Casa Caballero: Filipino Horror Game Review

2025 is shaping up to be a standout year for Filipino horror games. Earlier this year, Yikon’s Hapunan went viral thanks to its quirky character models and genuinely effective jumpscares, putting Filipino horror firmly on the map.

Now, just a few weeks ago, Pananong Games’ Casa Caballero launched, and whilst it’s made less of a splash online, it’s still a great indie survival horror that shows the industry in the country is growing.

In Casa Caballero, you play as a city-hall surveyor sent to inspect a bahay-na-bato, a Spanish-colonial-era house, after your colleagues went missing there. However, you soon learn about the fate of the owners, your colleagues, and the mythological creature that is preventing anyone from leaving.

Straight out the gate, the game looks impressive visually. I did run into some performance issues early on, but thankfully there’s a wealth of graphical and other settings to tweak, which quickly got my FPS into a better place.

There’s a short section before you reach the house, but the bahay-na-bato itself is where the game really shines. The developers do a fantastic job of creating a tense, eerie atmosphere inside. The occasional jumpscare and scripted scene keep you on edge as you explore.

Different notes and letters are scattered throughout the house, doing a lot of heavy lifting in the story. I enjoyed piecing together what happened by reading them all, and almost every one felt relevant to moving the story forward. That’s a rarity in horror games, so kudos to Casa Caballero for pulling it off.

The game is especially effective at blending aspects of the Philippines’ real history during WW2 with its unique mythology.

You’ll also find puzzle pieces and keys throughout the house, reminiscent of the Resident Evil franchise. From shaped keys that open specific doors to using Baybayin, the pre-Spanish script of the Philippines, to solve puzzles and unlock new areas. None of the puzzles are particularly complex, and it’s always clear where to head next after completing one.

Probably the weakest part of the game is the combat, which feels a bit tacked on compared to the rest of the experience. You have a single handgun and an abundance of ammo, which takes away much of the tension.

Enemies barely react to gunfire, so each shot, aside from the killing blow, feels anticlimactic. The need to “loop” enemies around objects while shooting, Dead by Daylight style, also broke immersion for me. A faster enemy speed, fewer resources, or more dynamic enemy reactions could have made these encounters far more engaging.

The final boss fight was the clearest example of this, boiling down to me and the enemy circling a fountain a dozen times before I took it down.

That said, the first time I encountered the main enemy was a real scare. The game did a great job of making me feel claustrophobic and stressed, at least until I realised how slow the creature was, making later encounters less intense.

My first playthrough took just over an hour, and while it’s fairly linear with little replay value, the pacing kept me engaged throughout.

Our Verdict

Recommended

Casa Caballero might stumble in combat, but its haunting setting, folklore-infused story, and satisfying puzzles make it a memorable, if brief, slice of Filipino horror. Fans of indie survival horrors and short horror experiences will likely enjoy its short stay with you, and it’s a great way to learn a bit more about Filipino folklore and history.