12 Best PS Vita Horror Games

The Count Lucanor is a pixel adventure from the studio Baroque Decay, and its makers say it was inspired by classics like Zelda and Silent Hill. That is a big pair of names to put on the box. The game came out in 2016 and reached the Vita in January 2018, with Merge Games as the publisher.

It is the smallest name on this list, and it only just made the cut. That makes it a nice find for anyone who has already played the famous ones. A pixel art game that borrows from Zelda and Silent Hill at the same time is an easy thing to try on a handheld, and it suits the Vita's screen well.

Spirit Hunter: NG was first released for the PlayStation Vita, and it came to PS4, Windows and Switch later. It follows Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, and where that game put its spirits in "distinct, horrifying locales", NG brings the fear into normal places. You face monsters in quiet residential streets, neighborhood parks and even the main character's own home. The team built it to contrast with the first game, with "gradually introduced horror and a hot-blooded player character".

Critics praised the story and the characters, and called it a good game for fans of Asian horror. Players who recommend it nearly always bring up Death Mark too. Play that one first, then come here.

Uncanny Valley is a survival horror game from Cowardly Creations, with exploration, puzzle solving, a bit of action and a lot of optional story content. Its makers said they wanted "to preserve the old survival horror kind of gameplay" instead of making a third person shooter with horror elements. It came out on PC in 2015 and reached the Vita in February 2017, published by Digerati.

That promise is the whole pitch. If you miss the days when horror games were about poking around and running away, this is made for you. It is a small pixel art game, and it is one of the few on the Vita that tried to bring back the old style on purpose.

Home comes from Benjamin Rivers, who made it in GameMaker and first planned it as an iPad game. It came out on PC in 2012 and reached the PlayStation Vita on November 4, 2014. You walk through a 2D pixel world and make yes or no decisions. It is a murder mystery, and your answers decide what ultimately happened.

Some critics said it is less a game and more interactive storytelling. The game asks you to finish it in one sitting, and a typical playthrough lasts around 1 to 1.5 hours. Pocket Gamer wrote that its "simple but evocative pixel-art conjures an atmosphere as rich as any big-budget horror". Play it once, at night. Several reviewers found that the magic wore off on a second run.

Midnight Shadows is the sequel to Yomawari: Night Alone, and it reached the West on the Vita in October 2017. After a summer fireworks show, two girls named Yui and Haru walk home together. They let go of each other's hands and get separated, and the night town turns into something very different from the daytime one. You switch between the two girls, and what one of them does changes the story of the other.

The girls cannot fight. When a spirit is near, the girl's heartbeat speeds up, and you get past it by running away or hiding. Famitsu gave it 31 out of 40. Players almost always recommend it together with the first game, which is fair, because they work best as a pair.

Blood Drive is the third Corpse Party game, a direct sequel to Book of Shadows, and the first in the series with settings and characters in 3D. XSEED localized it and published it for the Vita in late 2015. It was ported to Switch in 2019. The story picks up right where the prologue in Book of Shadows left off.

Reviews were mixed. Critics called it better than Book of Shadows but not as good as the original game. One review pointed at the simple puzzles and the long loading times, but praised the atmosphere and the storytelling. Corpse Party was always about a creepy story first, and Blood Drive keeps that part. Come for the story and forgive the rest.

Night Alone is a Japanese horror game from Nippon Ichi Software. It came out in Japan on October 29, 2015 and in English in October 2016. A little girl's dog goes missing, and her older sister goes out to look for it and does not come back. So the girl goes out into a town that has changed in the dark, with only a flashlight.

You can throw stones or dig with a shovel. A heartbeat warns you when a monster is near. Physical copies in North America and Europe came with htoL#NiQ, both games on the same cartridge. It sold around 48,000 copies in Japan. Players who like horror put it high on their list of Vita picks, and the cute art does not make it any less scary.

Mary Skelter is a dungeon crawler from Compile Heart. A being called the Jail has swallowed a whole city and keeps releasing monsters called Marchens. You lead the Blood Maidens and Jack in turn-based fights, while a Nightmare monster stalks you through the dungeon. You can stand and fight it or set traps to slow it down and run. Let a Blood Maiden's stress get too high and she goes into Blood Skelter and attacks everyone, herself included.

It came out in North America on September 19, 2017 and got 76/100 on Metacritic. It was followed by a prequel, Mary Skelter 2, and a last game, Mary Skelter Finale. Players rank it among the Vita's best dungeon crawlers.

Lone Survivor started as a game by Jasper Byrne for Windows and OS X in 2012. Curve Studios brought it to PS3 and Vita in 2013 as The Director's Cut. You play a masked survivor trying to escape a city ruined by disease. Your flashlight drains batteries and ammo is scarce. The mutants are drawn to light and noise, but you can sneak past them by hiding in the shadows.

Your apartment is the hub. You have to come back with food and sleep, because sleeping keeps away madness and saves your game. Pills fight off tiredness but hurt you mentally, and the hallucinations they cause can put extra supplies in your backpack. One player called it "probably the best Silent Hill game since 4".

Revelations 2 brings back Claire Redfield, and for the first time Barry Burton is a playable story character in the main series. The story comes in four episodes that cut between Claire and Moira Burton in the past and Barry in the present. Only two of the four playable characters use guns, which adds some stealth. Raid Mode returns from the first Revelations with more missions. The Vita version came out on August 18, 2015.

Getting a full Resident Evil onto the Vita was a feat. Running it well was another story. Players agree the port struggles, with long load times and frame drops. They still recommend it, because it is a real Resident Evil you can carry in a pocket.

Book of Memories is a Silent Hill spin-off made only for the Vita, developed by WayForward and published by Konami. Your own character gets a book on their birthday that holds their whole life story. They make changes to it, with unforeseen and often unfavorable consequences. You see the dungeons from above and level up by beating monsters. The five classes are bookworm, goth, jock, preppy and rocker. There are five endings and a sixth joke ending in Silent Hill tradition.

Daniel Licht returned to score the soundtrack. Reviews were mixed, and players are split the same way. Some call it a fun dungeon crawler packed with fan service, and others say it has nothing of what makes Silent Hill great. Treat it as a dungeon crawler that happens to be scary and it works.

Darkest Dungeon is a gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stress of adventuring, made by Red Hook Studios. It first came out for Windows and OS X in January 2016, after a year-long early access period, and reached the Vita later that year. You recruit a team of flawed heroes and lead them against unimaginable horrors. Stress is the real enemy. Left unchecked, a hero can get too frightened to fight or start acting against your orders.

Lovecraft's stories partly inspired it, and it shows. The game sold over two million copies, and a sequel, Darkest Dungeon II, came out in May 2023. Players recommend it more than any other horror game on the Vita.