That is to say, it is potentially interesting. Occasionally, Haunted Dungeons feels like this situation occurred, but that the devs just went ahead and did it anyways, because the party-splitting mechanic which takes front and center stage in the game, well, kind of Hyakki-sucks. Generally what happens at some point, however, is that somebody sits you down and tells you it either isn’t possible to implement all the things you want, or it will cost way too much money. It’s really easy to get carried away during the design process with all sorts of unique, fun ideas. Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle (PC, PS4, Switch ) Its focus is a unique party-splitting mechanic, but after sitting down with it, I am still scratching my head and asking, “but why?” Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle on Switch occupies the same territory, and is similar to Grimrock in many fundamental ways.

Grimrock was as new as anything to me when I played it a few years ago, and the cold atmosphere, creepy enemies, and wonderful tactical gameplay it offered was an absolute joy. I have a little soft spot in my congealed gravy heart for dungeon crawlers, but was completely unfamiliar with Eye of the Beholder and others like it in the action-RPG, first-person, dungeon-crawler genre, the most popular example as of late being the excellent Legend of Grimrock series. It really is just a darn shame, but you can’t win ‘em all. My biggest disappointment of 2018 is that I am not able to use the subtitle “Hyakki-Suck” to describe Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle.

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