Blue Whale

About

Blue Whale is a single player action game with horror, drama, anime and violence themes. It was developed by Lissencephaly and was released on October 31, 2017. It received negative reviews from players.

After returning from school, 12 year old Midori receives a message on the social network from a stranger. He invites her to play the "Blue Whale", a mysterious and dangerous game, at the end of which Midori should become a whale...

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

39%

Audience ScoreBased on 23 reviews

atmosphere6 positive mentions

graphics3 negative mentions

The game has a strong, disturbing atmosphere with some decent scares and a surreal, moody art style that enhances the psychological horror theme.
The concept is interesting and thought-provoking, dealing with heavy topics inspired by real-life incidents, and offers multiple endings to explore.
Audio and visual details contribute well to the overall eerie ambiance, making it a fitting but relaxed horror experience similar to titles like Yume Nikki.

Lack of a save feature is a major issue, causing frustration as players must restart from the beginning after every death, which hampers enjoyment and progression.
The storyline is poorly written, difficult to follow due to bad translation, and the gameplay mainly consists of monotonous walking and repetitive actions with little meaningful choice.
Technical shortcomings include uncustomizable controls, low-quality visuals, no graphics options, and potential accessibility problems, combined with reports of developer misconduct harming trust.

atmosphere
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
12%
13%
The atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and tense qualities, enhanced by detailed audio cues and environmental effects that create a creepy and psychologically disturbing experience. Users appreciate the game's dark, atmospheric design, which adds significant depth despite other aspects being less engaging.
- “Every little audio cue plays up the atmosphere, and when you're going down dark alleyways and start hearing rumbling and wind howling, it is pretty creepy.”
- “I really enjoy the atmosphere and the overall detail that was put into the game.”
- “Has a tense atmosphere and disturbing topics that can mess with your psychological state.”
- “Has a tense atmosphere and disturbing topics that can mess with your psychological.”
story
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The story is generally seen as bland and difficult to follow, often hindered by poor translation and unclear narrative elements. While it touches on dark themes, it is described as simple and not particularly engaging, with some users feeling there is little story to the game at all.
- “A fun quick look into a dark concept in a simply told and creepy story.”
- “The story is very hard to follow considering a lot of the times the translation is very poor.”
- “The story is really hard to follow and just boring and the gameplay is just walking around trying to figure stuff out that is not made clear to the player.”
- “The story is very hard to follow considering that many times the translation is very poor.”
- “The story is really hard to follow and just boring, and the gameplay is just walking around trying to figure stuff out that is not made clear to the player.”
- “The plot in the game is really bland.”
graphics
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The game's graphics feature a deliberate retro pixel art style reminiscent of decades-old visuals, which some users appreciate for its charm, though it lacks modern resolution options or customizable graphics settings. While the art style is generally considered decent, there are minor criticisms about its limitations and absence of graphical tweaks.
- “The only positive things I can say about it was the graphics were nice and I thought closing the game after the message error part in the beginning was a nice touch.”
- “A choice was made to use obsolete, decades-old retro pixel art as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
- “There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks.”
- “The art style is really decent, however I do have some minor gripes with it.”
gameplay
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The gameplay is generally considered boring and unclear, with players finding the story hard to follow and objectives not well explained. However, the "one chance" mechanic adds a realistic challenge despite the frustration of not being able to save.
- “The story is really hard to follow and just boring, and the gameplay is just walking around trying to figure stuff out that is not made clear to the player.”
- “Gameplay is really boring.”
- “Sure, the lack of being able to save is annoying, but that 1 chance mechanic at least reflects reality to a degree.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Monetization in games made with Gamemaker Studio is often associated with low-effort, retro-style titles that prioritize quick profits, leading to a perception of cash grab content.