DEAD. BROKE. AND THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS.

Kuzumi Rōta, 29, delivery boy, owes money to half the neighbourhood. He finally scratches a winning ticket worth a million yen… and slips on it.

He wakes up at a red felt table in the Ninth Gambling Den of the Underworld, next to 99 other dead people who are just as confused and far worse groomed. The host, the demon croupier Gokumon Hiruko, explains the rules with a golden-toothed grin: 100 dead souls go in, 32 games are played… and only one comes back to life.

The rules are always announced. They are never explained in full.

32 INFERNAL GAMES. 32 HIDDEN TRAPS.

• Every game hides a trick. Clues show up little by little: on the rules card, from the narrator, while you think, from the dead in the stands and every time you lose. Expose the trap and the whole table turns in your favour. Miss it and you'll be a casino chip before dinner.

• Mind games: Judgment Lottery, The Scale of Karma, The Liars' Elevator, Memory Auction, Blood Contract, Sin Poker, Jury of the Damned, The Coffin Dilemma, The Cursed Inheritance, Liar's Bone Dice, Enma's Exam.

• Body games: The Mountain of Needles, The Communal Cauldron, Tug of War vs. the Oni, Fishing the Sanzu River, Tombstone Tower, Fire Cart Race, The Hungry Oni Baby, Limbo Under the Scythe, Musical Chairs of Judgment, Coffin Tetris.

• Mixed games: The Spider's Thread, Onigiri Roulette, The Midnight Train, Judgment Day Hide-and-Seek, The Playing Mirror, Bets from the Box, Blind Date with Death, The Poisoned Tea Ceremony, Your Life, Live!, Likes from Hell… and the final showdown, Hiruko's Throne.

THINK. ACCUSE. SURVIVE.

• Hold to THINK: time freezes while your inner monologue runs… at 1 mon per second.

• Catch the croupier: when Hiruko's golden eye blinks, he's cheating. Accuse him in time and he pays up. Accuse him wrong and you'll regret it.

• Nerves: the more you panic, the louder your heart pounds, the screen warps and the buttons swap places.

• Onomatopoeia you can trip over: in body games the giant ドン!! and ざわ… letters fall onto the stage and get in your way.

A GEKIGA NIGHTMARE WITH TERRIBLE MANNERS

Razor-sharp chins, noses like knives, buckets of sweat, speed lines and screen-filling sound effects. Every portrait, background and effect is drawn in thick ink, halftone dots and a palette of paper, blood red and gold, straight out of an 80s gambling manga.

AN 8-ACT STORY WHERE FRIENDSHIP LASTS FIVE MINUTES

• 16 named rivals: a lawyer who reads the fine print, a delinquent with a carp tattoo, a pachinko granny, an idol begging for likes from beyond the grave, a con man who betrays you before breakfast, a masked figure who whispers "…again"…

• Blood pacts, betrayals and eliminations that change depending on who you trusted.

• 50 conversations in the waiting room that shift relationships and unlock scenes.

• Your funeral, live on TV: the more people who miss you, the calmer your nerves.

• Playable memories that grant skills… and can be sold at auction.

AN ECONOMY WITH A NASTY STREAK

600 mon to start: money, stake and life all at once. Entry fees rise every act, Hiruko skims a VIP commission when you're doing too well, there's a progressive tax on lucky souls, and Granny Tome lends at 10% per game… and if you don't pay her back, she chases you around the waiting room with her cane.

DIE AGAIN (AND AGAIN)

• 5 endings, including a true ending (expose 24 traps) and a secret one if you sign what you shouldn't.

• Free Play Den (any game on its own) and the Tournament of the Nobles (all 32 back to back, with high scores).

• 30 "Absurd Deaths" achievements, a gallery of eliminated rivals' chips, a suspicion notebook and 40 stupid deaths on the loading screens.

• Hiruko remembers your previous runs… and brings them up.

Even the main menu is a roulette wheel. Sometimes it lands where you didn't want. The house always wins.

MANGA VOICES AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Every sound is synthesised: each character has their own manga voice (syllables with personality, not voice acting), plus a solemn narrator, croupier chuckles and crowds murmuring "ざわ…".

• Accessibility: text size, colour filters (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia, high contrast, greyscale), reduced flashing, screen effects you can switch off, heartbeat and rumble you can switch off.

• Three difficulty levels, extra time in games, button-mashing assist and one-press thinking.

• In story scenes: text speed, auto mode, skip what you have already read and a dialogue history.

Languages: English, Spanish and Japanese. [b]Controls:[/b] full controller, keyboard or mouse support.

Contains cartoon violence, dark humour and simulated gambling with no real money.