Ikai similar games & best alternatives

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Ikai

Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch • 2022

Should you play it?

Fear and anxiety prevail after the darkest tales from Japanese folklore come to life in this first-person psychological horror game. Set in a feudal era, Ikai revolves around the priestess of a shrine struggling to defeat the spirits of her past and her present.

What works

  • Strong atmospheric horror and sound design
  • Unique seal drawing mechanic
  • Authentic japanese folklore setting
  • Stable technical performance
  • Short and focused gameplay

Things to keep in mind

  • Short game length
  • Some puzzles are obtuse or frustrating
  • Seal drawing can be overly precise and tedious
  • Story is shallow and abrupt
  • Limited enemy variety and challenge

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feel the closest overall

  • Silence of the Sleep

  • Viviette

  • Lazaret

  • DreadOut

  • Caput Mortum

  • Flicker of Hope

  • Soul Axiom

  • Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 2

  • Aporia: Beyond The Valley

  • Conarium

  • Kona

  • Maskmaker

Search more ->

Hidden Gems

Less popular games with surprisingly high similarity

  • DREAM LOGIC

  • Subway Exorcist Girl

  • Small Radios Big Televisions

If you liked…

Recommendations by what you enjoyed most

  • Escapism

    Paper Dolls: Original / 纸人
  • Fantasy

    Labyrinth Of The Demon King
  • Autonomy

    Mr. Hopp's Playhouse

Similarity map

Explore nearby similar games and see why they’re close.

How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game. They are arranged from the game’s motivation profile. Closer dots usually mean more similar reasons to play (exploration, competition, relaxation, etc.)—not that one game is “better” than another.

  • Purple star: this page’s game — everything on the map is relative to it.
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom out and see more games.

Why don’t the axes read like a score? This view uses t-SNE: it only keeps who is close to whom. The scales are not “good to bad” or hours played—they separate groups on the map. Read distance between dots, not the axis numbers (hidden on purpose).

Ikai: Broadly representative of its motivational profile, with a few distinct shifts. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Expression, Fellowship, Cooperation, Leadership. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Expression, Creativity. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Violence.

Last update: 27/07/2026