Mary Skelter Nightmares Reviews

Mary Skelter Nightmares is ranked in the 79th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
3.5 / 5.0
Sep 25, 2017

While it won't blow anyone away, Mary Skelter: Nightmares is a well put together, enjoyable experience and a worthy addition to any dungeon crawler RPG fan's collection.

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8.5 / 10.0
Sep 18, 2017

In the end, the character growth and deep story made me appreciate Mary Skelter: Nightmares as more than just another simple dungeon crawler that I've seen time and time again. The game has a way to make you care about the characters which is something that I ultimately look for in these types of games.

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7.5 / 10.0
Aug 13, 2018

It kept me engaged and having fun throughout, apart from when I was skipping dialogue trees as quickly as possible to preserve my own sanity. It's a great blobber despite a dull story, and was fun enough to warrant hitting the “skip” button several thousand times in order to get back into the action.

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7 / 10.0
Sep 19, 2017

Mary Skelter: Nightmares is a surprisingly effective little dungeon crawler.

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Sep 18, 2017

Mary Skelter: Nightmares is strong enough as a whole to offer the most unique experience Compile Heart has ever created.

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7 / 10
Sep 25, 2017

Mary Skelter: Nightmares has some really interesting features and an impressively dark atmosphere. While a lot of the mechanics within the dungeons will feel familiar to genre fans, the levels themselves are very well crafted. There's also a unique battle system to master and the random element of Nightmares chasing you down dark corridors will definitely get the adrenaline pumping.

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RPG Fan
Taylor Strumwasser
Top Critic
78%
Sep 4, 2018

Mary Skelter: Nightmares varies nicely from your typical turn-based JRPG. With a darker atmosphere than most games, the art and music is really what defines it. If you can overlook some of the repetitive combat and dialogue, this game has a lot to offer and provides an overall great experience.

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RPG Site
Top Critic
6 / 10
Sep 19, 2017

A cool art aesthetic and interesting mechanics can't help this game from feeling like a letdown.

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NEOsite
aysnel
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Sep 18, 2017

Dark, gross and sadistic dungeon crawler for PS Vita. It's a great game with engaging story, excessive violence and pints of blood. But beware – characters from fairy tales will no longer be as they were

Review in Polish | Read full review

95 / 100
Oct 19, 2017

Mary Skelter Nightmares is one of the best Compile Heart games and one of the best DRPGs on the Vita. With its exploration and battle mechanics, Mary Skelter has a game loop that is addictive and always has something new to keep the players engaged. The game even goes beyond that by bringing a story, characters and a world that are well developed and make players wonder what will happen next. Escaping the Jail was the journey's objective, however, my time exploring within its walls was a lot of fun.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

85%
Sep 19, 2017

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Digitally Downloaded
Harvard L.
Top Critic
Jul 31, 2018

Mary Skelter: Nightmares shows Compile Heart moving a little away from its otaku-pandering roots and more towards an orthodox standard of JRPG design – and despite being the studio's first attempt at trying a new style, it's surprising how much of it works.

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Rice Digital
Kitsumeda
Top Critic
Sep 22, 2017

Mary Skelter: Nightmares is one of the very best dungeon crawlers I played to date. From its well-crafted story, interesting characters and captivating atmosphere, to its unique gameplay which doesn't become stale even after hours of dungeon crawling, there is so much to like about the game. Compile Heart has truly made it a long way since MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death and we are excited to see what they have next in store.

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Sep 11, 2017

Mary Skelter is sublime. By turns darkly sensual and horrific, it's also beautiful, ravishing, and backed by truly expert level design and a clean, clever combat system. This game is too different to effectively compare to other dungeon crawlers, but I must say, of all the many games in this genre that I've played, this one will sit with me for a very long time into the future.

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8 / 10
Sep 19, 2017

Mary Skelter: Nightmares is one of the better dungeon crawlers on the PS Vita. It combines the dungeon exploration with a fun combat system and attempts to simplify many of the chores that are usually a part of the Dungeon RPG genre.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
7 / 10
Sep 13, 2017

Although it definitely has style, Mary Skelter: Nightmares doesn't quite excel. The unique premise tends to be undermined by the typical eye-rolling nonsense that plagues anime. There's also not enough of a follow-through when it comes to encounter design. Each class is capable of numerous and creative skills, but the direct approach is almost always the right one. As the game continues, it actually becomes less complex, until the player is merely spamming whatever kills monsters quickly. Still, this DRPG does more than enough to keep one occupied for quite a long time.

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8.2 / 10.0
Sep 7, 2017

In the end, Mary Skelter: Nightmares is one of the most delightful and impressive RPGs that I've played in a long time.

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Recommended
Apr 25, 2022

Despite a few oddities, Mary Skelter: Nightmares is easily one of the better DRPGs on the Nintendo Switch, and it’s only half of the Mary Skelter 2 package.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 8, 2021

Mary Skelter may not be the greatest note for me to end out on, but it does show what the Vita was good at, and that was allowing RPG developers to push out experimental new IPs with little risk, and in the case of Mary Skelter, it led to a full fledged mix of Remake/Sequel on the Switch. This wasn’t the final first person RPG released for the system, but still is a solid one, even if I feel some others were better.

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9.5 / 10.0
Aug 6, 2018

Mary Skelter: Nightmares is definitely one of my favorite dungeon crawlers, whether it be characters, music, battle system, or tone/theme, I just had so much fun playing it the entire way through. With some seriously messed up looking bosses, handy warp points, and Hameln, Mary Skelter just had so much I enjoyed. I can tell you for certain that I'm eagerly anticipating the sequel that's been announced, and I hope you'll enjoy this game as much as I did.

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