Tales of the Black Forest is a 2019 Explorer Horror game created with RPG Maker MV and published by SakuraGame. The year is 1998, the 10th year of the Heisei era. Kihara Kashin, the heroine, is mostly an Ordinary High-School Student, save for the fact that she can see youkai, which got her picked on by her peers for being weird. When she was only eight, she lost her mother in a car accident in a dark forest, the circumstances of which are still unknown to her.
One night, she wakes up in a bench in the titular Black Forest, trapped within Kuromori Town, the place where she and her family used to live. After spending a bit of time adjusting to her surroundings and trying to escape, she picks up a white feather, touches an old loudspeaker, and finds herself back in time. She meets Kiritani Yuki, a mute, struggling novelist who informs her that the feather has granted her the power of Nensha, which enables her to go back in time if she touches an appliance from that time period, and that she is trapped there by a curse, the source of which lies at the town's abandoned theater. Said theater was the target of a Deadly Gas terrorist attack by Shinritengoku ("Heavenly Kingdom of Truth"), a cult that was also responsible for a similar attack on the Eidan subway.
Kihara, with the help of a transformed-into-a-pigeon Yuki, must find her way to the theater, past all the sinister youkai and facing the machinations of Shinritengoku. In the process, she may find out the truth behind her mother's death and how it connects to the economic crisis that ruined so many lives...
This game contains examples of:
- Abominable Auditorium: The final area is an abandoned community theater that was the target of a Deadly Gas attack by Shinritengoku. While some youkai do show up to pay respects to their deity Houshin, a Vengeful Ghost also resides there and attacks anyone who goes near the attic.
- Deadly Gas: The preferred method of attack by Shinritengoku, who gassed several subways and a community theater.
- Dual-World Gameplay: The use of Nensha as a gameplay mechanic means that you will frequently have to switch between the present day and the past in order to carry out certain acts in the past that can help you in the present.
- Last-Second Ending Choice: Which of the two endings you get depends on a choice you make at the very end- whether you choose to fully lift the curse on Kuromori Town or not.
- Locomotive Level: Chapter 2 takes place in the Ghost Train, which has Kihara go through several train cars solving puzzles and fighting off the Shinritengoku member trying to kill her.
- Ghost Train: A train called just that is the setting of Chapter 2. It is boarded by youkai and, due to Nensha, is able to connect to the Eidan train that was attacked by Shinritengoku in the past.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Despite the presence of youkai, they are generally benevolent and harmless. Instead, it is the human Apocalypse Cult Shinritengoku who are the antagonists responsible for Deadly Gas attacks that claimed many innocent lives, and the one malevolent youkai, a Vengeful Ghost, is the spirit of one of their members.
- Masking the Deformity: Aiko Megumi is a Kuchisake-onna
who wears a face mask to cover up her slit lip, which she got from a Loony Fan attacking her back when she was a human celebrity. - Sequel Hook: The Stinger in the good ending reveals that Terajima Eisei, a member of Shinritengoku responsible for the theater gas attack, is still out there and has become an author, with Kihara presumably preparing to track him down.
- Time Travel: Nensha, the main ability possessed by Kihara, allows her to go back to a specific time period if she touches an electrical appliance from that period. Using this enables her to interact with characters from the past and use it to change history, progressing throughout the game. However, there are rules and limitations, the big one being that it cannot be used to prevent death.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Kuromori Town Theater is the source of the curse keeping Kihara trapped in Kuromori Town, and is the final area.
