Afraid of heights?
Excellent. Here’s a horror game about clinging to the outside of Tokyo Tower while something with a ridiculously long neck hunts you.
Serafini Productions and Soft Source have announced that BrokenLore: ASCEND will launch on 7 January 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store.
The first-person psychological horror game combines free climbing and stealth with an officially licensed recreation of Tokyo Tower, transforming the famous Japanese landmark into the fictional Elysium Tower.
And apparently simply falling several hundred metres wasn’t frightening enough.
There’s a yōkai up there too.
Chasing views goes horribly wrong
BrokenLore: ASCEND follows Ren and Yui, two rooftop climbers who have built an online following through their channel, SKYLIMIT.
Their lives revolve around dangerous climbs, increasingly ambitious stunts and the attention those videos generate.
Naturally, the next logical step is breaking into the tallest building in Japan for an illegal nighttime climb.
What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
Their ascent of Elysium Tower begins as another attempt to create the ultimate video but gradually turns into a fight for survival as reality starts falling apart around them.
The physical climb is only part of the problem.
For Ren and Yui, their identities have become wrapped up in being seen, admired and remembered. Giving up on the climb means more than admitting defeat; it means potentially losing the attention upon which they have built their lives.
A healthy relationship with social media, then.
Tokyo Tower, but considerably more cursed
One of ASCEND’s biggest selling points is its setting.
Elysium Tower is based on an officially licensed recreation of Tokyo Tower, with the familiar red-and-white structure transformed into an enormous horror playground filled with exposed beams, narrow platforms and some extremely unfriendly heights.
Players will climb in first person, grabbing ledges and moving carefully across the exterior while wind, darkness and the sheer drop beneath them add their own form of horror.
The Steam listing describes realistic free-climbing mechanics where every handhold and movement needs consideration.
There aren’t many safe corridors to hide in here.
Sometimes there isn’t even a floor.
Meet the Rokurokubi
As if vertigo wasn’t enough, Ren and Yui are being hunted by something supernatural.
The Rokurokubi comes from Japanese folklore and initially resembles an ordinary woman.
Then her neck stretches.
And stretches.
And keeps stretching.
ASCEND’s interpretation gives the creature a snake-like neck and ornate mask, allowing it to move through the tower while searching for the climbers.
Players will need to remain outside its sight while navigating exposed sections of Elysium Tower, blending stealth with the climbing mechanics.
The creature also ties into the game’s wider psychological themes.
Rather than simply being something unpleasant chasing you through the dark, the Rokurokubi represents Ren and Yui’s fear of becoming irrelevant – losing the audience, validation and attention that have come to define them.
Apparently being eaten by a supernatural long-necked woman is what happens when the algorithm stops recommending your videos.
Bit harsh.
Another piece of the BrokenLore puzzle
ASCEND forms part of Serafini Productions’ wider BrokenLore series, although it is designed as a standalone story.
Previous entries have explored different characters, settings and psychological themes while gradually building connections across the broader BrokenLore universe.
The studio also recently revealed BrokenLore: MIKI-CHAN, another upcoming first-person horror game.
That one follows Japanese student Kazuaki after he discovers a mysterious study programme containing Miki-chan, a seemingly helpful virtual anime assistant who gradually becomes jealous and possessive.
It is quite a different flavour of nightmare from hanging hundreds of metres above Tokyo, but both sit within the same expanding horror saga.
You can already try the climb
Anyone curious about whether their stomach can handle ASCEND doesn’t necessarily need to wait until January.
A playable PC demo is currently available through Steam, giving players an early look at its climbing, atmosphere and decidedly unpleasant relationship with heights.
The full game will then arrive on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on 7 January 2027.
Our take on BrokenLore: ASCEND
Horror games have spent decades making us nervous about dark corridors.
BrokenLore: ASCEND appears to have decided corridors are far too safe.
Building an entire horror experience around climbing immediately gives it something visually and mechanically distinctive, particularly when the environment is based on somewhere as recognisable as Tokyo Tower.
Then throwing a Rokurokubi into the equation feels wonderfully cruel.
There is also something fitting about tying the physical obsession with climbing higher to Ren and Yui’s obsession with online attention. They aren’t simply trying to reach the top because a video game objective told them to.
They need the next stunt.
The next video.
The next wave of attention.
And apparently the only thing standing between them and internet fame is several hundred metres of open air and a woman whose neck refuses to obey basic anatomy.
BrokenLore: ASCEND launches on 7 January 2027.
Try not to look down.
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