AZUSA999note is a 1997 indie Psychological Horror Adventure Game, created by Ichiro Sogabe. It was released for the PC-98 and runs on the RPG Maker Dante98 engine. The game deals with, but is not limited to subjects like suicidal ideation.
The game starts with you, contemplating if you should commit suicide via train. You are then prompted to choose if you should.
If you decline, you walk away and the game ends right there.
If you accept, you instead find yourself in a otherworldly train with many disillusioned passengers. Prompted by a interrogative attendant, you are offered a job to check every passenger for their tickets. However... you start to find that not everything is what it seems.
Welcome to the AZUSA999.
Originally in Japanese, the game can be downloaded in English here.
AZUSA999 provides examples of:
- Afterlife Express: The eponymous train is this for those who encounter it, doubling as a Ghost Train.
- Bookends: The beginning and ending of the game start you off near the same railway, giving you the same prompt.
- Ghost Train: The train takes those who choose to end their life on a railway.
- Period Piece: Several of the train's posters suggest that the game takes place in the 1980's.
- Reality Has No Soundtrack: Most of the game is this; all you ever hear is the droning of the train's engine and the occasional horn.
- The Artifact: On the technical side, AZUSA999 runs on the RPG Maker engine: a engine normally used for RPG games. However, with the exception of some inventory usage barely anything of the RPG side is used; the game is instead what's known as a Adventure Drama Game.
