Ghosts Cast No Shadow

Visitors at the gate

As a village watchman in Joseon-era Korea you pick out the yogoe, monsters of Korean folktales, from the people at your gate at night, Kim-seobang back late from the woods, a peddler on a long road.

Ghosts cast no shadow

Hold up the lantern and a shadow falls at the visitor's feet, unless it's a ghost, and under a full moon a disguised fox still shows a tail in its shadow.

The registry and your questions

The registry says Kim-seobang's son is Manbok, so a visitor wearing his face who answers Boksil is a fake, and a peddler, who isn't listed, gets asked for his travel pass.

The bronze mirror and red beans

The bronze mirror shows a visitor's true form and red beans make ghosts and dokkaebi flinch, but the mirror works two or three times a night and the beans run to a few handfuls.

A talisman in one stroke

Once you're sure, trace the talisman's dotted line in one stroke to seal the yogoe in a gourd. Wobble too much and it gets away, and a talisman on an innocent person costs you the village's goodwill.

One clue is never enough

Rain soaks humans too and somebody back from the charcoal kiln glows red under the lantern, so line up two or three clues before deciding. Chase off a spirit you took for a yogoe and your lantern oil leaks away overnight.

From old Korean tales

The 116 yogoe, spirits and oddballs, dokkaebi, the nine-tailed gumiho and Jowangsin the Kitchen God among them, all come from Korean folktales and old records, and each goes into the codex when you seal or welcome it.

Ten nights

A run is ten nights through different places each time, Market Street or Fox Pass, say, ending at the Gate of the Underworld, and from the fourth night a Secret Inspector in rags or a constable chasing a thief may knock too.

Your ending turns on how many yogoe got past you and how much village safety is left, and villagers whose goodwill you've earned throw you a feast at the gate. If ten nights weren't enough, the endless nights pick up after the ending.

Text comes in Korean, English, Japanese and Simplified or Traditional Chinese, and the whole game works on a gamepad.