Back on March 8, 2022, the Entity’s realm welcomed one of its most haunting figures—Sadako Yamamura, the vengeful onryō from Kōji Suzuki’s Ringu. Chapter 23: Sadako Rising didn’t just add a new killer and survivor; it yanked the cursed videotape mythos straight into the asymmetric horror playground of Dead by Daylight. Even in 2026, the chapter stands as a masterclass in translating cinematic dread into interactive gameplay, and Behaviour Interactive’s post-PTB balance pass was a big part of why.
Fans who had been craving a proper Japanese horror icon got their wish. The Onryō arrived alongside Yoichi Asakawa, the psychic survivor who famously faced Sadako as a child in the original film. The pairing felt intentional: one character who spreads a creeping, inescapable curse, and another who understands its rules just enough to try and survive. From the moment the chapter went live across all platforms, lobbies were flooded with flickering TVs and that eerie, glitchy sound cue that makes your skin crawl. You know what they say—don’t take your eyes off the screen, or she’ll find you.
The official launch happened simultaneously worldwide at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM GMT on that Tuesday, following a month-long public test build run on Steam. The PTB gave the community a first taste of the Condemned mechanic, a secondary objective that builds up over time and—if left unchecked—lets Sadako kill a survivor outright without hooking them. It sounded terrifying on paper, and frankly, it was a little overtuned in testing. Behaviour listened.
When the full build hit live servers, Sadako got a raft of thoughtful adjustments that sharpened her identity while smoothing out frustration points. Her Manifest and Demanifest abilities, the core of her hit-and-run playstyle, saw charge times slashed from 2.5 seconds to a snappy 1.5 seconds each. The transition between states became buttery smooth, letting dedicated players dance in and out of visibility with a rhythm that finally felt intuitive. If you ever faced a wall-camping Sadako in the early days, you’ll appreciate how much cleaner the movement feels now.
Visibility changes also rewrote her stealth game. While demanifested, the Onryō’s maximum visible range dropped to 24 meters, down from 32 meters, and her Terror Radius followed suit. Survivors suddenly had a much harder time pinpointing her approach, which made every glowing television in the environment feel like a potential ambush point. The combination pushed players to rely on sound and sharp eyes rather than crutching on heartbeat warnings.
Then there’s the Condemned mechanic—the heartbeat of Sadako’s map pressure. In the PTB, inserting a tape into a targeted TV would wipe away 4 segments of Condemned progress. At launch, that value dropped to 3 segments. Holding a tape also became slightly riskier: the passive gain time for a condemned segment was reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. The add-on Yoichi’s Fishing Net, which further accelerates that passive gain, was trimmed from a 20% boost to a 12% boost. The changes meant that survivors couldn’t just casually juggle tapes to completely ignore the curse. There’s a real tension now—do you take the time to cleanse, knowing it gives Sadako valuable intel, or do you risk the full mori?
Behaviour didn’t stop at gameplay tuning. They paid close attention to visual comfort, especially for players sensitive to flashing effects. The intensity of The Onryō’s attack VFX was toned down, and the Condemned visual noise—both the on-screen overlay and the glow on cursed survivors—was significantly reduced. Even the lobby got a less eye-searing treatment. The mini-mori transition, where Sadako crawls out of a TV to claim a fully Condemned victim, was polished to be less jarring while keeping its cinematic horror. These are the kinds of accessibility-minded tweaks that let more people enjoy the terror without literally looking away.
Looking back from 2026, Sadako Rising remains a fan-favorite chapter because it didn’t just dump a licensed character into the game. It built a whole layer of slow-burn dread that stood apart from the usual chase-and-stab rhythm. The post-PTB fine-tuning cemented that behavior—not the developer, but the way the killer behaves on the map—as something you have to respect. If you’ve ever had that heart-stopping moment of realizing a TV just got turned on right next to you, you know exactly what I mean. The cursed videotape cycle is alive and well in the fog, and Sadako isn’t going back into the well anytime soon.
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