Kwaidan ～Azuma manor story～

I love the aesthetics of this game, but being locked at 15 FPS with the already slow and clunky controls makes this borderline unplayable for me. EDIT: I just saw that there's a news post about FPS drops for those using a DisplayPort cable rather than HDMI. I'm using an HDMI cable plugged into a 120 Hz TV, so not sure what the issue is there.

vry good

(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ (ง •_•)ง

Kwaidan ～Azuma manor story～ is a mixed bag of a retro action game, so what’s the story. it was a peaceful night in Japan in 1933 a powerful Hososhi is training his young protege in the art of fighting evil yokai, it was supposed to be simple, but then their training is interrupted when a servant of a local manor barges in and claiming that the manor is under attack by powerful Yokai. Then the leader of the Yokai appears and a hard battle is fought, but after the battle the leader of the Yokai incapacitates the Hososhi, now it's up to the young protege to venture into the manor and stop the yokai and return her master back to normal or all is lost. So what is the likes, the story is pretty good at first I thought it was going to be a simple go to a mansion and stop the bad guy story, but it had some pretty nice twists which was a nice surprise. The characters were okay, not really compelling except the father but other than him, the other characters are pretty simple honestly, but that's not a bad thing. The gameplay was okay it's pretty simple you have three items to deal with certain type of Yokai, a spear for big enemies, an energy blast that can hit grounded enemies and the mirror that can be used to hit enemies that are hard to reach, you can also block by walking backwards using the d-pad. But the gameplay also has point and click elements in it and I found it to be pretty okay, not too hard to control it added an interesting element especially when you get the ability to go to first person mode, although I will say the point and click elements and first person mode does sometimes feel a bit underutilized. The graphics are very good; it definitely captures the look and feel of an old school PS1 game with its visuals while still being pretty well detailed. The levels were good basically the levels takes place mostly in the manor and its grounds, but I feel like it didn't overstay it's welcome and get repetitive and boring to look at, it also had some nice detail and some interesting backgrounds. The music is really good with plenty of nice tracks to listen too. The puzzles in the game were okay, not too hard to figure out and if you get stumped you could always look up a walkthrough.The enemies and bosses were pretty good they had some pretty nice designs and if you're familiar with Japanese mythology some of those Yokai you'll know. So what is the dislikes, the final boss is absolute garbage, it's just completely unbalanced. Basically you're fighting in this cave and the boss goes through these different holes and whatever hole he comes out of that's where you can hit him, seem simple enough. But the problem is that he summons multiple enemies to come attack you, which is really hard especially since some of those enemies are really annoying to fight which makes the boss fight practically impossible to beat, especially when you don't have any health items. I also felt like some of the enemies can be really cheap with their attacks, like after you defeat a bunch of enemies in the area and leave that area and come back the enemies respond, that's simple enough but sometimes they respond in different locations which can throw you off and get yourself hurt. The two achievements the certificate of full proficiency modern mode and the certificate of full proficiency origin mode feel impossible to get, basically you have to beat the game without getting hurt and without saving while playing either in the original tank controls mode and in modern mode as will I find that to be quite impossible, especially when dealing with the final boss. Also the price for the game is way too high, if it was like 10 bucks I would be more okay with it, but it's like $25 it's way too high, especially for a game that you could probably beat in 5 hours at best. Okay now that I have told you this, Kwaidan ～Azuma manor story～ is a mixed bag of a retro action game, with a pretty good story, okay gameplay and very good graphics. So do I recommend this game it's kind of hard to say if you do want to play the game it has some pretty good merits, but they're also some really annoying parts to it. Ultimately if you do want it I suggest get it when it's on sale and save some money.

Amazing Game

It's a shame this game hasn't gotten more attention. A solid take on survival horror that has a unique retro presentation. I originally played it when it came out and still remember it till today.

A fun and short, old-school survival horror game with a really neat PS1 inspired artstyle. It's a fairly easy game with monsters that have clear tactics for beating(though the bosses are a bit too easy). The atmosphere is great, the music is fine with the ending/credits song being a standout. The puzzles are fairly simple but enjoyable with my favourite being the safe combination one. I really like how that one is solveable without finding all the numbers beforehand. I wish this game was a more popular and I'm really interested to see what's next from the developer.

Its a pretty good game with some caveats. The game has a great visual style and controls that feel half classic and half uniquely innovative. Most boss fights play out like a light puzzle with some timing required to get hits in. The game does require some patience due to some intentionally slow movement, deliberate attacks, and nicely animated but admittedly long cutscenes for common actions like going up and down floors of the manor. If you play on origin mode like I did the fixed camera angles will fight you a lot, they give the impression of being chosen for cinematic reasons and not gameplay reasons. If that is an issue for you then the modern mode will be the way to go.