BrokenLore: DON’T LIE Continues A Fascinating Horror Anthology
Serafini Productions, a Japanese company, comes with a lot of ambition. They aim to release eight games in the BrokenLore anthology, and five have now launched on Xbox. What is even more remarkable is that, unlike modern game development, where some games can take years to come to market, these games have been arriving on Xbox over just the last few years.
They are first-person psychological narrative adventures that explore modern-day mental health problems through folklore. In each game, we follow a different protagonist, but similar villains and heroes pop up throughout the series. The latest is BrokenLore: DON’T LIE.
I like these games a lot, having reviewed a couple of them already – BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW and BrokenLore: FOLLOW.
Junko’s Story Takes A Dark Turn
In DON’T LIE, you play Junko, who has a connection to one of the BrokenLore games I haven’t played, DON’T WATCH. The game starts in a small apartment, with a video game – Fantasy Boy – and as you progress through the platformer, Junko’s voiceover gives us an idea of her mental state. She is isolated in her apartment and lonely. As such she tries to reach out to supposed friends she met at a treatment centre while dealing with her issues. Junko was a habitual liar as a child, and when a strange, rabbit-mask-wearing figure appears at her door, things go from bad to worse…
The story is one that is, at times, hard to grasp, while in other moments it lays all its cards on the table, however, I like the way the game deals with modern day mental health issues. It’s about isolation, but Junko also has a relationship with her chatbot, which, in the nature of a horror experience, turns into something more demonic. Like the others in the series, it’s a game that relies heavily on environmental storytelling, putting you in liminal spaces, mixing personal horror and memories with actual monsters hunting you. I think it works brilliantly.
A Clever Game Within A Game
BrokenLore: DON’T LIE starts with you playing an actual 2D platformer, Fantasy Boy, which looks like it is coming to Steam and PlayStation a bit down the line. This is a fun beginning, and playing games within a game is always a good move.
But later on, the game does something clever where the actual characters, swords and enemies from the platformer appear in the real 3D world. It’s a great example of how the makers use horror in a strange and original way.
Surreal Horror And Nightmare Worlds
It’s played from a first-person perspective, and you will be exploring some very strange nightmare places. It has that ‘Backrooms liminal-space’ feel to many of the locations, like an underground station that doesn’t quite make sense in terms of its layout. Then there are nightmare sections where giant balloons appear to follow and chase you. Giant eyes also pop-up in huge walls, and you have to avoid their gaze.
As you would expect, you can die in DON’T LIE, and there are many ways to do so. At one point, you have to avoid giant medicine pills raining down from the sky, and if you get hit by one, it’s game over. In another sequence, you are walking across a coloured grid, where one colour will suddenly disappear and you have to quickly move to safety. You get your sword from the platform game, and there are some basic fights against monsters. And puzzle-solving is involved as well, but it isn’t overly complicated and is fun to work through.
Excellent World-Building And Audio
Visually, the game does a brilliant job with its world-building. The apartment itself is a perfect reconstruction of a compact Japanese flat. But it’s when the world moves into the more surreal and abstract landscapes that it really comes alive. There are some brilliant nightmare scenes that are horrifically scary, but more chilling than anything, staying with you long after the game has finished. The soundtrack is pretty good throughout, from the Nintendo-style score for the Fantasy Boy game to the final pop song that belts out over the ending credits. You’ll find that the voice work is in the original Japanese with English subtitles, but it works fine.
DON’T LIE Mostly Delivers Its Horror
It’s amazing to see the turnaround for this anthology of games. There must be some kind of mad work ethic going on at Serafini in order to push out some many games in such a short space of time. Either way, I do enjoy these short horror experiences that tackle modern-day mental health issues in an interesting and informative way. Just remember, this is a horror game first and foremost, and that means it does come with some very disturbing images.
There were moments where I wanted a little more from the story and a bit more depth, but BrokenLore: DON’T LIE mostly delivers from start to finish. I can’t wait to see what’s next for the franchise.
Important Links
BrokenLore: DON’T LIE Asks How Much Of Reality You Can Trust – https://www.thexboxhub.com/brokenlore-dont-lie-asks-how-much-of-reality-you-can-trust/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/brokenlore-dont-lie/9nn0tcqrqmk6
