Video Game / Platform 8

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Platform 8 ( 8番のりば) is a First Person Psychological Horror Environmental Narrative Game created by KOTAKE CREATE for PC, and released on May 31, 2024. Broadly, it is a Anomaly-Spotting Game that combines elements of their previous game The Exit 8 and can be considered a sequel to the aforementioned game.

You control a nondescript character aboard a subway train, and are tasked with moving forward until you finally reach the eponymous eighth station on the train's map. Just like the previous game, however, the train cars have become a series of Unnaturally Looping Locations due to "anomalies". The player must keep advancing, wary of dangerous anomalies, until they finally reach the 8th station and finally get out.

See Shinkansen 0 for a slightly similar premise and The Exit 8 which this game is a sequel to.

Warning: Due to the nature of the game, it is best played blind. Readers should beware of gameplay spoilers, marked or unmarked.

This game contains examples of:

• Achievement Mockery: There's one anomaly falling victim to which would net you an achievement. Said achievement, "Kukudo", is unlocked if you ignore the signboard's warning and get off the train when it stops at a foggy terminal. You'll be stuck in that foggy area until you restart the game, as alluded to in the achievement description's Madness Mantra of "Can't go back".
• Anti-Frustration Features: Some train doors have a yellow sign that non-subtly warns the player of an anomaly within the current car. Once it is found, the sign disappears and you can move on to the next car.
• Apathetic Citizens: The lone passenger seen in every car is always sitting down looking at his smartphone, oblivious to everything around him, from the appearance of ghosts to a giant Humanoid Abomination looking through the windows or reaching in to grab unwary victims.
• Automatic New Game: Carried over from the previous game, the game puts you on a passenger seat of the train as soon as the game loads.
• Blackout Basement: One anomaly deals with the lights turning off and not coming back on. Worse, the normal doors disappear. The solution is to find the real sliding door inside one of the now-opened doors on the side.
• Bloody Handprint: One anomaly has several of these appear in the windows and floor as the player walks towards the next car.
• Creepy Changing Painting: Another common anomaly variety also used in the previous game. They can range from a veterinarian hospital sign with the aforementioned medic's head vibrating wildly to the sign of an anime with the girl having Black Eyes of Evil, which turns into a Ghostly Gape as you focus on it.
• Creepy Child: In two anomalies, a little girl in pigtails appears. One is to play a version of "Red Light, Green Light" where the player must move with the lights off and stop when the lights come back on. The second is a "Hide & Seek" game where the player has to find her to advance.
• Don't Look Back: In one anomaly, you can hear something walking behind you with each step you take while the electric sign gives a warning lampshading this trope. Turn around and you reset back to the starting point. Just keep walking (or running) towards the next door.
• Endless Game: Even if the player reaches the eighth station and gets off, you return to the game after the credits to find the remaining anomalies left to find to obtain the Golden Ending. Even then, you once again return to the train...
• Golden Ending: Obtained after finding every single last anomaly. The player gets out and walks up some stairs and past a turnstile to some very familiar looking corridors until you eventually arrive to a certain hallway with a familiar sign and a certain businessman walking in...
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Just like the previous game, the game restarts after passing the credits to find all the remaining anomalies to obtain the Golden Ending.
• Guide Dang It!: One of the most-easily overlooked anomalies (which can also be triggered by the appearance of the yellow sign warning) is related to one of the hanging ads on the ceiling. The final ad with the eye has its anomaly behind it. Due to it being so close to the door, most players don't bother looking upward when turning around, making it easy to miss.
• Here We Go Again!:
  • Even after clearing the game, the player finds themselves back inside the train to look for anomalies once more.
  • Getting the Golden Ending reveals this game to be a Prequel to The Exit 8 as the player ends up back in the familiar corridor from the game.
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • Two anomalies involve a gigantic figure outside the train. One is them harmlessly watching you from outside the window. The other, however, involves the side doors sliding open and a giant arm reaches in to grab unwary players. Getting caught by the hands send you back to start.
  • The passenger can sometimes be standing still in the middle of the aisle with his face blurred and distorted or be creepily shambling down the aisle without a head. Touching him in these anomalies is not recommended.
• Murderous Mannequin: Subverted. The anomaly involving rows of mannequins sitting down are harmless. However, you must find an empty space between them and sit down for the next train door to open.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Two of the flickering ghosts actually do this. The first slowly makes its way towards you when the lights go out and stops moving when they return. The other one moves towards you if you don't look at it. You have to quickly run towards the door while the lights are off for the former, and walk backwards while focusing the camera on the ghost for the latter.
• Off with His Head!: The lone passenger can be shambling down the aisle sans his head for one anomaly. Another is seeing a headless woman in business attire outside the train window. When approached, she slams her hands on the glass before disappearing with a flicker of the lights.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Several anomalies involve flickering ghosts that stand still (except the two mentioned above). Touching one automatically sends the player back to the starting location.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Just like with the businessman of the previous game, some anomalies are tied to the lone passenger in the car. All except the one where he is using his smartphone to record you are dangerous if you touch him.
• Schmuck Bait:
  • Hearing someone apparently calling for help from the door going forward. The glass is unusually tinted black. Go ahead and help the mysterious voice...and get immediately sent back to the starting point. Stay at the far end of the aisle and/or sit down until the glass becomes transparent once again to finally move on.
  • The door you have to slide to reach the next car is somehow already open. Think you just need to walk to the next car? An invisible ghost catches you and slams you back to the starting point. Just stay as far back and/or sit until the door closes.
  • One of the anomalies involve the side doors opening while the train is still running. Going outside works around as well as you'd expect.
  • Another anomaly involves the train stopping by an area covered in Ominous Fog and the side doors opening, with the display board warning you to not get off. Shall you ignore the warning, you would find yourself in an abandoned Kukudo train terminal in a middle of foggy grass field that is too an Unnaturally Looping Location. Wandering around would net you an achievement but there's nothing else there. Another train never arrives and there's not even an automatic restart, you'd have to close the game yourself and relaunch it.
• Shout-Out:
  • An anomaly where the train car suddenly starts to flood with red liquid is similar to the one in The Exit 8, which is a repeated reference to The Shining.
  • The anomaly where You get off at a foggy station and are unable to leave even if you try to walk away is a reference to the Japanese urban legend of Kisaragi Station.
• Sinister Subway: The game takes place on a train inside one of these.
• Stealth Sequel: The game initially appears to be a separate story with similar elements to The Exit 8, until the player finally gets off the train, and walks into the passage from The Exit 8, cementing it as a prequel.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Some anomalies lock the doors and prevent the player from going forward until the "puzzle" solution can be found.