Fantastic atmosphere, terrifying enemy designs, unique and engaging survival horror gameplay/action, and a gripping story. This made me actually scared, fully immersed, and was just a fun time. Definitely recommend playing with the Japanese voices if available to you.

This game is still fresh over 20 years later, this is my first time playing it so I have no nostalgia for it. The environmental design is some of the most solid I've seen, the manor is a character in itself, very memorable and interesting to traverse. Everything just feels great, even the visual design of things as simple as colors correlating to certain characters, and the uniquely inspired design of ghosts. The Japanese setting is just fantastic, from the buildings to the history to the tone to the enemy designs, it all breaths a unique Japanese lens of horror that honestly should be used more. Of course other greats like Silent Hill or RE are made by Japanese devs but few are actually set in Japan like this.

The story starts vague but piecing it together is so engaging, every note or flashback you come across genuinely had me excited. Puzzles are simple but enjoyable, requiring me to bust out a pen and paper a few times for easily recalling information/numbers. And by the end I was very invested in the story of the manor and its central tragic character. It made me feel things! The Japanese voice acting is also fantastic and very emotional... Unlike the stilted and awkward English voice acting.

All in all I highly recommend it!