One peaceful afternoon during the holidays, twin sisters Mio and Mayu find themselves wandering into an abandoned village deep within the mountains. In fact, this village vanished from the map many decades earlier over the course of a single night, along with all of its inhabitants, after being struck by a disaster known as the "Repentance". Unaware that they perished long ago, the villagers make their preparations for the "Crimson Sacrifice Ritual", a tradition within the village that requires twin sisters. Synchronising with phantoms of the distant past, Mio and Mayu become trapped. Will the pair be able to make it out alive...?
The younger of the twin sisters. She has a bright and spirited personality. As the girls' mother, Shizu Amakura, is from the Minakami region in the vicinity of Minakami Village, they have been visiting the area since they were children, but are unaware that their father, Misao Amakura, vanished after heading into the mountains to search for them. Within the Minakami region, tales have been passed from one generation to the next that refer to Minakami Village as the "lost village", and it is common for twins born there to be viewed differently. Abhorring the rumours linking her twin daughters to Misao's disappearance, Shizu left the village with Mio and Mayu in tow, and they now live in the city.
The older of the twin sisters. She is quiet and reserved. She has a strong sixth sense, and is able to see "impossible things". When she and Mio went into the mountains and Mayu injured her leg, leaving her unable to move, the girls' father, Misao, was a member of the search party that set out to locate them. Though they were both found safe, Misao ended up vanishing in their stead. The girls grew up being told by their mother that Misao had died in an accident. In reality, Misao was a descendant of Dr. Asou, the man who had been researching the Camera Obscura. He seemingly perished after wandering into Minakami Village and falling into the Hellish Abyss. Disliking the Asou name, he took on his wife's surname of Amakura upon marriage.
The sisters who served as the final Twin Shrine Maidens, and the sacrifices for the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual, on the year that Minakami Village vanished. Refusing to take part in the ritual, they fled just before it was to take place, but Sae, the younger of the two, was captured by the villagers and forced to undergo the ritual alone. Believing that Yae had abandoned her, Sae was filled with grief and hate as she was sacrificed, causing the ritual to fail. Learning that Sae hadn't made it and the village had vanished caused a great deal of shock to Yae, resulting in the loss of all of her memories.
A pair of sisters who served as Twin Shrine Maidens decades before Yae and Sae. Akane regretted killing her sister by her own hand, causing her to become mentally troubled. Akane's worried father, a doll maker, created a lifelike doll of Azami for his daughter. Akane adored the doll and showered it with affection, which, before anyone knew it, had come to house Azami's soul. Upon realising this, their father attempted to throw the doll into the Hellish Abyss (a forbidden place), but was instead killed by Akane and Azami (the doll), bringing the Kiryu line to an end. The souls of Akane and Azami (the doll) continue to wander about the Kiryu house to this day.
Itsuki and his younger brother Mutsuki served as the Altar Twins in the festival during the year prior to Yae and Sae becoming Twin Shrine Maidens. However, his affection for Mutsuki was so strong that the sacrifice proved unable to subdue the Hellish Abyss. Itsuki, the surviving brother, was confined within the storehouse. Both brothers had suspected that their ritual would end in failure, and Itsuki, fearing that their childhood friends Yae and Sae would become the next sacrifices, sought the aid of his good friend Munakata to help them escape. As soon as the girls had made it out of the village, he took his own life.
The head of the Kurosawa family, and Yae and Sae's father. He was the priest who was in charge of overseeing every element of Minakami Village's festivals. He was willing to do whatever it took to maintain peace within the village, even if it meant offering his own daughters as sacrifices. Upon learning that the pair had fled, however, he and the villagers set out to scour the mountains for them. They were only able to find Sae, who had become separated from Yae after sustaining an injury that left her unable to move. When Yae failed to return, Ryokan decided to press ahead with the ritual using Sae alone. As the ritual was carried out improperly, the Hellish Abyss ran wild, ushering in catastrophe.
A folklorist who wandered the country from top to bottom, researching tales and legends of many different areas. In his search for the "gate to hell", said to exist somewhere within our world, he visited Minakami Village seeking people whose faiths revolved around this gate. He was welcomed with open arms by Kurosawa, a prominent authority within the village, but in actual fact, this was merely because Kurosawa was plotting to use Makabe as a temporary sacrifice called a "kusabi". Though Makabe was aware of this fact, he was unable to let go of his longing to see the gate to hell and was killed, inflicted with the utmost suffering, later destroying the village alongside Sae.
Makabe's assistant. He visited Minakami Village as a child with his father, a peddler, and was close friends with Itsuki and Mutsuki. After receiving a letter from Itsuki beseeching him to help Yae and Sae escape from the village, he headed there along with Makabe and became caught up in the festival. Following the ritual, he married Yae, the sole survivor, and moved into Himuro Mansion for the sake of his research into the gate to hell, bringing his wife and daughter Mikoto with him, ultimately meeting the same fate as his mentor Makabe. Mikoto is the grandmother of Miku, the protagonist of the first game in the series.
When a dam was scheduled to be constructed in the area where Minakami Village once stood (now known as the Minakami region), Masumi Makimura was one of the workers who visited the site as a surveyor. Local rumours claimed that workers such as Makimura would, on rare occasions, go missing in the area - and that is exactly what happened to Makimura himself. His worried girlfriend, Miyako Sudo, headed into the mountains alone, and, like her boyfriend, never returned. The two of them had become trapped within the supposedly no longer extant Minakami Village, and attempted to find a way out. Ultimately, however, they were unable to escape from the vengeful spirits that resided there.