Mad Father

A 2D adventure game in the horror convention, using a top-down view. The indie Japanese developer Sen is responsible for the production of the game, who was using Wolf RPG Editor for his project. The game was first released in December 2012 on PC. In 2020 a remake was developed, available on Nintendo Switch and Steam. The renewed version of Mad Father uses an improved graphic design, additional locations and challenges.

Plot

The action of the game is set in northern Germany, in a huge residence almost isolated from the rest of the world. The heroine, eleven-year-old Aya, lives with her father Alfred and her maid Maria. The girl's father spends most of his time doing mysterious experiments without giving his daughter too much attention. The girl's mother died as a result of her illness long before the events presented in the game, but she appears in the memories of the protagonist, longing for the old times and family warmth. The action starts at the anniversary of her death. At midnight Aya wakes up from her sleep with a loud scream. After a while, the girl realizes that her family home has been haunted by ghostly creatures. In order to stay alive, she must protect herself from all the dangers lurking in the dark corners of her residence.

Mechanics

The main goal is to explore numerous locations and to solve puzzles that appear along the way. The player has the opportunity to move around the residence and to collect interactive items that will serve him in important moments of the game or allow him to get to the next, previously unavailable sections of the residence. During the journey, the heroine may also encounter various supernatural creatures. Direct contact with most of them results in the death of a girl. We must then load the last saved game. In order to prevent a similar situation, the player must first of all rescue himself by running away or make the right decisions to avoid an attack. When one of the creatures catches him, he also has the opportunity to break out of the grip, which he can do by clicking on the right button quickly enough. Some creatures remain immobile, only partially preventing access to subsequent locations, in this case, they must be evaded.

Endings

In the game, it is also possible to interact with each character. We should also remember that some of the decisions made by the player have a key impact on the ending. Mad Father has three endings: Bad Ending 1, Bad Ending 2 i True Ending. The game also offers a bonus scene (Gems Ending), which can only be displayed after a True Ending, as well as on condition that the player has previously managed to collect all (21 in total) jewels available in the game. The next bonus epilogue is unlocked when all the jewels have been collected and the Gems Ending is achieved. To play it, enter the Gallery via the Main Menu and select "if".

Technical aspects

Mad Father is a 2d game with pixel art graphics. The characters and the short cutscenes that appear from time to time are hand-crafted and in manga style.