The Physical Exorcism series consists of horror games developed by Sounding Stone.
The series mainly focuses on the misadventures of the exorcist duo Ghosteaters, consisting of Bruce "Brucie" Lyne and Jadrienne "Jade" Lee, who use their supernatural abilities to fight evil spirits. Unfortunately, the two are not what they seem and quickly prove to be just as horrifying as the spirits they hunt. Meanwhile, Marty Stu/Mary Sue is a loser from their world who ends up in a car crash and is transported to an RPG-like world by the god Nya. After fighting to save his new world, he meets up with Brucie and Jade, and the three soon become involved in a series of events involving a crazed cult and horrifying entities from beyond the stars.
Games in this series include:
- Physical Exorcism: Case 01 (2018)
- Loser Reborn (2019)
- Case 00: The Cannibal Boy (2020)
- Case 02: Paranormal Evil (2021)
- Extra Case: My Girlfriend's Secrets (2022)
- Case 03: True Cannibal Boy (2023)
See also the Peacemaker Series, which this is in a Shared Universe with.
This series contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Those with superpowers are similar in nature to evil spirits, but it's unknown if their powers cause them to be evil or if being evil gives them powers.
- Astral Projection: Brucie can sneeze out his soul and have the soul act without his body, as shown when he uses his soul to unlock a door from the inside.
- Big Bad: The God of Reincarnation Nya is the evil all-powerful entity manipulating events across the entire series and causing much of the supernatural terrors for their amusement.
- Crapsack World: The world, though seemingly mundane, is regularly under attack by evil spirits that kill people in gruesome ways, and the humans are not much better. This is all becuase the world is under the control of the Cthulhu Mythos deities, who cause misery and strife for their own amusement and could easily destroy the world if it stops being entertaining. Anyone who is a genuinely nice person will either die horribly, get the compassion beaten out of them and become jaded and awful, or both.
- Hope Spot: Loser Reborn and Case 02 end in decisive victories for Marty and defeat for Nyarlathotep and the other Jerkass Gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, planting a seed of hope that, even if the odds seem insurmountable, humanity still has a chance. Then Extra Case and Case 03 squash that hope by having Nya successfully corrupt Marty into becoming a Serial Killer and murdering Lily, the latter game's protagonist, and having their disciple Jade explain via an allegory that the world is only still around because it amuses them; if they ever get bored, humanity is doomed.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters:
- Nya(rlathotep) and Gla'aki are evil deities, with the former releasing the latter into the real world to start a zombie apocalypse, all out of amusement. However, there are plenty of evil humans in the setting, such as Brucie, Jade, and their client Lucy, who have similar sadistic and destructive tendencies as the gods.
- In Extra Case, Brucie tells Marty that humans can be just as bad as evil spirits and have caused more harm over the course of history, with the bonus that they can't be exorcised.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The duo states that those with superpowers are similar in nature to evil spirits.
- Psychic Powers: Jade has the ability to read minds and share her senses with others.
