This review contains very subjective opinion as the game clearly advertises as “horror with ecchi elements” (which refer to softcore erotic fan service and non-hentai level) via trailer and official website. Please mind that it’s designed to serves niche audience.

Livestream is one of many titles that I’ve been following for a while because of dark theme, anime aesthetic, and fan service as cherry on top. I never play any previous works of “qureate” developer team, but they share similar artstyle and direction with different settings.

Livestream’s story starts with simple plot that involves urban legend in famous haunted resort. A group of young streamers Mio Ikoma, Nana Sakurai, and Azusa Shiraishi attempt to shoot a video inside to proof if the rumor is true or not. All they hope is to complete task and expect a hit and profits.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2513137493
The story represents modern era where people gains popularity by producing weird (and sometimes extremely dangerous) online contents in social media. It feels more grounded and easy to catch up. Each main cast has distinct personalities despite generic design on the surface. The more you progress, the more you learn about the place and backstory of main characters which reflect true personality and conflict.

I feel like the main plot tends to focus on three girls to overcome their inner fear and escape from nightmare as it elaborates main character development in a good way. The notes you found will reveal bit of vague information of Izanami plot, but it might feel less emotionally attached compared to character screenplay and some unanswered questions leave it to fan theories.

The narrative is based on visual novel style with good pacing and strong presentation (2D Live animation, character sprite, and overall CG quality). It has some Corpse Party vibe that share similar genre, but more simplicity and less graphical violence (don’t expect guro scene in here). The encounter somehow reminds me of Clock Tower franchise. There are also little details like camera effect, text ripple effect, and environment details that add bit of immersion and characters in the game.

I enjoy the story, characters, and overall presentation of this game. It’s not groundbreaking, but somehow touching and oddly satisfied especially true ending in my last playthrough.

Livestream gameplay has set of combination between visual novel narrative, 2D side-scrolling exploration, and point and click puzzle. Player will learn basic controls in the beginning which takes sometimes to get used due to fixed mouse / keyboard layout.

The goal is to search and collect key items in order to solve puzzle or advance the story. You can only examine a point of interest by shining phone flashlight in right angle and direction. The question mark symbol will turn to blue if you get close enough. Most puzzles are logical and require key item one at a time. Some will trigger event in previous area or even affect ending route.

I personally like its simplicity, but encourage player to carefully pay attention to dialogue / clue and observe each area. There is no objective marker or player position on the map. You’ll rely on memorizing layout and landmark. My only complaint is searching some spots needs specific flashlight angle and some are almost overlapped with nearby spot. Switching between main characters doesn’t serve gameplay purpose beside different appearance, voice, and minor animation detail as far as I notice. You also expect a lot of backtracking and reexamine in order to get obtain more items.

Player will eventually come across some timed-based scenarios (either being trapped or solving puzzle) which switch to CG scenes. The game doesn’t show timer, but it’s pretty. As ecchi/horror theme, CG events are main part of fan service. You can touch body part of main characters (most are chests and thighs) for jiggle 2D Live animation. Ecchi play is moderate at best and quite eye candy, not too overwhelming that break horror immersion entirely (at least for me). I just wish there are more variation besides boob and pantyshot.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2513137987

During playthrough, player will eventually encounter “Mascot Killer” which occasionally spook with jumpscare and interrupt player’s exploration then trigger hide-n-seek mode (toggle sprint and disable ability to investigate). The girls can’t outrun the killer and hiding spot is your only option. Fortunately, there are plenty of hiding spot in hotel rooms and hallway. Player can safely hide in spot even character is spotted in plain sight. Sometimes, the killer spawns from distance with hatchet sound, allow you to initially turn off a flashlight and stand still until it disappears. Moreover, player can bait killer’s attack and run past him during recovery animation (which the game doesn’t tell you).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2513540443
Overall, the mechanic is forgiving and less strict despite its random spawn. There are few rooms that the killer has high chance to respawn which usually guard very important key items. Maybe it’s just my RNG and that’s only annoying part of chasing sequence.

I highly recommend to save often (on any telephones) whenever you obtain new items or approach new area. Make backup save on different slots if you attempt to unlock all endings.

The soundtrack is very decent that play quite well in most CG scenario / conversation. There are few moments that emotionally shift by odd soundtrack choice.

Audio, on the other hand, are very solid and well executed. The game heavily relies on ambient and environmental sounds which slowly build up tension and uncomfortably feeling during exploration. The sense of being isolated in darkness, occasionally hearing character trembling voice, and the killer catches you off guard probably are best horror experience this game could offer.

The game also features fully Japanese voice dub. I’m not familiar with voice actors of main casts, but they did great job portraying each characters in both personality and various expression which I genuinely invest and care. Dialogue and voiceline feel natural and believable.

Livestream is Switch port that runs on Unity Engine. Performance is solid and I didn’t experience any glitches or game-breaking bugs. It offers decent configuration and I’m also appreciated game options that you can set audio individually.

Beside minor issues that I’ve mentioned in gameplay, I wish for backlog option like most VNs in case that player misses character objective or key clue. Moving between exterior staircase require player to press two directional keys and few misspelling in translation.

Post contents are about unlocking CG events and five different endings which depended on key items and can be very tricky. It takes roughly 3-4 hours in first playthrough and 7-9 hours or more to unlock everything. It’s totally depended on your pacing and order without guide.

Livestream is a good combination of VN / 2D Adventure and everything that I expect from this genre beside some minor issues in gameplay and plot. But I personally enjoy overall horror experience and fan service in anime aesthetic to fulfill specific group of players. It cost around 9 USD (based on my region price), but consider from voice acting, production quality, and overall experience. it’s definitely worth full price if you’re into these stuffs.

If you found this review helpful, please consider and give a thumb up, any feedback and exchanging idea are very appreciated

Decent little hide n seek puzzle game with a bit of spookiness. The spookiness wears off a bit too quick though; even for a giant wuss like me.

WARNING: YOU CAN RUIN YOUR SAVE

At a certain point in the game you need to figure out how to save someone. You can easily take too long and game over. You can also easily save your game while in this state and thus ruin your save file and have to start over. I lost almost 2 hours of gameplay. I still give a thumbs up for the game so long as you're aware of this save ruining spot. For me, losing a save file to an unwinnable situation and needing to start over is BS and I'll be refunding.

The situation:
Azusa's leg gets stuck under a shutter. If you take too long she dies.

Overall 7/10

If you're the kind of person who gets 1 ending in a game and calls it there, do not buy this. You can easily get to the end in 2 hours if you find the items you need. However, if you enjoy going through and searching for all the endings (theres 5 in here), you'll get your moneys worth. The art in this game is pretty solid. The environment design is coherent (for the most part), the character portraits are what you'd expect from a visual novel, but all the characters walk cycles are a bit janky, tending to lean more towards the 'swing your legs and propel yourself' style of movement. If you really like this style of 2D sidescroller horror (e.x The Coma Series), I'd recommend it. However, I'd highly recommend you take a couple things into consideration before buying:

1) This game isn't incredibly scary. If you don't like things chasing you, then you might get spooked, but otherwise it's very tame

2) The devs previously made a handful ecchi games, and that transfers over here with a bunch of fan service CG's. It doesn't get in the way of the story, but its very noticeable

3) This game has some weird requirements to finish. The first 3 endings are reasonable, but the last 2 are on a whole other level The last 2 endings require such a huge leap in logic that you'd have to be extremely lucky/spend hours searching. I'd recommend just using a guide for those last 2

All in all, the game wasn't incredibly offensive. If the devs continue to make these styles for more serious, story driven games, I could definitely see them attracting a nice sized audience

This review doesn't contain spoilers

Livestream: Escape from Hotel Izanami is a horror game where you and your friends decide to explore an abandoned hotel. It's said that its owner committed a forced double suicide and that it's haunted. As you start exploring it, you notice your friends are suddenly gone and you need to find and try to rescue them, while escaping and hiding from the antagonist. The game takes place mostly in the abandoned hotel. Your goal is to explore the hotel, rescue your friends and escape. You play as Mio who is the protagonist. The game features 5 different endings.

The game contains mild sexual content (like pantyshots, exposed cleavage). Not everyone might find this appropriate, since the sexual CGs are displayed during terrifying / scary scenarios.

The game focuses mainly on exploring the abandoned hotel while trying to survive from the deadly horrors of the hospital. It's a typical horror game - you need to look for items to progress. However some items spawn only upon reaching a certain point in game - be sure to revisit rooms if you're stuck! Chances are the required item has just spawned. Some items are also uninteractable at first, but they might become interactable later on in the game. Also use different save files to save progression! It's possible to softlock the game in some areas, so it's good to have another save which you can load and correct your mistakes.

As for the negative sides, enemy spawning is completely random. The antagonist doesn't behave like a normal enemy in horror games - it spawns and despawns at random locations. If you're unlucky then he can even appear out of thin air right inside of you and cause an instant death (it happened to me a few times). Or if you're in a room with only one entrance door, he can still spawn in that room out of nowhere. This should be fixed as it's unfair and can really scare you.
As for the multiple endings, I suggest using online guides to get all of them. There isn't a single guide out there that you should follow, rather you should combine the knowledge of multiple sites to get all of them. If you want to get all the endings then in your first playthrough, make a save before going outside the first time and follow online guides for all the endings after you get your first one. If you don't do this you will have to replay the whole game from the start, which can take you up to two hours.

One more thing worth mentioning, I've seen some reviews that say you can get cornered and die. That is false, it's always possible to dodge the attacks even in late game, you simply need to have a decent timing.

The game is definitely worth checking out, exploration is fairly unique for a horror game. Anything else would be a spoiler so I'll end the review here.

• I would buy this at sale not full price most people finish this game quickly
  
• the game has ecchi CG's but it is not 18+ at most you will see a panty shot
  
• I would give this game 8/10
  
• this games has different endings that get get by choosing to pick up or not to pick certain items

Hide and Seek, :o
This game= RE8 Donna Benevento house
you run, you hide, you escape, you look for items, you have to solve puzzles, and of course there's a bit of fan ser*vice

This is actually my fetish.

That is to say, yes, I enjoyed what I came here for.

Good Game hope will have horror game like this.

Made me scaroused

Nice suspenseful anime horror game, very much enjoyed playing it and finding out the secrets. Unfortunately there was (a bug maybe?) times when the killer mascot popped up and blocked both your exit to run and hide so it was game over, it did this several times which was rather infuriating, so was having to find items to progress by revisiting certain rooms time and time again (eg - step ladder wasn't in basement when you first went down but suddenly was there the second time). 8/10