Deadly Body is among the many most iconic horror franchises in video video games, typically listed alongside huge names like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. With 5 mainline video games in its lineup, it’s really shocking that we in North America have solely ever gotten 4 of them, with the fourth entry within the sequence by no means leaving Japan. That’s, till now! Deadly Body: Masks of the Lunar Eclipse, initially launched solely for the Wii in 2008, is lastly making its means worldwide and to trendy platforms as properly. The true query is: was it well worth the wait? Relying in your expertise with the sequence, your mileage could range on that one.
Masks of the Lunar Eclipse options the story of three predominant playable characters, all of whom are returning to the mysterious setting of Rogetsu Island. When their mates die underneath mysterious circumstances, Misaki Aso and her good friend Madoka journey to the island in hopes of discovering solutions to the gaps of their childhood recollections. The 2 get separated, and Misaki winds up having to discover alone. In the meantime Ruka Minazuki follows Misaki and Madoka to the island with the identical objective, however finds that not solely has Madoka perished, Misaki is nowhere to be seen. Lastly, Detective Choshiro Kirishima additionally travels to the island, himself following Ruka in an effort to convey her again dwelling. All three of those characters start exploring the native sanatorium, seemingly linked to the ladies’ historical past, however sadly for them this sanatorium additionally occurs to be stuffed stuffed with ghosts.
The primary mechanic of Deadly Body is the ghost fight at any time when a spirit kind referred to as a wraith seems. Misaki and Ruka each combat utilizing the sequence’ iconic Digicam Obscura, which could be pulled out by urgent X and shifts the sport right into a first-person perspective. Whereas each Digicam Obscuras have a barely completely different look to them, they play just about the identical. Preserving a ghost in body permits the digicam to cost, with its progress indicated by a sample across the middle, and the extra cost it will get earlier than you are taking the ghost’s picture the extra injury it’s going to do. You may also improve injury by equipping stronger sorts of movie, attaching completely different lenses, or by capturing a deadly body. You may get a deadly body shot by taking your image proper earlier than the ghost assaults, and this can then let you take a number of photographs in fast succession to construct up injury. When you’ve performed different Deadly Body video games prior to now, this isn’t an excessive amount of of a change from these. One grievance I’ve concerning the Digicam Obscura fight, nevertheless, is that the setting likes to place encounters in cramped areas like hallways or small bedrooms that provide you with extraordinarily restricted room to maneuver, one thing that may develop into a bit irritating when combating enemies that may disappear and reappear wherever they need (together with inside partitions).
Choshiro doesn’t use the Digicam Obscura in fight, and as a substitute goes to Rogetsu geared up with the Spirit Stone Flashlight. Fight with that is even less complicated than the digicam, as all it’s a must to do is maintain down the ZR button to cost and launch it to fireplace your assault. The simplicity of this kind of fight really sort of holds it again, as ghosts develop into trivial even when there’s multiple of them (an occasion that turns into particularly harrowing with the Digicam Obscura). Each these weapons could be upgraded utilizing Blue Spirit Stones that may be discovered all through the sport, but it surely ought to be famous that each one three characters share the identical pool of improve supplies whereas not sharing precise upgrades, so the participant is inspired to choose and select who they need to improve probably the most. One non-combat little bit of management that I had a problem with is the flashlight, which within the Wii model used pointer controls. This doesn’t translate very properly to being on the appropriate analog stick, which can be linked to the sport’s digicam, and making an attempt to control the flashlight to shine over gadgets (the one strategy to reveal their location) generally is a actual ache.
General, of all of the Deadly Frames I’ve performed, this is among the weaker ones. The setting of the sanatorium could be very properly finished in each environment and sound design, and the newly improved graphics over the unique Wii model actually assist make it extra immersive. Nonetheless, exploring the identical areas time and again with three completely different characters will get previous somewhat shortly, particularly when characters are additionally backtracking to these areas as properly. The identical goes for a few of the ghosts, with sure encounters just like the sadistic youngster Ayako repeating a number of instances with a number of characters, which tends to get annoying after the third prevalence or so. Followers of Deadly Body who need to expertise this misplaced title within the sequence will doubtless discover sufficient environment and story to maintain their curiosity, however newcomers could discover a few of the sport’s shortcomings to be a turnoff as their first expertise. That being stated, you may put a hat in your character that’s a giant Digicam Obscura, so in a means, possibly all of it balances out in the long run.