Mad Father

Mad Father by Sen, translated by vgperson, is a classic indie horror game. I played the freeware version, but I enjoyed it so much I’d like to play the Steam version, which has updated graphics and extra puzzles.

This game is a great intro to the genre. Aya loves her father and pretends not to know that he is doing unsavory things in his basement laboratory. One night a curse descends on the household, and as she makes her way through the labyrinthine house to save her father she is confronted by his sins–often face to face. It has four endings and about two hours playtime.

Witch’s House scared the bejeezus out of me, I found the chasers incredibly unnerving, but Mad Father was just good creepy fun with occasional startle. There is one fast chaser but it didn’t rattle me too much (well, maybe a little, it took a few tries to get past her). Maybe I’ve played enough of these games to build up a tolerance to jumpscares and chasers. I consider myself a thorough player, but I only found about half the gems (needed to unlock the secret ending) so I clearly missed some things.