Slitterheadallows supernatural body horror to take center stage in an action-packed setting. It’s debatable how much moment-to-moment hack-’n-slash combat might diluteSlitterhead’s capacity for horror, particularly if players can easily overwhelm and slay Slitterheads or not, but Bokeh Game Studio has an opportunity to come out swinging with its debut title and not hold anything back in its art direction.
Indeed, Slitterheads seemingly aren’t confined to any anatomical design and can therefore be wildly imaginative.Slitterhead’s titular enemies are obviously designed to be haunting with a flavor ofbody horror not completely indistinguishable fromThe Thing, but body horror also surprisingly extends to the player character who is constantly inhabiting new hosts and delving deeply into a spectral possession aesthetic.
Slitterheadhas drawn many comparisons toGhostwire: Tokyosince its announcement and, despite the former being inspired by Chinese folklore and the latter being inspired by Japanese folklore, it’s not altogether difficult to see where their visual styles intersect. LikeGhostwire: Tokyo,Slitterheadmay live or die on the sole basis of its enemy design, much less how artistically enticing and unique such enemy designs are.
It’s neat that Slitterheads can conceal themselves as humans until players “unmask” them, and seeing how they writhe and transform into an unnerving monstrosity will hopefully be engaging throughoutSlitterhead. Slitterheads take on shapes and sizes that abandon traditional humanoid body horror entirely, but body horror where a presumably ordinary human’s body suddenly begins disfiguring into something unnatural should not be underrepresented.
This is whereSlitterheadwill be able to flex its artistic choice. Even if not every enemy is designed to haunt players’ nightmares, it would be excellent if they’re consistently inventive across the board about how creative their degree of body horror is, such as a woman’s mouth gaping widely or the shadow of an elongated skeleton with human hair cast on a nearby wall.
That said,Slitterhead’s most fascinating choice may well be the fact that heinously grisly body horror is not exclusive to enemies. It might not necessarily end up having any significance in the story,, butSlitterhead’s bread and butter of bodily possessioncome down to the player, the Hyoki.
Possession via the player’s perspective, particularly as a means of embracing heavy action and horror tones, is an interesting lens because it softens the idea of literal possession and compartmentalizes it. Knowing that it’s the key to slaying Slitterheads, for example, possession can seem like a necessary evil. Plus, if possession itself wasn’t enough to tip the controversial scales of body horror on the protagonist’s side,players harvest and wield their hosts’ blood as crimson weapons.
