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Rise of Nightmares
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Sega
Publisher(s)	Sega
Director(s)	Ryuta Ueda Masayuki Kawabata
Producer(s)	Satoshi Ito
Artist(s)	Kazuo Fukasawa
Composer(s)	Ron Fish
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Release	NA: September 6, 2011 JP: September 8, 2011 EU: September 9, 2011 AU: September 14, 2011
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player

Rise of Nightmares, known in Japan as Rise of Nightmare (ライズ オブ ナイトメア, Raizu obu Naitomea), is a survival horror video game developed and published by Sega for the Xbox 360. The game was revealed at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, and is designed specifically for Kinect.^[1] It was the first M-rated game to be released for the Kinect.

• Josh

The main protagonist of the game, on vacation in Romania with his wife, Kate. He has a drinking problem, and it is threatening his marriage. He survives the train wreck, and begins searching for his wife, who was kidnapped by Ernst at the behest of Viktor, a deranged mad scientist. He is the character the player controls for most of the game, in one form or another.

• Kate

Josh's wife, who was on vacation with him in Romania in an attempt to patch up their failing marriage. She becomes angry upon catching him with a hip flask after he promised to stop drinking, and storms away, leading to the events of the game. She is kidnapped shortly after, before the train derails. Most of the game is spent searching for her. She has something she needs to talk to him about.

• Viktor

A mad scientist with an interest in states of life and death, and the main antagonist of the game. He has Kate kidnapped, and is responsible for the deaths and transformations of almost everyone in the mansion, in pursuit of an ultimate goal. He has great plans in mind, for Josh and his wife both, for very personal reasons.

• Yeli

A Romanian fortune teller, who predicts Josh's fate on the train. She inexplicably survives the train wreck, and immediately heads for the mansion, unknowingly leading the frightened survivors right to the hell she had once escaped. She was a prisoner there in the past, but was aided in her escape by an unnamed detective. Yeli is the wife of Ernst.

• Ernst

The masked juggernaut, and Viktor's most trusted servant. He was dispatched to kidnap Kate and derail the train. He was once a prisoner in the mansion as well, but unlike his wife, he failed to escape. Instead, he became one of the most powerful of Viktor's warped experiments, and one of the most frightful. The helmet he wears severely obstructs his vision, but Ernst makes up for lack of sight with an inhumanly keen ear, which allows him to detect people in the area from just their movements. When he appears, Josh is forced to either flee or freeze, to avoid a rather gruesome death at his hands. Eventually, the player has to fight him—but he isn't quite what he seems, something Josh will come to understand.

• Mary

Viktor's wife, and supporting antagonist. Like the others in the mansion, Mary was subjected to her husband's strange curiosities, and has been transformed herself, and driven mad as a result. Seen only at a distance, she leads Josh through the mansion, and orchestrates several boss battles. However, she is not what she appears—and her plans are even more personal than Viktor's are.

• Sacha and Tasha

A pair of somewhat snobby Russian ballerinas, and (arguably) identical twins. They both survive the train wreck, only to vanish, and reappear as the undead stars of a dual boss battle, mocked up as a ballet performance. They come across as arrogant and bratty, and are prone to arguing amongst themselves when something goes wrong, as seen when the player dodges their dual attack. They are the first real boss encounter, overseen by Mary.

• Jane

Jane is a British psychiatrist. Mild-mannered and quiet, she is smart and uses it to her advantage, though she questions herself at times. She survives the train wreck, reappearing in the mansion, only to be captured and taken away by Ernst. She reappears to become an undead threat, insisting upon her state of life, even as her mutilated body and inexplicable abilities argue to the contrary. Unlike the others, her alterations are mostly mental, and she is unaware of what has happened to her, continuing to question it throughout the battle. Her quiet demeanor conceals a repressed, carnal nature.

• Monica

A blonde, naive American girl, headed to a rave with her friends, Max, Katja and Aaron. An intoxicated Josh turns his attention to her while arguing with Kate, causing her to leave and triggering the events of the game. She survives the train wreck, only to be decapitated shortly afterward. She is the first meaningful survivor casualty, and later returns as a puppet-themed boss alongside Max. She alternates between mockery and apology throughout the battle, insisting that the two are being controlled. She and Max were involved, and she (mistakenly) believed he cared about her.

• Max

A young German punk with a shaved head, headed to the rave with the others. Foul-mouthed and hot-tempered, Max is the first to shout and curse when things start going wrong, and plunges himself heedlessly into danger. He is captured with Josh, tortured, and murdered, only to reappear as a half-mechanized undead with Monica later in the game. Despite his personality, he shows some wit in the battle, using misdirection tricks to better get the drop on the player. Unlike Monica, he shows little remorse in being pitted against Josh. He has no real feelings for Monica, and planned to use her to smuggle contraband into the U.S.

• Aaron

A German man with stringy brown hair, headed to the rave with the others. He is the first character the player controls, in the 'Chapter 0' tutorial before the beginning of the game. He unwillingly fights his way through the dungeon in attempts to find a way out for himself and Katja, only to walk into a crushing trap when they finally reach the apparent end. Not much is seen of his personality. Like the others, he survived the train wreck, and reappeared with Sacha and Tasha outside the mansion, before everyone is captured.

• Katja

A dark-haired French girl, headed to the rave with her friends. She survived the train wreck, only to be captured and locked in the dungeons with Aaron. She is the first other character the player comes across, and urges Aaron to find them both a way out. She suspects the trap before they trigger it, but notices the masked monster gesturing to them from outside the recently-dropped gate. She panics, failing to realize the significance of that, and runs right into it anyway, taking Aaron with her. She was well-aware of Max's true nature, but never mentioned it.

• Fido/Marchosias

The head of a somewhat large British man, attached to the body of a small dog. 'Fido' (as Josh calls him) was a servant of Viktor, until his master decided to take his head off his body and remove his heart, locking him in a shed. Fido promises to help the player in return for freedom and his stolen heart, which he needs to animate his real body. He has a polite, if not somewhat effeminate, manner about him.

• Lin

A young Asian girl who ran away from home and traveled to Europe to find herself. Lin is a survivor from the crash, is seen on the train before the crash, and as the chaos begins. When Josh comes across the first undead creature, Lin witnesses him kill it, and then she runs away and is never seen or heard from in the game again. Most people assume she was either killed, or she escaped right before the chaos started. It is not explained.

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The game begins with a couple of prisoners attempting to escape from the dungeon they are imprisoned in. After breaking out of their cell, they find a locked door. One of the prisoners pulls a nearby lever, which both unlocks the door and releases creatures that were locked in the dungeon. They made it to the hall and approached a door. However, a monstrous masked figure suddenly appears, causing the prisoners to panic and run toward the door. They find it to be locked before the wall closes in and kills them both.

While on vacation in Romania, Josh and his wife Kate are on a train with several other tourists. During the train ride, Kate is about to tell Josh something when she discovers he was hiding a bottle of alcohol. Angry, she walks out and heads to the dining car. Josh comes across a Romanian man who tells him that his wife left a letter for him, and reads it. It says that Kate is sorry for getting angry at Josh, that she wasn't herself lately and asks Josh to meet her at the dining cart. Feeling guilty, Josh heads to the dining car to apologize. On his way, he encounters many travelers, such as Gregor, an elderly man; Lin, a student; Sacha and Tasha, two ballerinas; four teenagers - Monica, Max, Aaron and Katja - heading to a rave; Jane, an English psychiatrist; two Romanian generals; a Romanian ticket collector; a German businessman; and Yeli, a fortune-teller who gives Josh a grim prediction. He then proceeds further, only to find one of the cars is covered in blood. Bursting forth, he finds his wife being carried by a large man, with an odd-looking mechanism on his face. One of the generals tries to stop the man, but is ripped in half. Josh and Yeli follow, catching a glimpse of a strange man laughing maniacally. Suddenly, the train derails, and Josh is knocked unconscious.

Josh awakens to find the train has slid into a river. He tries to save the ticket collector from drowning, but he fails. The general calls him to shore, and Josh runs to a cave where the other survivors are hiding. The businessman walks away from the cave into the forest, where he is killed by something off-screen. Panicking, the survivors run deeper into the cave to escape, until they fall out the other side into a swamp. The other general is then pulled under and killed. After escaping the swamp and walking through the forest, they come upon a cemetery where they meet up with another group of survivors; Aaron, Sacha and Tasha. Lin wanders off into a nearby cellar, and is suddenly heard screaming. Josh runs to help and finds her panicking, saying she saw a corpse move. Josh investigates and the corpse, along with several others, reanimate and attack them both. The girl runs away, and Josh fends them off before pursuing her. Josh exits the cellar and finds that all the survivors have fled due to the zombies. As Josh makes his way through the cemetery, he witnesses Monica being decapitated by Ernst and thrown at a wall. Ernst then subdues Josh, who loses consciousness again.

Josh awakens to find that he has been tied to a chair by Viktor, the mad scientist responsible for the zombies. Max is tied up as well, but is soon killed by Viktor. He is about to kill Josh when he gets a phone call and exits urgently, leaving a zombie nurse to finish the job. Fortunately, Josh is rescued and freed by the Romanian who told Josh of Kate's letter, and they attempt to find their way out. The two make their way through a hall when the survivor inspects a fresh bloodstain, only to end up bisected by a trap. Josh fights his way through a horde of zombies and encounters Jane, but she is immediately kidnapped by Ernst. He later comes across a ringing phone. Josh answers and hears Kate begging him to help, followed by a woman's voice telling him that he will never find her, and a projector shows footage of a mysterious woman next to Kate. He advances to a cave to find that the two Russian ballerinas are now zombies, and the strange woman from before traps him in with the zombie twins. After he kills them, he wanders outside to a courtyard.

In the courtyard, he hears someone asking him to help him out of the shed. The man, Fido, claims to have been Viktor's employee once, and to know how to save Kate. When freed by Josh, Josh is surprised to find that his head has been sewn to the body of a small lapdog. Fido tells Josh that he will only help him if he helps return him to his human state. After being restored to his human body, he gives Josh the key to the tall tower, and tells him there's a surprise at the top. Josh then wanders to the top of the tower to find the raver couple, now resembling marionettes. He kills them, and then is transported to a cave, where he picks up a mystical weapon, Azoth, that attaches to his left hand.

Josh eventually finds Kate, but she is strapped to a table with Viktor and Ernst next to her. Viktor tells Ernst to kill Josh, but Josh defeats him. Near death, Ernst decides to let Josh and Kate escape. In a fit of rage, Viktor brutally murders Ernst. Josh and Kate run into a forest, but Kate is entranced by a sudden music that starts playing, and she wanders into a sacrificial site. Viktor is there, but in the body of a woman. He opens up a portal, but Josh destroys the towers that created it, and Viktor is burned to death. However, before he can reach Kate, Marchosias, or Fido in his human form, knocks Josh unconscious. Josh wakes up to find that he is strapped to a vertical table, with the bodies of Viktor and Ernst present too. Marchosias reveals that he was fascinated by Viktor, and will use Josh in order to reincarnate him. Out of Viktor's corpse he pulls out an eel-like creature, and inserts it into Josh's mouth.

Josh then reawakens to find himself in a prison cell, in the body of Ernst. He sees Kate walking along with Viktor, who is now in the body of Josh. Kate now believes that Viktor is Josh, and that Josh is Ernst. The two leave Josh in the body of Ernst in his cell. Soon, Josh hears Aaron and Katja, who have escaped from their cell, the event that happens before the start of the game. They open all the cell doors, and Josh tries to follow them, but, believing that he is Ernst, they flee and are killed.

Josh runs after Kate, and sees her walking off with Viktor in Josh's body. He follows, and meets Marchosias again. He then reveals an altered Jane, and tells her to kill Josh. Josh overpowers her, and she begins to have a mental breakdown. As she starts to burn up, she jumps onto Marchosias, and they both burn to death together. Josh staggers out into the forest, and collapses.

He wakes up to see Yeli dancing in front of him, saying that before Josh can kill Viktor and claim back his body, he must enter the dream realm to learn why everything happened. She stabs him with a dagger that sends him back to the train, but in his imagination. Josh can also hear what the other passengers were thinking at the time, before all of them turn into a blood-like gas. Lin is thinking about how her parents will hate her once they find out that she dropped out of school; the two ballerinas are thinking that without the other, they could be stars; Aaron thinks about how he doesn't like 'love and peace'; Monica is thinking about how she loves Europe and how lovely Max is; Max is thinking about how to use Monica to smuggle drugs into America; Katja is lamenting about how Monica is being used as Max's puppet; Jane is thinking about her next project, and how half-dead people can be used, before snapping herself out of it and thinking that she might need counselling; A Romanian general is thinking about how he lost his friends in war because his gun jammed, and the other is thinking about marrying the woman he loves and setting up his own business; the ticket collector is strangely thinking about the train derailing; and the German businessman wants to embezzle his company's funds. Lastly, he sees Kate, who is thinking about the fact that she is pregnant. Josh, who didn't previously know this, is shocked. Viktor then appears by her side, declaring that she is the same as his wife Mary. Kate disappears, Viktor sees Josh, and he runs away.

Next, Josh is led to Viktor's memories with Mary, who is revealed to be the strange woman from before. Mary and Viktor had a child and were happy together, but Viktor later experimented on the newborn to make it genetically perfect. This led to its eventual death. After being confronted on this by Mary, he strangled her to death. Filled with remorse, he vowed to learn how to resurrect the dead to bring Mary back. He then sees Viktor dressed in Mary's clothes. He laughs at Josh, telling him that his baby is gone. Josh finds Yeli's dagger, and stabs Viktor in the heart with it.

Josh wakes up to see that in real life, he has stabbed Yeli. Not only that, but he is in his own body, and not Ernst's. Josh coughs up Viktor's eel, and it dies. Yeli then tells Josh that Kate is at the ritual site, and she charges his Azoth. She then dies next to the body of Ernst, revealed to be her husband. Josh proceeds to find Kate, and he is teleported to a staircase where he can hear Viktor and Mary arguing. Mary is shouting that Viktor killed their baby. Josh then arrives in Mary's dream world, a mystical land of floating islands. Josh finds Mary tending to his unborn baby. Mary demands that he leave, but Josh refuses, and they fight. She turns into a massive two-headed flying demon, with a heart-like body. Josh eventually kills her with the Azoth. Josh takes back his baby, and the dream ends.

In a post-credits scene, Josh and a pregnant Kate are leaving Romania on a train. As Josh leaves, he bumps into a man, his face and body badly burned and bandaged. The man sits down near Kate, and opens his suitcase to reveal three small phials with the parasites in them. The man laughs, before the screen cuts to black.

A teaser trailer was shown at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show upon the game's announcement.^[2] The game was also in attendance for E3 2011.

Rise of Nightmares received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[3] GameSpot praised the visual atmosphere and variety of weapons, but claimed that the motion controls of the game are unnatural and awkward.^[10] Joystiq praised the potential of the motion controls, but stated that the story of the game "is hackneyed at best and nonsensical at worst."^[12] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one eight and three sevens for a total of 29 out of 40.^[7]

As of October 31, 2011, Rise of Nightmares sold 200,000 units worldwide.^[16]

Sega has formed the production company Stories International and is teaming up with Evan Cholfin for film and television projects based on their games with Rise of Nightmares as a live action project.^[17]

• Rise of Nightmares American homepage
• Rise of Nightmares Japanese homepage Archived 2010-12-06 at the Wayback Machine
• Rise of Nightmares at MobyGames