Ikai

Critic reviews

• Xbox Tavern

  Carlos Santuana · Apr 18, 2022

  7.0

  Overall and if you like horror games that pick up on typically used tropes or ones that have atmospheric tension dripping from every angle, then Ikai is probably going to call out to you. If you’re wanting a polished Japanese scare-fest, then you may want to either wait for a few updates or skip this one until a sale rolls around. It’s not a game you should avoid entirely but even with incredible audio and fantastic atmospheric design, this isn’t likely to be the biggest horror you’ll play this year, but in the same breath it will be far from the worst.

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• Way Too Many Games

  Kyle Nicol · Apr 16, 2022

  5.0

  Ikai was a horror title I was actually really looking forward to. A game steeped in Japanese folklore in a self contained location could (and to be fair, should) have made for an absolutely terrifying and unique experience. However, it just didn’t manage to make the cut: its short runtime, generic gameplay loop and complete lack of scares resulted in a really underwhelming and, more often than not, frustrating, horror title you should avoid.

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• Pure Nintendo

  Bill Stiteler · Apr 12, 2022

  3.0

  Ikai is a first-person psychological horror game that isn’t so much scary as it is confounding. It wastes its effectively chilling setting by simply getting you lost in it. You’ll be annoyed more often than frightened, confused more often than entertained.

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• GameSpace.com

  Emily Byrnes · Apr 06, 2022

  6.0

  I wanted to love Ikai, and there were some parts of it that I was really fond of, but by the end, I felt cheated. It’s not necessarily a bad game, but I wouldn’t put it up there with any of my top favorites in recent years.

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• Nintendo World Report

  John Rairdin · Mar 29, 2022

  5.0

  Poor resolution and performance make moving through the world an annoyance. And unfortunately that’s the entire gameplay loop. Even just catching a glimpse of an enemy can be hard from far away given the resolution, and effectively navigating the halls of the shrine to escape is much more difficult at twenty frames per second.

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• Gaming Bolt

  Shubhankar Parijat · Mar 29, 2022

  4.0

  Ikai's interesting setting and unsettling atmosphere are let down by its clunky gameplay, mundane and repetitive structure, and several technical issues.

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