I don't normally write reviews, but for this one I feel like I just HAVE to. Because, if you are a hardcore horror fan like me, you are going to be SO disappointed if you read the reviews for this and see so many people deeming it "best anime horror has to offer", or, "super scary." The honest truth was... it just wasn't any of those things.
Not to say it was necessarily BAD, but just if you go in to it immediately after reading other's thoughts on it (like I did) you WILL have heightened expectations and then just be bummed when it... doesn't ever deliver.
I watched it all in one afternoon. It was entertaining, and had a lot of entertaining gore. If you're a gore hound, or if you want to watch something about ghosts and don't mind a story with not a lot of meat to it, go for it! Just expect it's going to be a light, albeit gory, 'haunted house' like ride and don't expect nothing more, RE: scares or surprising twists.
To be honest, I really regret reading everyone else's reviews before I went in to this. I felt like I would have liked it a LOT more if my expectations weren't so heightened by them. OF COURSE, this is why I said this is directed at hardcore horror fans. Someone not in to the genre totally WILL find this scary and/or disturbing. But as someone that likes this genre, I just kind of... wasn't shocked (by neither the scares, gore, nor 'twist' at the end.)
But that's why I wanted to write this! As a 'reality check' (or expectations check?) to anyone that loves horror, so they won't be disappointed like I was.
As long as you don't have a lot of expectations going in, you will at least enjoy the ride, and it's a great afternoon waster at least. =)
A final note: I feel like part of why it never delivered 100% for me, was it was just so condensed... when you take a whole game and smash it in to 4 episodes, you are going to naturally lose a lot of context regarding character development, atmosphere, etc, and it's going to not have a big impact. My honest impression of this anime after completion, is that it was OK but that I am now really interested in playing the game (or at least watching playthroughs) in the future. Honestly, there were so many scenes were I felt like I would have been more upset had I had more context. Especially regarding character deaths. I just constantly felt like I was on the VERGE of feeling something for the plot and characters, but never actually felt myself go over that final edge to finally being INVESTED. And I think the thing holding me back was probably details and context left out.
