Bail or Jail | DJcube

Catch me if you can monsters!

NA release: 25th October 2022
EU release: 25th October 2022
JP release: 25th October 2022
Developer: Free Style
Publisher: Konami
MKAU Gaming Review: 4.5/5
Platforms: Switch, PC, Xbox One, PS4
Version Played: PC

This was originally released under the name Obakeidoro on Switch – a portmanteau of the Japanese words for Ghost Hide & Seek – but rebranded with the name Bail or Jail to make the name appeal more to Western audiences. It’s a multiplayer game where one person is a monster and three are humans trying to hide from them.

My concern with this game would be that I wouldn’t be able to play it to focus on online play, but developers Free Style Inc made sure that the game was future-proof. If you search for a match and find no players, the spots will be filled with CPU players. You can also select solo play and local split screen multiplayer, which isn’t an ideal way to play (the monster can see the players), but it’s great that they took the effort to keep the game as playable as possible.

As a human, your job is to survive for a few minutes. You can hide behind objects, although the monster will hear a change in music when it’s close to you. You have a limited use lantern attack to stun the monster, although this isn’t much help when out in the open. A captured human will be thrown in jail and the others can bail them out by reaching the locks.

The role of the monster is to capture all three humans. Monsters are slightly faster than humans, and have little ghost creatures that can provide directions to the humans or protect the locks for a short amount of time. The difficulty is in avoiding the lantern attacks, as the humans can typically free their friends if they catch you with one near the jail.

There was also DLC adding more characters, including Castlevania characters. Alucard joins the humans and is able to dash backwards (not much use when you’re mainly running from a monster) or protect himself by turning into a bat. Joining the ranks of the monsters is… Leon Belmont. A rather odd choice. It makes sense using a whip to capture people, but the first Belmont chasing down children and throwing them in a cell (making sure their heads slam on the bars before they fall in) is just odd.

Bail or Jail is a fun, if simple, game. The matches are pretty much all there is – the tutorial makes it seem like a level-based challenge mode would work – but there are achievements style stickers and lots of unlockables to grind towards.

Fun

Anyone chasing that game of TAG with a twist, Bail or Jail is for you. It’s a fun and quick game where there are countless areas of opportunity within the character’s abilities, and you can get pretty tricky using the natural cover offered by the buildings. It has that spooky vibe to the game but is not enough to scare anyone into submission.
Hayden Nelson, MKAU Gaming

Remake or remaster?

The current version is good.

Official Ways to get the game

Bail or Jail is available on Steam, Xbox Store, PS Store and Nintendo eShop.