After 25 years, here's the 15 best Japanese horror games, from Silent Hill to Haunting Ground, that still terrify me

The best Japanese horror games have really been able to exemplify the personal feeling of the genre to me – compared to movies, gaming is often a longer form as you spend days or months struggling to get through difficult challenges, or replaying them to try to master your way through. Regardless of medium, what scares one person may bounce off someone else, meaning you can build special connections with what really gets under your skin.

Memories of time spent alone in dark rooms, almost crushing a PlayStation controller because of how scary some of my favorite Japanese horror games are precious ones. I love some Japanese horror movies too (Pulse is an all-timer creeper), but I prefer playing a game because of the degree of control it can give me. Yes, I may be a scaredy cat, but that actually means I can enjoy terrifying gaming all the more.

It's not been easy to narrow down this list, and I've tried to avoid too many from the same developer (though Resident Evil I've split across a couple of eras in true lister fashion). Some of the new games of 2025 and beyond still look set to change this list in the near future as well, with Silent Hill f and Resident Evil 9 Requiem looking extremely promising. But for now, join me as I run down the best Japanese horror games that still scare me all these years on.

15. Echo Night

First released: 1998
Developer: FromSoftware
Platform: PS1

Echo Night is lower on this list because this PS1 classic is more of a horror-themed adventure puzzler than a pure horror, but oh boy, does this early release from the Dark Souls developer pack some serious atmosphere. Sometimes, the most effective horror games for me are the ones that can feel scary to move through, even when I know in the back of my head I'm relatively safe. Echo Night has you traveling around looking for artifacts, all while avoiding ghosts by ensuring lights are lit. It's not too intense, but therein lies the horror. I think the first game is the creepiest, perhaps because of its early PS1 qualities. I'd love to see FromSoftware return to the format.

14. Parasite Eve

First released: 1999
Developer: Square
Platform: PS1

Back in the day, Parasite Eve was a game that really knew how to make me uneasy. While its combination of gross monsters and ATB-style pausable combat might not seem too out there today (it's the crux of Final Fantasy 7 Remake after all), at the time, it was a really unique way to balance action and atmosphere. Filled with creepy b-movie style horror science, a little like Resident Evil, Aya's fight through Manhattan to stop a conspiracy to destroy all of humanity via spontaneous human combustion felt incredibly tense and dangerous, and I can't get the opening cutscene where all those people burn alive out of my mind. It's a unique mix of ideas that it feels like few games have managed to replicate since, including, arguably, its own sequel, though that's still a solid game.

13. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark

First released: 2017
Developer: Experience
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch

Part visual novel, part adventure game, all atmosphere, Spirit Hunter: Death Mark weaves a unique tapestry of horror. Marked for, well, death as part of a strange series of unexplained murders, you have to explore a mansion to get to the bottom of the phenomenon before you cop it yourself, while meeting other mark-bearers along the way. Each chapter has you working to cleanse a spirit throughout pseudo-turn-based battles that have you using collected items, your success through which determines if some of the cast of characters live or die. It can sometimes feel a bit harsh and random, but the tone here in the first game is one that's stuck with me.

12. Yomawari: Night Alone

First released: 2015
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Platform: PC, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch

Seeing horror through the eyes of a small child can be uniquely creepy, and Yomawari: Night Alone is a game that really understands that, its anime chibi-style aesthetic doing little to take the sting out of the creepiness within. With your dog and older sister missing, you set out to explore the dark streets of a city alone to find them, using your flashlight to find the way forwards as you evade monsters from a top-down perspective. It perfectly fits its handheld origins. There's really little else like this out there (though the upcoming PS1-styled Walk looks to hit similar notes), and despite having two sequels, I still find the simplicity of this first outing the most unsettling.

11. Clock Tower

First released: 1995
Developer: Human Entertainment
Platform: PC, SNES, PS1, Wonder Swan (Rewind: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch)

Perhaps the original stalker-based survival horror, this throws you into a cursed mansion alongside fellow orphans as you attempt to survive the night and escape with your life, and, ideally, those of your friends. With multiple endings and the ever-present threat of Scissorman (alongside a fantastic musical sting when he bursts onto the scene ready for a hunt), semi-randomized elements mean that even years on Clock Tower can still put me on edge. The recent loving restoration, Clock Tower: Rewind, is a phenomenal way to play the game today, even if the slow-paced exploration means the titular rewind feature won't really allow you to save your skin from the blades of Scissorman. The franchise never quite managed the jump to 3D with its horror intact, though Clock Tower 3 gets pretty close.

10. The Evil Within 2

First released: 2017
Developer: Tango Gameworks
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One

How can you make a game with such spectacular shooting action still feel scary? It's something a lot of games in the genre have struggled with, but The Evil Within 2 manages to find an answer: make the rest of the game even weirder and more uncomfortable to match the elevated action. While there's still a limit to how horrifying a game like this can be, it's one of the best implementations I've found, and thanks to some really smart and open design it allows you to approach situations in different ways, which can be great in a genre that can otherwise sometimes feel like being prodded down a funfair haunted house hallways with a stick. It's unlikely to happen, but if this series could continue to evolve, we'd be in for something truly special.

9. Resident Evil 2 remake

First released: 2019
Developer: Capcom
Platform: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS

The vibes of classic Resident Evil games remain some of my scariest early gaming memories, but I've ended up gravitating towards including the Resident Evil 2 remake here because it so wonderfully modernizes that original feeling of terror. It manages to make simple, shambling zombies scary again thanks to fantastic limb destruction and lighting effects, and it all just makes the beefier enemies throughout Raccoon City and its police station even scarier – the Lickers here are the stuff of nightmares. And who can forget Mr. X, the ever-encroaching stalker threat who eventually pursues you around the station? He's a threat so unnerving that it feels like modern Resi is still chasing replicating it, ending up more nemesis than even Nemesis himself.

8. Corpse Party (2021)

First released: 2017
Developer: MAGES, Team GrisGris, 5pb.
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, 3DS, PSP, iOS

Is Corpse Party an RPG? A visual novel? An adventure game? Like the best horror games, Corpse Party defies rigid definition, and it's why it unsettled us in our Corpse Party review. I'm focusing this entry on the 2021 remake of the original 2008 game, which still retains the lo-fi elements of the original that retains what makes the series so iconic – notably that it was originally designed in RPG Maker. This group of school children trapped in the echo of a demolished, cursed high school still all have health, but they don't lose it in RPG battles, simply by encountering hazards as they explore. The combination of the abstracted RPG-style perspective with horror artwork is effective, making this narrative-heavy horror one that's hard to shake once it's wormed its way into your mind. Some of the bad endings, while a little drawn out, are so horrible that it's hard to forget.

7. Kuon

First released: 2004
Developer: FromSoftware
Platform: PS2

With Kuon, back on PS2, Elden Ring developer FromSoftware decided to make their own evolution of the classic Resident Evil formula. It might have been overshadowed at the time by Resident Evil 4, a more action-heavy reinvention but, while still a deeper cut, Kuon is the scarier game as far as I'm concerned. The Japanese folk horror set in a creepy traditional mansion is great theming, but I love the way it feels comparatively 'next-gen' in small ways to add to the atmosphere and mechanics, from the bloody footprints you leave behind once you step in the red stuff, to how faster movement attracts enemies because of the sound you make, making you conscious of creeping forward.

6. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

First released: 2017
Developer: Capcom
Platform: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS

I'm well aware of how much heavy weaponry you get towards the end of Resident Evil 7, and how easy it feels to breeze through it now I've finished it one million times. But I'm not going to deny the chokehold ("welcome to the family, son") this game's heavy atmosphere had on me throughout its demo and my early time with the full game. It can still catch me by surprise now and then. Trapped in the mold-infested Baker Mansion, trying to escape from each twisted member of the basic family is genuinely tense, whether it's the stomp-stomp of the axe-wielding Jack, or the bug-filled Marguerite patrolling with her lantern. Even the goopy Mold shamblers, while a little silly in daylight, can seriously catch you off guard in the dark – some parts of this mansion are pitch black. It felt like such a revelation after the disappointing Resident Evil 6, and I can't forget about it.

5. Rule of Rose

First released: 2006
Developer: Punchline
Platform: PS2

Rule of Rose is perhaps most well known for the moral panic it caused around release, causing it to not be launched in the UK and to shift publishers in the US (you could, however, still get a European copy). It just goes to show how hard it can be for horror in general to be treated seriously by its detractors, all because it's a genre brave enough to tackle uncomfortable yet important topics. They've come a long way since Pac-Man. Taking place in an orphanage that's also an airship as Jennifer and dog Brown try to survive, Rule of Rose is soaked in strange dream logic that has you exploring the traumatic history of the location. Combat and exploration is clunky even for the genre, as noted in our Rule of Rose review, but the strange, surreal atmosphere here is unmatched, leading you to constantly infer some truly terrible things rather than laying it all out plainly.

4. Siren

First released: 2003
Developer: Sony
Platform: PS2

Directed and written by Keiichiro Toyama, who did the same duties on the original Silent Hill, Siren is a terrifying nightmare that once again revolves around a mysterious town – but this time in Japan (Silent Hill f, who?). Set across multiple time periods, you really get a sense of Hanuda as a place. But the crowning achievement is the sightjacking mechanic, allowing you to see through the eyes of the shibito creatures that patrol the town, building a psychic network of perspectives to warn you of danger while simultaneously within the danger. It's all the fear of a pursuer enemy but without the ability to look away, as you need to use sightjacking to gain the advantage – evasion is vital. It's a beautiful mix of mechanics. Follow-up games have been good as well, including the PS3 reimagining, but this original's aesthetic still works wonderfully as far as I'm concerned and chills me to the bone.

3. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

First released: 2003
Developer: Tecmo
Platform: PS2, Xbox

Fatal Frame, as a series, strikes a near-perfect balance between feeling powerless and allowing you to fight back – and Fatal Frame 2 is the best of the bunch. When the Amakura twins end up separated in the haunted and abandoned Minakami Village, Mio must look for her sister while learning about and pushing through the village's horrible history. The Camera Obscura is required to solve puzzles to progress and to snap ectoplasmic photos of the constant oncoming ghosts, who pursue and hound you from odd angles. There's rarely a moment where I feel safe, and a ghost attack always puts me on edge, no matter how confident I am in my reaction times.

2. Silent Hill 3

First released: 2003
Developer: Team Silent
Platform: PC, PS2

You can make the case for most of the classic Silent Hill games to top this list, but to me, Silent Hill 3 is the one that really has it all – terrifying enemy designs, horrible situations in which you always feel underpowered, and a twisty turny story that makes me feel disoriented in the best ways. Heather's journey through each Otherworld represents the cursed space at its series peak thanks to an evolution in its grimy industrial design, and the ever-present Valtiel remains terrifying thanks in part to how he never hurts you. I still don't understand what he is, and I never want to.

1. Haunting Ground

First released: 2005
Developer: Capcom
Platform: PS2

Haunting Ground is, simply put, one of the most stressful, scariest experiences you can have on a PS2 if you're the kind of player I am. I hate the feeling of being chased in games, especially when I don't have the power to fight back – and that's what Haunting Ground is all about. Playing as Fiona, you've been transported to a mysterious castle infested by pursuers who want you for themselves for reasons you can't fathom, though you're always disturbingly aware of the peril of being a young woman in this situation. Even at the time, it was controversial, but we'd love a Haunting Ground remake. Evasion and hiding are the name of the game, with loyal dog Hewie the only thing giving you any real protection. Somehow, the castle constantly feels alive with these stalker enemies, and like you can never really relax for a moment.

I love Silent Hill 2, but remakes would be better off as second lives for games that truly need it