The kids can talk over walkie-talkies. But if the Oni is nearby, it hears the chatter too.

Call out to your friends and move together, or stay silent and keep hiding?

KAKUREONI: Hide-and-Seek Horror is due out for PC via Steam on January 27, 2027, and a demo is already playable on Steam. It’s an asymmetric online horror game built on hide-and-seek, where up to five players split into four kids and one Oni. Matches last about three minutes.

The setting is an abandoned school at midnight. The kids have been spirited away and are searching for a way back to their own world. The Oni hunts them down and catches them; the kids hide and dodge.

Kids are harder to spot when they stand in the dark. Shadow Veil makes a kid vanish and silences their footsteps, but using it drains your mask’s spiritual power. Kids who get caught can still help their teammates.

A kid chased down a hallway by the Oni (demo screenshot)

The Oni uses Oni Sight to locate kids on the other side of walls, and it can break obstacles in its path.

Before a match, players can stop by Grandma’s shop, which sells dagashi (cheap sweets for kids). Each kind has a different effect, and kids use them to counter the Oni’s strengths.

As time passes, a ghost appears and sides with the Oni. The ghost reveals where the kids are and drains your mask’s spiritual power too.

Your mask’s spiritual power drops every time you vanish, and the ghost chips away at it as well. Picking the right moments to spend it on Shadow Veil could swing a three-minute match.

Kids and the Oni each choose from characters with different abilities. When a match ends, everyone takes a “spirit photo” (a photo said to have caught a ghost).

FORCES is the publisher. Before launch, it plans to improve the tutorial and add new maps, more dagashi, photo and shop items, and more horror world-building.

PlatformsRelease dateDemo
Steam (PC)January 27, 2027Yes

Language: English
Players: Online co-op / Online PvP
As of October 28, 2026