By no means earlier than launched outdoors of Japan, the fourth entry within the Deadly Body sequence is on the market worldwide for the primary time due to this new remaster, which follows a handful of characters as they journey to the mysterious, haunted Rogetsu Isle to research the reality of what occurred ten years earlier.
Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse
Developer: Koei Tecmo
Value: $50
Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X|S, Nintendo Change (reviewed), PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a Change code for evaluation.
The fourth Deadly Body recreation was one of many many video games I hoped for years would get an official English translation however thought the probabilities of it taking place have been fairly slim, so I used to be ecstatic final yr when Koei Tecmo introduced the remaster of Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse.
This story takes place on Rogetsu Island, the place a ceremony is held each ten years. Over the past ceremony, 5 ladies went lacking and have been rescued with no reminiscence of what occurred. Now, when two of them mysteriously die ten years later, the remaining ladies and the detective who rescued all of them discover themselves returning to Rogetsu Island as soon as once more. There, they discover it crammed with harmful spirits. The island is residence not solely to the ceremony but additionally to an infirmary constructed to review Moonlight Syndrome, an odd sickness that solely impacts inhabitants of the island. This infirmary and the sanatorium related to it present unsettling, spooky places for the characters to discover. It follows a number of playable characters and switches between them with every new chapter, however returning to a personality places you in the identical spot the place you left off, so it avoids the disjointed mission construction that plagues Maiden of Black Water.
Sadly, exploration by no means performed fairly as a lot of a task as I’d hoped. Masks of the Lunar Eclipse is a reasonably guided expertise with a linear development. More often than not, you’ve gotten a single vacation spot, for which you would possibly want to go to one other location to get a key merchandise or clear up a easy puzzle to progress, however you hardly ever should verify a number of areas to search out what you want. As an alternative of quite a few locked doorways you’ll steadily open your self, doorways are sometimes locked till the sport requires you to undergo them. At one level, I checked the door to a brand new space and located it locked, tried to go away via the door I’d come via and located it additionally locked, at which level the sport unlocked the door I’d initially tried. The setting excuses this to some extent, since a ghost story permits for some supernatural locking and unlocking of doorways, however it doesn’t change the sense that you just aren’t exploring a lot as following the trail the sport needs you to observe. You would possibly deviate from the trail to seek for additional objects, however there have been solely a handful of instances I needed to make an effort to discover the place I wanted to go.
Ghosts usually seem alongside the trail towards your subsequent vacation spot, and in the event you pull up your digicam quick sufficient, you possibly can take a photograph to earn Photograph Factors and have it marked in your listing of ghost images. The digicam routinely locks on to those specters, which implies photographing them is normally easy–except for the instances it triggers once you’re barely too shut for the shot, which occurs simply usually sufficient to be annoying. There are additionally hidden ghosts yow will discover by looking forward to an indicator after which photographing the proper spot. Lastly, practically each room incorporates a hidden Hozuki Doll to {photograph} as an extra collectible.
Rooms additionally include objects, in addition to paperwork and logs that reveal the backstory. These are indicated by a small shining spot, in addition to a blue indicator within the nook of the display, and infrequently seem in a room upon revisiting it later within the story even in the event you’ve been there beforehand. Some objects aren’t seen till you shine a lightweight over the proper spot. Whereas neat in principle, this mechanic is irritating in observe. Many instances, I discovered myself sweeping the sunshine over every thing in sight whereas attempting to guage precisely what spot that indicator was pointing me towards. To select up an merchandise, you maintain down the work together button to slowly attain out and seize it. If a ghost hand seems, you should launch the button to tug again, as a result of if it grabs you, the merchandise will probably be misplaced. Happily, this isn’t as horrible a system because it sounds. The ghost hand solely seems for Spirit Stones, that are plentiful and used for upgrades, so that you’ll by no means danger dropping an merchandise you really need. Therapeutic objects and movie don’t even require the gradual seize.
Generally you’ll be attacked by ghosts, though these encounters all happen at scripted factors as an alternative of randomly. That is when your digicam actually comes into play. When a hostile ghost assaults you, you’ll use the long-lasting Digital camera Obscura to line up a shot, wait till it’s charged up, after which take a photograph to break the ghost. For those who wait till the final second earlier than the ghost assaults, you’ll deal additional harm. One character fights with a flashlight as an alternative of a digicam, which features considerably otherwise, though the fundamental thought is comparable. Extra highly effective forms of movie and lenses that grant you particular skills provide you with a number of extra choices in fight. Many solo ghosts could be dealt with simply due to a lock-on function, however ghosts with quicker assaults or fights with a number of ghosts get extra harmful. How scary you discover the ghosts will in all probability rely on how you’re feeling about ghosts basically, since there aren’t many particularly disturbing designs, however the scariest factor in Masks of the Lunar Eclipse is the concern of dropping progress. With save factors usually far aside from each other, a harmful ghost might imply many minutes of misplaced progress earlier than you attain the battle once more.
Nonetheless, the ghosts stopped feeling as harmful once I realized I wasn’t imagined to depend on consumable objects discovered via exploration. There are solely a handful of these, whereas the sport expects you to commerce Photograph Factors for objects at save factors. Photograph Factors may also be exchanged for costumes and unlockable lenses, however since these are locked till you meet sure standards, I discovered myself awash in sufficient factors to top off on therapeutic objects and stronger movie each time I needed.
With that mitigating the hazard, it’s to the sport’s credit score that the ambiance nonetheless manages to construct up a way of dread and unease. The story is unsettling and value taking part in the sport for, and the sport’s visible presentation and audio design are glorious. Apart from a delay each time you open a brand new door, I didn’t discover any efficiency issues. It additionally has some good quality-of-life options, like an auto-save once you strategy a save level so that you don’t should open the save menu each time. Whenever you end the sport, you unlock some extra options, equivalent to a mission mode in the event you actually love preventing ghosts, and a brand new recreation plus. Whereas it may not have given me the survival horror expertise I hoped for, I’m glad I lastly had an opportunity to play Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse.
The Last Phrase
Whereas some features of the gameplay and exploration disillusioned me, Masks of the Lunar Eclipse is an unsettling journey via a haunted island that I discovered way more fulfilling than Maiden of Black Water. After all, regardless of this being the newest recreation to get a western launch, we are able to’t neglect that Masks of the Lunar Eclipse is the fourth recreation within the sequence whereas Maiden of Black Water is the fifth. If a brand new Deadly Body recreation is ever made, I hope the builders look to what labored on this entry and particularly the sooner ones as the idea for its design.
– MonsterVine Score: 3.5 out of 5 – Truthful
