Some games stand out immediately when turned on. Games with clear, on-point artistic direction, tone, and atmosphere. The kind of games that give the player a quiet promise that this will be an experience that stays with them long after the credits roll. It is with great curiosity about what it has to offer that Cubed3 takes a look at Onion Game’s latest adventure RPG release, Stray Children.
Stray Children starts on a rainy night. The protagonist’s mother, and sole caretaker after the father’s disappearance, has gone away for the weekend. Then, the most horrifying thing that can happen to a child who is alone at night occurs: the doorbell rings. At the doorstep stands a weird stranger who claims to be the brother of the lost father. “Stranger danger” immediately repeats in the player’s mind as they fiercely try to resist following this man, who gives off Child Catcher vibes, into the night. As this is one of those video games, the game simply repeats the question until ”yes” is selected.
This forced choice violates both the player’s and the protagonist’s consent and sets the tone in the most eerie way possible. This is sadly also a relatable example to many, as during their childhood, many children have experienced being unable to refuse an adult, even when something clearly suspicious is going on. Right from the start, Stray Children gives a firm promise that this will be a psychologically horrifying experience, and the knowledge that there isn’t anything that can be done to avoid it.
Thankfully, the man speaks the truth. Otherwise, this situation would have taken on an entirely different kind of horror. It is then revealed that the father was isekai’d into the very game he was developing. The player is then instructed not to touch anything while Kenken uses the bathroom “quickly”.
Once again, the game cruelly undermines the player’s sense of agency and consent. Kenken’s toilet visit is so lengthy that the player can go back home to try to sleep. Once again, a logical action that the game does not allow. However, when they return, he is still not done. At some point, it becomes clear that the player must touch the machine that Kenken told them not to touch. What happens then is that the player and Kenken get sucked into the RPG the father made, and with that intro section done, the game can truly begin!
What then unfolds is a tale that lives up to all the promises this introduction sets and even exceeds them. Stray Children is one of those rare horror experiences that does not rely on the obviously horrifying elements, such as jump scares and disgust, but rather on what speaks to humans at a deeper, more psychologically fundamental level.
The first world visited showcases this level of horror in all its glory and is one of the game’s strongest parts. Here, the player visits the unreleased game that the father created, which has devolved into a doomed world. The storytelling tricks used to show how the world is dying are horrifyingly similar to how people report that dementia affects someone. The hero does not know who to fight, and no one remembers anything about their lives before the doom. Time itself no longer moves forward, stuck at the same moment forever, only that more and more keeps getting erased from the world as the game progresses.
It is a truly unsettling experience, which is then immediately contrasted with the far more cheerful Childonia, the land ruled by children. These children live in fear of the horrifying Olders (adults), who eat children, giving the story a new and creepy mixture of zombie apocalypse and Peter Pan vibes.
This level of existential horror is rare to see even in dedicated horror media outside of gaming; therefore, it came as a shock to see it in an adventure RPG. The world of Stray Children immediately evokes thoughts of the wonderful classic EarthBound, with its dreamlike atmosphere and sometimes psychedelic story. The game is far from shy about highlighting this, with a character introduced later in the game being clearly visually inspired by Ness.
Stray Children has also drawn inspiration from the modern classic Undertale, particularly in its combat system. Not only does it have sections where the player must dodge attacks by moving around, but it also has ways to defeat every single enemy without damaging them. This is achieved through a simple dialogue tree that adds considerable depth to the combat and the world itself. The enemies in this game are those feared Olders who are out to eat children. The way to defeat them without killing them is to help them come to terms with their adult problems, allowing the protagonist to play the role of their therapist.
It is a clever system that adds to the theme in an elegant way. It makes every encounter feel like a meaningful boss fight, something more RPGs should take note of. At its best, the combat system of Stray Children makes these random encounters feel exciting rather than the hassle they normally feel like in games of this genre.
At its worst, though, this system is annoying due to deeper design choices. Some choices in Stray Children feel questionable from a gameplay perspective, while being fully understandable and even amazing from an artistic one. The root of all issues is that it is impossible to backtrack. Once the player completes a section of the game, it becomes off limits forever. From a storytelling and artistic perspective, this makes absolute sense. It is also a great way to confine people to small areas for puzzle solving, rather than having them search the world for a solution, as many solutions to progress through the story are odd and rather trial-and-error dependent.
The problem is that sometimes key items at the start of the game aren’t needed until the very end. Those key items are required to help some of the Olders come to terms with their lives – and often, there are no indications that something is missing to overcome an encounter. For someone who is looking to do a pacifist playthrough, this can mean running into an impossible roadblock at the very end of the game because they did not find a specific item twenty hours ago, making it feel like it’s taken straight from Sierra Entertainment’s earlier point-and-click adventure games. To add to this, Stray Children has also made an interesting choice: to have only one save file that cannot be deleted in-game, thereby preventing the game from being restarted.
This hints at a design philosophy that the player is not meant to accomplish everything in one playthrough: a choice that must be understood to fully enjoy Stray Children. In a world increasingly focused on in-game achievements, gamers have begun entering games with the mindset to complete everything 100%, viewing the game more as a task to accomplish rather than an experience to enjoy. Honestly, in a way, it is refreshing. The problem is that it means many will have to rely on walkthroughs to learn they missed out on something early on, so they can move forward. This, in turn, removes much of the magic it is meant to convey.
It is quite interesting how Stray Children is at its best when it doesn’t adapt to being a good RPG. Rather, it fully blooms when it lets itself make choices that allow it to be the best cultural experience it can be. This, unfortunately, negatively impacts the game in certain sections. The early game does an amazing job of making the game feel like an experience to be enjoyed with a very natural storytelling flow. However, towards the middle, and especially in the final sections, it begins to feel increasingly artificial. It feels like this is a result of it being adapted to fit the video game format rather than fully being its own thing.
Some of the more painful expressions of this are in later dungeons that have a maze-like design that feels like they are just there to pad out the game’s length. Despite that, there are still some very powerful story beats at this point. However, the gameplay sometimes feels like it gets in the way of the story during certain parts.
It’s really a luxury problem, since the gameplay that gets in the way is great. It rather serves as a testament to just how great the storytelling and worldbuilding aspects are. The problem is just that the great gameplay disrupts the beautiful flow the game has during its strongest sections.
In a way, it is disappointing that Stray Children didn’t fully run with its rebellious design. At its core, it feels like it was designed to break the rules and boundaries of what video games are – and in many ways it succeeds, making it one of the most emotionally powerful RPGs released in recent times. It feels very unique in its kind, which makes Stray Children a game that everyone should experience for themselves at least once. Probably twice, as like with most great art, there are many details one does not notice during the first playthrough.
