Dead By Daylight’s Junji Ito Collab Should Be the Spark that Starts a Fire

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 7, 2024 37 Views 7 Min Read
Dead by Daylight's Junji Ito's Collection Explained



Dead by Daylight has built up an impressive library of collaborations over the years, with its array of killers and survivors now serving as a crossover point for many iconic horror franchises. It’s no longer as easy to surprise players with character reveals now that everyone from Halloween‘s Michael Myers to Silent Hill‘s Pyramid Head have appeared in the game, but a recent skin reveal has still managed to subvert expectations.




Slated to release in early 2025, a set of skins based on several works of Junji Ito will be coming to Dead by Deadlight. While these aren’t entirely new playable characters, the attention to detail they’ve been shown to have could mark a milestone in adapting horror manga into gaming. With the untapped potential of efforts based on Junji Ito’s creations being made more obvious by the mixed reception to the recent Uzumaki anime, horror video games might be a more ideal platform for capturing their essence.

Ghostface from Mortal Kombat 1 and Dead by Daylight

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The Presence of Junji Ito’s Works in Dead by Daylight Will Set a New Precedent

Appearing in DBD Reaffirms the Status of Ito’s Characters Among Other Horror Icons

The fact that characters like Tomie and Souichi Tsuji will be sharing the stage with other antagonists from famous films and landmark horror games underscores their growing popularity. In terms of bringing an art style that can be infamously hard to adapt into 3D with these new skins, Dead by Deadlight‘s Junji Ito collaboration demonstrates the unsettling resonance of these designs when they are kept faithful to their source material.


Making Up for the Lost Hope of Past Silent HillRumors

After the ambitious Hideo Kojima project Silent Hills was canceled despite P.T.‘s hype, speculation that Junji Ito would have been involved in the project heightened the sense of disappointment. It was later confirmed that he never had a concrete tie to the game, which was seemingly still in early development, but the upcoming DBD skins seem to indicate that his style is still suited for the medium.

The Stories of Junji Ito Could Support Entire Survival Horror Experiences of Their Own

Redeeming the Likes of Uzumaki After Previous Lackluster Adaptations

The terrifying quality of Ito’s work is evident in print, but attempts at bringing them to other media forms have often been criticized for failing to convey the same depth of horror. Although it began with a strong first episode, the Uzumaki anime saw a sharp decline in production fidelity and reception, following the example of the poorly received Junji Ito Collection. Video games, however, may not suffer from the same difficulties of translating Junji Ito manga into animation. If a character like Miss Fuchi can manage to be comparably menacing while fully modeled and in color, the potential for experimenting with these scary designs can extend far beyond cosmetic skins.


Varying Opportunities for Horror Subgenres

A handful of franchises notably dominate the relatively niche survival horror space, but the many manga stories of Junji Ito can offer inspiration outside that formula alone. Different takes on horror gameplay that could be possible with this diverse source material include:

  • Uzumaki, Hellstar Remina – These cosmic horror stories could serve as settings for role-playing adventures like Call of Cthulhu.
  • Gyo, The Hanging Balloons – The epidemics that create the nightmarish scenarios of these stories offer the chance for action horror involving mobs of enemies.
  • Tomie – Series like Resident Evil and The Evil Within have showcased the scares of body horror similar to the disturbing anthology featuring the titular regenerative entity in gaming.
  • The Enigma of Amigara Fault, The Human Chair – These more self-contained psychological horror tales could be made into narrative-driven thriller games based around environmental storytelling.

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