Closed Nightmare (known in Japanese as クローズド・ナイトメア) is a Survival Horror Visual Novel Interactive Movie game made by Nippon Ichi with Sega being in charge of its release in Asia except for South Korea, which got published under IntraGames. The game was only released in Japan and in parts of East and Southeast Asia for the Nintendo Switch and Sony Playstation 4 in July, 2018. The game's mostly made with live-action sequence and shot in FMV style.
The game starts when a young woman with amnesia named Maria Kamishiro is locked up in a building with her left arm paralyzed. Maria later gets contacted by a being named Chizuru, who informs her that she needs to engage in an experiment in order to escape from the building.
While finding an escape route, Maria encounters two men who are locked up in the same building, consisting of Eito Ginjo and Jun Yagi. The trio stumbled onto mysterious masked persons, who have been trapped in the same place. But there's one person who stalks them at certain times. And at times, Maria encounters unknown memories that may or may not be hers…
In case anyone who's playing it and doesn't understand Japanese (or Traditional Chinese/Korean subtitles), YouTuber Gab Smolders has played it and has translated it for anyone who wants to see.
Closed Nightmare contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Official news releases for the game in Japan gave more details on the characters and story.
- Choice-and-Consequence System: Like any visual novel, picking the wrong action can lead to Maria being killed at a certain place (at least most of the time) or stonewalled in the escape.
- Fake Video Camera View: The trio at one point are able to find a SD memory card, which came from a discarded vehicle dash cam. It also shows more of Maria's memories.
- Guide Dang It!: To get the true ending, you'll need a guide to help you out to avoid getting into paths that lead to a Game Over.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The reason Maria's left arm is paralyzed? Ginjo ate it. She's actually deceased and possessing Jun's wife Hitomi.
- Malevolent Masked Men: These beings stalk the trio inside the building. While some are there to give Jump Scares or to be a hardass and block their path, one of them constantly moves around and has a big bladed weapon to use. In certain paths, running into that recurring being leads to a Game Over where Maria's killed.
- Multi-Platform: Released simultaneously in 2018 for the Switch and PS4.
- Nothing Is Scarier: You're in a building that has little or no lights working. Masked persons are around and depending on what they're doing, they may kill you or at least, give you a Jump Scare. And your left arm is under the control of a supernatural being at certain times, which you have no control over. The game strongly suggests that Ginjo's real identity is that of a serial killer who hunts women at night before he lost his memory, and in the true ending there's a scene where police are called to his house by an unknown individual to find a large stash of corpses based on an anonymous tip.
- Tragic Stillbirth: The masked individual they've been following around is an older spirit form of Akari, Jun and Hitomi's daughter who died before she was born.
- Willing Channeler: Maria is deceased and riding around in Hitomi's (Jun's wife) body.
