After about 15 years, Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse has lastly left Japan and is being made out there on all trendy consoles. A collaborative effort between Koei Tecmo and Goichi Suda’s studio Grasshopper Manufacture in addition to being revealed by Nintendo, Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse was a 2008 Wii unique that almost all followers exterior of Japan might solely examine, and the few that performed it needed to know Japanese or set up fan patches to know the story. Now, everybody curious to play it is going to get to know the way it holds up.
The reply is that, total, Masks of the Lunar Eclipse is a strong entry within the Deadly Body collection and an awesome horror sport, however not with out its points. The story is compelling and offers with some heavy themes whereas dripping in a haunting environment, however some clunky motion controls and an absence of considerable graphical upgrades do little to cover the sport’s age.
So far as ghost tales go, the one in Masks of the Lunar Eclipse is simple. Three ladies named Ruka, Misaki, and Madoka go to the haunted Rogetsu Isle to search out out the reality behind their mysterious pasts, and following behind them is Choshiro, a detective despatched to the island to search out them. Gamers take management of every of those characters at various factors within the story, as they pursue the totally different truths they’re in search of whereas studying extra in regards to the tragedy that befell the island’s inhabitants.
Given the protagonists’ reference to the island, themes of coming to phrases with grief and overcoming trauma can really feel fairly on the nostril. However it’s dealt with in a means that’s efficient whereas tying it into its gameplay. The protagonists aren’t essentially the most fleshed out of their present-day varieties, however studying diary entries written by them, listening to audio recordings that they had made, and seeing them come to phrases with the moments that affected them most make it simple to develop connected to the central forged. Given the lackluster narrative of Deadly Body: Maiden of Black Water, it’s good to play an entry that has a great story, even when Masks of the Lunar Eclipse is technically an older title within the collection.
What’s the greatest side of the sport is the environment. Given the moon’s significance within the story, it is becoming it holds an simple presence at any time when exploring a room with open home windows or one of many few out of doors areas. Hallways with moonlight bleeding by way of the home windows and seeing the moon’s reflection in a pool are two examples of how the participant is reminded of its presence. It additionally helps so as to add a haunting however intimate layer to the atmosphere and given the quantity of backtracking the participant has to do, having an unbelievable environment helps preserve the sport thrilling.
The environment does a whole lot of heavy lifting for the sport as a result of regardless of this being a remaster of Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse, the visuals seem like they didn’t obtain a lot of an replace. Character fashions look high quality and ghost designs are impressed, however seeing the environments up shut offers a stark reminder as to how outdated the sport is, wanting extremely pixilated and tough by up to date requirements. They give the impression of being high quality from afar, but it surely seems like extra might have been performed to replace them whereas holding the unique environment as excellent as it’s.
One other space the place extra enhancements might have been made is in its controls. They work high quality for essentially the most half, particularly in fight with Digicam Obscura or Spirit Stone Flashlight prepped and able to fireplace, however the motion might have used extra fine-tuning. This isn’t a brand new criticism in regards to the sport, with the motion criticized for feeling clunky again in 2008. Whereas it really works throughout exploratory segments, it may well really feel disorientating for the reason that digital camera solely generally strikes with the participant character and never others. It turns into manageable with time and arguably helps preserve the strain excessive, however it may be equally irritating.
When the participant figures out a great stream to fight, the sport does develop the issue of changing into nearly too simple. Between everlasting upgrades to weapons and ease of accumulating sufficient factors to buy a plentiful provide of therapeutic objects and ammo, even the hardest enemies fail to face a lot of an opportunity on the traditional problem. That is doubly true when their patterns are discovered, and a Deadly Body is triggered, inflicting huge injury with a number of photographs in fast succession. It nonetheless stays satisfying to get a pleasant combo going from completely timed photographs from the Digicam Obscura or Choshiro’s Spirit Stone Flashlight regardless of the latter missing the power to set off a Deadly Body.
Though the sport has a intentionally sluggish tempo, with an emphasis on cautious exploration and sluggish motion, the sport has a comparatively brief runtime, with the in-game counter clocking in 8.5 hours on the finish of a playthrough, however since time isn’t counted when in menus or cutscenes, a mean playthrough is probably going nearer to 10 hours. Nonetheless, with Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse having different costumes to unlock, new lenses for the weapons that unlock after finishing the sport, a Mission mode, and New Sport Plus, there are many causes to revisit the sport after an preliminary playthrough.
For followers of Deadly Body and the survival horror style, seeing Masks of the Lunar Eclipse have an official English launch with a strong localization is sort of a dream come true. Even when this remaster is hampered by some graphical updates which can be barely noticeable and stiff controls, it’s simple to look previous these points to expertise a strong ghost story with an unbelievable environment.
If Masks of the Lunar Eclipse has the identical success discovered with Maiden of Black Water’s port to trendy platforms, then remasters of different Deadly Body video games or perhaps a new sport would have a greater probability of being launched. There may be a whole lot of potential for renewed curiosity within the franchise, and regardless of gripes available with Masks of the Lunar Eclipse’s remaster, the sport itself nonetheless holds up as a strong horror sport.
Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse launches on March 9 for PC, PS4, PS5, Change, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X/S. Sport Rant was offered a PC code for this assessment.
source https://vrgamenews.com/mask-of-the-lunar-eclipse-review/
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