LogFAQs > #977584248

17. Omori
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erzgjfU271g

Omori is not the outright scariest game, short of a select few scenes, but it's certainly one of the most haunting, and it's another one that's very hard to talk about without ruining the suspense of it all. Omori is a very cute, very silly game full of fun and memorable characters, much in the way Undertale is (although for my money, Omori is more fun, has more memorable characters and is ultimately heavier than Undertale). I think if you like one of the two, you're almost guaranteed to like the other. Omori is a little emo guy, but Basil is sweet, and Ken is funny, and Aubrey is kind of badass, and Hero's just a great friend, and Mari. This is another one I think I played because some people on B8 were talking highly of it, and it's the kind of game I similarly felt the need to recommend to people immediately.

16. Gone Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjJ5LY6tX8

Yes, there are so many games on this list in this genre, but Gone Home was one of the first to do it and to really do it right. It's essentially the reverse of Doki Doki Literature Club. Everything about it adverstises itself as a horror game. You return home to a empty family home, with signs of life everywhere despite everybody being gone. The lights are flickering, thunder is cracking, are there are vague hints at the problems everyone has gone through. The big "twist" of the game is that, spoilers, it's not a horror game. The horror aspects are all easily explainable if you pay enough attention, it's ultimately just a game about returning home to a family that's gone through a lot of character growth while you were away. The beauty of Gone Home is that most of the game, you don't need to experience. You could by all means just skip the worldbuilding and beat the game in like 20 minutes, if you're a boring person who hates fun (and I remember when this game came out, there were a lot of people like that). The bulk of the story you learn is your sister's (one of the first LGBT-focused games to really hit the mainstream), but there's plenty you can learn about the parents too, through the subtlest details. Having such a small location let them put details everywhere. You can follow the dad's story through copies of his best-selling books, time-constraining letters from his publisher, crumpled up book pages in his trash can, and eventually, reprints of his book from a new publisher newly arrived in the garage. Characters that never appear or even have a single line manage to feel fleshed out. One of my favorite details is a note on your bedroom door from your parents, telling you to stop leaving the lights on in every room in the house... because you, the player, are of course doing that, even though doing so irl would be kind of ridiculous.