From Atmospheric Tension to Embodied Regulation: A Mixed-Methods Study of Fear in VR and Non-VR Survival Horror Gameplay

Virtual reality (VR) survival horror is often discussed in terms of heightened fear and immersion, yet less attention has been paid to how fear is organized across different atmospheric conditions and how this organization differs from non-VR gameplay. This study approaches immersive fear as a process emerging from the interaction among atmospheric configuration, embodied regulation, and post-play interpretation. A sequential mixed-methods design was employed using Resident Evil Village as the empirical context. Study 1 combined scene-based observation, synchronized gameplay recordings, and post-play interviews with eight participants to examine how fear was enacted across three contrasted atmospheric configurations: combat pressure, psychological ambiguity, and spatial disorientation. Study 2 extended this analysis through a within-subject experiment with 30 participants who completed both VR and non-VR versions of the same gameplay content under standardized conditions. The findings show that immersive fear is not a uniform increase in emotional intensity. In Study 1, different atmospheric configurations elicited distinct modes of embodied regulation, including defensive retreat, hesitant exposure, and cautious reorientation, while behavioral responses and retrospective accounts often diverged in systematic ways. In Study 2, paired-samples tests showed that VR produced lower valence, higher arousal, reduced perceived control, higher fear ratings, stronger immersion, and greater motion sickness than non-VR gameplay. Although VR increased fear ratings across all scenes, the display mode × scene interaction was not significant; descriptively, psychologically ambiguous environments produced the highest absolute fear ratings under VR. Across both studies, prior VR and genre experience appeared to shape how players interpreted and narrated threat, while short-term residual effects suggested that fear may extend beyond gameplay. These results suggest that VR modifies not only the intensity but also the organization of fear, while the scene-level and experience-related patterns should be interpreted cautiously. More broadly, the study reframes immersive fear as a temporally distributed process linking atmospheric configuration, embodied regulation, and post-play interpretation in survival horror gameplay.