Ju-On: The Grudge

Ju-On: The Grudge (also known as Ju-On: The Grudge - Haunted House Simulator in North America, and Ju-On: The Grudge - A Fright Simulator in Europe), known in Japan as Kyōfu Taikan: Ju-On (恐怖体感 呪怨 lit. Sensation of Fear: Ju-On), is a survival horror video game developed by feelplus and published by AQ Interactive in Japan, Xseed Games in North America, and Rising Star Games in Europe. It was produced in honor of the Ju-On series' 10th anniversary.

Plot
The game is centered on a family that moved into a cursed house. Several family members are playable characters and each story is viewed from the perspective of the character being played in scenarios called episodes.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The game is incredibly boring as you do nothing but look for batteries, keys, and reach the end of the level within a time limit. What doesn't help is how incredibly slow the characters you play as as each one moves at the pace of an elderly person despite all of them being in their teens and early 20's; there's also no run button. It's entirely possible that this was done to extend the play time similar to what The Graveyard did.
 * 2) There are only five levels in the entire game and it takes 20 minutes to complete each one; only extended by beginner's traps, the slow movement speed, and the fact that you have to hunt for collectibles to unlock the last stage.
 * 3) There are lots of horror clichés that are used within the game.
 * 4) This game has outdated graphics that make the game look like a PlayStation 2 title, and that is pretty much insulting even by Wii standards.
 * 5) The game isn't even remotely scary for a number of reasons.
 * 6) * The most insulting example is the fact that there are no enemies in the levels themselves. You only get attacked by the ghosts in cutscenes. Once you realize that you're never in danger the game stops being scary. There are also no other ghosts than Kayako and Toshio in the entire game. Even if the scares were effective (which they're not), running into the same two ghosts over and over makes the scares weaker.
 * 7) * The atmosphere is very shallow and bland since there are no ambient sounds or anything of the sort to keep the player engaged.
 * 8) * The game does try to make the game scary but in the laziest way possible. That being through cheap and lazy jumpscares like a doll falling from out of nowhere and the fact that all the environments are pitch black with you only being able to see anything with your flashlight.
 * 9) The Wii controls are poorly implemented. The only way to move is to hold down the B button and aim the flashlight in the direction you want to move. Turning is is also stiff, and you must reset your cursor to the center of the screen before turning in a different direction.
 * 10) The player is not given any hint that a fifth level exists. Playing the game like normal results in the game cutting off after the fourth level. To unlock the final stage, the player is required to track down several small scraps of paper in the four main levels. Most are hard to find, hidden in places you'd never think to look, and some only appear if you perform ridiculously specific actions. Going through all that trouble isn't worth it, however.
 * 11) The hidden fifth level has you play as the girl from level 1 who survived the Grudge's initial attack (somehow). The level has her not doing anything useful and getting killed by the Grudge anyways, making the entire level pointless.
 * 12) * This level WAS supposed to have the girl finding her entire family's dead bodies which could've been creepy, but all the game shows is a few trash bags and no actual bodies. This may be due to CERO rating restrictions.
 * 13) Despite being rated M by the ESRB, the game has no onscreen violence, sexual content, or gore. There's also very little blood. This may be due to restrictions of Japan’s CERO rating system, which can be stricter in regards to violence and sexual content compared to the ESRB or PEGI (for reference, the game was given a CERO C rating in Japan, which indicates that the game is suitable for people aged 15 and up).
 * 14) There is absolutely zero characterization of the player characters. They're just four pairs of floating arms. All the characters use the same arm model, regardless if they're an adult male security guard or a teenage girl.
 * 15) There is no story. All the levels end with Kayako killing the player character without them accomplishing anything.
 * 16) Level 4 is a beginner's trap. You don't realize the level has actual objectives until you've wasted too much battery power to finish the level.
 * 17) Whenever a cutscene is activated, most of the time you have to do a QTE, which are all terrible for the following reasons:
 * 18) * Failing one of several quick-time events forces you to restart the 20-minute-plus level.
 * 19) * Some quick-time events give the player extremely little time to react before dying.
 * 20) * You can beat quick-time events by wildly shaking the Wiimote in circles.
 * 21) The game itself gives little to no background information on the villains, or even the concept of a Grudge, it just assumes that you watched the movies beforehand.
 * 22) There is a scare and sissy meter that's suppose to measure how well you react to the QTEs and they're practically pointless.
 * 23) The European box art is supposed to be scary, but looks absolutely goofy due to being brightly-lit, as well as having no relation to the game at all.

The Only Redeeming Quality

 * 1) Fanservice: The cursed house and ghosts are accurately recreated from the movie and are well detailed.

Reception
Ju-On: The Grudge received negative reviews from critics. The game holds a Metacritic score of 39/100 based on 32 reviews, and 40.22% on GameRankings based on 27 reviews.

Weekly Famitsu rated Ju-On: The Grudge at a 22 out of 40 from four reviewers, a week before the game was released in Japan. Also, GameSpot, giving the game a 4/10 ("Poor"), complained about the controls and the length of the game.

Darklordjadow1 described the game as a what-not-to-do list when developing a horror game and said that, "If Ju-On: The Grudge isn't the worst horror game, it has to be in the top 10".

Videos
PewDiePie's Ju-On: The Grudge Playthrough playlist

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