Jigoku Yugi

Jigoku Yugi is a 32-game contest in the Ninth Gambling Den of the Underworld. Kuzumi Rōta, a 29-year-old delivery boy buried in debt, wins a million-yen ticket but dies after slipping on it. He wakes at a red felt table among 99 other dead people, where the demon croupier Gokumon Hiruko lays out the stakes: 100 souls enter, 32 games are played, and only one returns to life. The rules are announced but never fully explained.

Find the traps

Each game conceals a trick. Clues emerge from the rules cards, the narrator, your thoughts, the dead in the stands and the consequences of losing. Spot a trap and you can turn the table in your favour; miss it and you may become a casino chip.

The games fall into three groups:

• Mind games: Judgment Lottery, The Scale of Karma, The Liars' Elevator, Memory Auction, Blood Contract, Sin Poker, Jury of the Damned, The Coffin Dilemma, The Cursed Inheritance, Liar's Bone Dice and Enma's Exam.
• Body games: The Mountain of Needles, The Communal Cauldron, Tug of War vs. the Oni, Fishing the Sanzu River, Tombstone Tower, Fire Cart Race, The Hungry Oni Baby, Limbo Under the Scythe, Musical Chairs of Judgment and Coffin Tetris.
• Mixed games: The Spider's Thread, Onigiri Roulette, The Midnight Train, Judgment Day Hide-and-Seek, The Playing Mirror, Bets from the Box, Blind Date with Death, The Poisoned Tea Ceremony, Your Life, Live!, Likes from Hell and the final showdown, Hiruko's Throne.

Think and accuse

You can hold to THINK, freezing time while your inner monologue runs at 1 mon per second. Hiruko cheats when his golden eye blinks; accuse him in time and he pays, but a false accusation has consequences. Panic makes your heart pound louder, warps the screen and swaps button positions. In body games, giant ドン!! and ざわ… sound-effect characters fall onto the stage and get in your way.

An eight-act story

The story follows relationships and rivalries among 16 named opponents, including a lawyer who reads the fine print, a delinquent with a carp tattoo, a pachinko granny, an idol seeking likes from beyond the grave, a con man who betrays you before breakfast and a masked figure who whispers “...again.” Blood pacts, betrayals and eliminations change according to whom you trust. In the waiting room, 50 conversations can shift relationships and unlock scenes.

Your funeral is broadcast live on TV; the more people who miss you, the calmer your nerves become. Playable memories grant skills, but you can also sell them at auction.

Money and survival

You start with 600 mon, which serves as money, stake and life. Entry fees rise with each act. Hiruko takes a VIP commission when you are doing too well, lucky souls face a progressive tax, and Granny Tome lends money at 10% per game. If you fail to repay her, she chases you around the waiting room with her cane.

Modes and endings

There are five endings, including a true ending that requires exposing 24 traps and a secret ending for signing what you should not. Free Play Den lets you play any game on its own, while Tournament of the Nobles runs all 32 games back to back and tracks high scores. The game also includes 30 “Absurd Deaths” achievements, a gallery of eliminated rivals' chips, a suspicion notebook and 40 silly deaths shown on loading screens. Hiruko remembers previous runs and brings them up.

Gekiga presentation

Portraits, backgrounds and effects use thick ink, halftone dots and a palette of paper, blood red and gold, with the look of an 80s gambling manga. Razor-sharp chins, knife-like noses, buckets of sweat, speed lines and screen-filling sound effects shape its visuals. Sound is synthesised: each character has manga-style syllables rather than voice acting, alongside a solemn narrator, the croupier's chuckles and crowds murmuring “ざわ…”.

Difficulty and accessibility

Three difficulty levels are available, along with extra time in games, button-mashing assistance and one-press thinking. Story options include text speed, auto mode, skipping previously read text and dialogue history. You can adjust text size and use colour filters for deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia, high contrast or greyscale; flashing and other screen effects, heartbeat sounds and rumble can also be reduced or switched off.