Hungry Ghosts is a bizarre yet captivating PS2 “hell simulator” reminiscent of King’s Field and Dark Souls that unfortunately never left Japan. Today, I want to talk about this little-known gem and how it’s one of the most unique games I’ve ever played.
Translation of Tokuro Fujiwara’s interview here: READ PINNED COMMENT
Follow Hungry Ghosts’ translation progress here: https://twitter.com/hgfantrans
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Intro
3:30 – Gameplay
12:03 – Enemy encounters
15:21 – Spirits
18:52 – Progression
21:42 – Endings
28:50 – Religious influences
33:50 – Outro
MUSIC:
Servants of the Mountain – Final Fantasy X
Fortress of Lies – Nier: Automata
Results – Silent Hill (1999)
FREE 1 – Shenmue
Talking to spirit – Hungry Ghosts
Crossing the river – Hungry Ghosts
source
Um how tf are you not viral yet ? I love your content. Quality and editing are chefs kiss 🤌🏻 New fan and subscriber here 😊
i played extermination
interesting video ruined by "le trans rights" segment, I swear its like everywhere I look I cannot escape this astroturfed pozzed brainrot.
This was absolutely wonderful. This game sounds amazing. I appreciate all the aspects of interaction and I'm not a fan of first person titles but I love the idea of the combat controls and reaching for items. This was so well covered. I thank you for what brought you to creating this channel. You are an absolute delight.
whether or not it's intentional, at your time of posting it's currently the Hungry Ghost Festival period in Asia.
Thank you for making this video, I will never play this game (don't know japanese and am not good at playing games) but I think one day in the near future I will scour the internet for every other scrap of info I can find about this. The themes, mechanics and aesthetics are absolutely fascinating to me.
I'd never heard of this game before, very interesting video
I didn't much care for the board game tie-in, Hungry Hungry Ghosts.
For some reason male protag looks like Aragorn from LOTR movie
Really interesting game, definitely a bit ahead of its time, looking forward to more of this type of content. Btw was Shenmue "Free" music being used at one point of the video? 😄
Little bit of an Echo Night vibe, especially with the all of the stories coming from the individual experiences of these ghosts who have all found themselves in a situation. Worth a look if you haven't already!
Man this game looks gorgous for a ps2 game. The character animations are great. It's a real shame this didn't get more attention and I hope a fan translation someday happens.
Marry me
This is one of the most unique gaming videos I've ever seen on YouTube, and it ended up being pretty deep and touching. I thoroughly enjoyed it and ended up subscribing to your channel. Looking forward to more of your videos ma'am!
How do i get classic games like this for a reasonable price?
Shame Deep Space only made Extermination and Hungry Ghosts. I only played and knew of Extermination, which I enjoyed quite a ton to a certain degree, enough to want to play more games from them. Had no idea they only made one more game and that was it, not just that but it was only available in Japan. Would’ve loved to see this get ported in whatever manner.
Only very recently I discovered that Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief got ported and made its reach to the West for the first time ever. So many interesting PS2 games still stuck to being exclusive to Japan.
Stellar coverage on this game, was rad to see that Fatal Frame wasn’t the only game that had the mechanic of you having to be wary on picking up items that can harm you.
We need more obscure japanese horror games
Can we just take a moment and appreciate how good those graphics look being just upscaled. Texture work, model design, animations too.
So, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to put together all of the awesome content on your channel. I’ve been binge-watching your stuff all day and the depth and granularity with which you examine and dissect all of these titles is absolutely captivating. Between highlighting lesser known titles like Haunting Ground and exploring the more philosophical or psychosocial aspects of more popular games, I really admire what you’re doing here. You’ve got my subscription and my admiration as a writer and content creator, absolutely. Keep em coming!
i wonder how it feels, when you thought you're doomed to hell but they decided to make you warden to this infernal prison. i like the A ending that they decided that while you're no better than the common sinner, they think you are righteous enough that they can trust your judgement, so while they aren't planning on letting you going easy they most certainly bestowed you what i think is the highest honour they can
This is an amazing game I never heard of! Thank you so much for this detailed video on the game; because its such a cool take on usual survival horror games.
This would be a amazing vr game
please i beg you review ILLBLEED and the inspiration it had for until dawn
Honestly looks like a pretty cool game i'd re-launch just to see what happens.
You should look into the dreadout games, they're pretty nice, if very jamk and low budget, callbacks to fatal frame with indonesian mythology
Dang, a hidden gem that seems like, unfortunately, would've easily drifted into the realm of being forgotten or straight up..hardly existed. Sad to think many games go that way. I love the soundtrack to the game.
I saw a team working on an English version.
This game is gorgeous 😮😍
This looks amazing. Hopefully your video inspires a fan translation patch of this game. If it doesn't already exist. It reminds me of call of cthulhu in a couple of ways on the ogxbox
You’re an awesome creator. Can’t wait for you to get the following you deserve. I hope you hit 100k before the year is out
" EVERYONE SAYS HELL IS THIS BIG SCARY UNDERWORLD BUT NO ONE'S EXACTLY COME BACK TO CONFIRM WHETHER OR NOT THAT'S TRUE "
Hi ; my name is MAITREYA and I am a senior monk with the SHINGON order of JAPAN — yes I've made the journey myself and yes it's true : hungry ghosts ( PRETA ) and the hell realms ( NARAKA ) do exist !
Part of the natural " outflow path " when it comes to breaking bargains with the worldly realm and attaining to final liberation / nibbana can be unwanted confrontations with spirits and the ghosts of ancestors — these ghosts are deemed " HUNGRY " for the difficult manner in which they involve themselves with our sympathies and drain us of our living essence / vitality as an aspect of their predation .
Thus, just as depicted in game, their " speech " can be horribly deceitful and some are even hyper-intelligent with the capacity to gamble or barter — SPOOKY .
Thanks so much for showcasing such a unique gem … I would never have encountered it otherwise !
Wow. Stumbled upon this. Good job! Never knew about this game and I appreciate the effort you put into this video
you're a saint for doing that translation
Tomba was my favourite game growing up how did I not know he did this too!
Hmmmm. Based.
I remember seeing a Review of the game on an old german gaming magazine DVD. I Was so excited to See what this mysterious game is all about, especially since they teased a possible Release… Thank you so much for this Video, at least i can have some closure 😅
This will be hell for challenge runers 😈
Wow. You might have found a hidden gem! So hidden, the internet doesn't even know about it. You should feel proud that you are basically the first to put info about this game up!
Hey Tango.
I really like your videos. Thank you for putting so much work and effort into them.
You're doing a great job. Wish you all the best. 🍀
This game looks absolutely AMAZING, totally my type of gameplay and artstyle. Shame it did so poorly, I guess people weren't ready for that kind of game
5 seconds in and you hit me with the best track from FFX??? Damn I'm starting to love this channel
Geeking out at the unexpected Trans Rights
I keep saying how there is so much media and so many great games and oddities in general that one would never find, we're missing a lot from not being able to understand different languages, I hope this game gets the cult following it deserves.
good video but where is the pinned comment with the interview translation, is there something I'm missing
So Fujiwara Im pretty sure is the one who set up whoopee camp or atleast worked for them, the developer that created Tomba, so he coyldbt have worked at Capcom till '98 then started Deep space
Nice cringe, weirdo.
Man this really feels like a weird mix of King's Field and Echo Night
Fascinating. I wish we could return to the era of experimental PS2 games.