Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi

Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi (Japanese: 学校であった怖い話, "Schoolhouse Horror Story") is a Survival Horror text-based visual novel for the Super Famicom that was released in 1995 by Banpresto exclusively in Japan. The in-game graphics make use of digitized photographs.

Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi
Super Famicom cover art
Developer(s)	Pandora Box
Publisher(s)	Banpresto
Platform(s)	Super Famicom, PlayStation
Release	Super Famicom JP: August 4, 1995 PlayStation JP: July 19, 1996
Genre(s)	Adventure, survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player

In 1996, a remake for the PlayStation, "Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi S", was released. It featured improved graphics, full motion video, and a drastically expanded story.

The game was developed by Pandora Box, a studio founded by game designer and scenario writer Takeo Iijima. The characters and setting would later be used in the Apathy franchise of Visual and Sound Novel games.

Gameplay

In the game you play as a reporter for the school paper, writing a story about the 7 School Mysteries. Each mystery is told to you by one of 6 possible other students. As you make your way through each scenario, you are given choices which will change the outcome of the story and therefore your progression through the game. Including hidden stories, there are more than 50 possible scenarios in the game.

Characters

Main characters

• Shuichi Sakagami (坂上 修一 Sakagami Shuichi)
• Emi Kurata (倉田 恵美 Kurata Emi)
• Mayumi Taguchi (田口 真由美 Taguchi Mayumi)

Six talkers

• Makoto Shindou (新堂 誠 Shindou Makoto)
• Shouji Arai (荒井 昭二 Arai Shouji)
• Nozomu Kazama (風間 望 Kazama Nozomu)
• Tomoharu Hosoda (細田 友晴 Hosoda Tomaharu)
• Akemi Iwashita (岩下 明美 Iwahita Akemi)
• Reiko Fukuzawa (福沢 玲子 Fukuzawa Reiko)

Other key characters

• Sadao Hino (日野 貞夫 Hino Sadao)
• Sanae Motoki (元木 早苗 Motoki Sanae)
• Kuroki (黒木 Kuroki)

Reception

Review score

Publication	Score
PlayStation Magazine (JP)	(SFC) 22.3/30[1] (PS) 20.8/30[2]

Reception

On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Super Famicom version of the game 25 out of 40.^[3]

Franchise

An anthology manga called Comic Hen Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi was made to promote the game, featuring popular horror mangaka of the time. The contents have little to do with the game.

A sister game, Tsukikomori, was released on the Super Famicom in 1996, using the same gameplay and art style.

In 2007, a visual novel remake of the game, Apathy - Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi ~Visual Novel Version~, was released. Under a new studio name, Nana Korobi Hachi Korogari, Apathy would become its own franchise of visual novels.

Since 2007, a number of novels and two volumes of a manga have been released in the Gakkou de Atta franchise.

Legacy

The Super Famicom version of the game was later released on the Virtual Console service for the Wii and Wii U in Japan on August 5, 2008, and on August 27, 2014. The PlayStation version was also re-released on the PlayStation Network.