Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle
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Critic Reviews for Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle
While overly ambitious, Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle is an enjoyable enough dungeon crawl, but could easily be ignored if you aren't absolutely in love with the genre.
Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle certainly has some interesting elements - most notably its team-splitting mechanic and use of classical Japanese folklore - but thanks to the rigidity of its first-person dungeon crawling design it soon loses steam and you're left exploring a vast castle full of dangerous yokai and unimaginative level design. It takes plenty of inspiration from those that came before it, but does little to innovate on its own merit.
If I had to describe Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle in one word, that word would be, “fumbly.” There's a lot of fumbling, mostly with the controls, some with the menus and UI, and some with getting around the maps with their samey walls and lack of landmarks. Real-time, horror-tinted dungeon crawling is a neat idea, and with the customization, skills, and cool monsters, there is fun to be had here. Multiple difficulty levels and post-game content also gives plenty of challenge for the genre hardcores. But this is a game that leaves me wanting more from it, but in a way that means the promise from the concept doesn't match the experience in my hands.
Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle is a clever twist on the traditional dungeon crawler, with a focus on the split-team function. Learning to work with separate teams can be tough at first, but it's well worth the effort. The combat is otherwise simplistic and easy to pick up, making it easy to jump in for hours at a time.
Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle has a lot of interesting elements. Unfortunately, it's most talked about feature, team splitting, could have used more work and it felt like there needed to be more to it besides switching on some floor panels.
Hyakki Castle probably wouldn't be great for newbies to the dungeon-crawling scene, but if you already know you like the movement and combat system then it's definitely something to try. It has its mechanical issues, and requires a lot of fiddling to figure out at first, but is executed creatively and diversely enough to still be engaging. It just needs a little extra touch to become the beacon that it wants to be.
the game falters for its repetitive scenery and total lack of tutorial or even on screen button cues.
Hyakki Castle is a game with some clever ideas but falters in execution and implementation- leading to an experience that feels serviceable but decidedly bittersweet as I'm left wondering what could have been.
