While its predecessor, Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, found its spirits in distinct, horrifying locales, Spirit Hunter: NG weaves fear seamlessly into the mundane. Face down monsters in quiet residential streets, neighborhood parks, and even the protagonist’s own home. Be careful—terror lurks behind every corner.
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The main reason why I’ve always loved horror games is because they can work with almost any genre: action-adventure, rpg, puzzle-platform, or a visual novel. As long as I get the right amount of thrill and suspense, it doesn’t matter to me if I have to shoot my way through a level, or just read most of the time.
This is why I loved 'Death Mark', and why I love 'NG' just as much, even though it’s far from being perfect. It could get me emotionally involved with its characters and storyline, the ghosts were genuinely scary, and the whole game had one of the most memorable atmospheres in any game I’ve played. The feeling of dread was always there, and some of the images were so twisted that I had to take a little break after seeing them to collect myself.
Would have loved some more voiced scenes, but all in all, this was an experience I will surely not forget for a while. Recommended for mature gamers only!
This is why I loved 'Death Mark', and why I love 'NG' just as much, even though it’s far from being perfect. It could get me emotionally involved with its characters and storyline, the ghosts were genuinely scary, and the whole game had one of the most memorable atmospheres in any game I’ve played. The feeling of dread was always there, and some of the images were so twisted that I had to take a little break after seeing them to collect myself.
Would have loved some more voiced scenes, but all in all, this was an experience I will surely not forget for a while. Recommended for mature gamers only!
It's like Spirit Hunter: Death Mark without the whole Death Mark aspect to it. Instead of that, a teenager is forced to play games with an evil spirit named Kakuya who has kidnapped his little sister. Each game involves uncovering the mystery of some urban legends just like in Spirit Hunter Death Mark. The differences I've notices is that the locations in this game are much smaller making the game a bit lighter on exploration. Also, there's no option to choose what location to go to. None of these are issues, it just makes for a noticeably more limited experience compared to the original. The writing is good. Every character is likeable and a bit offbeat in interesting ways. All the ghost stories are creepy and disturbing. The game has a "Scary Mode" which just leads to some ghost jump scares. It's kinda weak. Only a couple worked on me. The issue I have with this game is the same issue I have with the first game. There are some puzzles I found to be too unclear for me to figure out. I had to use a walkthrough to get through this game. Even getting the answers doesn't make it clear how I was supposed to get to them from the clues I was given. It's frustrating. Other than that, it's a good horror story that kept me hooked.
It has a feature called "scary mode" which just adds random jumpscares to the gameplay. And that's maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen a horror game do
Refines both the gameplay and story of Death Mark.
On the gameplay front:
The timed life-or-death decisions from the previous game return here, except they've been generalized to include any potential game over situation, not just death. The game's locations are all more heavily trafficked than in Death Mark, so avoiding the notice of law enforcement is a big concern.
The battles with ghosts are still inventory puzzles, but they've dropped the need to choose an action for both the main character and their partner on every turn. They've also dropped all the redundant steps in the battles that required you to select the same defensive action over and over.
The locations all much smaller and denser, removing a lot of the back-and-forth through empty, identical rooms required by the first game.
As for story:
No more amnesia plot means we get to have an MC with a clear, distinct identity and relationships from scene 1. The side characters also have clearer reasons for their presence or absence at any given point. Your antagonist is also clear from the start! The mystery is about how to deal with her, which allows for longer-term development of her character and backstory.
On the gameplay front:
The timed life-or-death decisions from the previous game return here, except they've been generalized to include any potential game over situation, not just death. The game's locations are all more heavily trafficked than in Death Mark, so avoiding the notice of law enforcement is a big concern.
The battles with ghosts are still inventory puzzles, but they've dropped the need to choose an action for both the main character and their partner on every turn. They've also dropped all the redundant steps in the battles that required you to select the same defensive action over and over.
The locations all much smaller and denser, removing a lot of the back-and-forth through empty, identical rooms required by the first game.
As for story:
No more amnesia plot means we get to have an MC with a clear, distinct identity and relationships from scene 1. The side characters also have clearer reasons for their presence or absence at any given point. Your antagonist is also clear from the start! The mystery is about how to deal with her, which allows for longer-term development of her character and backstory.
A more streamlined sequel to Death Mark, NG is cozier by virtue of the protagonist having friends and family that get some, or significant, development and screentime. That's both to its benefit (character depth and strength) and detriment (less intense horror atmosphere).
I recommend starting with Death Mark if you just want to be scared, and can tolerate it being horny about [mostly] female bodies in those scary situations. I recommend skipping to NG if you want a horror point-and-click VN with much less of that!
Note: the Switch version is a noticeably slower gameplay experience than it was on my Vita, and is limited to four save files. I also experienced a couple of strange glitches that weren't in my Vita playthroughs. I have to say I prefer the game's performance on Vita.
I recommend starting with Death Mark if you just want to be scared, and can tolerate it being horny about [mostly] female bodies in those scary situations. I recommend skipping to NG if you want a horror point-and-click VN with much less of that!
Note: the Switch version is a noticeably slower gameplay experience than it was on my Vita, and is limited to four save files. I also experienced a couple of strange glitches that weren't in my Vita playthroughs. I have to say I prefer the game's performance on Vita.
last game was better