Paradox Mansion
Paradox Mansion is a Japanese-style psychological horror VR game that traps players in an abandoned building using a spot-the-difference and endless loop mechanic. The player’s goal is to escape by discovering anomalies in the environment during each loop and striking them with a hammer to progress. The game gradually increases the intensity of horror through jump scares, chases, narrative, and spatial storytelling, enhancing the visual and auditory terror. When being chased, players must also find suitable ways to evade the ghost’s pursuit.
Made by
Zhao Yingru
Du Yu
Zhu Free
The game world is set against the backdrop of Japanese colonial history during World War II: the main space is an abandoned Japanese military mansion. The player takes on the role of a modern-day maintenance worker assigned to restore this Japanese-style building, but accidentally awakens the ghost of a geisha who was imprisoned there a hundred years ago.
In terms of controls, players experience full immersion through a VR headset, using both controllers to move, pick up objects, and use tools to strike.
For scene design, the game emphasizes spatial storytelling through looping architecture, atmospheric lighting and shadows, and music and sound effects. The art style is primarily vintage realism, with consistent and cohesive environmental details and props to enhance the overall atmosphere.
The game is set in an abandoned Japanese military mansion from World War II, once owned by a high-ranking Imperial Navy officer. The mansion, located in a remote area, was both a symbol of power and a prison. The officer, to avoid scandal, secretly married a young geisha and confined her within the mansion, never allowing her to leave. After Japan’s defeat, the officer and other officials fled, abandoning the geisha, who died mysteriously-her spirit never at rest. Now, the mansion is a decaying relic haunted by her omnipresent, resentful ghost, forever bound to its endless, paradoxical halls. Decades later, a modern maintenance worker (the player) arrives to preserve the building, only to be mistaken by the ghost for her absent, hated husband and trapped in a looping nightmare. The mansion becomes a psychological labyrinth, blending personal tragedy with the broader horrors of war and power.