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Episode 39 – Haunting
We’re back to haunt you! After our hiatus we’re back for our first episode of 2025. We discuss some games we’ve been playing lately, including The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Piofiore: Fated Memories, and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and South of Midnight. We then move on to discuss haunting in games, including the presence of spectres, haunting and temporality, and recursive themes and motifs. We discuss works by Derrida alongside Tuck and Ree’s ‘Glossary of haunting’, and reflect on intersections between haunting in games and coming-of-age, religion, aesthetics, and the gothic.
Media
Blue Isle Studios and Parsec Productions. (2013). Slender: The Arrival. Blue Isle Studios.
Compulsion Games. (2025). South of Midnight. Xbox Game Studios.
Daedalic Entertainment. (2023). The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Daedalic Entertainment & Nacon.
Free Range Games. (2023). The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria. North Beach Games.
Gordon, A. & Hobbes, M. (2020). Maintenance Phase. Gordon, A. & Hobbes, M.
Hakababunko. (2025). Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Shueisha Games.
Design Factory Co., Ltd. & Otomate. (2018). Piofiore: Fated Memories. Idea Factory Co., Ltd. & Aksys Games.
Ko, K. (Director). (2022). Incantation. Yang, P., Ko, K. & Chun-lin, C (Producers).
Libii HK Limited. (2023). SuitU: Fashion Avatar Dress UP. Apple & Google Play.
Nakata, H (Director). (2002). Dark Water. Ichise, T (Producer).
Northway Games. (2022). I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. Finji.
Obsidian Entertainment. (2025). Avowed. Xbox Game Studios.
PlatinumGames. (2017). NieR: Automata. Square Enix.
Sandfall Interactive. (2025). Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Kepler Interactive.
Semiwork. (2025). R.E.P.O.. Semiwork.
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. (2000). The Legend of Dragoon. Sony Computer Entertainment.
Tecmo. (2006). Fatal Frame III: The Tormented. Tecmo & Take-Two Interactive.
References
Blakey, H. (2025). Cute, interesting, zany ghosts: Examining aesthetic experience of ghosts in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Genshin Impact and Hades. Revenant, 12, 7–32. https://www.revenantjournal.com/contents/cute-interesting-zany-ghosts-examining-aesthetic-experience-of-ghosts-in-animal-crossing-new-horizons-genshin-impact-and-hades/
Boden, Z. V. R., & Eatough, V. (2020). Parallel returns- Feelings, temporality and narrative in the experience of guilt. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 17(1), 36–52.
Gardenour Walter, B. S. (2014). Silent Hill and Fatal Frame: Finding transcendent horror in and beyond the haunted magic circle. In H. Campbell & G. P. Grieve (Eds.), Playing with religion in digital games. Indiana University Press.
Gordon, A. (2008). Ghostly matters: Haunting and the sociological imagination. University of Minnesota Press.
Janik, J. (2019). Ghosts of the present past: Spectrality in the video game object. Journal of the Philosophy of Games, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.5617/jpg.2943
Kirkland, E. (2021). Videogames and the Gothic. Routledge.
Ngai, S. (2012). Our aesthetic categories. Harvard University Press.
Roy, A. (2014). Capitalism: A ghost story. Haymarket Books.
Tomkinson, S., & Harper, T. (2025). If it looks like violent extremism, and acts like violent extremism …: Comparing the framing of two Sydney stabbing attacks. Communication Research and Practice, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2025.2528393
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By Sian Tomkinson and Heather Blakey
5
11 ratings
We’re back to haunt you! After our hiatus we’re back for our first episode of 2025. We discuss some games we’ve been playing lately, including The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Piofiore: Fated Memories, and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and South of Midnight. We then move on to discuss haunting in games, including the presence of spectres, haunting and temporality, and recursive themes and motifs. We discuss works by Derrida alongside Tuck and Ree’s ‘Glossary of haunting’, and reflect on intersections between haunting in games and coming-of-age, religion, aesthetics, and the gothic.
Media
Blue Isle Studios and Parsec Productions. (2013). Slender: The Arrival. Blue Isle Studios.
Compulsion Games. (2025). South of Midnight. Xbox Game Studios.
Daedalic Entertainment. (2023). The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Daedalic Entertainment & Nacon.
Free Range Games. (2023). The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria. North Beach Games.
Gordon, A. & Hobbes, M. (2020). Maintenance Phase. Gordon, A. & Hobbes, M.
Hakababunko. (2025). Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Shueisha Games.
Design Factory Co., Ltd. & Otomate. (2018). Piofiore: Fated Memories. Idea Factory Co., Ltd. & Aksys Games.
Ko, K. (Director). (2022). Incantation. Yang, P., Ko, K. & Chun-lin, C (Producers).
Libii HK Limited. (2023). SuitU: Fashion Avatar Dress UP. Apple & Google Play.
Nakata, H (Director). (2002). Dark Water. Ichise, T (Producer).
Northway Games. (2022). I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. Finji.
Obsidian Entertainment. (2025). Avowed. Xbox Game Studios.
PlatinumGames. (2017). NieR: Automata. Square Enix.
Sandfall Interactive. (2025). Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Kepler Interactive.
Semiwork. (2025). R.E.P.O.. Semiwork.
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. (2000). The Legend of Dragoon. Sony Computer Entertainment.
Tecmo. (2006). Fatal Frame III: The Tormented. Tecmo & Take-Two Interactive.
References
Blakey, H. (2025). Cute, interesting, zany ghosts: Examining aesthetic experience of ghosts in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Genshin Impact and Hades. Revenant, 12, 7–32. https://www.revenantjournal.com/contents/cute-interesting-zany-ghosts-examining-aesthetic-experience-of-ghosts-in-animal-crossing-new-horizons-genshin-impact-and-hades/
Boden, Z. V. R., & Eatough, V. (2020). Parallel returns- Feelings, temporality and narrative in the experience of guilt. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 17(1), 36–52.
Gardenour Walter, B. S. (2014). Silent Hill and Fatal Frame: Finding transcendent horror in and beyond the haunted magic circle. In H. Campbell & G. P. Grieve (Eds.), Playing with religion in digital games. Indiana University Press.
Gordon, A. (2008). Ghostly matters: Haunting and the sociological imagination. University of Minnesota Press.
Janik, J. (2019). Ghosts of the present past: Spectrality in the video game object. Journal of the Philosophy of Games, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.5617/jpg.2943
Kirkland, E. (2021). Videogames and the Gothic. Routledge.
Ngai, S. (2012). Our aesthetic categories. Harvard University Press.
Roy, A. (2014). Capitalism: A ghost story. Haymarket Books.
Tomkinson, S., & Harper, T. (2025). If it looks like violent extremism, and acts like violent extremism …: Comparing the framing of two Sydney stabbing attacks. Communication Research and Practice, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2025.2528393