DYSTHANASIA

About

DYSTHANASIA is a single player survival role playing game with horror, mystery and anime themes. It was developed by Madowaku Kobo and was released on November 21, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Content WarningThis game contains depictions of intense violence, horror, and trauma, as well as content that makes references to these themes. Those sensitive to such material or those who experience physical or mental discomfort from it are advised to avoid prolonged play. About the GameStory A girl awakens in a cold, damp morgue. Bloodstains, not yet dry, cling to the walls and floor, alongs…

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86%

Audience ScoreBased on 59 reviews

atmosphere6 positive mentions

optimization3 negative mentions

Strong and oppressive atmosphere with grotesque environments and effective sound design that creates genuine tension without cheap jumpscares.
Extensive graphic death scenes and gore that are highly detailed and can be unlocked in a gallery, offering replay value for fans of extreme horror.
Engaging story told through environmental lore and notes, supported by solid Japanese voice acting that enhances the emotional impact of the protagonist's plight.

Clunky and slow controls with awkward camera behavior cause frustrating gameplay moments, especially during chases and tight spaces.
Visual and performance issues, including inconsistent graphics quality, pop-ins, and some unfinished or simplistic 3D models, diminish immersion.
Gameplay is grindy and sometimes repetitive with basic puzzles, confusing maze-like sections, and frequent backtracking; lacking polish compared to the developer's earlier 2D titles.

atmosphere
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
40%
20%
The atmosphere in the game is generally praised for its tense, oppressive, and grotesque horror elements, enhanced by minimalist music, effective sound design, and strong world-building. It relies more on sustained tension and graphic consequences than jump scares, creating a suffocating and immersive experience. However, some players feel the atmosphere is weaker compared to the developer’s previous titles and could have benefited from more polish and attention.
- “The tense minimalist background music enhances the atmosphere, and the heroine’s Japanese voice acting delivers clear, convincing reactions to danger throughout the game.”
- “Rather than relying on jump scares, it leans into constant tension, suffocating atmosphere, and graphic consequences for failure.”
- “Dysthanasia's most shining feature is its set design, atmosphere, and world-building lore.”
- “Since there’s no Russian language option, grinding through heaps of text is exhausting and doesn’t add to the atmosphere.”
- “The map feels a bit empty, which detracts from the atmosphere, maybe unintentionally.”
- “But upon finally playing the game myself and finishing it, the shock value is still there but I am sad that the atmosphere compared to the last game they made is a bit weak.”
story
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The story is praised for its intriguing concept centered on experiments with rebirth and immortality, delivered primarily through text logs and environmental storytelling. While it effectively builds tension and culminates well, some players feel it leaves a few loose ends and could benefit from deeper atmosphere and additional content. Overall, the plot is considered compelling and adds depth to the horror experience.
- “There's unexpectedly even an interesting story attached to it, centering around experiments concerning rebirth and immortality.”
- “The story delivers, and the gore far exceeds the expectations everyone had for the man that made a 4chan classic 16 years ago.”
- “The story follows “396”, an adult test subject who awakens in a morgue inside a corrupted research facility.”
- “Gameplay is just boring running around an underground morgue, hunting for keycards, and breaking small objects to move the story forward.”
- “99% of the story is told through text logs.”
- “Completed the story in a single setting and I'm not feeling like I got my 20 dollars worth; kinda wish there was a reward for completing on the hardest difficulty.”
graphics
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
46%
23%
The graphics feature stylized 3D visuals with expressive character animations and detailed, graphic death scenes that enhance the game's tense atmosphere. While textures and effects look good on high settings, the overall art style is divisive—some prefer the developer's earlier 2D style—and performance can be an issue on lower-end hardware due to limited resolution options and clunky controls. Despite some amateurish elements, the visuals contribute effectively to the game's suspenseful and unsettling mood.
- “Stylized 3D visuals with a clearly modeled heroine, expressive animations, and unlockable outfits.”
- “Still, the graphics and textures look surprisingly good on ultra settings.”
- “Although this sounds like a bad thing, it's actually one of its core charm points as it really feels like the good old days with some very good visuals and a really good level of suspense.”
- “Even Demonophobia, with all its 'paint-style' graphics, felt like a finished art piece with a recognizable style, but here we’re stuck with some kind of test stub for people to check out.”
- “Performance-wise, I couldn't offer much useful info since I have a decent PC (9070xt+9800x3d) and can run the game no problem, but seeing that the bare minimum required is an RTX 2060 and the graphics in this game aren't honestly all that impressive for that card's price. Also, the max screen resolution is 1080p and there's no in-game VSync option, so I’m gonna say it's probably not good.”
- “Right off the bat, it feels very amateurish: clunky controls, odd art style, the whole menu gives off the vibe.”
gameplay
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
46%
27%
The gameplay in this title is generally criticized for being repetitive, with limited meaningful interaction mostly involving keycard hunting and basic item usage. Combat mechanics and AI are seen as underwhelming and poorly implemented, reducing tension after initial encounters. While the atmosphere and death animations are praised, the overall gameplay lacks polish and engaging variety, failing to meet expectations for a compelling survival horror experience.
- “Dysthanasia is an unapologetically niche, ultra-violent horror title that doubles down on grisly death animations and oppressive atmosphere rather than polished AAA gameplay.”
- “It's around 7 to 8 hours of gameplay on medium if you take the time to look for all the collectibles and 100% the game.”
- “The game starts you off not knowing what to expect or when, which builds up the suspense as the enemies are unknown and you are very clearly not a fighter so the main mechanic is to dodge by crawling and sensing the enemy's field of vision.”
- “Gameplay is just boring running around an underground morgue, hunting for keycards, and breaking small objects to move the story forward.”
- “The gameplay isn’t even close to living up to the title of a spiritual successor to Xenophobia or Demonophobia.”
- “The AI in this game is janky at worst, serviceable at best. You can throw things to bait the monsters away, but the throwing mechanics basically make all throwables useless and there are rarely situations where you actually need them.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
60%
The music in the game is minimal and often interrupted, which can detract from immersion, though the ambient audio when present is praised for enhancing atmosphere. Some users appreciate the tense feeling created by silence and sound effects, but overall many wish for more consistent and abundant music throughout.
- “The music, number of enemies, game length, map layout, puzzles, and even items have all been expanded and improved upon from the version that was set to release on DL site.”
- “The ambient music is amazing; I just wish there was more of it. Even dead silence broken only by wet, meaty footsteps and inhuman screams can create a much more tense feeling at times.”
- “[td][b]Music & voice acting:[/b][/td]”
- “Barely any music at all.”
- “Worse still, there is a noticeable lack of ambient audio/music in most areas, and in the areas that do have it, it's interrupted whenever you pause to read a document, which further takes me out of the experience.”
- “Music and voice acting:”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The game offers strong replayability through numerous death scenes, multiple difficulty levels, collectibles, and unlockable outfits, encouraging players to revisit and explore different aspects.
- “It's got an absolute load of death scenes (plenty more on the patched version), so there's replayability to it.”
- “Multiple difficulties, collectibles, and unlockable outfits add replay value.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
100%
The game's optimization is criticized for its high performance cost relative to its visual quality, with minimum requirements demanding a powerful RTX 2060 GPU despite unimpressive graphics and limited resolution options. Additionally, the lack of in-game VSync further hampers performance control.
- “Performance-wise, I couldn't offer much useful info since I have a decent PC (9070XT + 9800X3D) and can run the game no problem. However, seeing the bare-minimum required was an RTX 2060, and the graphics in this game aren't honestly that impressive for that card's price. Also, the max screen resolution is 1080p, and there's no in-game VSync option, so I'd say optimization is probably not good.”
- “High performance cost compared to visual complexity.”
- “The bare-minimum required a RTX 2060, but the graphics aren't impressive for that card's price and the max resolution is 1080p. Also, there's no in-game VSync option, which is probably not good.”
- “Performance-wise, I couldn't offer much useful info since I have a decent PC (RX 7900 XT + 9800X3D) and can run the game no problem, but the optimization seems questionable given the requirements.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding, particularly when completing scenes and galleries, is seen as tedious and exhausting, especially without a Russian language option, which detracts from the overall atmosphere.
- “Since there’s no Russian language option, grinding through heaps of text is exhausting and doesn’t add to the atmosphere.”
- “Scene and gallery completion can feel grindy.”