You may or may not have heard of White Day: a labyrinth called school. The game was originally released over 20 years ago, remade for mobile in 2015 by developer Sonnori, and then finally released for PC and PS4 by publisher PQube in 2017. Now, more than two decades after its original release, White Day has made the switch. created. !
But what’s so special about White Day that it would be remade and re-released so many times? White Day is a Korean horror game where you play Hui-Min Lee, a new student at Yeondu High School. He discovers the diary of a student who has been left behind and for some reason waits until nightfall to go back to school and give it to her. Walking into the school, he is abruptly locked up and encounters a variety of female students who wander after hours for various reasons.
Doesn’t sound particularly exciting, does it? Well, not at first. Then the janitors arrive and it turns out that they are walking around with flashlights and baseball bats looking for students. After witnessing a particularly brutal attack, you will definitely be wary of crossing janitors! Most of the gameplay in White Day consists of sneaking through the hallways, solving puzzles and unlocking things so you can get to the auditorium and escape the school through the only unlocked exit. You have no weapons except wit and patience and you will certainly need both.
As you wander the hallways of Yeondu High, you’ll find all sorts of strange devices, locked doors, strange plants, glowing symbols, and much more. The game guides you to the next key checkpoint every time so you have an idea where to go or else you’d get hopelessly lost. While you’re usually walking around in the dark, the janitors randomly hear you and come running, whistling and waving their deadly bats. If you hide successfully, you’ll be fine, and on the Normal difficulty or below, an eye will appear on the screen indicating that the janitors are still around. On Easy or below you will even receive texts with instructions on how to proceed.
Most of White Day consists of solving puzzles around the school, timed events, and quick time events. Figuring out how to unlock a door or access an area takes a lot of time and if you just walk down the halls the janitors will hear you and then the clubbing will start. Instead, you are forced to crawl slowly crouched down the halls, patiently waiting in rooms and around corners. Sometimes it can take more than three minutes or more for a janitor to leave and as soon as you jump out they will hear you and come running if you forget to squat! There’s a lot of waiting built into White Day, one of the design remnants due to the game’s age. In fact, there’s so much waiting that it can get frustrating if you just want to play the game.
In addition to the ever-present threat of being beaten to death, you will also have to solve some riddles and puzzles. Most of them are fairly straightforward but require a significant amount of backtracking and, like the janitors, they end up a little frustrating when you return to a place all the way across the school to pick up something from a box where you right next door was 20 minutes ago. Every once in a while you come across a section of cinema that abruptly includes a quick time event as well. These are quite simplistic and generally involve dodging with the left stick here or there (no weapons, remember).
But the gameplay isn’t really the selling point for White Day. Games like Outlast have refined these recipes much more effectively. White Day has managed to stay relevant as long as it has, because it’s legitimately creepy as hell. The atmosphere, the methodical gameplay, the lack of weapons and the script itself are all pretty solid. In fact, the supernatural mystery unraveling around you is frankly quite compelling. After all, there are not only janitors at this school. There are also ghosts. Ghosts of the dead left over from the Korean War when this school was a hospital to be more specific. As you talk to your classmates, you will learn little by little about the dark history and present of the school that you have also transferred.
You can also choose to flirt with the girls you talk to, because of course you do. Hey, what red-blooded teen wouldn’t flirt with girls in schoolgirl outfits late at night, in the middle of a chase by deadly janitors and ghosts? It’s just common sense. Seriously though, flirting affects the direction the game goes and can lock or unlock access to some events. Most notably, your decisions unlock access to ghost encounters, and there are a ton of things you can completely bypass in White Day, meaning you won’t really get the full experience of the game if you don’t take the time and the right decisions. The best path through the plot isn’t the easiest to get to either.
Missing out on the ghosts would also be a shame as they are arguably the most interesting part of the game aside from the overall plot. Ghosts appear abruptly and startle you, triggered by finding the right notes and going to the right locations. There are 20 ghosts to be found and you certainly won’t find them all in a single playthrough without a guide, but each experience is pretty cool and there’s a backstory for every ghost. A lot of detail has been put into this part of the game and it’s honestly a shame that not more players will experience this. There’s definitely a missed opportunity here to add more terrifying gameplay than the janitors (which eventually get tiresome).
Of course, a 20-year-old game recreated in 2015 looks more than a little dated. White Day is an old game and it certainly shows, especially in the texture mapping. But the character designs are excellent and realistic and the overall design of the school, the ghosts and even the facial expressions is so good that even after all this time you can visually forgive the age of the game and play it on a modern console. These issues are minimized even further when you play the Switch in portable mode, and quite frankly, throwing White Day in the dark on a Switch with headphones is terrifying. The stereo sound will make you jump at every sound and crack!
Speaking of sounds, another reason White Day has lasted so long is the excellent sound design. Turn up the stereo on this one, because the ambient noise will make you jump to shadows almost as hard as in a Silent Hill game. Making things as creepy as possible is key here and sound plays a big part in that. Strange chatter, blowing wind and other noises abound as you try to determine whether that was a crack from the school or the gentle ringing of the janitor as he searches for you. As they get closer, the sound invades, audibly transmitting the distance until they finally reach visual range and the chase has begun. White Day is a masterclass in sound design and the traditional soundtrack that accompanies it is also excellent.
That’s not to say there aren’t flaws in White Day. It can be tricky to reach for an item to pick it up as you have to wait for the white circle to brighten to grab things and it’s very hard to dodge the janitors once they see you. Even leaving many doors open, then trying to punch them in the face, and then running away another isn’t always effective and it’s a bit of a learning curve to escape once you’re spotted. Waiting for the coast to clear is also frustrating as you literally just have to sit and wait, making short gameplay sessions an inconsistent exercise in frustration. Some of the timed events can be tricky too, with unclear goals and a little too much running around.
For its age, White Day: A Labyrinth Called School is a spectacular horror title that has stood the test of time. Some of the mechanics are showing their age and the game certainly requires more than the average level of patience in some respects, but this is still a game where you jump into the wind and that’s more than can be said for many more modern horror games. It also showcases Korean gaming, something the West doesn’t get to see nearly as often as we should because there’s great content coming out of South Korea. Overall, this is a solid game that will give you hours of gameplay and more than a little replay value for your $30 if you want to experience all the haunted events and get the best ending. If you like the more psychological style of horror games, you owe it to yourself to check out White Day: a labyrinth called school.
This review was based on a digital copy of White Day: A Labyrinth Called School, provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well in both. White Day: A Labyrinth Called School is also available on PS4, XSX, and PC on Steam.
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