Fabulously inventive and clever. Eerie and beautiful and actually a bit scary in parts. If you enjoy those 'a-ha!' moments in a puzzle game, this is a buffet of them.

I've heard a lot of talk about ARG elements and a meta-game etc, but I was intentionally avoiding reading anything about it because, at least until you hit credits, I think this is a game best experienced mostly on your own. I did get a few hints here and there, mainly by accident, from chatting casually about the game with others - but I've gone relatively unspoiled. I thought I'd be happy to call it quits once I rolled credits, but the final few items you get really open up the world so I will be sticking with this for another while to try and see what else I can figure out.

My only criticism is the platforming, which is mostly fine and functional, but in the back half of the game you are tasked with some insane timing requirements that the game does not feel built to deal with. Nothing massively progress blocking; but just irritating to play.

I absolutely love the campy horror stylings of Splatterhouse, enough that I was hoping it would overcome the arcade beat-em-up frustrations; but this is a game that's tough even when you try and brute force it on an emulator with infinite money. The checkpointing is really tough; you don't respawn on the spot when you insert a credit, you often have to repeat a lengthy segment to get back to whatever boss messed you up... wait a minute... is this the first ever Souls-like?!

Anyway, I might try the Turbografx version - if that plays nicer with save states etc, I may see the end of this game yet, but it wont be the arcade.