7 years. Seven. Years. That’s how long I’ve wanted to play this game. Between rewatching Chuggaaconroy’s LP of it probably at least a good 20 times and getting the sequel for the 3DS, this has always been an essential title that I’d have to play one day. Cut to the present where I’ve got a revitalised passion for gaming and have now 100% both the original campaign and the infamous PAL Hidden Mansion, and needless to say the hype has paid off.
Right off the bat I love the greater emphasis on ambience both in terms of the music and sound design compared to 2 & 3, which while having great soundtracks in their own right didn’t exactly instil any sense of dread as I wandered the ghost ridden corridors. This game on the other hand has that in spades, and it leads to what’s honestly a pretty genuinely eerie atmosphere by comparison. I mean I won’t act like this games super scary or anything, but the efforts made to legit try and instil that sense of fear in the player is worth applause.
Another thing this one has above the sequels, or at least the second games, are the portrait ghosts. While some are arguably a bit one note they all have great, memorable designs and distinct character from the few bits of flavour text we’re given. The main area bosses are also pretty fun while offering a greater challenge than most of the regular ghosts, with a particular highlight for me being the fight with Bogmire.
The regular grunt ghosts so to speak are also pretty fun to fight, though I do wish they were maybe grouped up in more creative ways. It’s a rarity to see different ghost types paired up during one round of ghost busting, and it’s a shame because I think it would’ve made the already solid combat even more dynamic and engaging.
Easily the weakest part of the game has to be the Boo hunting. It admittedly doesn’t start out too bad, but once you get to the attic where they start rocking 200-300 fucking HP, it quickly becomes annoying having to endlessly go from room to room any dealing a smidge of damage and then repeating the process for like 10 minutes before you finally catch the bloody Boo. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem except it’s required that you have at least 40 Boos to access the final boss, so you’re forced to get at least most of them just to finish the game anyways.
So overall, pretty damn good for a game that had 7 years of hype to live up to. I’m in the process of replaying the first sequel, Dark Moon, currently so expect a review for that to hopefully be out sooner rather than later.
9/10
Right off the bat I love the greater emphasis on ambience both in terms of the music and sound design compared to 2 & 3, which while having great soundtracks in their own right didn’t exactly instil any sense of dread as I wandered the ghost ridden corridors. This game on the other hand has that in spades, and it leads to what’s honestly a pretty genuinely eerie atmosphere by comparison. I mean I won’t act like this games super scary or anything, but the efforts made to legit try and instil that sense of fear in the player is worth applause.
Another thing this one has above the sequels, or at least the second games, are the portrait ghosts. While some are arguably a bit one note they all have great, memorable designs and distinct character from the few bits of flavour text we’re given. The main area bosses are also pretty fun while offering a greater challenge than most of the regular ghosts, with a particular highlight for me being the fight with Bogmire.
The regular grunt ghosts so to speak are also pretty fun to fight, though I do wish they were maybe grouped up in more creative ways. It’s a rarity to see different ghost types paired up during one round of ghost busting, and it’s a shame because I think it would’ve made the already solid combat even more dynamic and engaging.
Easily the weakest part of the game has to be the Boo hunting. It admittedly doesn’t start out too bad, but once you get to the attic where they start rocking 200-300 fucking HP, it quickly becomes annoying having to endlessly go from room to room any dealing a smidge of damage and then repeating the process for like 10 minutes before you finally catch the bloody Boo. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem except it’s required that you have at least 40 Boos to access the final boss, so you’re forced to get at least most of them just to finish the game anyways.
So overall, pretty damn good for a game that had 7 years of hype to live up to. I’m in the process of replaying the first sequel, Dark Moon, currently so expect a review for that to hopefully be out sooner rather than later.
9/10