Throwback survival horror can be tricky to pull off. A lot of attempts end up missing the point of what makes older titles engaging, where a lot just throw in a pixelated filter, low polygon models, fixed camera angles and call it “inspired by classics such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill” and end up just feeling like a half-hearted attempt at it, with visuals that feel genuinely worse than any game from that period and gameplay that feels similar to contemporary dime-a-dozen asset flips.
Which makes Kwaidan a standout, for better and worse, as it genuinely feels like a survival horror game that came from the early 2000s, alongside the associated charms, warts and all.
Before diving into Kwaidan, the player is given the option to select either ‘Origin mode’ or ‘Modern mode’. ‘Origin mode’ uses tank controls with a keyboard and mouse, whereas ‘Modern mode’ uses direct controls with a gamepad. An odd quirk that’s tied to each mode is the visual style, where ‘Origin mode’ has a clean look and ‘Modern mode’ uses cel-shading. Both modes look fine visually, but it’s a weird choice to tie these styles to a given control method.
Both control methods work well enough, but I personally prefer the ‘Origin mode’ as I feel like the tank controls and use of mouse for the inventory and exploration works better for the overall experience. Although I will admit ‘Modern mode’ can feel a bit more fluid in some combat scenarios. Either option will also take some time to get used to, as there is a bit of jank to consider, but thankfully you only need to take note straightforward concepts with movement, weapon switching, quick turning and blocking.
The game wastes no time in throwing the player into actual gameplay. At the start, a brief tutorial serves to familiarize the player with its movement and combat mechanics, and immediately starts the player off with a boss fight. This kind of first impression also serves as an indicator of how the game is paced throughout.
The combat mechanics themselves are rather straightforward, but feels unique for a survival horror game. It’s a mostly melee focused system, but not exactly in an action hack-and-slash fashion. You have three options to cycle through on the fly. You have a regular attack that hits opponent in the middle about your height with the naginata, a mirror amulet that serves as an aerial attack for enemies above you, and a magatama which explodes with a small area of effect, which is primarily for enemies that your naginata can’t reach but can also serve well for crowd control. The latter two options consume ‘magic’ which you can replenish by killing enemies and blocking attacks.
The combat emphasizes positioning and timing, where you learn how each enemy moves and attacks. It’s rare to find yourself in a position that you can’t fight off enemies, as they all go down in one to two hits. It feels pretty good as well to master how the combat works and familiarize yourself with how each enemy works. This then extends to how resource management works. You only have two types of consumables, which is a healing item and an item that allows you to save or upgrade your weapons.
Saving works by using save amulets on shrines. Healing items are one-time use and heal about 40% of your health. The way these all works create the tension on how you approach combat, as while you never really run out of options to dispatch enemies, your character is completely vulnerable with limited ways to recover. Aggression is often punished and you have to take a patient approach on even the simplest enemy or else risk losing a bit of health that can set you back in the long term.
The game does balance resource distribution well enough, where you won’t have an abundance to just steamroll through everything, but you aren’t exactly starved off either to the point of frustration.
On top of the consumable healing items, there are a few spots that the player can eat or drink from a single time, which is a nice touch as well in giving an incentive to explore environmental backdrops.
The majority of the game takes place in the titular Azuma Manor, and it is quite a nice set piece to explore. There’s no space wasted, with each area serving a purpose, even if it isn’t obvious during the first encounter. Backtracking is also made less painful as you progress, you’ll uncover new shortcuts that interconnect parts of the manor even more.
All of this is further enhanced with the overall presentation. The visuals do feel like a game that’s trying its best to look good with early 2000s technological limitations, while having a few liberties here and there that further serves its purpose to enrich the visuals. On top of that, the game has a nice mix of piano and electronic music that serves the atmosphere and mood quite well.
The enemy designs themselves are all distinct, with animations and looks that look good and help in recognizing them on the fly during tense combat scenarios.
The boss fights themselves are neat, nothing amazing but they serve a good purpose of looking intimidating at first especially with how your character controls, but figuring out how their attack patterns work which encourages more on careful observation rather than just brute force.
Puzzle solving is also mostly straightforward, and a couple challenging ones that may require taking physical notes or screenshots. They aren’t too ridiculous and are fun to solve, but it actually would have been nice to have an option in-game to review what you found. It can be argued this serves to further enhance that ‘throwback feel’ where some games forced the player to actually whip out a pencil and paper to map things out themselves, but I feel like it just adds unnecessary tedium.
Speaking of tedium, without spoiling too much details, the game unfortunately loses some steam during the final stretch. You go through a new area which is a lot more boring visually compared to the manor, and it’s filled with some really frustrating moments. Enemies can just spawn suddenly near you and you have to keep in mind to block.
One moment in particular that stood out like a sore thumb is a part where you have to backtrack to somewhere while having no option to run or attack. All of this with enemies still chasing you and a timed obstacle you have to avoid. It’s not a deal breaker but considering how well paced the previous section was, it really stands out in a negative way.
You’re also forced to fight the previous two bosses again before the final boss, but this time with more health and enemies spawn alongside. This is less challenging and more on just making the same fights drag on longer. Which is pretty bad since the interesting part about these bosses are more on figuring out the safest approach how to damage them rather than repeating it numerous times.
At the very least the final boss is a bit creative, if somewhat a bit long as well. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but once you figure it out it feels satisfying to do so. My only complaint is that it really could had its health lowered a bit and would have helped it flow better without losing its challenge.
In the end, despite lacking some polish and the noticeable flaws towards the final hour of the game, I still enjoyed playing through Kwaidan. It’s impressive how this is all made by a solo developer, and I think he managed to succeed in capturing the spirit of a classic survival horror game, even if it doesn’t exactly land on all of its ideas. There's a lot of charm to the presentation and atmosphere, and the largest chunk of the game is thankfully spent during its best parts.
If you’re a fan of said classic survival horror, and you have the patience for some jank, I definitely recommend giving Kwaidan a go.
Which makes Kwaidan a standout, for better and worse, as it genuinely feels like a survival horror game that came from the early 2000s, alongside the associated charms, warts and all.
Before diving into Kwaidan, the player is given the option to select either ‘Origin mode’ or ‘Modern mode’. ‘Origin mode’ uses tank controls with a keyboard and mouse, whereas ‘Modern mode’ uses direct controls with a gamepad. An odd quirk that’s tied to each mode is the visual style, where ‘Origin mode’ has a clean look and ‘Modern mode’ uses cel-shading. Both modes look fine visually, but it’s a weird choice to tie these styles to a given control method.
Both control methods work well enough, but I personally prefer the ‘Origin mode’ as I feel like the tank controls and use of mouse for the inventory and exploration works better for the overall experience. Although I will admit ‘Modern mode’ can feel a bit more fluid in some combat scenarios. Either option will also take some time to get used to, as there is a bit of jank to consider, but thankfully you only need to take note straightforward concepts with movement, weapon switching, quick turning and blocking.
The game wastes no time in throwing the player into actual gameplay. At the start, a brief tutorial serves to familiarize the player with its movement and combat mechanics, and immediately starts the player off with a boss fight. This kind of first impression also serves as an indicator of how the game is paced throughout.
The combat mechanics themselves are rather straightforward, but feels unique for a survival horror game. It’s a mostly melee focused system, but not exactly in an action hack-and-slash fashion. You have three options to cycle through on the fly. You have a regular attack that hits opponent in the middle about your height with the naginata, a mirror amulet that serves as an aerial attack for enemies above you, and a magatama which explodes with a small area of effect, which is primarily for enemies that your naginata can’t reach but can also serve well for crowd control. The latter two options consume ‘magic’ which you can replenish by killing enemies and blocking attacks.
The combat emphasizes positioning and timing, where you learn how each enemy moves and attacks. It’s rare to find yourself in a position that you can’t fight off enemies, as they all go down in one to two hits. It feels pretty good as well to master how the combat works and familiarize yourself with how each enemy works. This then extends to how resource management works. You only have two types of consumables, which is a healing item and an item that allows you to save or upgrade your weapons.
Saving works by using save amulets on shrines. Healing items are one-time use and heal about 40% of your health. The way these all works create the tension on how you approach combat, as while you never really run out of options to dispatch enemies, your character is completely vulnerable with limited ways to recover. Aggression is often punished and you have to take a patient approach on even the simplest enemy or else risk losing a bit of health that can set you back in the long term.
The game does balance resource distribution well enough, where you won’t have an abundance to just steamroll through everything, but you aren’t exactly starved off either to the point of frustration.
On top of the consumable healing items, there are a few spots that the player can eat or drink from a single time, which is a nice touch as well in giving an incentive to explore environmental backdrops.
The majority of the game takes place in the titular Azuma Manor, and it is quite a nice set piece to explore. There’s no space wasted, with each area serving a purpose, even if it isn’t obvious during the first encounter. Backtracking is also made less painful as you progress, you’ll uncover new shortcuts that interconnect parts of the manor even more.
All of this is further enhanced with the overall presentation. The visuals do feel like a game that’s trying its best to look good with early 2000s technological limitations, while having a few liberties here and there that further serves its purpose to enrich the visuals. On top of that, the game has a nice mix of piano and electronic music that serves the atmosphere and mood quite well.
The enemy designs themselves are all distinct, with animations and looks that look good and help in recognizing them on the fly during tense combat scenarios.
The boss fights themselves are neat, nothing amazing but they serve a good purpose of looking intimidating at first especially with how your character controls, but figuring out how their attack patterns work which encourages more on careful observation rather than just brute force.
Puzzle solving is also mostly straightforward, and a couple challenging ones that may require taking physical notes or screenshots. They aren’t too ridiculous and are fun to solve, but it actually would have been nice to have an option in-game to review what you found. It can be argued this serves to further enhance that ‘throwback feel’ where some games forced the player to actually whip out a pencil and paper to map things out themselves, but I feel like it just adds unnecessary tedium.
Speaking of tedium, without spoiling too much details, the game unfortunately loses some steam during the final stretch. You go through a new area which is a lot more boring visually compared to the manor, and it’s filled with some really frustrating moments. Enemies can just spawn suddenly near you and you have to keep in mind to block.
One moment in particular that stood out like a sore thumb is a part where you have to backtrack to somewhere while having no option to run or attack. All of this with enemies still chasing you and a timed obstacle you have to avoid. It’s not a deal breaker but considering how well paced the previous section was, it really stands out in a negative way.
You’re also forced to fight the previous two bosses again before the final boss, but this time with more health and enemies spawn alongside. This is less challenging and more on just making the same fights drag on longer. Which is pretty bad since the interesting part about these bosses are more on figuring out the safest approach how to damage them rather than repeating it numerous times.
At the very least the final boss is a bit creative, if somewhat a bit long as well. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but once you figure it out it feels satisfying to do so. My only complaint is that it really could had its health lowered a bit and would have helped it flow better without losing its challenge.
In the end, despite lacking some polish and the noticeable flaws towards the final hour of the game, I still enjoyed playing through Kwaidan. It’s impressive how this is all made by a solo developer, and I think he managed to succeed in capturing the spirit of a classic survival horror game, even if it doesn’t exactly land on all of its ideas. There's a lot of charm to the presentation and atmosphere, and the largest chunk of the game is thankfully spent during its best parts.
If you’re a fan of said classic survival horror, and you have the patience for some jank, I definitely recommend giving Kwaidan a go.