Video Game / From Next Door

A retro-style horror game, created by SpaceZeta with RPG Maker VX Ace. It was first released in 2016 for a Pixel Horror Jam and can be downloaded here. It is inspired by the works of Japanese horror creator Junji Ito.

Namie Matsuda is a young woman who has just moved into a new house, which is unusual in a number of ways; it was surprisingly cheap for the size and location, and was swiftly vacated by the previous tenant, who left most of his belongings behind and an upstairs window overlooking the neighbouring house boarded shut. It soon turns out there's a very good reason for that. As the days pass, Namie finds strange things beginning to happen and it all seems to originate from the house next door...

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From Next Door contains examples of:

• Aerosol Flamethrower: Namie can wield one to hold off the creature and burn away the black substance blocking her front door. It does cause the house to catch fire as well, though.
• Agent Scully: Namie tries hard to rationalize the weird goings-on; even after she sees the creature clearly and gets chased by it, she attempts to chalk it up to her imagining things after she hit her head. In all but one of the endings, she ultimately accepts that there is something bizarre happening with no clear rational explanation.
• Apocalyptic Log: Namie can find diary entries from the previous tenant revealing more of the backstory. Sen became aware of strange things about the house next door and began researching the house, which caused problems with his girlfriend. She then vanished without a trace, with Sen being convinced she was taken by the creature in the house. Sen quickly vacated the house, leaving behind all his research notes for the next tenant.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In one ending, the creature succeeds in capturing Namie and dragging her over to its lair.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Both of the good endings, although one leans slightly more positive.
    • In one ending, Namie is assumed to be having a breakdown and must attend mandatory therapy for burning down her house and talking about monsters; she even starts to believe she could've imagined it all. When she returns to her old neighbourhood though, she glimpses the creature in the window and realizes it was true. That said, she at least escaped with her life, although the next tenants may not be so fortunate.
    • The other ending is much the same, save for the fact Namie isn't convinced she's crazy because her mother and Omura back up her story about a creature getting into the house. She is charged with reckless behaviour because the fire could've endangered her neighbours, but otherwise gets out unscathed (her contract with the housing company is nullified too, but she doesn't care because, well, there's a freaking Humanoid Abomination living next door). She ends up contacting Sen again telling him he was right, so it's possible they may be able to reach out to one another and cope with their experience together. Omura also comes to believe Namie's story about the house next door, so he might be able to warn other tenants.
  • One bad ending could be seen as this, though with heavy emphasis on the bitter. Namie is killed when the creature prevents her from escaping the burning house, but she seemingly kills the creature too.
• Downer Ending: The ending where the creature abducts Namie, claiming yet another victim with no one but Daisuke Sen knowing the truth (and he's all but powerless to intervene).
• Dramatic Slip: As Namie is fleeing from the house after she sees the creature for the first time, she trips running out the front door and hits her head on the pavement, falling unconscious.
• Eldritch Location: There's something off about the house next door; it looks similar to the other houses in the neighborhood, but there are no windows save for one on the side, directly facing the window of the house beside it. No one is ever seen coming in and out, leading some people to assume the house is empty, although Namie sees lights inside. In one ending, when Omura knocks on the door, it swings open to reveal a blank wall. It's implied the building is just supposed to look like a normal house enough to blend in and avoid suspicion, though it's still visibly uncanny.
• Enter Stage Window: It's revealed that the reason the tatami room window was boarded up is because that's how the creature from next door enters the house… and how it takes out those it abducts.
• Foreshadowing: Early on, Namie can comment on how her dad used to use a lighter and deodorant can to create a flamethrower to get rid of bugs. Namie can do the same thing to deal with the creature.
• Genre Blindness: Namie gets a fair bit of this. She signs a tenancy agreement to a house that's suspiciously cheap for its size and location, and only starts to wonder if there's something wrong with the place after she moves in. She also doesn't seem to consider there might be a good reason the tatami room window was boarded up until after she's taken the boards down.
• The Ghost: All the characters save for Namie and Honae. The player can talk with them over the phone or email with them, but they otherwise don't physically appear. A slight exception is Omura in one of the endings, though as it's using first-person perspective we don't see him.
• The Hero Dies:
  • In one of the bad endings, Namie dies in a house fire trying to stop the creature.
  • In another bad ending, she's taken by the creature and it's not clear what happens to her, but given that no one else taken by the creature is ever seen again her outlook is grim.
• Hope Spot: The bad endings utilize these.
  • The player successfully sets the monster on fire and Namie watches it thrashing around, setting the rest of the room on fire. Then it grabs Namie's ankle.
  • As she's being carried into the neighbouring window, Namie wakes up and grabs hold of the window frame, kicking and struggling enough to break the creature's grasp. But just as she manages to pull her torso out the window, hands seize her and drag her back inside.
• Humanoid Abomination: The creature in the house next door. It looks like a short humanoid, but is obviously not human given its flayed-looking appearance, sharp fangs and claws, animal-like footprints, the dark web-like substance it creates, and its apparent ability to unlock windows from the outside.
• Inspired by…: If you're familiar with Junji Ito's story "The Window Next Door" (also known as "The Neighbour's Window" or "The Adjacent Window"), you can tell the creator was heavily inspired by this tale in particular, although the overall plot and main threat of From Next Door differ in places.
• Jump Scare:
  • A pretty big one occurs when Namie comes face-to-face with the monster for the first time; she's looking out the open window when the monster suddenly pops its head around the frame.
  • There's another major one when the creature finds Namie hiding in the closet.
• Kill It with Fire: Deconstructed. Namie can repeatedly use her makeshift flamethrower to set the creature alight, but as it's burning, it grabs hold of Namie, trapping her and causing her to burn to death as well.
• Missing Child: Namie finds newspaper clippings in the safe (collected by Sen) revealing a young boy went missing from the house nearly ten years ago; the police found nothing to suggest he'd been abducted but his parents insisted he wouldn't run away. And then a few weeks later the parents disappeared as well. It's obvious that the creature next door was responsible.
• Monster Delay: A single playthrough takes around 50 minutes and you don't get your first glimpse of the monster from next door until you're about 20 minutes in. Things escalate from there although it takes a bit longer for the monster to be fully revealed.
• Multiple Endings: Four in total, some happier than others. They are dependent upon certain actions the player takes and items the player collects.
  • If Namie calls her mother and landlord about the creature before the last night, they will corroborate her story about some kind of animal attacking her with the police after the house burns down, so she's not thought to be insane and just gets charged with reckless behaviour.
  • If Namie doesn't tell her mother and Omura about the creature before escaping, the police don't believe her about the creature and it's assumed she's having delusions due to her head wound and a stress-related breakdown. Namie herself starts to wonder if she imagined it all, but glimpses the creature in the window when she revisits the house three months later.
  • If Namie hides in the closet without the camera, she has nothing to defend herself with and the creature successfully abducts her. Namie regains conciousness as she's pulled into the other window and tries to escape, but fails.
  • If Namie uses the flamethrower to set the creature on fire rather than just burning through the black substance on the door, the creature grabs her ankle as the fire spreads around them, killing Namie as well.
• Never a Runaway: The Son collected newspaper clippings about the disappearance of the young boy next door, who the police dismissed as a runaway despite his parents' protests. He was a victim of the creature.
• Nice Girl: Honae, the woman living in the other house next door, is a kind person who welcomes Namie to the neighbourhood and happily helps her out, such as letting her borrow a nail puller and treating Namie's head wound after finding her passed out in the street.
• Non-Standard Game Over: If Namie is injured by the creature enough times in the climax, she is knocked unconscious and we hear the sounds of the creature dragging her (presumably to the other house), brief silence, then sinister growling. It's not considered a true ending, though, as it immediately goes back to the player's previous save.
• Nothing Is Scarier: The game utilizes this quite a bit, especially given the Junji Ito influences (he frequently leaves things vague or unexplained in his stories). We never truly find out what the creature is and where it comes from, how the house came to be there and what's inside, or what the creature does with those it takes. In one ending, Omura says he doesn't think he wants to find out the truth.
• Retraux: The game's graphics and color palette are designed to resemble an old Gameboy game.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Namie realizes the previous owner, Daisuke Sen, must've left in a big hurry, to the point he left most of his belongings behind, including personal items like his ID card. Namie discovers Sen fled the house after his live-in girlfriend was taken by the creature, terrified that he would be next and unable to persuade anyone of the truth.
• The Stinger: The two good endings have short scenes that take place after the credits. One features Namie returning to the house three months later and realizing it was all true after seeing a figure in the neighbouring window; another features Omura heading over to the house to try and get to the bottom of things, but deciding to leave things well alone after finding there's no way into the house save for the second-story window.
• Wham Shot:
  • In one good ending, Omura goes to the next door house to investigate, but when he opens the front door, he finds only a wall there.
  • In one bad ending, as Namie is trying to escape from the other house, we see multiple pairs of hands grab her to pull her back inside, suggesting there's more than one creature.
• Workaholic: It's indicated that Namie is one; her boss has all but demanded she take some time off to settle into her new house, but even then she works on projects for her job between unpacking. Her mother also says she thinks Namie works too hard and chatizes her that she needs to relax. Namie initially chalks up the weird stuff at her new home to her imagining things due to work-related stress and in one ending, that's what the police and her family believe too, resulting in her being ordered to attend therapy.

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