Take a dip.
I'm tired of working at the company.
...a flyer? ...Hmm.
Rent is free if you work at a bathhouse.
I'll call them now.
The Bathhouse is a Horror Video Game by Chilla's Art.
The game casts you as Akimura Maina, who's decided to quit working for a company to take on a different job, that of a bathhouse employee. All Maina needs to do is give the customers their wares, collect payments, and clean up afterwards. After that, Maina can take a shower herself.
It's not long before things start getting weird.
The game was released on September 30th, 2022.
The Bathhouse contains examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: The good ending has Erena alive with the ritual being stopped. However, Maina is dead and the worst part is that Erena doesn't remember her as if she doesn't exist.
- Controllable Helplessness: Tragically, there is no way for Maina to escape the Ubume, and attempting to run away is futile, as the exit is completely blocked off with hair, so the Ubume will catch and kill Maina, in order for the game to progress. Erena later goes through the same chase sequence, but this time, she has the means to cut through the hair and escape, turning it into a Run or Die sequence instead.
- Decoy Protagonist: Maina is killed by the Ubume on Day 4 when she gets dragged into her realm, switching the game's perspective over to her younger sister Erena.
- Fade to Black: Happens whenever you enter/exit a place, go on break, and decide to have your bath.
- Hell Is That Noise: The Ubume makes an utterly horrific monstrous and demonic growl when she catches you.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The encounter with the Ubume when she drags you into her realm on Day 4 cannot be escaped from, and you have to let her catch you in order to progress with the game, as this is when Maina dies and you control Erena.
- Interface Spoiler: The beginning of each day always shows Maina's name, hinting that you may control a different character at some point. Sure enough, Maina dies on Day 4, and Day 5 instead shows Erena's name.
- Multiple Endings: The game has two endings depending on whether Erena frees the chained man:
- In the bad ending, Erena is burned and sacrificed in the furnace, and the Ubume kills both the monk and the landlord, freeing herself and roaming into the streets.
- In the good ending, the previously chained man repays Erena's kindness and saves her from being sacrificed, taking her out of the streets as he kills the monk and the landlord by setting them on fire along with the bathhouse, with the old lady bringing Erena to the hospital. Unfortunately, Erena forgets about Maina, effectively erasing her existence.
- Notice This: Objects/areas that can be interacted with have a black circle with a white arrow in the middle hovering over them.
- Obviously Evil: The landlord looks very sinister, his face constantly framed in shadow. Unsurprisingly, he's one of the main antagonists who plans to sacrifice Erena in a dark ritual to the Ubume.
- The Place: The game's named after Maina's place of work.
- P.O.V. Cam: The game is viewed through Akimura Maina's eyes. On Day 5, the POV switches to her younger sister, Erena, who went to the village to find Maina after she went missing.
- Unperson: Maina's tragic fate after her death, even in the good ending, as her younger sister Erena forgets that she ever existed.
- "Wanted!" Poster: You find a couple in the neighbourhood. The face is shaded by shadow, though.
