Underplayed Gems

Akagawa Jirou: Majo-tachi no Nemuri (1995)

Akagawa Jirou: Majo-tachi no Nemuri cover
Developer
Minato Giken
Publisher
Victor Company of Japan Ltd., Electronic Arts, Marvelous, Pack-In-Video, St. GIGA
Platforms
Satellaview, PlayStation 3, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation, PlayStation Portable, Super Famicom
Genres
Adventure, Visual Novel

How it feels

A hushed, text-driven mystery where static photographs and ambient sound build a slow, eerie sense of unease around a supernatural death.

mysterysupernaturaleerieslow-pacedatmospherictext-heavymoodyquiet tension

About

Akagawa Jirou: Majo-tachi no Nemuri ("Jirou Akagawa's The Sleep of Witches") is a visual novel adventure game with a supernatural murder mystery theme. As with Chunsoft's Sound Novel series, it features a series of static photographs with Japanese text overlaid on top. The narrative is supported by background ambient music and sound effects. The story was written by Japanese thriller author Jirou Akagawa, based on his novels Majo-tachi no Tasogare and Majo-tachi no Nagai Nemuri. It concerns an office worker who is prompted to look into the apparent suicide of a girl from his childhood after receiving a weird phone call asking for help and a vivid dream about her. He returns to the mysterious mountain shrine where she was reported to have burned to death. The game was originally released for the Super Famicom in 1995 and later saw enhanced ports for the Sony PlayStation in 1999 (with the subtitle Fukkatsusai, or "Easter") and Windows PCs in 2001 (with the subtitle Kanzenban, or "Perfect Edition").

Screenshots

Akagawa Jirou: Majo-tachi no Nemuri screenshot 1Akagawa Jirou: Majo-tachi no Nemuri screenshot 2Akagawa Jirou: Majo-tachi no Nemuri screenshot 3

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