Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness
A trap-em-up RPG where you defend a castle as an evil lord.
Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness is a 1996 action role-playing game developed and published by Tecmo for the PlayStation. It inverts typical RPG conventions by casting the player as an evil lord who uses traps and monsters to kill invading adventurers. The game was a critical success, noted for its originality, and launched the Deception series.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Tecmo
- Publisher
- Tecmo (WW); Sunsoft (EU)
- Series
- Deception
- Released
- July 26, 1996 (JP)
- November 20, 1996 (NA)
- November 22, 1996 (EU)
- Genre
- Action role-playing
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- PlayStation
Facts from the source article.
Premise and gameplay
Tecmo's Deception is a real-time role-playing game that resembles the trap-em-up genre, including games such as Night Trap and Double Switch. The player controls a man who, at the moment of his unjust execution, pleads to the forces of darkness for his life. Satan grants the request and gives him command over the Castle of the Damned. Visitors are drawn to the fortress for power, salvation, or shelter. When intruders arrive, the player accesses a 2D map of the castle to place traps using Magic Points, which have no maximum, or add rooms with gold. Gameplay then shifts to a first-person perspective in a texture-mapped 3D environment. Unlike most trap-em-up games, the player must personally pursue intruders and activate traps. Some traps capture opponents, such as a falling cage or bear trap, while others damage them, like a one-ton weight. Even when a trap is correctly sprung, the intruder may elude it. If a capture trap succeeds, the intruder's remaining HP and a trap-specific timer count down; if HP reaches zero first, the intruder is captured, but if the timer expires first, the intruder breaks free. Most intruders must be damaged before capture. Traps can be upgraded to two higher tiers using gold in the Develop menu; for example, Stomp becomes Poison Toe, then Fire Foot. The player can also spend Magic Points to don one of five masks, each emitting a different scream to attract or repel intruders.
Plot
The game is set in a medieval fantasy world. The player character is the eldest prince of Zemekia, who returns from a visit to Angelio engaged to Princess Fiana. The king of Zemekia announces his intention to abdicate in the prince's favor, but the court magician Zamur materializes the prince's sword above the king, impaling and killing him. The prince's younger brother, Yurias, blames the player character for the murder, framing him and leading to his imprisonment. Found guilty and sentenced to death, the prince, consumed with hatred for Yurias, Zamur, and the fickle people of Zemekia, pleads from the gallows for power. A bolt of lightning teleports him to the Castle of the Damned at the will of the demon Astarte, who invites him to become its master and make a deal with Satan. Inside the castle, the player character is attacked by its master, Ardebaran, but is saved by Idorigo, a warrior seeking vengeance for a murdered friend. Ardebaran later finds the player character but is caught off-guard by a trap presumably set by Astarte. The player character kills Ardebaran and takes his ring, symbolizing a contract with Satan. Following Astarte's directions, the player character captures and kills Idorigo, proving his mercilessness to become the castle's master.
Reception
The game received positive reception upon release. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised its originality, with Crispin Boyer calling it perhaps the most innovative console RPG ever released, and the magazine awarded it Best Original Concept for 1996. GamePro's Art Angel scored it 5/5 for sound and 4.5/5 for graphics, control, and fun factor, highlighting the engaging story, innovative gameplay, atmospheric sounds, and detailed graphics. A Next Generation reviewer criticized the inability to attack victims directly, describing the gameplay as oddly passive, and noted the slow pace and lack of multiple save slots, but praised the graphics and originality, calling it one of the strangest and subtly disturbing games they had played.
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