Mortal Meal is a melancholic slice of Haunted PS1

destructoid.com:

If you’re like me, you enjoy your horror best when it’s sad. Video games can’t really scare me anymore, but gosh, they sure can get me depressed. Not that it’s difficult. A happy memory can depress me.

Anyway, a portion of Mortal Meal was featured on the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc: Spectral Mall compilation that was released back in 2022. The Haunted PS1 Demo Disc is sort of a nexus for experimental, lo-fi horror, and somehow I’m not on their mailing list. Thankfully, it usually passes my radar eventually.

Mortal Meal is perhaps a direct take on the genre, being largely a walking simulator. It’s also not terribly scary, but then, how would I know? It’s more focused on telling a melancholic narrative while weaving in a bit of levity and some fantastic horror imagery.

You’re dead. A good boy is running around with your disembodied heart, and your ghost rises from that. A big part of Mortal Meal is figuring out who you were and why you’re dead. To do so, you start off by following the trail of blood back to your corpse.

I’m not really sure how much to give away in terms of the plot. The headline provided to me was a “gay romance story wrapped up in a horror game,” so I can at least say that. Which is nice. Gay romance is rarely approached in the same way as, say, lesbian romance, so it’s nice to see the orientation approached in the way of Mortal Meal. The gay part isn’t as central as the romance. It’s just romance with two dudes, is what I’m saying.

Where Mortal Meal succeeds best is presenting a mystery. Much of the game is figuring out first who you are, who this other guy is, and what all this has to do with your death.

Mortal Meal makes great use of its lo-fi aesthetic. The world frequently shifts into a more surreal,