The Spirit Hunter series from Experience is an absolutely fantastic trilogy of games that anyone interested in Japanese-style horror — specifically ghost stories — should immediately purchase, play and love.
The first game, Death Mark, introduces us to the basic concept of the series: ridding the world of vengeful spirits by resolving their grudges. The second, NG, shows similar happenings in a completely different context, with an all-new cast of characters. The third game, Death Mark II, returns to the original cast (plus some new additions) for an all-new adventure — and, once again, it shakes things up quite significantly in terms of execution and structure.
Today we’re going to take a look at that latter — and, to date, final — adventure in the series. Hit the jump for more!
In Death Mark II, you once again take on the role of Kazuo Yashiki. Veterans of the original Death Mark will know that this is not his real name, but since the events of that game he has decided to keep using it, at least partly because all the characters he came into contact with over the source of his first adventure know him by that name. (There are more complex reasons that aren’t explicitly stated, but I’ll leave those for you to discover and interpret for yourself.)
The story of Death Mark II unfolds several months after the events of the first game — and, as revealed in the “Extra” chapter that unlocks after you complete the main game, some time before NG. This time around, Yashiki has been called to a prestigious school named Konoehara Academy to investigate rumours of a spirit known as “The Departed”.
Little is known about The Departed at the outset of the game, save for the fact that they left a notice on the school bulletin board claiming that “Hanako” would kill “Ribbon”. Not long after this, a student went missing, with no trace of her found anywhere. As Yashiki arrives, a second notice has arrived, this time targeting “Pianist” and once again threatening this individual with death at the hands of “Hanako”.
One of the interesting things about Death Mark II is that all the ghost stories it has to tell are interesting twists on traditional Japanese ghost stories. The “Hanako” mentioned in the initial notices is a twist on the traditional tale of Hanako of the Toilet, for example, while later in the game you’ll come across the game’s take on Kuchisake-onna, or The Slit-Mouthed Woman and the urban legend of fox spirit Mister Kokkuri.
What’s particularly interesting about all these is that Death Mark II doesn’t stick strictly to the traditional interpretation of these tales: instead it positions them as spirits unique to Konoehara Academy that have somehow, and for some reason, taken on the characteristics of these traditional tales. Each of the chosen spirits are thematically appropriate considering the backstories of the individuals who became them, and as with the previous Spirit Hunter games, it’s only by uncovering that backstory that you’ll truly be able to resolve their grudges and let them move on to the next life.
Death Mark II’s execution is quite different from both the original Death Mark and NG. While both of these games primarily unfolded from a first-person perspective as a point-and-click adventure, Death Mark II also incorporates side-scrolling sequences in which you explore various environments.
Practically speaking, these sequences fulfil the exact same role as the first-person point-and-click gameplay of the previous two games — and for certain scenes, that point-and-click gameplay is still present and correct — but they provide an intriguing change in perspective, plus an opportunity for Experience to showcase what they’re really good at: lovely, delicious 2D art.
In the case of these side-scrolling 2D sequences, we have not only some lovely background art, but also some beautifully hand-drawn and properly animated anime-style sprites. Seriously, these sprites are so good they could actually have been pulled from a real anime, and every time I see a game that makes this aesthetic decision — something that happens disappointingly rarely — I wonder why more games don’t do it, because it looks brilliant. The last game I remember doing it was Time and Eternity on PS3, and no-one (except me) liked that game or, I suspect, even remembers it.
But I digress. The side-scrolling sequences in Death Mark II essentially replace the first-person navigation sections of Death Mark and NG. There’s no “action” in these sequences at any point, so those feeling concerned that they look a bit like 2D “survival horror” games such as The Coma and Clea shouldn’t be concerned; they’re simply a different means of presenting Yashiki and his companions navigating around the environments.
Actually, that’s not quite true; there are a couple of time-sensitive elements throughout the game, but we’ll get onto those in a moment.
One addition to the formula of the previous games is that Yashiki and his companions now have a “health” bar. This is implemented differently from the “Spirit Power” and “Security” countdowns in Death Mark and NG in that it’s not used to put time pressure on you when making decisions, but rather it reflects the mental strain these terrifying cases place on those investigating them. In short, when something scary happens, Yashiki and/or his companion will take “damage”, and if their health ever runs out, that’s the end of the game.
Practically speaking, this is rarely an issue at any point in the game. At almost any time, Yashiki can return to the infirmary of Konoehara Academy — his makeshift headquarters for the duration of the investigation — and fully restore both his and his companions’ health. Not only that, but it’s also possible to level up Yashiki and his companions by locating hidden “lost soul” items in the form of “eerie teeth” scattered throughout each of the game’s chapters. When Yashiki levels up, both he and his companions are fully healed, and their maximum health also increases.
The eerie teeth serve another function, too, which is as a form of currency. By collecting the eerie teeth, Yashiki can acquire various spiritual items that will help him out in the investigation. These can help reduce the damage he takes from scares, as well as assisting with the game’s major new mechanic: “Suspensive Acts”.
Suspensive Acts are Death Mark II’s equivalent of the ghost battles in Death Mark, and the “Survival Escape” sequences from NG. Their main difference is that they don’t just occur when directly confronting a spirit: sometimes they crop up when simply in a dangerous situation.
When a Suspensive Act occurs, Yashiki will give a brief outline of the situation and what you need to accomplish, and you then have a few options. Firstly, you can choose whether to use Yashiki, his companion or a team effort between the two of them. Secondly, you choose one of several items or pieces of knowledge you have. You don’t have your entire inventory to pick from here, just a few possibilities. Finally, you pick a specific action to take using that item or piece of knowledge.
The combination of character, item and action you choose to take has an action cost (which comes off the health of whoever performs the action) and a percentage chance of success. When you choose to trigger an action, the game will “roll” to determine whether you succeeded in the action or not. If you fail the action, there usually isn’t a direct consequence other than having to perform it again — and thereby pay its cost again.
Attempting a previously failed action for a second time drastically increases its chances of success, so there are no points where you literally can’t proceed due to limited chance of success — and there are no points in the game where bringing the “wrong” character will result in a failed Suspensive Act; different characters simply have different chances of success.
It’s worth noting, however, that succeeding at an action doesn’t mean it was the right action — it just means that, under pressure, Yashiki and/or his companion was able to successfully carry out the action. If you succeed at taking the wrong action, Yashiki and/or his companion will generally take damage, but before you make another attempt, Yashiki will generally give you a slightly more fleshed-out hint that should make choosing the appropriate item and action a little more obvious. The game never patronises the player by outright telling them what to do, but it does give you a little helping hand if you clearly have no idea.
Like the previous Spirit Hunter games, Suspensive Acts that occur when confronting a spirit can sometimes mean the difference between resolving a spirit’s grudge and simply destroying them; as in the prior titles, taking the latter option will result in the death of your companion at the end of the chapter, and as always, these deaths are absolutely horrifying. To be honest, what happens if you do it “right” is also pretty horrifying, but that’s the kind of experience you signed up for with this game.
In terms of horror, after NG toned things down a little from the heavily sexualised horror of Death Mark, Death Mark II takes something of a middle ground. There are several obviously sexualised sequences in the game, but those aren’t the only horrific images you’ll witness. In fact, this is by far the goriest of all three Spirit Hunter games, with several characters meeting some truly gruesome ends by the conclusion of proceedings. The squeamish may like to note that the game does feature an optional means of applying mosaic censorship to the worst of the violence, but really, experiencing the revulsion you’ll feel at some of the scenes in Death Mark II is absolutely part of the point.
The entire Spirit Hunter series is, to an extent, about experiencing a sense of revulsion at what you are witnessing. Not just the violence the spirits inflict on their victims, but also in terms of what you discover about the background of each spirit. The running theme of “humans are awful creatures” continues throughout Death Mark II, with some truly horrible tales being told that will get you sympathising with each and every spirit — even The Departed, who is initially set up to be an absolutely terrifying, near-invincible and utterly irredeemable malevolent presence.
As you might expect, this means that the game deals with some heavy themes. The tale of Hanako of the Toilet, for example, concerns extreme, violent, abusive bullying as well as individuals coming to terms with an struggling to express their sexuality. The story of the Slit-Mouthed Woman involves a story of inappropriate relations between a teacher and their students. The legend of Mister Kokkuri looks at drug abuse and addiction, and how those things can lead to people taking actions that devastate both their lives and the lives of those around them.
Yashiki also finds himself involved in some of these heavier themes, too. As part of his investigation, he develops a rather close relationship with Douryou and Michiho, two 16 year old girls who are the president and vice-president of the Student Council respectively. Yashiki, of course, knows that nothing untoward is going on, but an important subplot of the game involves others seeing how close he seems to be with these two girls and making some rather unflattering assumptions about our hero.
Not only that, but the game takes great care to make these two characters immensely appealing. Most players will also be coming to Death Mark II with at least a passing familiarity of romance-themed visual novels and dating sims, too, which involve a school-age player character romancing likewise school-age love interests. Both Douryou and Michiho are heavily coded in the style of visual novel love interests, and in a game where you played a character of the same age, getting close to them would be a natural part of proceedings.
But Yashiki is a fortysomething man, and there is no angle you can look at the situation from that makes an intimate relationship between him, Douryou and/or Michiho in any way appropriate. Yashiki knows this, the player knows this and the game makes sure to point out the potential parallels between Yashiki’s situation and the tragic results of what happened in the case of the Slit-Mouthed Woman. It’s just interesting to see this side of things explored so carefully and sensitively as it is here, particularly amid all the absolutely horrific things going on in the main plot. And it’s particularly worth noting that getting the game’s “true” ending requires explicitly acknowledging these unflattering assumptions, confronting them and nipping them in the bud once and for all, rather than simply dancing around them and hoping they go away.
That’s par for the course with the whole Spirit Hunter series, though. All three games are ultimately about us coming to understand people who have been immensely wronged, sympathising with them and helping them to move on from their intense trauma. Through his own experiences and trauma, Yashiki learns how to be a better human being: how to be considerate; how to communicate effectively; how to reach satisfactory conclusions to conflicts. Human beings may, on the whole, be hateful little shits, but Yashiki is someone who reminds us that there are little pockets of light amid the darkness here and there; those who still remember important concepts such as empathy, consideration and altruism.
Death Mark II is an excellent horror game. It builds on the solid foundation of its predecessors, but also continues Experience’s tradition of never making exactly the same game twice. Aesthetically, mechanically and structurally, Death Mark II is quite distinct from its two predecessors, and the way it intertwines the ongoing narrative of The Departed with the tales of the individual spirits you encounter really makes it stand out. It truly deserves to be much more well-known than it is — and I hope one day we might be able to see some further adventures from “Spirit Doctor” Yashiki and his friends, because there is still so much potential in this series.
For now, though, if you’re yet to experience the Spirit Hunter games, I confidently recommend all three of them if you enjoy a good horror game. They’re not “jumpscare” scary — though both NG and Death Mark II have optional mild jumpscares — but rather cerebral, intelligent horror that will stick in your mind long after you’ve played them. For me, they sit alongside the Project Zero series as all-time classics of Japanese horror gaming — and I can think of no higher praise than that.
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