Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
You have been Marked… A strange rumor is spreading through the shadows of Tokyo's H City: a mysterious disfigurement, like a grotesque birthmark, has been appearing on the bodies of certain individuals. Anyone who receives the Mark will rapidly die of unknown, horrifying causes. Deprived of your memories, you arrive at a mansion rumored to protect the bearers of the Mark. As the doors swing open, the countdown to death has already begun… Key Features • Search and Survive! – To avoid an almost certain gruesome death at the “hands” of angry spirits, you’ll need to search your surroundings for clues to increase your odds of survival. • Ghost Busting – Sometimes the sword is more powerful than the pen. And when words fail it’s time to stand your ground. Remember the price of not holding your own is an untimely death.
Game Discussion
Steam User 13
It was a fun enough game and I can still replay to get the good ending if I feel up to it, but lost the plot a bit towards the end.
TLDR: I really enjoyed the first couple chapters of the game. I liked that there is a mystery to be solved, but the ending felt like it was dragging on and I had issues with a bit of the game play mechanics. Also as a woman I hate when stories put women in sexual fetish poses while they are dying when it is supposed to be scary while the men never have the same happen to them (and it would be weird either way in my opinion but this shows how ridiculous and out of place they are)
PROS: Art (except whoever approved certain pictures), sound, characters were likeable although discarded rather quickly, backgrounds for each ghost and their designs were unique and everything the character investigates in relation connect back to the main story. Game had a good amount of playtime and there is two endings that can be found as well as the DLC included when you buy the steam version. I would give this game a 6/10 because it didn't wow me but it started off really promising.
CONS: There are certain moments where you have to answer from 3 multiple choices and survive by choosing the right answer but the problem was that the answer was either shown to you directly before plain as day or not shown at all and seemed like a guessing game. A lot I got from luck or logic rather than them having anything to do with the clues we found. You also can find many items that do nothing to what you need to do and I can only assume they want to throw you off but it again gets a little confusing. After chapter 3 it gets repetitive and not as fun or interesting as the first half. Ending sure it made sense, but also not the easiest explanation and I did not even get the good ending because I messed up on the very first ghost which meant even though I played another 20 hours it meant nothing as it would automatically become the normal ending. Maybe I will replay to get good ending as I do want to play the DLC that only unlocks after the good ending, but that means a lot of slow moments to backtrack through and even with the skip and speed buttons the live or die games are just as slow as ever. I would recommend this game for $20 maybe $25 but the price it has now is a little crazy considering finishing the game felt a little like a chore after such a good buildup to fall back down.
Rant about rape and assault in this game if you want to read: As I mentioned earlier, in almost every chapter of the game there is an unneeded artwork of a woman or women in degrading positions while they are either dying or straight up already a corpse. I would get it if this game was advertised as that but it is not. These images appear out of nowhere, and one of them includes an underage girl with her clothes ripped off while the man also getting killed is FULLY CLOTHED RIGHT NEXT TO HER. Seriously threw me out of the game when they happened because I am no longer scared it was uncomfortable and disappointing. And how can you then have a story line where a ghost's background is that she went through an intense rape/assault that made her suicidal but not understand how these images are not okay for a game like this? Will only be buying the second game if the reviews do not say anything about this happening in that one also.
Steam User 3
the game is so good, i miss getting scared every night while playing this.
death mark always be my fav.
Steam User 2
A horror detective game with style , it have many quality puzzle is not too easy to solve , but isnt hard if you really think about it , spirit design is very unique and creepy , perfectly hit the right spot for folklore horror , make me love this game so much , fyi I also 100% achievement so you can tell how much this game bring to me . cant recommend enough , welp... time to move on , continue to finish this trilogy ...
Steam User 2
I love this series very very much. I love the writing, characters, character art, monster designs, music, spirits, and their stories. I wish that this series could go on forever.
Steam User 3
Death Mark has plenty of problems, but having finished the main story and bonus route I can't help but feel anything other than excitement to play more of the series and any games like it. The vibes are just immaculate, and imaging how good it could be with some improvements is very enticing. I quite enjoy the gameplay and the artwork and the music while not amazing, it is very fitting. The spirit designs are a bit of a mixed bag, personally none of them were that great for me but they all had at least something interesting going for them. The artwork is great, even tho I would've liked to see some more art for the death scenes or the items you are picking up, The characters are all at least interesting or likeable, even tho they don't get too much development. The standout is definitely Mashita (even the bonus case knows it) and seeing him on the cover for II is dope. I do feel like chapter 3 and chapter 4 are a bit of a lull, the spirit in 3 is one of the most interesting and while I do appreciate breaking up the gameplay loop a bit, i wish it had a longer, more "proper" chapter. I do hope the other games try to be a bit more scary as I feel like I was only ever truly on the edge in the first chapter. Also the text speed is like, just slow enough to be a bit of a bother. Lastly, while the live or die system is cool, some of it feels very arbitrary and one or two times you might need to straight up look up something (or just resort to tedious trial and error) which I feel is pretty cheap.
TLDR: Game has plenty of flaws but the atmosphere and story more than make up for it
Steam User 2
In short, this is a fantastic game and you should get it.
It's great at setting up a creepy atmosphere, sound design is amazing, the Japanese VA (when it exists) is wonderful, the story was extremely well written, most of the characters feel like real people and their dialogue flows well, a lot of the cases were really sad or were very interesting, and the art is fantastic and super creepy.
That being said, some of the cases aren't as good as others, some of the puzzles are a bit obtuse, some of the boss fight stuff I don't know if I'd have figured out on my own, and some of the companion characters aren't as strong as others, and I felt really needed some more fleshing out.
If you like VN's with a touch of point and click it's an EASY recommendation and must play. If you don't, I'd still recommend this for it's fantastically creepy story.
Steam User 1
Pretty good game and fun story.
Extremely broken on Steam Deck and Linux. Avoid if that's the case