Rumors persist about the existence of a chat room called "The Black Page." Anyone who is curious enough to visit it is cursed to die. Calling centers around four such individuals who awaken to find themselves in another dimension called the "Mnemonic Abyss" which is populated with spirits. These individuals are:
- Rin Kagura, a college student searching for an old friend who she only knows the screen name of.
- Shin Suzutani, an anime and supernatural otaku who followed the rumors out of curiosity.
- Makoto Shirae, an editor of a small publishing office investigating his friend's death.
- Chiyo Kishibe, an elderly widow that desperately wants to see her husband again.
Calling, known in Japan as Calling: Kuroki Chakushin (Dark Message) is a Survival Horror game developed and published by Hudson Soft for the Wii, released in late 2009 for Japan and early 2010 for the United States.
Not to be confused with the manga Calling, the band The Calling, one of the songs from The World Ends with You, or the Dragon Age tie-in novel The Calling.
Calling contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Hospital: Subverted because you're not on the same plane of the living nor the dead. In reality the hospital could be bustling and crowded at the time you're exploring it. Which it's not - as Makoto finds out, the real-world hospital closed down not long after the death of several patients under mysterious circumstances, meaning that the trope is ultimately played straight. Even if there are, in a way, two abandoned hospitals.
- Anachronic Order: Explains why Rin runs into Shin immediately after his chapter in which he dies. Confirmed after the fake ending.
- Another Side, Another Story: While Rin and Makoto are the main playable characters, there are brief playable segments as Shin and Chiyo as well.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted; the black cat might scare the bejeebus out of you, but following it is generally a good idea.
- Cowardly Lion: Shin. It eventually gets him killed. Even as a ghost he is easily frightened off by the sound of a ringing phone.
- Creepy Doll: Shin's chapter has him trapped in a house belonging to a man who was obsessed with dolls.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: Visiting the Black Page was not a good idea on anyone's part.
- Fission Mailed: Rin's "fake" ending. After the credits roll and a scene plays out, the game announces a new chapter has been unlocked.
- Four Is Death:
- At the beginning of the school chapter, Rin receives ominous threats through her cell phone with the voice announcing its location each time. She starts out on the fourth floor of the school and the messages indicate that the spirit is rapidly ascending the stairs.
- The clock in the hotel room is frozen at 4:44.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Every time you see the Lady in Red, she sends you, the player, a creepy letter via the Wii Message Board.
- Gasp!: Whenever the characters see a ghost, they gasp.
- Ghostly Goals: Most of the spirits want to kill you, possibly simply due to protective behavior as they do also want to be saved.
- Girly Run: Averted. Unlike most survival horror games of its type, the female protagonists either haul ass or can't run to begin with.
- Guide Dang It!: There's a glitch where if you don't do everything during the Lamentation just right, you won't be able to progress further. Most people wouldn't know about this unless they read a walkthrough.
- Haunted House Historian: Sadao (he was learning about it himself when he was trapped) when leaving messages around.
- Haunted Technology:
- The Black Page is a chatroom that curses anyone who visits it to die and has a counter showing how many people have died after doing so.
- The cell phones that the player can pick up are able to record white noise and play back ghostly messages. They also grant the ability to warp its users to different locations by dialing a phone number.
- I Can't Reach It: "You can't see well in the darkness" despite the objects being clear enough to observe.
- Jump Scare: This game thrives on these types of thrills. Even exiting a menu or turning around quickly will make you wet your pants.
- Male Gaze: Makoto manages to get a good look at the hotel spirit's cleavage, and probably would have appreciated it more if she wasn't trying to kill him as it happens.
- The Many Deaths of You: Getting killed by certain spirits will earn the player a nice photograph on the Wii to commemorate the event.
- Multiple Endings: One "good" and one "bad." Unusual in that you view both in a single playthrough of the game.
- Otaku:
- Shin is into both anime and the supernatural.
- One of the malevolent spirits was an otaku that died of over-exhaustion at an internet cafe.
- Parental Abandonment: When Reiko's mother could no longer pay her hospital bills, she just left Reiko in the hospital by herself.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Reiko believes that Rin lied to her about visiting her because Rin had been in an accident and did not wake up in time to stop her from jumping out the hospital window.
- This costs Rin her life in the default ending when she fails to receive forgiveness from Reiko because she cannot hear her apologize and Reiko still believes her to be a liar. The cell phone turns out to be the key to getting through to Reiko.
- The Promise: Rin promised to visit Reiko in the hospital as a child.
- The Reveal: Rin had made a promise to Reiko to come visit her at the hospital. However, she was hit by a truck on the way. She awoke in the hospital in time to see Reiko fall through an open window. This is what sets the events of the game into motion.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In the bad ending, after regaining her memories of Reiko and the accident that triggered her suicide, Rin tries to apologize to her. Reiko responds by tricking her into falling out the same window she jumped from, letting her plummet to her death.
- Shout-Out:
- The premise of the game borrows largely from the J-horror genre of films, including One Missed Call, Ju-on, and The Ring.
- The doll riding a tricycle may remind some players of a similar doll from a certain film series.
- Stalker with a Crush: Makoto gets one. She likes sending creepy letters to your Wii.