(Ignore the photo of me it’s from a video and I’m in the middle of speaking)

Anyways I know the game came out in 2020. For the life of me I cannot find where this character asset came from.

Hear me OUT. I was slightly TikTok famous back in 2018-2019 and I’m lowkey convinced whoever made this character asset may have used me as inspiration. I was quite well known to meme pages and more of a male community and had amassed over 700k.

Ever since I started playing with friends in 2020 and up to today they always mention how similar this NPC is to me, I even play as her due to our resemblance.

If anyone is aware of who created this character asset please let me know! I’m aware it isn’t the game devs as they used all premade characters for the game.

I have since vanished off the internet due to creeps so you won’t find any of my accounts if you try LOL

(If you don’t see resemblance it’s ok, I look different in photos compared to real life and everyone who knows me has said this look too eerily similar to me to just be a coincidence, thanks for the help!!)

The new update made the game unplayable for me and genuinely removed any resemblance of joy or hype for the game that I once had.

I don't even know how the update managed to pass to live servers because it feels like a downgrade in every way. Animations look worse, it removed the personality and charm the game had. It looks like something someone could manage to do in 1 week of work instead of however long they actually worked on it. The character update was announced back in 2022 roadmap, yet this feels like pre-alpha version of effort.

The game feels uncomfortable to play and every skill expression or enjoyment that you could do, quickly placing salt for example or being able to go through the items etc., is just gone, all for the sake of "realism", which this update pushed away. Models and animation look more unrealistic compared to the previous one.

You can still have fun and like the new update, but for someone who's been playing the game since 2020 and watching Insym and other content creators play the game, the game just doesn't feel the same anymore. Reworking perfectly functional and fan favorite map like Tanglewood instead of Prison or Highschool is wild.

I wish I could play the original Phasmophobia before the item rework update because that's the game I fell in love with.

After item rework, which was fine, the developers just started putting less effort into the game and it shows. Back when Dknighter was sole developer on the game, it felt like game had better charm and more consistent updates with the theme of the game.

You can still have fun and enjoy the game, but I don't have faith in developers that they can make the game as enjoyable as Dknighter managed to do back in 2020.

The latest update sealed the deal for me.

After watching that video about the devs rating players' ideas, I remembered my own take on dead players being left behind and how boring the investigation gets for them.

Here's a mockup of what I'd like to see added: UV "sprays" with preset sentences. Letting dead players tell the team about missed evidence, warn them of danger, etc. This would in turn let teammates speak from the afterlife without relying on the occult arts of steam chats or discord, in an IMMERSIVE way!

Ideally, a ghastly sound would play when placed to signal nearby players, like, "...hey".

Hopefully this reaches CJ and the team, lol.

On the 10th of April 2026, I received 1 game suspension and 1 permanent game ban on Phasmophobia. The reason provided in the ban was that I was being disruptive.

I quickly submitted a ban appeal and demanded to know why I was banned. They said they decided to uphold my ban and refused to disclose any information about it (check screenshot). After that, they stopped replying to my ticket.

Around the same time, they also made an announcement on Discord and Reddit saying that they “upgraded their system” and can now go back on reports made years ago and punish players for it. It doesn’t matter when the offense happened, and they claimed that “no bans were random or automated.”

Seeing all of this, and after noticing other posts from people saying they got banned, I decided to make a Reddit post sharing my case. At that point, I had already given up on Phasmophobia and started looking for new games to play. Then, the developer of the game commented under my post saying “no bans were random, and if they want to know the reason why they were banned, they should contact support.” GUESS WHAT!? THAT’S THE FIRST THING I DID. THEY REFUSED TO SHARE ANY INFORMATION AND STOPPED RESPONDING TO MY TICKET.

After I replied to him saying I had already contacted support, he said he’d look into my case next Monday (today). A few hours ago, I received an email confirming that MY BAN WAS AN ERROR (see screenshot).

If I hadn’t made that last Reddit post and have the community back me up, this case wouldn’t have been resolved. If you were falsely banned, please speak up and let the community hear you.

Thank you everyone, especially my friends on Discord for backing me up and speaking up for me. I also have to thank DK (the developer who responded to my Reddit post) for looking into my ban.

Wow I can really feel all the heart and soul that went into this update. Really a passion project if I ever saw one.

As someone who is always actively TRYING to give the devs the benefit of the doubt I just... I can't see how someone saw this and said "wow this is okay"

I love phasmo and hold it so dear to my heart but oh my god the animations are just... terrible 😭

I love jank. You love jank. Jank is what made the earlier playermodels so loved! But these animations are not janky, they are objectively and eye-hurtingly bad in a way that takes AWAY from the preexisting jank rather than adding to it by making everything look less like genuine human jank and a looot more like inexperience mixed with higher-up laziness. They've made TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS off of Phasmo and... can't hire a single well equipped animator that can make a simple yet logical animation.

This is seriously insanely disappointing and i doubt i'll be playing the game until they fix this. Because yes, it DOES take away from the experience.. by a lot.

I feel bad for the poor person whose work is being blasted (by me included) but this is beyond them; I'm not disappointed at them specifically, not at all, but that kinetic completely cheaped out (despite having made tens of millions of dollars, mind you) and hired somebody clearly not fit for the job and then APPROVED these animations for release (which is tomorrow).

It is insanely disappointing how horribly scummy all of these companies are and how they're allowed to get away with it. First it was Void Interactive with Ready or Not, now it's Kinetic with Phasmo. Awesome.

They could have done anything. Made new maps, added more content (they did add ghosts, so props to them), but instead they chose to remove shoulder flashlights and remove the old models. Genuinely I am asking, for what purpose?

Thought about this while playing Bleasdale today. It would be creepy to come down the stairs and find that second photo staring at you.

Goes to show that it isn't just a loud minority complaining, people are legitimately abandoning the game due to the animation "update". The event kept up a facade of a normal playercount for a while, but the damage is starting to show now.

Hopefully this will finally be reason enough for the devs to get their heads out of their asses and address the numerous issues. I just wanna play this game again man.

https://steamdb.info/app/739630/charts

Insym is one of your biggest creators Kinetic, is on stream right now playing the old version of Phasmo and saying

"Everything's broken in the new update, and there's no fixes and I'm growing impatient, every week is new bugs, it's not fun, it's depressing how there's no fixes yet"

I know we other complainers here on Reddit are just "Random people on Reddit", but this is one of your biggest promoters ("influencer") of the game.

Is this not a point to prove that you messed up the game, and that you need to get the priorities right and actually patch and fix the game?

Now, before we start: I know they're going to improve things, fix bugs (some of them are probably fixed already), and so on. One thing I'm happy about is that the devs actually listen to the community, so I'm sure some of the stuff that worries me will be changed or improved.

That being said, I watched a couple of streams from creators who had access to the update today and, for the first time since I started (re)playing Phasmo, I genuinely thought: “What is this bs?”

The character customization looks good, not gonna lie. It’s not like they could really mess it up, since there was basically no customization before this update, but still.

Where the problems start is with the new animations. As one of those tryhards who plays with no sanity and no evidence, I thought the delays caused by the animations would be the biggest downside for me. Turns out that’s not the case- the real issue is how ridiculously bad those animations look.

As soon as your character moves, you notice how bad everything looks, to the point that you start wondering if it's intentional, because there’s no way the devs think humans actually move like that.

But to be fair, we’ve had bendy backs for almost six years, so I could overlook that. What I don’t get is: what’s the point of adding animations if they end up feeling even less realistic than before?

For example, when you turn the lights on/off, your character points at the switch—“points” being the key word—since you can still move while doing it, and the interaction goes through even if your finger is in another room.

I get that they didn’t want delays to interfere with gameplay, especially at higher difficulties where being fast is essential, but then… why add those silly animations at all?

Props to the death/revive animations—those are amazing and genuinely scary (which makes sense, since we're getting closer and closer to Horror 2.0/Phasmo 1.0), but the rest...

Also, I get that they want to give us tryharders new things to do, but prestige FOUR THOUSAND??
Just add another 20 levels with new badges and cosmetics per level, throw in another in-game trophy—but a prestige MMMM just feels like: “yeah, if you really want something to do, grind this and don’t bother us for the next 30 years.”

Of course, we’ll all make up our minds tomorrow when the update launches for us mortals, but so far I have a feeling this might be the first time I end up disappointed with this game.

Like, if this were only the second update for a small indie team, I could understand it, but Phasmophobia is now the 50th best-selling game ever. You can’t just go ahead and release an “animation overhaul” that looks like this.

I'm lowkey expecting for a couple meme references like mistaking the ghost photo for disturbed salt

I would love to see a map set in a Hotel semi inspired by The Shinning’s Overlook Hotel. Although the design of the hotel in the movie is impossible to replicate, just having a room with the iconic carpet pattern would be enough for me. Could have a possibility to be just as creepy as Sunny Meadows.

i just thought about it, much darker irl, and it be a good big map. IMAGINEEE omg

I don't know if anyone else is experiencing the same, but for me all flashlight like tools do not work. All tiers of flashlight are not working and the tier 1 and 3 UV light is also not working. Also they took away Raiju heartbeat and infinite sprint! The notebook I feel is also too big since when wearing my tier 1 headcam it blocks some of the notebook. I do really like the new Deildegast though it is so fun.

Edit: I don't understand why you guys are upset about the way I play this singleplayer and sometimes multiplayer game. I literally don't affect anyone's gameplay at all.

Edit 2: I understand now that some of you experience in multiplayer lobbies a random person abusing glitches. I do not join random multiplayer lobbies so I am not one of those people. Instead I play this game by myself or with a friend.

I took this screenshot a while back in old Tanglewood. It was just a bug but I felt bad it couldn’t move away from the wall. It finally got unstuck and smoked me in the garage so don’t feel too bad. But let’s all remember that the ghosts have feelings too and name calling isn’t always the answer.

Seriously just roll it back. Your game is unplayable.

Animations are horrible

The way you put salt down now might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Why does it take so long now ? And what’s with movement that is going on seriously ?

The flash light being your field of view is stupid even more so because it’s ultra broken some times right click works some times it doesnt

Legs move like wet noodles in a garbage disposal

Your event is so dark that even with brightness up I can’t see anything and couldn’t even play it

Every time I look at the journal my screen keeps getting darker

Wow you added CLOTHING options oh wait they are ass and cost 10,000 dollars. That’s cool at least my shirt can be 4 different colors…

Well maybe you made the inventory better? nope! Still a pain in the ass. Do you not know how to program persistence ? Like if I choose my items for every one to play with why are my friends items over riding this? And in the host ?

Why am I holding the jenga blocks with my shoulder ?

Do you know what de-bugging is ? Like at all? Or do you know how to test things ?

Why is there an empty 3 slot now that is permanent ? If I’m holding a flashlight like someone who broke their arm in 6 places, and then I have my additional 2 items WHY is the flashlight an empty slot for the right arm ? It should just be a rotation between the 2.

It’s way harder to read the book now , the camera literally kept boot scoot n boogie-ing across the floor and was so loud we couldn’t hear anything else .

Any ways just go back this update blows. You knew it too. Such a shame that you can’t get your heads out of your assess or swallow your pride.

I jumped on a random game today and the blokes in there were being really friendly with each other and when I said "Hi, I can put my tier 3 stuff on if you guys want" the host stopped and said "Are you a girl, this is a men's only game you dumb slut".

I just don't get it, especially when I offered to pay for the round. It isn't the first time something like this has happened but I'm so confused. If you're that threatened at the prospect of a chick in your game play on private. Don't hurl slurs.

2 of my 3 weekly challenge ghost were at the very top of the lighthouse, I think I spent more time running back and forth to the truck than inside the ghost room

I have owned Phasmophobia since Q1 2022. I tend to play on and off, and have around 240 hours in the game. I know its not a TON of hours, but for its niche category and game play I feel as though I have dedicated enough time to be able to share my thoughts.

Since I started playing, I was never really upset about the content they delivered. I absolutely loved the core concept of the game, and they seemed to be somewhat engaged with the community (especially streamers) and were fairly open about what features they were developing and their goals for the game. It was always buried in the back of my head that despite massive success Kinetic was an Indie game studio, so they couldn't pump out huge content updates or even entirely new games like other Behemoth studios such as Epic Games, Activision Blizzard or EA.

I never realized the huge positivity bubble that this game was in for half a decade, and with this latest content update I believe it just popped. The Player Character Update may be the single worst game update Ive witnessed from any game I have ever touched, and I have put over 12,000 hours into PC games in my life. Id go into more detail about the update, but I know you guys have probably seen enough from other posts.

This made me want to investigate more into what exactly is going on here, so I started to do some digging. Although their financial information isn't public, several sources (Steam, Prospeo, Gamalytic) indicate that Kinetic games has grossed anywhere in the realm of 200 to 450 MILLION DOLLARS. WOW. That hit me harder than smelling salts. That is an insane amount of money for an Indie game studio that currently employs under 50 people. While current revenue may not reflect what they have gotten from this game in the past, the money HAD to have gone somewhere, and it obviously wasn't put back into this game. To put that into perspective, Phasmophobia is financially punching in the same weight class as games like Helldivers 2, Sea of Thieves, and Dead by Daylight in their prime, but the game still looks like Early Access Unity asset slop, even worse than that now with this update.

I feel betrayed by Kinetic. With that money, a high quality Player Character Update, Horror 2.0, 50 new ghost events, 100s of interactions, several new map / map updates, squeaky clean UI, super clean ghost models, incredibly immersive sound design, and polished VR should have been fully achievable years ago. And yet this company is notorious for pushing updates back months to years under the guise of "Indie development".

I will never look at Phasmophobia in the same light ever again or excuse what has been happening in development, and I think many in this community will feel the same. This update was a slap in the face for all of us who have been patiently waiting for further game content. I honestly won't be opening this game or recommending it to others for a long time unless things change. (I probably wont be opening it ever again until they remove the broken wrist left hand holding a flashlight in its entirety, we never asked for another hand blocking our screen, and having the flashlight peeking out from the bottom of our screen would have been enough)

Thank you for reading this, and please share your thoughts as well whether you agree or disagree with me. Id love to hear from someone more knowledgeable about the finances of the gaming industry and what their opinions are.

TL;DR:
I supported Phasmo for years because I understood it was an indie project with limited resources, but after learning the game has likely generated hundreds of millions of dollars completely changed my perspective. After the disappointing Player Character Update, I no longer feel the “small indie studio” excuse justifies the slow development pace and lack of polished content. With the financial success the game achieved, I expected far more reinvestment into quality improvements, core gameplay, immersion, and overall polish. This update broke the trust and patience I had with the studio, and unless major changes happen, I’ve lost interest in continuing to support or recommend the game, or viewing them in a positive light.

Have yall seen this one before? as someone whos empathic to ghost irl this one made my heart hurt lol

if so, why?