When it comes to asymmetrical horror games, one of the ones that have managed to stand the test of time is Dead by Daylight. Starting out as a game with custom characters and killers, each with its own special backstories. Developer, Behavior Interactive, has started working with big names in horror to bring some of their characters to the title. The game is now filled with a gallery of extremely well-known killers, as well as their protagonists. Laurie Strode and Micheal Myers of Halloween, Freddy Kruger and Quentin Smith of Nightmare on Elm Street, Pinhead of Hellraiser, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even special survivor characters like Ash Williams and Bill Overbeck. Guest characters have become the norm for Dead by Daylight, and now, there’s a plan to include a new character, a character that doesn’t seem like it would be a fit for the visceral title Dead by Daylight is known for, Ringu.

The teaser is short but sweet, with the trailer taking the perspective of the first person. The person in the video has just finished repairing one of the generators in the game and then turns around to see the well from the novel. In which the collaboration is revealed. However, this collaboration isn’t a normal collaboration with a film franchise. Dead by Daylight isn’t going to be getting a crossover with The Ring, they’re getting a crossover with Ringu, the original novel by Koji Suzuki, as well as the original 1998 Japanese adaptation of the film.

With the new chapter being a mix between both the original film and the novel, players are going to have to familiarize themselves with the source material. Luckily, looking into the original story and the film that it’s tied with may be a good way in discovering what’s going to come in the chapter as well. 

The original book Ringu, written by Koji Suzuki, tells the story of a newspaper reporter named Kazuyuki Asakawa, who comes across an unmarked videotape while investigating the death of 4 teenagers, one of whom he was the uncle of. After watching the tape, he discovers that he has only 7 days to live. Which then starts a race against the clock to uncover the mystery of this tape, discover who’s the woman in the video is, and hopefully cheat death in the process. 

There are other characters in the film and the novel as well, such as Ryuji Takayama, who’s the secondary protagonist helping Asakawa survive past the 7 days claimed by the tape.

And the final most important character in the book is Sadako Yamamura, the girl in the video, and the psychic cause of the killer tape in the book. Sadako being one of the characters Dead by Daylight is going to add in the upcoming Ringu chapter.

With this in mind, Asakawa may be going to be the survivor for this chapter, while Ryuji could be a character that’s one of the legendary costumes for the chapter as well. 

However, Sadako’s abilities in the book probably won’t be what’s going to be used in the game. In the book, Sadako isn’t the actual antagonist of the story. She is the catalyst, for creating the tape, and the effects of the tape are the true culprit. In the film, Sadako can traverse through the Televisions of whoever watches the tape to take their life. How Sadako does it in the films isn’t something that’s outright mentioned. However, in Dead by Daylight, the killer’s powers are something that’s implemented into the gameplay. Sadako’s M.O. is to give players a set time limit before killing them, as well as her ability to teleport around through objects like in the cursed tape, it will be interesting to see how this will be applied. This could also function similarly to the way that Freddy Kruger plays, with a separate world mechanic.

There’s still a lot of time until the chapter comes out, as it’s slated to release sometime in March of 2022, so players will be able to theorize how the character plays, and what their perks could be.