Games Like Mountain Home

"Mountain Home" is an art project about the healing properties of art and creativity. A story of how to find the strength to live and help others in a world full of injustice and suffering. A story of how beholding beauty, even in the form of a modest field flower or a new moon, helps us push through difficult times and great troubles.

The prototype for the main character of the game is a medieval Japanese monk and poet, Saigyō, who took monastic vows, not wishing to participate in bloody wars, and traveled the roads of his home country seeking inspiration and comfort.

One of the game’s key mechanics is exploring locations in search of places that leave the hero in such awe that he cannot but compose a classic Japanese five-line tanka. Writing poetry directly relates to the hero’s ability to confront the woes and sorrows that fill the game’s world.

The monk wakes up in a mountain hut where he has been living alone for some time. He descends the mountain into a valley and learns that a curse now hangs over this land. Terrible events have left the valley without any living people, with it now being inhabited only by somber suffering ghosts and terrible evil demons.

Traveling through the valley, the monk will perform rituals to exorcise the demons and calm the spirits. He must find out what caused the curse and remedy the situation. Along the way he will encounter not only demons and ghosts, but also benevolent spirits who will aid him.

To find the strength to push forward and confront the horrors that fill this earth, the monk will have to seek small manifestations of beauty and harmony: a new moon over the horizon, a cloud at the mountain top, a branch of the blossoming sakura.  

These experiences will provide poetic inspiration for the monk; and once he’s seen enough, he will be able to compose a classic Japanese five-line tanka. The more such poems he writes, the longer can the monk withstand fear and sorrow in the accursed lands.

Every ritual requires preparation. It is necessary to find clues about what led to the appearance of a demon or ghost, and whether they are connected to some place or object? Is the demon afraid of something specific or will it not go away until it gets something? Perhaps the ritual requires a special prayer which the monk does not yet know and must find and learn.

Only after preparing for the ritual by gathering all necessary items and prayers, can the monk count on its successful execution.

When demons and ghosts attack the monk during rituals, they do not inflict physical damage on him, rather they cause him to experience horror, madness, sorrow and suffering. The hero’s life is not determined by a health bar, but by his tranquility points. If he runs out, the monk cannot continue with the ritual. He will need to restore his peace of mind in a place of prayer and try to perform the ritual again.