Kurokishi no Kamen
A Japanese 3DO horror dungeon crawler set in 1930s London.
HummingBirdSoft developed Kurokishi no Kamen, a dungeon crawler published by Matsushita for the 3DO. Released solely in Japan during 1994, it belongs to the Ghost Hunter series, which also includes the developer’s Laplace no Ma and Paracelsus no Maken.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Group SNE; HummingBirdSoft
- Publisher
- Matsushita Electric Industrial
- Series
- Ghost Hunter
- Platforms
- 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
- Released
- May 28, 1994 (JP)
- Genre
- Dungeon crawler, role-playing
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Plot and gameplay
Kurokishi no Kamen takes place in 1930s London within the abandoned Guilford Mansion. Thirty years before the game, the mansion owner's wife, child, and three friends were murdered in a ritual; the owner hanged himself, but supernatural rumors persisted. Four ghost hunters—mystic Kenichiro Kusakabe, detective Alex Quinn, journalist Morgan Dylan, and scientist Vincent Hoffman—investigate. The first-person perspective uses tank controls for four-directional movement and a cursor for object and scenery interaction. Role-playing elements are simplified compared to earlier Ghost Hunter titles: characters have fixed stats, equipment, and special abilities with no customization. Turn-based battles against malevolent spirits offer commands such as physical attacks, defending, using items, and escaping. Kenichiro is the only character with mental power and psychic spells, while Vincent is the sole user of spirit machines.
Development and release
Released exclusively in Japan for the 3DO on May 28, 1994, Kurokishi no Kamen was a joint project between HummingBirdSoft and Group SNE. Hitoshi Yasuda, who created the Ghost Hunter series on NEC PCs with Laplace no Ma and Paracelsus no Maken, oversaw development. The game features extensive live-action full-motion video. Its cast includes Kenichiro, Alex, Morgan, and Vincent, all returning from earlier Ghost Hunter titles. Kenichiro originally appeared as a powerful ghost hunter partway through Laplace no Ma because the designers worried the main protagonist could not become one alone. Matsushita Electric Industrial handled publishing.
Reception
Next Generation reviewed the game as 'Ghost Hunter', rating it three stars out of five, noting that being entirely in Japanese, understanding the language is necessary to progress. French magazine Consoles + gave a similar 68% score, recommending fans of Japanese horror games stick with Doctor Hauzer on the expensive 3DO. Kurt Kulata of Hardcore Gaming 101 compared Kurokishi no Kamen to Mansion of Hidden Souls, another horror-themed interactive film game.
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