Neighbor
Steam
OTUSUN LAND
2008 2018
Neighbor is a Japanese "kinetic" (entirely linear) horror visual novel that appeared on Steam in 2018, though its roots stretch back a decade earlier. Originally a freeware title, it was resurrected (and localized) thanks to a Kickstarter campaign (am I the only one who hates these massive dumps of Kickstarter backers in game credits? It's entirely unaesthetic)...
Well, I'm not balls deep into the world of "Japanese horror" but I still was able to make an educated guess about the vibe I'd be facing here. It's a ghost story and the ghost is female and has long hair and is creepy and crawls around and moans and shit. Yup! The protagonist is positively geriatric for VN standards. A woman three whole decades old, Yuuki Kae is a freelance web designer moving into what she thinks is a swanky new apartment. Turns out it's haunted. Actually that's not true: the place next door is haunted, and the negative spiritual energy threatens to seep into Kae's place. Not one to sit there and accept death by ghost, Kae enlists the help of a much younger male neighbor and begins an amateur investigation. What I refer to as a "movie-length" VN, the whole thing is wrapped up in a few hours.
The aesthetics here are really intriguing. Neighbor displays text in the "NVL" style -- a digital storybook where words cascade down the screen. Higurashi comes to mind as a comparison, but Neighbor really has more in common with Chunsoft's primordial "sound novels" Otogirisou and Kamaitachi no Yoru. A series of background images cyle as the story progresses (many are repeated), and most characters are never actually shown onscreen. Everything is hazy and dreamlike, not a true black & white nor sepia, more like covered with a washed out blue dye. The accompanying music is decent, though I'll admit my favorite track is the cheerful one that opens the game ("before it gets scary"). Every single character has voice acting too, which was shocking.
The mystery elements are good. I was able to deduce the origins of the ghost maybe a little more than halfway through, as the story progresses logically without any nonsense curveballs. There are a few jump scares -- sort of. A warning essentially precedes each one, which was extremely useful. I don't like jump scares (reason: they scare me). There were two specific scenes I absolutely hated. The post-credits epilogue is totally useless. A detailed flashback type of thing, anyone who paid attention to the story could have "imagined" this moment without needing it spelled out. There's also an uncomfortably long scene that occurs in a drag bar, complete with terrible visuals and (intentionally) obnoxious voice acting. It was further stated that the protagonist frequents this place, but that seems incongruous with her personality otherwise.
I liked Neighbor for what it is: a compact spooky tale that is over after a few short gaming (I mean, reading) sessions. A nice palate cleanser from all the meaty choice-heavy Japanese VNs, this type of thing today seems to be increasing in popularity among Chinese and Korean developers.
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewed: 07/16/25