"You shouldn't be so scared... After all... soon enough... you will see much scarier things..."
A series of horror-adventure games created by Human Entertainment in 1996, Twilight Syndrome took inspiration from the design aesthetic and gameplay style of Clock Tower (1995), a hallmark Survival Horror title the company had released a year earlier, to create a new series centered around a group of high school girls investigating Ghost Stories and Urban Legends in a modern Japanese city.
The first two games, Tansaku-hennote and Kyūmei-hennote, follow the story of three Japanese high school students in the fictional city of Hinashiro: Yukari Hasegawa, Chisato Itsushima, and Mika Kishii, who investigate unusual rumors which surround their school and their city while dodging the unexpected dangers that tend to end up flying the way of both themselves and anyone else involved in the cases they look into. This debut release was scheduled to come out for the PlayStation in 1996 and originally planned to have ten scenarios, but only three of them had been developed when the game's release window drew near. Scheduling conflicts also led the game's original director to abandon the project, leaving then-unknown HUMAN employee Goichi Suda to step in and fill that role for the remainder of production. The result were two separate releases with a continuous storyline, which contained six scenarios each (plus "Prank", a secret unlockable bonus).
Following the release of the original duology, Suda began work on a sequel, Moonlight Syndrome, which released in 1997. As he had joined development of the first two games partway through when all the main scenarios had already been planned out, he did not have a lot of creative input outside of the bonus chapter, so he chose to make up for lost time by developing the new game with a style all of his own which would carry on into his future works; in the new game's plotline, the three protagonists from the original duology would return, but with the main focus now shifted from Yukari to Mika and newcomer Ryo Kazan, who experience a series of bizarre and often inexplicable incidents around town, gradually revealed to revolve around a dark influence which is implied to be the overall source of the city's supernatural weirdness. This new story became notorious for including a number of controversial decisions which left fans of the original duology confused and unhappy, ultimately leading the game to be officially removed from the main series canon for future instalments. However, the game in turn went on to be considered the first in Suda's own Kill the Past series.
A one-shot Spiritual Successor of sorts, Yuuyami Doori Tankentainote, developed by staff that had previously worked on Twilight Syndrome, was released by Spike in 1999. After HUMAN's closure in January 2000, the series was passed on to Spike's Vaill subsidiary, which was largely made up of former HUMAN staff; a new main series sequel, Saikainote, was released the same year, following the same basic aesthetic as the second Clock Tower game. One more sequel, Kinjirareta Toshi Densetsunote, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2008.
There is some additional media such as a number of companion volumes and three live-action films based on the games, although the series is notorious for not having a single officially localized instalment to this very day. Despite this, international interest in the series has been slowly growing thanks to references made to it in later works that have been more fortunate in this regard. The Silver Case, Suda's first title after founding Grasshopper Manufacture, is technically a direct sequel to Moonlight Syndrome and starts right where that game ended; Moonlight 's Big Bad also makes a cameo appearance in Killer7, Suda's first localized game. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, part of Spike's later, more popular Danganronpa series, briefly namedrops and parodies Twilight Syndrome in a Pastiche section that imitates the original duology's basic design and Saikai's blocky PS1 graphics.
In more recent years, a number of Fan Translations for the series have also started to become available. YouTube channel aRdW began releasing a subtitled longplay of Saikai
in 2017 which was completed the following year, when he also began releasing a similar translation for Tansaku-hen and Kyūmei-hen which has since been completed. Tara A. Devlin has also released a partial fandub translation of the original duology (up to Kyūmei-hen's third chapter). Kinjirareta Toshi Densetsu remains untranslated, however.
The Series:
- Twilight Syndrome: Tansaku-hen (Search Volume) (PSX, 1996). Contains six scenarios:
- The Rumor That Started It All / Beginning Rumor: The girls investigate their first rumor together, sneaking into the school toilets at night to try and summon a ghostly child who might be able to grant them a wish.
- The Park In Which You Can Take Numerous Ghost Pictures / Ghost Photo Park: Mika convinces her friends to try and record ghostly activity at a local park after seeing that any photographs taken within tend to show a subtle but dire omen.
- M.F. from the Music Room: The girls look into the ghost of a student who was recently found hanged in the school's music room after being rumored to be in a position which is eerily similar to Yukari's.
- The Last Train: When the girls investigate a local train station said to be linked to an unusual number of deaths and accidents, they run across a dark influence that runs deeper and farther than they imagined.
- Hinashiro High School's Seven Mysteries: The girls decide to investigate their high school's version of the traditional "seven mysteries" said to be found in every Japanese school.
- One More Rumor: After Mika begins scribbling messages back and forth with a mysterious correspondent via a desk in the school library, she finds herself slowly getting involved with something far more grave than she could have anticipated.
- Twilight Syndrome: Kyūmei-hen (Investigation Volume) (PSX, 1996). Contains six scenarios and one bonus episode:
- Hinashiro Grove: Continuing on from the ending of the first volume, the girls rush to try and get to the bottom of the mysterious force that Mika was messing with.
- The Boy that Appears at Dusk / Twilight Boy: The girls' only hope to stop the ghost of a recently deceased student from haunting the school's gym is to discover the whole truth of how he ended up like that.
- The Telephone Call: After hanging up on an unknown caller, Yukari finds herself assailed by a multitude of strange phone calls coming into her bedroom, which Chisato fears could spell disaster for her if she cannot discover the cause.
- Rusty Hole / Gather Rust Cave: Chisato discovers the joys of Karaoke while the girls look into a nearby construction site where human bones are rumored to have been dug up, uncovering a dark legacy that had lain buried for decades.
- Occult Mystery Tour: Determined to get something out of the first rumor the girls investigated, Mika attempts a modified summoning ritual, unleashing something that could have catastrophic consequences if the girls cannot figure out how to undo it.
- Reverse Town: While searching for a kid from Yukari's neighborhood who had mysteriously vanished, the girls find themselves transported to a surreal, ethereal version of the city, where their struggle to return home is exacerbated by Yukari's tumultuous personal feelings coming to a fever pitch.
- Prank (Bonus chapter): While walking to school, Mika is hit by a mysterious gust of wind carrying a golden powder. Chisato later tells her that this is the sign of a fairy's prank before she starts seeing some very strange things. This is a prototype of what would become the fourth chapter of Moonlight Syndrome.
- Moonlight Syndrome (PSX, 1997)
- Twilight Syndrome: Saikai (Reunion) (PSX, 2000)
- Twilight Syndrome: Kinjirareta Toshi Densetsu (Forbidden Urban Legend) (NDS, 2008)
These games contain examples of:
open/close all folders
Tansaku-hen & Kyūmei-hen
- Afterlife Antechamber: The alternate city the girls travel to in "Reverse Town" is quickly identified as one of these, where the souls of the recently deceased must spend some time in order to purify themselves by leaving behind the memories of the living world which burden them. Unfortunately, this happens whether they want it to or not, and it also affects the living, even if they were never supposed to end up there to begin with.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- The Kappa-haired little girl who appears in the very first case and the very last case, and helps Yukari return to her own world. Was she specifically looking out for her, or was she some kind of Psychopomp or Magical Guide who provides help to other spirits as well?
- In "Rusty Hole", was the old man still alive, or was he another of the ghosts haunting the tunnel as he claimed?
- In the same chapter, what exactly is the Iron Soldier? Is it an Artificial Zombie or a Flesh Golem of some kind? What kind of components does it have that give it the "iron" moniker? What was the ritual supposed to do? And what exactly is it capable of that's it's spoken of as if it were a war-ending superweapon?
- Bottle Episode: "The Telephone Call" takes place almost entirely within Yukari's bedroom, with any extraneous interactions taking place by way of the titular telephone.
- Breather Episode: "The Seven Mysteries" has no grand stakes and is more of a lighthearted romp compared to any of the other main scenarios.
- Bullied into Depression: "Twilight Boy" is all about learning the story of a boy who was Driven to Suicide due to abuse and ostracism, and whose ghost now haunts the school gym. As you learn more about him, it becomes clear that the combined abuse from his peers and pressure from his own family to not let them down led him to the delusion that nobody was doing anything bad to him, and getting him to recognize and come to terms with the truth of his situation is the only way to help him find peace.
- Canon Discontinuity: With Moonlight Syndrome, which was made as a direct followup but proved to be so radically different that
fans and future instalments alike decided to ignore it altogether, dismissing it as something that occurred in a parallel timeline. - Cliffhanger: Tansaku-hen ends with Mika being lifted up into the air by an invisible force before vanishing, with quite a few details as to why and how this happened left unresolved. The start of Kyūmei-hen picks up right at this moment and continues that sub-story.
- Compilation Re-release: The original duology was planned as a single product, but was initially Divided for Publication due to time constraints; this ended up coming full circle with Twilight Syndrome Special in 1998, which bundled both of the duology's discs on a single release.
- Cutting Off the Branches: Though there are Multiple Endings for each chapter, only the ending that is clearly the best outcome is considered canon and marked as a good ending upon completion.
- Destructive Romance: Yukari and Kitamura's relationship, ultimately, as it becomes hopelessly strained by Kitamura's concerns to keep it secret for fear of what people would say, and Yukari's unwillingness to express her true feelings and wants to him.
- Downer Ending: "The Telephone Call." The cause of the supernatural phone calls is revealed to be a childhood friend relative of Yukari's who had just passed away without fulfilling her promise to give her one of her papercraft dolls as a gift and couldn't bear to part from the world while leaving that unresolved, swiftly moving the episode's minimalistic, Gothic style horror straight into Tear Jerker territory.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Ryo Kazan's first appearance is in the "Prank" chapter, where he shows up to share a few nonsensical words with Mika. However, Moonlight Syndrome contains a reworked version of this chapter, meaning that this version is ignored entirely, moving it even further into Canon Discontinuity territory.
- Evil Tainted the Place: Though it's one of the more ambiguous/confusing stories, it's implied that part of what drives the plot in "Rusty Hole" is the lingering will of a malevolent military officer which is still able to communicate with the old man and possibly the ghosts of other soldiers in the tunnel. Notably, Mika and Yukari overhear the old man getting orders from someone with a different voice, but when they investigate the room where the conversation took place just a few moments later they find nobody else there other than a painting of the officer.
- The Faceless: Throughout the games, the main characters' faces are kept out of focus and never shown in closeup. Notably, their eyes in their gameplay sprites are always covered up by small blobs of shadow. The graphics in special dialogue scenes either show them from the back, or distant enough that their features remain vague and simplistic.
Word of God indicates that this was done as a deliberate artistic choice, out of concern that if the detailed faces were done badly it would break the player's immersion. - Fortune Teller: One is visited by Yukari (though she remains unnamed in the scene) on the street at the beginning of "Occult Mystery Tour", who uses a unique deck of Tarot Cards to give her a reading that further underlines her inner turmoil before vanishing, though not before she foreshadows the re-appearance of the Kappa-haired girl as someone who would affect her fate at a crucial time.
- Ghost Amnesia: Part of what's necessary to resolve the haunting in "Twilight Boy" is helping Kimihiko come to terms with the reality of the emotional abuse he was being subjected to from both his peers and his family, which he had deluded himself into ignoring. A more literal and direct example comes in "Reverse Town", where the eternal mystical sunset in the eponymous location gradually strips recently deceased spirits of their memories of the living world so that they can move on into the beyond with a clean slate— though it's an interesting example, given that it also affects the living who wind up there by mistake.
- Ghost Train: The final stretch of "The Last Train" involves the appearance of an unscheduled train bound for "Dusk Hill" in the middle of the night. The platform controller who appears along with it arbitrarily jacks up the ticket prices from one minute to the next. One possible bad ending for this chapter is to allow Mika to board the train, which leads to her turning up later as a listless shell of her former self. Taking a picture of the platform at this point also reveals a multitude of disembodied spirits boarding the train when it is developed later. This gets a Call-Back of sorts in the final chapter, "Reverse Town", where it's implied that the titular Afterlife Antechamber is the train's destination, also housing its own train station which turns out to be how Mika and Chisato (but not Yukari) are able to return home.
- Grand Finale: "Reverse Town" is one for Yukari's personal story arc, which had been building throughout the other episodes, being forced to confront her unwillingness to express her true feelings about her relationships with Kitamura, her divorced parents, and her friends before she is able to make it home.
- Gratuitous English: The save screen in Kyūmei-hen shows the chapter titles in English. Mika also slips into little bursts of this occasionally.
- Guardian Angel: While it's all ultimately left without express confirmation, the Kappa-haired girl from the first and last cases in the duology is strongly implied to be acting as one for Yukari, especially after the Fortune Teller in "Occult Mystery Tour" references her as someone with whom she has a deep connection and who will change her fate, which indeed she does when she helps her escape the place beyond the bridge and return to her own world while also rescuing the little girl who had also gotten lost and ended up there whom the girls had gone searching for.
- Holy Ground: An interesting example occurs in "The Last Train", as this is implied to be the reason why the train station becomes a hotspot for supernatural activity after hours, when all the living people have left. Elements that align with this trope include the appearance of what's all but stated to be an Afterlife Express train and the girls briefly discovering a small cemetery on the grounds at the very end of the case. Interesting in that the place being a haven for spirits does NOT mean that it's safe for the living, as demonstrated by the number of life-threatening situations that Mika in particular finds herself thrown into during this chapter.
- Human Sacrifice: In "Hinashiro Grove", Sakura Himegami and her kin are doomed to an afterlife as restless spirits as a result of being victims of these. The story frames their plight as a more sinister origin for the Japanese nagashi-bina tradition, in which dolls are made to take on people's misfortune and then sent away downriver or into the ocean, except that in the case of Sakura and co., they are part of a lineage of sacrificial maidens who are doomed to take on this burden from birth.
- Indian Burial Ground: The titular park in "Ghost Photo Park" is haunted because it was once used as an execution site for enemies and undesirables of the local feudal lord. The victims were beheaded atop a hill, where their heads then rolled down into the nearby lake. A Shinto shrine was eventually built on the grounds to placate the restless spirits, but it was demolished to build a parking lot, causing the hauntings to resurface. In the end, an unidentified group pools together to build a new, smaller shrine in the same place, restoring balance.
- It Is Not Your Time: How "Reverse Town", and by extension, the whole duology, ends. After crossing the bridge at the edge of town and ending up in another Metaphysical Place where she is forced to confront her own inner turmoil while moving through a dark reflection of the school, Yukari ends up running into the Kappa-haired girl from the very first case, who recognizes that as a still living person she has no business there, and instructs her on how she can return to her own world.
- It's a Wonderful Failure: Getting the worst possible ending in each case results in a modestly detailed narration of the awful things that followed. For example, finishing "Ghost Photo Park" by failing to dodge the truck that falls into the park due to the meddling of the Vengeful Ghosts results in Chisato narrating how Yukari was hit by it and fell into a critical state and has only been getting worse in hospital, lamenting the moment she allowed her to have her cursed picture taken in front of the Torii. Similarly, ending "Occult Mystery Tour" by botching the banishment ritual and failing to prevent the ghosts from escaping the school grounds will result in a narration describing how the entire city and surrounding area fell into decline due to unexplained and often dangerous incidents caused by the errant spirits, never to fully recover.
- Kid Detective: All the stories revolve around three high school girls investigating rumors of paranormal activity around town.
- Multiple Endings: While there is only one "canonical" good ending for each chapter, it is possible to get various Game Overs or non-fatal bad endings.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The plot of "Occult Mystery Tour" is driven by Mika convincing the others to attempt the summoning ritual from "Beginning Rumor" again, but incorporating an old poem she found which she believes to be about getting a wish. This results in a gate to the spirit world being temporarily opened in the Old School Building from which a multitude of spirits who desperately want to return to the living emerge and quickly begin haunting the halls. When the girls contact Aramata to ask for advice, he informs them that the poem Mika used actually symbolizes a dead person's yearning to visit the living world, and that while the gate will disappear by the morning, they'll have to figure out a way to send the spirits back to their own world in order to prevent catastrophe.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Used to great effect in "The Telephone Call." Until the ending, it's not clear what's actually going on; all Yukari and the player know is that something is very strangely wrong, something is coming for her, and unless she manages to figure out how to do something about it, it will not end well.
- Occult Detective: Chisato in particular has shades of Muggle with a Degree in Magic, but none of the living human characters have a truly deep understanding of the supernatural forces that come to intersect with their world, which is why all the legwork is necessary.
- Old Save Bonus: Unlocking the bonus "Prank" chapter in Kyūmei-hen requires having a memory card with good ending saves for all 12 of the main scenarios in both volumes.
- Old School Building: While it's not really made particularly significant in the plot, the school has old and new buildings which are parallel to one another, with the old building being less frequented. Notably, it's where the gate to the spirit world materializes in "Occult Mystery Tour".
- On the Next: Tansaku-hen ends with an after-credits trailer for Kyūmei-hen, stating in no uncertain terms that it will come out and conclude the story, showing a few brief scenes from the scenarios to come.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: The "Prank" bonus chapter, developed primarily by Suda51, is a series of surreal, Non Sequitur scenes that are completely different tonally from every other chapter and introduce Ryo Kazan, a new character who is awkwardly established to be important before the whole thing abruptly ends, setting the tone for Moonlight Syndrome, which would largely share in all of these traits.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis: Because it never left Japan, many of the people who are aware of this series today learned of it whether through references/associations with Suda51's works, or through the Internal Homage in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
- Previously on…: A recap of Tansaku-hen's events is available at the beginning of Kyūmei-hen, which picks up right where the previous game left off.
- Refugee from Time: The girls quickly encounter a kamishibaiya upon being transported to the "Reverse Town", who talks as if he performs every day with a consistently great turnout and when asked how he can compete with TV, dismisses it as something inconsequential. This serves as their first clue that they're now in a place where the normal rules of time do not apply.
- Rescued from the Underworld: Two in Kyūmei-hen:
- The plot of "Hinashiro Grove" consists of Yukari and Chisato finding their way into a spiritual realm in order to rescue Mika, who has been whisked off here by the ghosts of a line of sacrificial maidens who want to force her to stay there and keep them company forever.
- In "Reverse Town", the girls go looking for Chikako, a preschooler neighbor of Yukari's who suddenly went missing, and discover that she was accidentally transported to the titular Afterlife Antechamber. In the end Yukari succeeds in rescuing her, but it's not an easy journey.
- Rotoscoping: Part of what gives the game's aesthetic its unique look. The character graphics are converted from digitized footage of real actors filmed in front of a bluescreen.
- The Seven Mysteries: In the aptly named Seven Mysteries chapter, the girls investigate a set of rumors about their school after hours in a more lighthearted instalment
- Shout-Out: In "Hinashiro Grove", shortly upon arriving in the titular Spirit World Yukari and Chisato run into a biwa-playing monk who appears not to hear them at first, being a callback to the tale of Hōichi the Earless, a Japanese ghost story popularized by Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan.
- Shown Their Work: In order to make the main characters more believable, the creators spent hours at a family restaurant with a group of high school girls taking notes on their vernacular and mannerisms, also doing something similar on the set with the models who portrayed the main characters. To make doubly sure, they also handed their dialogue drafts to a female staff member (who also happened to be named Mika) to look over.
- Spooky Photographs: In "Ghost Photo Park", Mika first brings up the idea of using photography to try and record supernatural activity after seeing that any photos taken in front of a Torii gate within the titular park show a similar peculiar glitch when developed, namely a strange horizontal offset that gives the appearance of the subject's head being cut off from his or her body symbolizing the curse originated by the countless beheading execution victims that now haunt the park. After Mika takes a picture of Yukari in the same place and develops it, it displays the same effect, which worries Chisato so much that she throws it in the school incinerator before Yukari can see it. Similar (though less ominous) paranormal photos features in a couple other instances, notably an optional one near the end of "The Last Train" which once developed shows a group of disembodied spirits boarding the train in question.
- Take It to the Bridge: The inhabitants of the "Reverse Town" are aware of a bridge located somewhere in the area which no souls must cross until they are absolutely ready, as it is a Point of No Return that leads deeper into the mysterious beyond. Yukari ends up crossing it while in a trance of sorts, setting up the very last sequence of the game.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Yukari is in a relationship with trainee teacher Kitamura, which is strained by the latter's worries to try and keep it under wraps for fear of how others would judge them, further exacerbated by Yukari's aloof attitude towards his concerns and her investigation of what happened to Mayumi Fujita, who took her own life after being in a similarly strained relationship with the music teacher. In the end Kitamura breaks things off, but mentions that he would like to try again later when the stigma that comes with this type of relationship is no longer a factor; something that could very well have ended up happening based on Yukari genuinely caring about him, as shown by her inner thoughts when the break-up scene is revisited in "Reverse Town".
- Timed Mission: At the end of "Rusty Hole", the girls have to escape the mazelike tunnels as a slow countdown from 10 occurs, lest they get caught by the Iron Soldier, or perish in the explosions that collapse the tunnels.
- True Companions: The girls grow so close that they never hesitate to rush to the others' aid or abandon them in times of need, particularly when they suspect that serious danger is involved.
- Unseen Pen Pal: The story that begins in "One More Rumor" is initiated by Mika starting to exchange scribbled messages on a desk on the school library with an unseen party who replies to them later. She slowly discovers that the mysterious correspondent is Sakura Himegami, a dead student from decades past whose influence bewitches her and eventually leads her to be spirited away somewhere, leading to the Cliffhanger that bridges the two volumes.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The ending of "The Seven Mysteries" sees the girls discovering that the school's statue of Ninomiya Sontoku comes alive at night and zooms through the school's running track... something that merely prompts them to call it quits on the investigation and go get ramen.
- Weird Historical War: "Rusty Hole" turns out to be all about this. The tunnels underneath the construction site are inhabited by an old man who believes World War II is still going on, and is following orders from a shadowy CO to keep watch over the Iron Soldier, a mysterious Secret Weapon made from human corpses that is meant to be empowered or activated through some form of Ritual Magic.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The ending of "Ghost Photo Park" implies that there may be some other group that's at least somewhat aware of the supernatural goings-on in town, but it never comes up again.
