Kurokishi no Kamen (Japanese: 黒き死の仮面, lit. "Mask of Black Death") is a video game developed by HummingBirdSoft in association with Group SNE and published by Matsushita Electric Industrial for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. The game was released exclusively in Japan on May 28, 1994, as part of the Ghost Hunter dungeon crawler series, which also includes Laplace no Ma and Paracelsus no Maken from the same developer.
Plot and Gameplay
The game is set in 1930s London within the abandoned Guilford Mansion. Thirty years prior to the events of the game, the mansion owner's wife, child, and three friends were brutally murdered in a ritualistic manner. The case was closed when the owner hanged himself, but rumors of supernatural occurrences persisted. The player controls a party of four ghost hunters investigating the mansion: the mystic Kenichiro Kusakabe, the detective Alex Quinn, the journalist Morgan Dylan, and the scientist Vincent Hoffman.
Gameplay is presented from a first-person perspective with tank controls allowing movement in four directions, while a cursor enables interaction with objects and scenery. Encounters with malevolent spirits are resolved in a turn-based combat format. The role-playing elements are simplified compared to earlier entries in the Ghost Hunter series, with no character creation or customization; all characters have fixed stats, equipment, and special abilities. Each character has unique abilities: Kenichiro is the only character with mental power (MP) capable of psychic spells, while Vincent is the only one who can use spirit machines to harm enemies.
Development and Release
The project was led by Hitoshi Yasuda, creator of the Ghost Hunter series. The game makes extensive use of full-motion video with live actors. It was published exclusively in Japan for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.
Reception
Next Generation reviewed the game (under the title "Ghost Hunter"), rating it three out of five stars, noting that the game is entirely in Japanese and that language comprehension is necessary to progress. The French magazine Consoles + gave a score of 68%, similarly noting the language barrier. Kurt Kulata of Hardcore Gaming 101 compared the game to Mansion of Hidden Souls, another horror-themed interactive film game for the 3DO.
