Pikabuu: STOP!

Like a late-night phone call that jolts you upright, Pikabuu: STOP! is an intimate horror story masquerading as a game. Joy I Keratiff’s latest visual novel shuns flashy mechanics for a brutal, slow-burning look at Beni, a father whose single, careless gamble spirals into a pit threatening to swallow his family whole. There’s no cathartic shootout or daring puzzle here, just the raw, suffocating dread of domestic collapse rendered through everyday exchanges: pleading for grocery money, a daughter’s hopeful smile, the hollow promise of a jackpot win.

Its six endings carve different scars across your conscience, forcing you to face every “what if” head-on. The dark, minimalist visuals and oppressive quiet of Beni’s modest home twist mundane moments, like breakfast chatter or idle cigarette breaks, into unbearable tension. It’s a haunting portrait of how quickly one man’s good intentions can rot into ruin, delivered with the emotional precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. Pikabuu: STOP! doesn’t ask if you’re ready; it dares you to watch.