Two years ago. Three female senior high students committed suicide by jumping off the school building. They were not being bullied in the school, so the reason for the suicide is still unknown. Since it was rare to see the group suicide, people had been taking about it for quite a long time. However after a month, people stared to forget this news and nobody talked about it anymore.
Pilgrim is an RPG Maker horror game by Kona Kona Kona Kona Kona (or Kona5), and is part of The 'Verse with Oyadori No Ko, Sukutte, and Akemi-Tan. It stars Akemi, a schoolgirl who dotes on her little sister Inago. At the school she goes to, an incident a month ago happened where three girls jumped off the top of the building and died- although it was classified as suicide, the girls showed no signs of being suicidal. While pondering this and walking with Inago one day, she comes across a little blonde girl calling herself Alice who tells Inago she will "fetch" her.
That night, a scared Inago asks to sleep in Akemi's bed. She agrees, but wakes up to find Inago gone. She finds a door into a strange castle filled with surreal monstrosities, and is told that she is in the Other World. Alice has kidnapped Inago and challenges Akemi to find her way through the seven Storeys of the castle and save her. With the help of the mysterious, blue-skinned undead Suu, Akemi must get to the top and save Inago.
Can be downloaded here
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This game contains examples of:
- Big Bad: Alice is the kidnapper of Inago who desires her soul and challenges Akemi to save her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Both endings are this.
- My Sister: Suu is killed by the Monster in Storey 5. Akemi ultimately lets Alice take her soul to spare her sister Inago, separating them forever, and wiping her out of existence. But she kills Alice and becomes the new master of the castle, then promptly becomes the new host for Alice.
- My Brother: Akemi saves Suu from the Monster in Storey 5. Suu returns the favor by sacrificing herself so Akemi and Inago can escape the castle. They are now safe and sound, but Suu is presumably wiped from everyone else's memories, and Alice is still out there continuing her work.
- Conlang: Sweellotted-ish is the written language of the Other World. Suu, having been there for two years, presumably learned to read it over time, and can read fluently in game.
- Creepy Cockroach: A swarm of realistic-looking giant cockroaches reside in Storey 1 and will kill Akemi if she takes the key from their room without placing candy in the preceding room to trap them. Subverted with the one in Storey 6 — while it has the same design, it is friendly and will not attack Akemi, instead giving her the password needed to complete Storey 6.
- Giant Spider: One with a red, human-ish face falls into the room in Storey 3, and a quartet show up in the last section of Storey 4, as pursuers.
- Human Architecture Horror: Alice’s victims become melted faces that she sticks on her castle walls, and they are shown as fully aware of it.
- Losing Your Head: The NPC holding the fake eye in Storey 4 is a yellow little humanoid who lost their pumpkin head inside a dark chasm.
- Plot Coupon: The fake eyes are needed to open each door that will lad to the next Storey, and each Storey is complete when the fake eye has been found. However, Storey 6 has a key instead.
- Magically-Binding Contract: The deals Alice makes with people are impossible to break, even by Alice herself for some reason. She constantly looks for loopholes, but cannot directly break a deal.
- Mood Whiplash: Most of Storey 5 is a disturbing place, as the most dangerous Storey with blood, organs, and deadly traps everywhere, and a disturbing soundtrack. Completing most of it leads to an area which appears to be a party lounge, complete with rave party soundtrack, which sharply contrasts with the nightmarish feel of the rest of Storey 5.
- Multiple Endings: Two, depending on whether you save Suu from the monster in Storey 5:
- My Sister: If Akemi doesn't save Suu, she is killed by the monster, and Akemi ultimately sacrifices herself to save Inago, but kills Alice and takes over her building before becoming possessed by Alice.
- My Brother: If Akemi saves Suu from the monster, she will later return the favor by sacrificng herself to help Akemi and Inago escape, with Alice frustrated that they escaped but otherwise unharmed.
- Overly-Long Tongue: A tongue the size of a rope grabs Akemi in Storey 4, coming out of a hole with eyes above it.
- Grim Reaper: Storey 7 has one that will pop out and kill Akemi should she go out of bounds.
- Surreal Horror: The visuals are very Yume Nikki-esque, and involve strange logic in order to get past the floors of the strange building in the Other World. For example, each Storey except the first and last is guarded by a living, sentient door with a realstic human-looking face, and the way to unlock them is to put a fake eye in their empty eye socket. Other phenomena include two Womb Levels, various faces melted into the walls but still alive, Giant Spiders and Creepy Cockroaches, and odd NPCs like a giant talking cat who wants to eat an also talking mouse.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Storey 7 is the last Storey and top floor where Alice holds Inago captive. The floor is short, consisting of one room in which Akemi must navigate a forest to find the exit and avoid stepping out of bounds lest a Grim Reaper show up and kill her.
- Womb Level: The left sections of Storeys 1 and 3 have red, fleshy floors and walls, as well as what appear to be organs.
