiny apartment, Junko spends much of her time peeking through the peephole in her front door into the dark corridor outside. However, she is trying to overcome her condition by calling someone she met at a recovery clinic. When she is rejected and suffers a panic attack, her front door suddenly opens, leading to a place that should not exist.
BrokenLore is a series of horror games that works almost like an anthology, with the individual titles connected through recurring themes, objects, and characters such as Little Anne, a living doll. This particular entry takes that concept a step further as it is part of the DON'T trilogy, with each game focusing on one of three friends who met at the same recovery clinic.
The gameplay is standard for a first person horror game, with movement and interaction making up the majority of the controls. In an effort to maintain immersion, there are no visual clues or waypoints to guide you. Instead, you have to get close to objects and look for a closed eye icon. Once you position the camera over it, the eye opens, indicating that you can press the interaction button.
But there is not much to interact with. Aside from a few objects inside Junko’s small apartment, most of the game takes place in so-called liminal spaces, consisting of huge and mostly empty locations with nothing of interest. Progression is linear, with you following a predetermined path, occasionally opening a door and listening to Junko’s comments along the way.
The game is divided into four chapters, excluding the introduction, with each chapter introducing something new. After completing a section, you return to the apartment, which serves as the transition point between chapters. Here, you learn more about the story and look through the peephole at a strange man wearing a rabbit mask before walking through the front door and entering the next chapter.
Each chapter incorporates locations, memories, and objects from Junko’s life, although they are often exaggerated. You might encounter enormous pills rolling down a staircase or a room filled with birthday balloons. The chapters also constantly shift between locations, with one door sometimes leading somewhere completely different from where you would expect.
Thankfully, the game avoids the usual collection of tedious logic puzzles involving keycodes and randomly hidden objects. The only puzzle that really stands out takes place in a playground where you have to walk across a sequence of colored tiles. For everything else, progression is straightforward.
One of the more interesting elements comes from a platforming game that Junko plays on her television between chapters. The game is not merely something you watch, as you actually get to play it. You control a knight who fights colorful and cute creatures such as bats and bears with a sword. You can collect coins, double jump, and perform air dashes to avoid enemies and obstacles. Unfortunately, you never get to finish the game because your session is always interrupted by a knock at the door.
The platforming game also has a direct influence on the chapters. This becomes particularly noticeable in the second chapter, where Junko obtains the same sword and uses it to fight the same fuzzy and cartoonish creatures inside a real life subway. Combat is quite simple because most enemies die after a single slash. You can also defend yourself and automatically recover health after a short period.
Other threats appear throughout the remaining chapters. Some involve using your phone to flash eyes while hiding behind pillars to avoid their gaze. Others require you to avoid being pushed over an edge, while there are also occasional chase and hiding sequences. Some encounters can kill you instantly, but this is not particularly frustrating thanks to the frequent checkpoints.
Another feature borrowed from the platforming game are chests. These chests contain a tablet displaying one of Junko’s questions about a particular issue in life, followed by an answer from an AI represented as an anime girl. There are generally two chests in each chapter, although one chapter is linear and does not contain any. Each chest requires a golden key, which is usually found before the chest or somewhere nearby.
This means that finding a chest without a key is usually a good reason to explore the surrounding area before progressing too far. Unfortunately, the linear structure of the game makes these collectibles very easy to miss. Sections become inaccessible once you move forward, while keys and chests are sometimes located in completely different areas.
Fortunately, once you complete the game, you can select individual chapters directly from the main menu. This makes collecting any missed chests much easier since you do not have to replay the entire game. There are still a couple of achievements that require a full playthrough, however. One asks you to complete the game without dying, while another requires you to finish it in under two hours.
The biggest issue is one that appears to affect the series as a whole: optimization. The visual quality seems to depend more on your hardware than on the graphical settings themselves. Regardless of whether I selected low or high settings, many textures remained blurry and low quality.
The darkness in some sections is another problem. Certain areas are extremely dark despite having no obvious source of illumination. This is particularly strange because Junko carries a phone that is used as a flashlight during certain sequences. Unfortunately, you cannot pull it out and use it as a flashlight whenever you want.
