Shiro no Noroi (シロノノロイ Shiro no Noroi) is an adventure game created by namahage2.
Game Features[]
The player moves a character through two-dimensional fields, interacting with and examining various objects. The game can be saved by accessing the menu. After becoming a spirit, many evil spirits and monsters can hurt Mashiro's soul, so she much touch the bell at the shrine to heal herself.
The gameplay consists of solving puzzles related to the spirits' nature in order to capture them. There are seven spirits in total to catch.
Summary[]
Ever since her mother died, Mashiro has been living with her grandparents and her father barely has time too see her due to work. While waiting for him at a summer festival, her soul split into seven fragments and she has to get them back before it's too late.
Characters[]
Mashiro[]
A 11-year old girl whose mother died recently, and her father can’t spend much time with her due to work. Not wanting to cause troubles for him, she tries to be mature and act like everything is fine. She’s very quiet and withdrawn, keeping mostly to herself.
After her soul is split into seven by Yame, her body and hair become white and Hachi renames her Shiro (white in Japanese). She must capture the souls back into her body before what’s left of her spirit burns down completely. During her adventure, she grows to care about Hachi and Haru and becomes a softer and kinder person as a result.
Hachi[]
A mysterious boy who guides Mashiro through the spirit world she’s trapped in. He seems to be very knowledgeable about the spirit world and gives her hints about how to capture the spirits. He’s very caring towards Mashiro, but is annoyed at Haru’s carefree nature.
The endings reveal he’s not human. In fact, he’s a curse monster that was born from the prayers of parents who looked after their children. Because of this, he’s very protective towards Mashiro and Haru and wants the best for them. His real form is a monstrous black dog, but it consumes too much energy. His power has weakened over the years because he’s a benign curse and people nowadays don’t pray for other people’s sake.
Haru[]
The spirit of a deceased girl who resides in a cherry blossom tree. Despite this, she’s very cheerful and energetic, always happy to make new friends. At first, she makes innocent pranks on people because they can’t see her, but after befriending Hachi, she becomes very attached towards him, as he’s one of the few ones that can see her.
Because she died recently, she must go to the summer festival and follow the lanterns, since they will guide her to the afterlife and attain peace. Still, she doesn’t care much about going to the afterlife and prefers to be together with Hachi.
Yumekumo no Yame[]
A spider lady who targets Mashiro. She's the one responsible for dividing the girl's soul at the start of the game. Has the power to trap people in dreams and controls spiders.
Like Hachi, she's a curse monster, born from the prayers of lonely people who wanted to be loved. Because of this, she tends to target lonely people to trap them in her realm and giving them what they want, believing that she can be loved this way.
Endings[]
Bad Ending 1[]
This ending is obtained if Mashiro agrees with Yame while in her spirit realm.
With the gang trapped in Yame's realm, she tries to trick Mashiro into staying with her, by convincing her that if she were to go back to the real world, her father would still be too busy to spend time with her. But she has the power to change that and give Mashiro what she wants. Despite Hachi's please, Mashiro is taken away by Yame.
Mashiro is last seen with her father and mother happily watching the lanterns at the festival. Then the illusion breaks for a while, revealing the parents are just disguised spiders and she is now caught in an illusion forever.
Bad Ending 2[]
This ending is obtained if Mashiro was rude to Haru and Hachi and disagreed with Yame while in her spirit realm.
After escaping Yame's realm, Mashiro and her friends return to the shrine, only to see her waiting for them. She says that she wanted to capture Mashiro since the beginning and to do so manipulated Haru by preying on her loneliness. Haru apologizes for tricking her friends and her regrets corrupt her, becoming a resentful ghost and disappearing. Yame mocks Haru for her naivety, causing Hachi to snap and unleash his true form at her. Hachi kills Yame and regains Mashiro’s remaining soul. He gives the soul back to her and tells her to go back to the real world.
Back at the real world, Mashiro sees that Hachi (back with his dog form) is very weak due to using his true form and is shown lying next to Haru’s tree. Mashiro reunites with her father and blaming herself for her friends’ fate, begins crying.
True Ending[]
This ending is obtained if Mashiro was kind to Haru and Hachi and disagreed with Yame while in her spirit realm.
After escaping Yame's realm, Mashiro and her friends return to the shrine, only to see her waiting for them. Hachi realizes that she was the leader of the curses and was guiding them to attack Mashiro. Yame says that all she wants was to be needed to someone and wants to help Mashiro with her problems, even if she wants it or not. Mashiro says that what she needs is love, such as the one she feels for her family and new friends. Yame is pacified and gives back Mashiro's remaining soul before disappearing. Haru is moved by Mashiro’s words and decides to part to the afterlife after all. Hachi and Mashiro see her leave with the paper lanterns.
Back at the real world, Mashiro sees Hachi (back with his dog form) and recognizes it’s him. She reunites with her father, who apologizes for not having much time for her and promises that things will change from now on. They see the paper lanterns together.
Trivia[]
- Yame's name and origins are only revealed in the author's blog. He admitted that he omitted this information in the game because he didn't want to give the curses too much spotlight.