The Best Japanese Horror Games Available On The PlayStation 5

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 12, 2025 2 Views 12 Min Read
The Best Japanese Horror Games Available On The PlayStation 5

There really is nothing quite like a good Japanese horror game. The settings always manage to feel unique, the stories are often deeply engaging slow burns, and the chills on offer from Japan’s greatest horror titles are unmatched. With so many great titles to choose from, however, it can be tough to narrow down where to start.

A traditional hannya mask sits in the center of this image, which displays a youth with white, scraggly hair, a shrine maiden holding a candle, and a ghostly pair of eyes alongside a Shinto torii gate.

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For PS5 owners who crave the J-Horror experience, look no further than these fantastic titles based in the land of the rising sun, each guaranteed to send a chill or two down your spine.

8

Ghostwire: Tokyo

It’s Spooky

Kenji Kimura’s ghostly adventure through a Tokyo ravaged by spirits and demons is going to land especially well for you if you’re a fan of action games with horror elements, such as Bioshock or System Shock. When a paranormal event takes away 99 percent of the population, the remaining 1 percent must fight to bring back what was lost.

While it does forfeit the slow, atmospheric horror of some other titles out there, Ghostwire’s variety of scares and creative twists on classic yokai make it well worth checking out, regardless.

7

The Exit 8

An Eerie Game Of Spot The Difference

Developed by indie studio Kotake Create, The Exit 8 is a hauntingly liminal trek through an endlessly looping subway station, where spotting the subtle changes in each loop and reacting appropriately to them is the difference between making it out alive and spending an eternity trapped on platform 8.

Fatal Frame Mask Of The Lunar Eclipse, Chilla's Art Bathhouse and Hollow Cocoon.

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The game’s subtle nature and unsettling atmosphere do a great job of building tension, and the eventual scares that come to relieve that tension are some of the most bizarre and terrifying we’ve seen from a Japanese horror game to date.

6

Slitterhead

The Thrilling Game From Keiichiro Toyama

Slitterhead tends to be a bit of a mixed bag for people; you’ll either love it or it will get under your skin in all the wrong ways. That being said, there’s a lot of merit to Keiichiro Toyama’s bizarre take on the walled city of Kowloon, and the game is absolutely worth trying out if you can find it used or on sale.

With gameplay based on a mix of the Forbidden Siren and Gravity Rush games, Slitterhead takes a while to get used to but can be intensely rewarding once mastered and downright nightmarish at times. If you’re a fan of weird, experimental horror, this one’s for you.

While Slitterhead doesn’t take place in Japan—the setting is the Kowloon walled city, after all—the game’s developers are Japanese, famously having worked on the Silent Hill series, so we opted to include it anyway. This will be the case for some other entries as well.

5

Clock Tower: Rewind

The Survival Horror Classic Returns

Clock Tower was among the horror genre’s earliest successes in video games. The chilling atmosphere, the terrifying scissorman, and a haunted house so filled to the brim with nightmares beyond comprehension that even the most seasoned of horror veterans can’t help but be a little caught off guard by some of the secrets hiding just beyond the curtains of the Barrows’ family manor.

Spooky smiles next to a large 'for rent' sign in front of her infamous mansion.

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The unfinished business is that it’s their turn to take the trash to the dumpster.

While for a long time, the only way to play this horror masterpiece was emulation or tracking down original hardware, Clock Tower: Rewind has brought this iconic Japanese horror title back from the dead, and it’s just as spooky as ever.

4

Ikai

Face Your Fears

Ikai is one of the most uniquely Japanese horror experiences you can get, and a lot of that is thanks to its mechanics. In forcing you to learn to draw specific Japanese characters to use as charms and wards, Ikai has crafted a horror experience like nothing else on the market.

When your uncle leaves you to take care of a sacred shrine on your own, ancient evils and violent haunts begin to pop up almost immediately. Unable to fight back in the traditional sense, your only hope is to write the correct kanji characters on sacred charms in real time to protect your sacred home from the invading darkness.

3

Fatal Frame: Mask Of The Lunar Eclipse

The Fatal Frame Series At Its Best

Fatal Frame is one of Japan’s most celebrated survival horror series, and the vibes and folklore inspirations the series is known for are just as terrifying as ever in Mask Of The Lunar Eclipse, the series’ best entry since Fatal Frame 2.

Sanae Hozuki blossoming and a Hozuki doll from Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.

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Taking control of four different characters, players navigate some of the most haunted locations in a fictionalized Japan, all while using nothing but a camera to face the horrors that dwell within. Whether you’re a long-time wielder of the camera obscura or a newcomer to the series, Fatal Frame: Mask Of The Lunar Eclipse comes highly recommended.

2

Resident Evil 4

Capcom’s Biohazard Series At Its Finest

We can’t talk about Japanese horror without at least giving some credit to Capcom’s horror titan, Resident Evil. Known as Biohazard in Japan, this series has been delighting and frightening its players since 1996, and if Resident Evil 4’s stellar PS5 remake is anything to go off of, the series isn’t going to be disappearing on us anytime soon.

Stepping into the iconic shoes of fan-favorite officer Leon Kennedy, you must fight your way through a town in rural Spain infected by las plagas—a horrific zombification and mutation disease—all in an effort to track down the US president’s kidnapped daughter, Ashley.

1

Silent Hill 2

In My Dreams, I See That Town

During 2022’s Silent Hill transmission, Konami announced the long-thought-deceased psychological horror series Silent Hill would be making a grand return. Among the games announced during that presentation was Silent Hill F, an all-new entry set in rural Japan.

While it’s been radio silent (pardon the pun) on Silent Hill F’s development since then, we have been treated to a glorious remake of Japan’s most acclaimed psychological horror game, Silent Hill 2, in the meantime. The game is just as mysterious and haunting as it always was, with the iconic Pyramid Head getting an especially terrifying glow-up. For PS5 owners interested in horror, Japanese or otherwise, Silent Hill 2 is as good as it gets.

Carved The Slit-Mouthed Woman, Ju-On The Grudge and Ringu.

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