【Dark x Suspense】 What you need to bid is “Memories”! Link antiques put up for auction with the memories offered as payment to uncover the truth! “Dark Auction” is now available!

I initially couldn't believe the concept: “bidding on items with memories instead of money.” However, “Dark Auction” provides a deeply layered gaming experience centered on this eccentric rule, forcing you to face people's pasts, truths, and lies. The setting is 1981, in an old European castle with a chilling atmosphere. The protagonist, a boy named Noah, arrives in search of his missing father, only to be drawn into a life-or-death psychological game. It’s more than just a suspense thriller; the structure requiring players to confront “memories”—information that is inherently ambiguous and fluctuating—makes this work truly one-of-a-kind.

In the free exploration part set in the old castle, you don't just search rooms; you gradually uncover “unseen pasts” through dialogue and observation of the other participants. It's truly impressive how the story begins to quietly unfold as you pick up on the subtle inconsistencies scattered throughout conversations, revealing the hidden wounds within those who appear calm on the surface. More than the physical size of the map, it's the complex emotional landscapes of the characters living there that draw the player into the exploration.

Information gained through exploration is stored as keywords in a “Word Cloud,” which are then used to solve mysteries during the auction segments. This system is exquisite, requiring a “process of finding connections” that goes beyond mere information gathering. Like a detective piecing together fragments of a case, the task of linking related words to decipher characters' backgrounds and true intentions tests the player's own reading comprehension and imagination. Because the game doesn't just hand you the answer, but makes the process of reaching a conclusion so rich, the sense of accomplishment when you finally reach the truth resonates deeply.

During the auction, the outcome changes depending on “whose memory” and “what kind of memory” the player chooses to offer. Memories are not always accurate; they can be uncertain and self-serving, sometimes even deceiving the person themselves. Noah's role is to “correct” these memories into their true forms, which puts the player's own ethics and emotions to the test. The way the human drama is woven through the conflict of what to protect and what to expose creates a tension akin to watching a stage play.