Games That Make You Think of Halloween Day 26: The Mansion of Hidden Souls for Sega Saturn

Day 26: Mansion of Hidden Souls - Sega Saturn

I picked up my Sega Saturn in 1999 and at the time I bought 1 game, It was Shining Force 3. Fast Forward to 2007, I am just starting to become an actually video game collector rather that just some guy with a lot of video games. I decide that my Halloween game for 2007 is going to be for the Saturn and since I had just picked up a lot of about 20 games I had a few to choose from. In the lot was The Mansion of Hidden Souls, D, and Lunacy. My discs for D were a little beat so it was really between Mansion and Lunacy. Lunacy looks pretty good, it's made by Atlus and the cover is nice, but the description on the back is beyond stupid.

 Quick side quest about Lunacy. The back of Lunacy says "There Exists a legendary city where every wish is granted but wishes have a price. Those who have walked into the city wear a special mark upon their foreheads - and have no memory of who they once were." Okay so that's the story, and it goes on to say you have to stop the magical realm for destroying itself and your home land all while recovering your most precious possession - your memory. Seriously, this is the language it uses, home land not one word but two, and magical realm. What the eff is with all the vague description? How about he Magical City of (Name Here)?  So while I have a problem with the bad and vague descriptions my bigger problem is with the premise. It might just be me, but if I live in a magical land of wishes and I am having a problem, and again this might just be me, but I just make a wish for those problems to be solved. Let me solve this game real quick, I wish for my memory back, and I wish for the worlds to not blow up....BOOOOM problems solved, hooray magic, hooray wishes. Also, what kind of shitty magic city is this? The one cost is you lose you memory, for all the wishes ever, but this magical city can't even get that right.  How am I suppose to trust that my wishes will all be granted if this city can't even get such a simple detail right. 

So having compared both games I went with The Mansion of Hidden Souls, plus as it shows on the cover this is a Saturn EXCLUSIVE...except it isn't or is it. When I begin collecting for the Sega CD in the very first lot I buy, I find this

Yup, Mansion of the Hidden Souls for Sega CD. The one for Sega CD was released in 1993 and the one for the Saturn in 1995. So are the games the same, turns out no. The title of the games is not actually the same. For Sega CD its Mansion of Hidden Souls, and for Saturn it's THE Mansion of Hidden Souls. The one Saturn takes place in the same location but 20 years later.  Anyway these games are first person point and click adventures in a haunted mansion, very much Like D, 7th Guest and 11th Hour. You might be seeing a pattern here, point and click adventures, and haunted houses. So yeah, the idea of haunted houses or mansions are my preferred Halloween go to, some people like gore in the vein of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, I am more a House on Haunted Hill, The Grudge, Haunting in Connecticut, and The Conjuring kind of guy. Anyway, the game was only okay and it was pretty dated by the time I played it. I forgave some of the dated conventions, but bad voice acting is hard to ignore. the ending of the game is pretty weird, not what I was expecting so bonus points for that. The experience of choosing The Mansion of Hidden Souls was very memorable and now when I see either version of the game I can't help but think of Halloween.

Read All Titles Carefully,

~Johnny~