The Exit 8

The Exit 8, sometimes shortened to Exit 8, is a 2023 indie adventure game developed and published by Kotake Create (stylised in all caps), also known as Kotakenotokeke. Billed as a walking simulator, the game revolves around the player walking through a Japanese metro station passageway, trying to spot inaccuracies, referred to as anomalies, in the layout of the passageway to reach the exit of the station. The game was initially released on Steam on 29 November 2023 and was subsequently ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2024, and on Xbox Series X/S, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025 under the Japanese indie publisher Playism. A virtual reality version co-developed and published by MyDearest Inc., dubbed The Exit 8 VR, released on 11 July 2024 for the Meta Quest 2, Pro and 3 and later made available on Steam and the Quest 3S. The Exit 8 took nine months to develop and was designed to be made in a short amount of time and on a low budget, as Kotake felt another game he was making at the time had too long of a development cycle. The game was inspired by the "surreal" atmosphere of underground passageways and the concept of liminal spaces; the Finnish horror game series I'm on Observation Duty also served a key part in the creation of the game, as it inspired the game's anomaly mechanic. The setting was modelled after several Japanese metro stations, including a station in Osaka and the Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station in Kōtō, Tokyo. The Exit 8 received positive reviews, with many critics praising the game for its psychological horror and realistic environment, although critiqued the game for its short length and lack of replayability. The VR version received similarly positive reception. The game was nominated for...