Stigmatized Property isn't a surprising horror game but it's fun enough

Having recently moved in a flat with rent I still find suspiciously cheap, wee new first-person horror game Stigmatized Property feels a touch too familiar. Our pal has got swish digs in the backstreets of a Japanese city but doesn't seem to be home when we come calling, and what's up with that? Unpleasantness is what. I've enjoyed gently probing that, wandering the alleys and peeking through mystery holes. Stigmatized Property feels familiar but has a nice enough walking simulator edge that yeah, for less than two quid I'm happy with it. It introduced me to my absolute best mate, a frog plant pot.

No ghost can hurt me when I'm with my pal.

Stigmatized Property is a gentle walk-o-adventure game with mild puzzling (which comes down to looking for the next highlighted object to interact with) and it's nice enough, yeah? I like the sounds of the city living around me. I like the sight of blocks rising above the dark alleys. I am in a terrible, quiet corner of a real place, just far enough away that no one can help me. I even like the exaggerated bloom and VHS artifacting, which ghosts so hard I almost got spooked. It has some good ominous moments, though the scares are cliché. On the whole, I had a nice half-hour, and that's just fine.

Also this got me reading about Japan's "jiko bukken" properties. Hmm. Why is my flat so (relatively) cheap?

Stigmatized Property is out now on Steam with a 30% discount bringing it down £1.46/€1.67/$2.09 until Friday. It's on Itch too, without a discount. The game's made by Yasuka Taira and published by Chilla's Art.