The Exit 8

, sometimes shortened to ''Exit 8,'' is a 2023 adventure game developed and published by Kotake Create. Billed as a walking simulator, the game revolves around the player walking through a Japanese metro station passageway, trying to spot inaccuracies to reach the exit of the station. The game was initially released on Steam on 29 November 2023 and was subsequently ported to Nintendo Switch on 17 April 2024, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on 8 August 2024, on Xbox Series X/S on 9 January 2025 and on Android and iOS in March 2025. under the publisher Playism. A virtual reality version co-developed and published by MyDearest Inc., dubbed ''The Exit 8 VR'', released on 11 July 2024 for the Meta Quest 2, Pro and 3 and later released on Steam.

''The Exit 8'' took nine months to develop and was designed to be made in a short amount of time and on a low budget. The game was inspired by the "surreal" atmosphere of underground passageways as well as the horror game series ''I'm on Observation Duty'', which inspired the game's anomaly mechanic. The setting was modelled after several Japanese metro stations, including the Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station in Koto, Tokyo.

''The Exit 8'' received positive reviews, with many critics praising the game for its psychological horror and realistic environment, although critiqued the game for its short length and lack of replayability. The game was nominated for many awards, winning many awarded by the Japanese gaming industry. Additionally, the game has received over 1.5 million downloads. In the wake of the game's release, various games released that took heavy inspiration from ''Exit 8'' and were subsequently dubbed "Exit 8-likes". A sequel to the game called ''Platform 8'' was released on 31 May 2024. A live-action film adaptation of the game is set to release on 29 August 2025.

Gameplay

''The Exit 8'' is a first-person three-dimensional (3D) walking simulator type game with elements of puzzle and psychological horror. Inspired by the concept of liminal spaces such as the Backrooms, the game is set in a passageway of the Japanese metro. Every time the player exits the passageway, the passageway seems to repeat seemingly forever with even a passer-by appearing to be caught in the loop. The core gameplay of ''The Exit 8'' is similar to games like spot the difference, where the player must look out for and identify anomalies in the room's layout. If there are no anomalies, the player should proceed down the corridor; whereas if there is an anomaly, the player should turn around and walk the way they came. The player needs to be correct eight times in a row to reach the end of the station. Should the player be incorrect with the assessment of a given room layout, their progress will reset back to Exit 0.

Anomalies in the game can range from subtle differences such as different messages on signs, repeating poster designs, proportion differences with the passer-by or power outages. Certain anomalies can actually reset the player's progress should they not turn back quick enough such as a flood of red water or a man camouflaged as the wall tiles that will chase after the player if they get too close. Some anomalies are exclusive to the VR version of the game.

Development and release

Development

''The Exit 8'' was developed by Japanese indie developer Kotake Create, also known as Kotakenotokeke, who developed the game in Unreal Engine 5. The game was conceived when Kotake sought to create a simple game, as they had spent years of developing other games that were never released, as well as from a desire to make games set in underground passageways. In an interview with Japanese website ''Game Makers'', Kotake stated that the game took over nine months to develop, split between six months of planning and prototyping and three months of final development. During the testing for the game, Kotake was a part of an incubation program for indie developers named iGi (indie Game incubator), in which he asked other developers to playtest a prototype for the game during a program-run showcase event. Kotake Create stated that he liked the surreal atmosphere of confined spaces such as underground passageways, which inspires them to create a game based on loops. In the initial concept for the game, the player would have been able to board a subway train. However, due to development restraints, the concept was dropped to just the corridor setting; the train aspects were later reused as the setting for ''The Exit 8''s sequel.

Another influence for the looping mechanic during development was the 2021 adventure game ''Twelve Minutes'', which featured a mechanic where the events of the game would loop after twelve minutes. One of the main inspirations for ''The Exit 8'' came from ''I'm on Observation Duty'', a horror game based on surveillance cameras and finding anomalies, which makes them realize that spot the difference could integrate well with horror themes. Additionally the mechanic of security camera footage reminded them of a looping video, another influence for the looping mechanic. When asked about how the game was developed with simplicity in mind, Kotake mentioned that it was likely a build-up of his feelings and experiences from his 7-8 years as an indie developer, although stating he was conscious of games he likes such as ''Inside'', noting its lack of tutorial.

When making the anomalies for the game, Kotake Create stated they wanted to keep the anomalies at "borderline horror" and "unsettling", citing anomaly inspiration stemming from works such as '' P.T.'' and '' The Shining''. During development of the game, early concepts on how to deal with the anomalies included taking pictures of the anomalies using a camera or shooting the anomalies with a gun, which Kotake believed didn't match the game's setting. Additionally, due to wanting to keep the development of the game short and low budget, they opted instead to incorporate the "proceed or turn back" mechanic.

Following questions made by '' BuzzFeed Japan'' and ''Game Makers'', Kotake Create mentioned that the hallway the game is set in was modelled after a real location although declined to name the station in question to avoid causing the station trouble. Speaking further, they mentioned that an art installation in Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station directly inspired one of the anomalies in the game. The art installation in-question are diagonal ceiling lights randomly scattered across the ceiling of a hallway which is meant to "resemble the hustle and bustle going on above the ground".

Release

The game was first announced on 3 November 2023 with a trailer posted on the developer's twitter account, with the release planned for later that month in both Japanese and English. ''The Exit 8'' would release worldwide on Steam on 29 November 2023. A few days after release, Kotake Create would release a patch for the game to fix an exploit that allowed the player to glitch to the end of the game in under one minute. During the Japanese broadcast of a Nintendo Indie World presentation on 17 April 2024, the game was subsequently released on the same day worldwide for the Nintendo Switch. This version of the game was published by Japanese publishing company Playism. Playism would later announce and release versions of the game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on 8 August 2024. In August 2024, a physical bundle containing both ''The Exit 8'' and its sequel, ''Platform 8'', was announced to be releasing on 28 November 2024. In January 2025, Playism announced and released the game for Xbox Series X/S. On 28 March 2025, Playism announced the versions of the game for Android and iOS devices, with iOS releasing same day and Android later releasing on 31 March.

In early June 2024, Japanese virtual reality developer and publisher MyDearest Inc. announced a VR version of the game, called ''The Exit 8 VR'', for the Meta Quest line of headsets. Following the announcement, a demo for the game was on display at the Miyashita Park shopping complex for the "Yojohan Miyashita Park by Meta Quest 3" VR/MR demo event that lasted from 7 June to 7 July that year. The game released on 11 July 2024 for the Meta Quest 2, Pro and 3. To commemorate the launch of the VR version, a world inspired by the game was launched for the online virtual world platform ''VRChat''. In September 2024, MyDearest released this version onto Steam with support for SteamVR.

Sequel

Following the success of the game, Kotake Create became a freelance developer after quitting their job as 3D artist at an undisclosed video game developer. In an interview with Japanese website ''Game*Spark'' following the release of ''The Exit 8'', Kotake mentioned the possibility of creating a sequel to the game, stating that they would rather make a new game instead of updating the original with new anomalies. In a subsequent interview with ''Game Makers'', Kotake Create mentioned that they were considering soliciting real-world advertisements as opposed to the fictional advertisements seen in ''Exit 8'' to "reduce the operating costs". This would later be added upon in late-February 2024, where the developer sent an announcement on their Twitter account that they would be accepting submissions for these guest advertisements to appear in a sequel to ''The Exit 8''. In the following month, Kotake launched a Steam page for the sequel under the name ''Platform 8'', with a release window of between "the end of April or beginning of May". Unlike its predecessor, ''Platform 8'' is set on a train that never ends, where the player must spot anomalies to escape the train. The game released on Steam worldwide on 31 May 2024. A Nintendo Switch port was announced in August 2024 for 28 November later the same year.

Following the release of ''Platform 8'', Kotake Create stated that they do not want to make any more sequels in this series, feeling that they are satisfied with the games and wanted to continue working on ''Strange Shadows'', the horror adventure game which Kotake paused development on to instead develop ''The Exit 8'', planned for 2025.

Reception

Critical reception

Original version

According to review aggregator website OpenCritic, ''The Exit 8'' received an average score of 72/100 based on 7 reviews, and 57% of critics recommended the game.

Many critics praised ''The Exit 8'' for its use of psychological horror in both the game's setting and how it could affect the player. Meriel Green from ''Gamezebo'' described how the game "effortlessly" connects to fears many people have, being getting lost in a subway, adding on that the passageway gave off an "profoundly unsettling vibe". She further commented on how lifelike the environment was and going as far to claim that the gameplay could be mistaken for real footage, which she mentioned further layered on the game's sense of dread. Jordan Helm from ''Hardcore Gamer'' commented on how the game utilises discomfort to create uncertainty and distrust in what the player maybe witnessing. Describing this as the game's "greatest stride", Helm wrote about how the game manages to make binary decision-making stressful due to one wrong decision would cause a reset of the player's entire progress, which would cause paranoia and distrust to seep into the player's judgement.

Conversely, ''Siliconera''s Jenni Lada recounted how the game made her feel comfortable and that the hallway made them feel secure and immersed. Lada commented that because the game made her feel too comfortable it managed to catch her out and make a mistake, adding it can help with replayability saying she found the game "oddly relaxing to take a walk and pick out the 'mistakes'". In his review, ''Rock Paper Shotgun''s Ed Thorn details how the game did an "excellent job" by imitating Japanese comedy and game show humour, adding that some of the anomalies leaned towards the more whacky and fantastical side. He reflected that the game "wouldn't be amiss in a Yakuza".

One drawback critics had with the game was its short length. In Lada's review, she mentioned that if you were good and lucky with the game it would only take the player around "15-30 minutes" to complete, adding further that "once you’ve played it enough times, you’ll have done it all and have no reason to return". Jordan Helm remarked that he hoped that Kotake Create would use the game as a foundation for a more ambitious and bolder project in the future. However, Helm added that Kotake created a "fifteen-minute experience with more warranted involvement and intriguing design" than other games with a longer play time.

VR version

Similar to the original version, ''The Exit 8 VR'' was generally well received by critics, with many claiming the use of virtual reality helped enhance the gameplay and environment. In her review for ''UploadVR'', Alicia Haddick described how she felt that this version heightened the overall sense of unease when playing, calling the game a "natural fit" for the Quest headset. Pulling from her memories of visiting Nogizaka Station in Tokyo, Haddick felt returning to a familiar location that was "distinctly off" was improved by the immersion of virtual reality, stating that the tension of playing was heightened when wearing the headset.

Jenni Lada from ''Siliconera'' mentioned how the simplistic nature and execution of the game benefitted from VR, feeling that the headset helped enhance the game's sound design and audio cues, making them easier to spot. She also felt the VR aided in anomaly hunting and made certain anomalies more unsettling and fun to experience due to being able observe them up-close, writing that "it’s immersive in a way that was impossible on the Switch". Sharing similar sentiments with Lada, ''The Escapist''s Shaun Cichacki stated that the game's visuals looked "phenomenal" and made the experience a lot more impactful, even noting that the environment that he was exploring felt more akin to real life than "just playing another video game." Writing further, Cichacki praised the game's sound design and commented that "the monotonous humming of the electricity" broke the "sterile and somewhat serene" environment, feeling that the noise and player's footsteps being some of the only noises in the game to be "executed well" and made anomalies easier to detect. Hisui Mizuki from ''Real Sound'' wrote how whilst they thought the visuals were on par with the original version, the atmosphere of the VR version was comparable to real life, adding that due to the sounds of the lights and footsteps being heard in 3D made the sense of loneliness when playing stronger. Continuing on, Hisui wrote how she felt that due to having a narrower field of view with the VR headset, it made anomalies more difficult and a lot more scarier than the original version, which made the game more enjoyable.

Sales

Upon the release of the game, it was announced that the game had sold 30,000 copies within the first day. By April 17, Kotake Create announced that the Steam release of the game sold 500,000 copies. Two days after the release of the game on Nintendo Switch ''The Exit 8'' became the top most downloaded Switch game that week in Japan, beating out games such as '' Bunny Garden'' and ''Suika Game'', According to a press release in August 2024, it was announced the game had reached over 1 million downloads, with the suggestion that the Switch version helped significantly push the game to that milestone. In 2024, the game became the 2nd most downloaded game on the Nintendo Switch eShop in Japan only being beaten by ''Suika Game''. By January 2025, Playism announced that the game has achieved over 1.4 million downloads worldwide across all versions. As of March 2025, ''The Exit 8'' has received over 1.5 million downloads worldwide.

Awards

''The Exit 8'' has also won multiple awards in the Japanese gaming industry. It won the Breakthrough Award at the Japan Game Awards 2024, where the selection committee praised the game's "ingenious" idea. At the 2024 CEDEC Awards, it won an Excellence Award in Game Design due to the game's "simple and easy-to-understand design" as well as its creativity in incorporating familiar scenery. At the "Kyoto Digital Amusement Awards, a ceremony held by the Kyoto Prefecture to recognise young Kyoto-based creators, Kotake Create won the Governer's Award (Grand Prize) for his work on ''The Exit 8''. "During the "''Dengeki'' Indie Game Awards 2024", ''The Exit 8'' was voted as the 10th best indie game of 2024. At the 27th Independent Games Festival, ''The Exit 8'' was announced as a finalist for the Nuovo Award, losing out to ''Consume Me''. ''The Exit 8'' was also nominated for the Grand Prize and the Internet Buzzword of the Year Award for the "41st 2024 New Words and Buzzwords Awards" and the " Internet Buzzword Award" respectively, finishing tenth for the latter award.

Legacy

Exit 8-likes

Following the release of ''The Exit 8'', an influx of indie games inspired by the premise of the game became available online. Dubbed "Exit 8-like" by both news outlets and the developer themselves, these game feature similar or even identical gameplay to ''Exit 8'' but often set in a different environment and often trying to capture the liminal space aesthetic with examples such a shopping centre, hospital or subway trains. One such game, called "''0th Floor -The cursed elevator to Floor 0 -''", has the game set in an elevator and has the players looking for anomalies on different floors of a building, all of which has a different setting. Some of these Exit 8-likes leaned more into the more horror aspect of the gameplay, such as adding paranormal entities such as monsters and ghosts. One of the more unique Exit 8-likes is "''Track No. 9''", a two-dimensional pixelated art-style adventure game where the player searches for 34 anomalies on a subway platform.

In response to the large amount of "copycats", Kotake Create expressed that they do not condone the use of thumbnails or titles on gameplay videos of Exit 8-like games that could be seen as connections to the original game. Further elaborating on his stance, Kotake mentioned that he would get messages from people about games "ripping off" ''The Exit 8'', clarifying he wasn't angered by them as his game was also influenced by others. Kotake further stated that the reason he condoned the genre was due to the inability to stop people from making games using the same formula and that "ideas aren't copyrighted", adding that he was happy his creation "pioneered" a genre. Additionally the developer shared links to some Exit 8-likes that they were looking forward to and stated that "as a developer, I think it is absolutely ok to make a new game that “puts a new spin on existing games,” as long as it isn’t exactly the same setting or gameplay system etc". One of the most notable examples of this was ''The Exit 9'', which was released on the PlayStation Store in January 2024. Due to the game's strong likeness to ''The Exit 8'', it caused online fans of the game to ask Kotake Create about the copycat to which they denied any involvement with ''The Exit 9''. Verity Townsend from ''Automaton West'' speculated that the developers of the copycat were taking advantage of the fact that the original game was not released on consoles. Following the release of the PlayStation versions of ''The Exit 8'', the copycat was rebranded to ''Exit 9 Metro''. As of February 2025, the store page for the game has been delisted on the PS Store. During an interview, Kotake listed the games ''False Dreams'', ''Victor’s Test Night'' and ''Dead End'' as Exit 8-likes that left an impression on him.

Popularity

''Automaton West'' reported that following the release of the game, fans online had grown affectionate to the NPC passer-by seen in the game and had created works in his image such as fan art or recreating the character in games like ''Phantasy Star Online 2'' or ''Soulcalibur VI''. Described as a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and dressed in work clothes and a briefcase, the passer-by only walks down the hallway and can occasionally be one of the game's many anomalies, but never actually interacts with the player. Speculating as to why some fans felt so passionate towards the character, the article's author, Hideaki Fujiwara, believed that due to the NPC being the only other real person in the game, fans see the passer-by as a "source of security and familiarity for the player" which the feelings would then continue to build. Seeing as the player has to scrutinise every aspect of the game in order to spot anomalies, they add that it would cause players to notice certain qualities of the passer-by, describing the man as having a " sleeper build". Alternatively, Fujiwara also posited the idea the feelings may derive from the "mere-exposure effect", which caused players to like the character just from walking past them over and over. When questioned about the character, Kotake Create mentioned that he too had become attached to the man during development and liked reading comments about the man from players in reviews, adding that the man became the largest 3D model in the game at around 140,000 polygons. The character returned in the game's sequel, ''Platform 8''. To celebrate ''The Exit 8'' reaching 1 million downloads, a line of merchandise featuring the passer-by would be sold in Ikebukuro Parco department stores for a limited time between 23 August and 30 September 2024.

In mid-April 2024, Japanese pharmaceutical company launched a web commercial parodying the game to advertise their mouthwash product, Mondamin. Due to a mistake on the company's Twitter account, Kotake Create responded to users stating that the commercial was not done in collaboration and instead merely granted permission for the company to parody the game. In late-March 2025, ''The Exit 8'' content was featured in an update for the game Maid Cafe on Electric Street as part of a collaboration.

Film

A live-action film based on the ''Exit 8'' video game was announced by Toho on December 27, 2024, with set to write, produce and direct the film. The film, which stars Kazunari Ninomiya and as the "lost man" and "walking man" respectively, is scheduled to release on 29 August 2025.

Notes

References

External links

*

Official movie website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Exit 8, The
2020s horror video games
2023 video games
Android (operating system) games
Indie games
IOS games
Meta Quest games
Nintendo Switch games
Playism games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 5 games
Puzzle video games
Single-player video games
Unreal Engine 5 games
Video games about security and surveillance
Video games adapted into films
Video games developed in Japan
Video games set in Japan
Walking simulators
Windows games
Works about underground railways