Narin: The Orange Room is a third-person adventure horror game. Developed by RedSensationGames and published by Urnique Studio & Rising Tide, Narin: The Orange Room was published on April 7th, 2026. Players play as Narin, a grade school girl. Narin’s sister has mysteriously disappeared in a strange, scary world called the Twilight Dimension at her school. Players will need to solve puzzles—lots of puzzles—as well as hiding and running from the horrors that exist in this dimension. Along the way, players will learn more about the Twilight Dimension and the ones that lurk within, both monsters and other children.
I said this in every horror game I’ve reviewed, but I have a love/hate relationship with indie horrors. I love the stories and creativity that comes from indie horror. However, this love comes from a backseat as I watch others play because I hate being in the driving seat myself. I scare way too easily. After playing, I am unfortunately left with mixed feelings over the game’s horror and story elements. Though I can find plenty of positives throughout the game (and will be sure to mention them), I can’t help but feel somewhat underwhelmed. In fact, I was able to play through much of the game without really feeling scared. For me, that’s saying something.
I’ve decided to break this review down into three parts. I will first start with the positives and the things I thought were done well. Then for the next two sections, I will discuss the horror and the story. These two sections will contain some spoilers, but nothing that I would deem a major spoiler. As usual, any image I include will be spoiler-free. However, I understand if you’d like to go in completely blind without spoilers. The TLDR of it is that, honestly, I’m not sure if I can recommend this one. I think its nice as an “entry level” horror adventure though I’m not sure if this is what the developers intended. More experienced indie horror fans might not enjoy this one as much. So, with that in mind and with a black cat at your side, let’s discuss Narin: The Orange Room!
Anime Girl in a Horror World
Starting with the positives, the first thing that jumps out to me are the visuals. I love the choice to have the game in third-person rather than first. I know this has been done in plenty of horror games before but personally this is what I prefer. Something about it helps me feel not as alone in my fear. Narin: The Orange Room has an anime-style approach for its characters, complete with large eyes, fun accessories, and nicely drawn character heads during dialogues.
Another thing I love is that during scary moments, Narin’s character model shows fear. She will hunch over and rub her hands nervously, her eyes narrowing. It may seem like an obvious choice to have her appearance change, but its one that I certainly appreciate. It would have been a lot worse if she was just sort of unemotionally, idling through the entire game.
The Twisted Dimension takes place entirely in a school. One major positive that the developers did was give the school depth. Classrooms feel huge and dark hallways stretch on. Remember, Narin is just a child. The developers did a great job at making the school feel bigger than it realistically would be, and making Narin feel age-appropriately small. I do think at times its taken a bit too much to the extreme. Sometimes a small obstacle calls for Narin to figure out a new path or solution, though she could reasonably just climb on top of the furniture. She is a child sure, but I don’t believe a pile of furniture would completely block her path.
Back to the positives, though I mentioned earlier that I was underwhelmed by the horror and story elements, I do think there are good things in both. The school’s depth and generally dark setting as an orange twilight shines through every window creates an ominous tone. There were times where I nervously trudged along a dark hallway, not too sure what may lurk ahead. I really like the design of one of the monsters in this game, but I will discuss this more in the next section. It may sound a bit crass, but I also do like that the game has a story. In fact, there’s more than just one story being told. The small tidbits of lore scattered throughout help tell the two ‘main’ stories, as well as more about the Twilight Dimension. Again, this is something I will discuss a bit more later on.
Just as a brief synopsis of the Twilight Dimension, its a phenomena that has recently started occurring at Narin’s school. Anyone who stays at the school past 4:59 PM is magically teleported into the Twilight Dimension and stuck there unless a way out is revealed to them. Children have gone missing and any after school activities have been postponed. Narin finds herself in this dimension one day after falling asleep in class. While she’s looking for a way out, she comes across objects that remind her of her missing sister. Narin comes to the conclusion that this must be where sister is and decides to continue coming back to search for her. It’s a super interesting concept that I really enjoyed and wanted more of.
I also must mention the many puzzles in this game. Many of them were enjoyable to figure out and solve. I never felt completely stumped for a solution. Puzzles like hitting light switches to clear up bloody eye-ball flowers blocking the path or correctly returning books in the library were some of my favorites. There is no combat in this game. Narin is after all, a child. This helped make the chase moments way more intense. Getting caught or stepping on a flower is an instant death. I don’t mind combat in indie horror, but I do prefer when they don’t have it. A helpless character makes things feel a bit more spooky and intense than one who’s ready to fight back.
Last but certainly not least are the characters. Alongside Narin, there are three other main characters. Aki is a mischievous girl in the Twilight Dimension who may or may not be helping Narin find her sister. Maemi is another girl in the Twilight Dimension who gives us advice but is more interested in finding a certain book. And there’s also a little black cat who speaks to Narin and asks her for helping finding a way to escape the Twilight Dimension, guiding Narin along much of the way. All three were well written and I enjoyed their inclusion in Narin’s adventure.
Three Main Monsters among a Horde of Puzzles
Let’s discuss the horror. As mentioned earlier, I do feel like the game does a great job at having a tense and ominous tone. The setting plays a big role in this, as well as the mystery of what happened to Narin’s sister and the many clues provided along the way. The game takes place over the course of three days. Each day has its own main monster, and its day one’s monster(s) that I really like. The black cat calls them ghosts. They are bloody, fleshy husks with one eye that twitch as they lurch around the room. The first stealth moment of the game is with one and it really had me on edge.
The next two monsters however are just not as scary. The Janitor, a large, hulking being with multiple eyes and Scissors Girl,…a girl with scissors, simply don’t match up with the horror of the ghosts. In fact, I’d even say that it gets progressively less scary, as I really didn’t find Scissors Girl scary—like at all. Her character model is way too bright amongst a rather dark setting, with everything shown beforehand matching this tone. The intensity of the stealth and chase moments still exists on some level but when you look at what it is you’re actually running or hiding from, it loses some of the actual horror.
I also felt that these stealth and chase moments are way too far and few between. Though I did like some of the puzzles, I do think they take up a lot of space. The developers love the ‘rule-of-threes’ design as many moments require you to do three separate puzzles in order to proceed. This would normally be fine, but I’d argue that most of these puzzles don’t really feature any horror. They could just as easily exist in a game outside the horror, like if the Twilight Dimension didn’t exist and we were just playing a narrative-based game with puzzles.
There are a handful of jumpscares that did catch me by surprise. I am glad that they didn’t go with a cheap jumpscare route to provide the horror. However, as it currently stands, though it initially starts as being scary, it quickly loses this the more you progress. I would say about a third of the way through is when the horror felt mostly lost for me as a player, and it never really picked back up either.
Story, Story, and More Story
Another thing that could have hindered some of the horror is the game’s narrative itself. There is a lot of story and a heavy focus on telling the multiple stories. And hey, I love a good narrative and again, love that the game wants to pay attention to the details. However, I do think that there’s a limit. Players can reasonably expect to spend around six hours playing, but a lot of this time will simply just be going through the dialogues and the story. In fact, you will probably spend the last 45 minutes to an hour of the game in one massively long story dump. I also felt that the ending left me with unanswered questions, especially about the Twilight Dimension. Things wrapped up way too nicely, but I won’t spoil it completely.
I felt that they could have done a lot more with the Twilight Dimension. Yes, there are bits and pieces that help put together the lore of the Twilight Dimension. By the end though, it feels mostly forgotten as the narrative shifts focus towards the other two stories. It makes the Twilight Dimension feel somewhat underdeveloped as an idea. The monsters lurking within are just there to serve as stand-ins rather than something having to do with the plot of the other two main stories. To the best of my knowledge, there are no deeper meanings or metaphors. If you believe otherwise, please let me know.
Simply put, the story heavily outweighs the horror. It feels like a narrative puzzle adventure game with a side of horror. That’s not to say that this isn’t okay, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but the proportions feel off. I think with a more concise narrative, an uptick in the horror, and perhaps a few puzzles less, the game could have been much better.
A Bit Lacking, but Maybe Good for New Players
I’m a little on the fence about recommending this one. I think it depends on if you are an experienced indie horror fan or a new player of the genre. And please note that by ‘new players’, I don’t mean young—there are some adult topics discussed here that might not be the best for a young audience. However, I do think that non-experienced indie horror gamers, perhaps ones that do prefer a narrative puzzle adventure, could enjoy this one. The horror is there to some capacity, especially in the beginning, but it isn’t anything that made me take a break from playing. I do like the focus on narrative, despite its lengthiness, and I think some of the puzzles are enjoyable to solve.
However, if you’re familiar with indie horrors and have played many before, then this one is probably not for you. The game’s proportions of narrative and horror are heavily skewed towards the narrative with non-scary puzzle solving seated alongside it. I can see the many positives with Narin: The Orange Room and think that overall, it does deserve the positive reviews it currently has on Steam. It certainly is not the worst game I’ve played. On the flip side, it certainly is not the best either. Unfortunately, I think that’s just how things will stay too.
Be sure to follow the black cat and thank you for reading!
