Luigi's Mansion Retrospective

[Music] annual revisits to some of my favorite games are comforting for me when it feels like summer i'll play super mario sunshine the first snow of the season gets me in the mood for some comfort food while i stay indoors perhaps a zelda game some metroid prime or maybe even a platformer from my childhood and yet there's always one time of year where i crave to be unnerved october has an infectious atmosphere of spookiness it makes sense to revisit resident evil 4 and i do because i love it but among the various horror games that i could play throughout october there's always one game that i tend to prioritize october 1st i'm there it's not necessarily a scary game but it is a game that lends itself well to endless revisits that game is luigi's mansion although it was released in place of a mainline mario game at the gamecube's launch it went on to receive a huge cult following prompting the development of two sequels in later years the original game did not receive the credit it deserved at the time because it wasn't designed to be a one and done endeavor everything about its design encourages improvement and the high score philosophy of an arcade game it's a prime example of how to repurpose this for a new generation in this video i'll be dissecting the design of the original game revealing just what makes it a favorite game of mine and why i love to replay it every year as well as its sequels and how they attempted to adapt and recapture that magic in their own unique ways i i'm liam triforce and this is my luigi's mansion retrospective before we begin i'd like to thank today's sponsor surf shark now more than ever we rely on the internet but when you browse the web unprotected your personal information can become exposed and that's scary with surfsharkvpn you can encrypt all that stuff and send it via a secure tunnel to ensure that no pesky ghosts can snoop in on your business it protects you from targeted ads that try to read your mind and thieves that want important information like passwords and credit card info and in the event of that happening surfshark will let you know so that you can take care of it it's more than just a vpn for sure but it can also offer you things you'd definitely want for convenience's sake since you can browse from many different locations around the world it can give you access to content that might be unavailable in your country recently i was able to re-watch one of my favorite animated films the iron giant on netflix by switching my location over to australia you can use surfshark on as many devices as you like even at the same time and there are apps available on windows mac linux ios android and even amazon fire tv they offer 24 7 live customer support and a 30 day money money-back guarantee if you aren't satisfied so check out surf shark and use the promo code liam yes my name to get an 83 discount and three extra months free the concept of luigi getting his own game has been toyed with before but never acted on mario's missing doesn't count if luigi were to star in his own adventure it'd have to be in something unique luigi has always existed in mario's shadow the character that every younger sibling could identify with simply placing luigi in a platformer that focuses on him would be nice but it wouldn't be an exploration of his character and it'd be passing up an opportunity to experiment with new gameplay mechanics and ideas thus luigi's mansion was born luigi would no longer be a supplementary jovial mario brother now he actually had an identity of his own that being one of a scaredy-cat but hey maybe that's the reason luigi rarely leaves his brother's shadow perhaps he's too shy or nervous to do so and this game aims to explore that side of him being easily spooked at every moment of his accidental adventure and hesitant to take the next step but he's doing this all to save his dear brother i love how this game demonstrates his new character trait while roaming the dark halls of his mansion not knowing what lies around the corner he'll hum the game's theme song to himself while the actual theme plays over him he hums it in an effort to keep himself calm and when a room is clear he'll whistle the theme to himself in a confident manner this is made apparent through charles martinez nuanced voice acting i can attribute a lot of mario's initial characterization to charles martinet his over-the-top contagious happiness is all sold by his irreplaceable talent in fact he was the one that came up with mario sleep talking when the player leaves him idol in mario 64. charles just seems to love his job and i mean why wouldn't he not only does it seem like a blast but it's also probably one of the greatest voice acting gigs of all time i can also trace luigi's voice and personality back to him as well when charles was first hired to play mario he would put on a headset that would track his facial movements and he would remotely communicate with people as mario which has since become one of the best things to happen to the nintendo world store in new york city sometimes kids would come up to the tv and ask to speak to luigi since he couldn't bring luigi out at the time he'd come up with the excuse that luigi was too shy sure you know something i just realized you know he's pretty shy and i think he's in his kitchen making spaghetti meatballs but i'll ask him and i'll turn the head sideways like this and then because my mouth would move and the context was i'm gonna keep my mouth still go yeah where'd you wear it [Music] no i'm too shy besides i'm in the kitchen making spaghetti meatballs he says he's too shy and besides he's in the kitchen making spaghetti meatballs and while luigi wouldn't develop past that for a while he finally got his chance in luigi's mansion and charles did a wonderful job making luigi who he is a lot of his vocal cues depend on his health if luigi's health is low you'll hear a faint whimper when he opens a door instead of slight curiosity when he calls for mario at full health he'll sound calm and collected but as his health decreases his calls sound more panicked luigi's health also correlates with the tempo of the music as he roam the halls as luigi grows more frightened with weakness [Music] despite luigi's anxious exterior he's far more observant and in tune with his surroundings than his brother if you choose to examine objects around the mansion with your game boy horror you'll no doubt take notice of his commentary on the exquisite or sometimes abhorrent decorative taste of the interior designers although this hasn't since been expanded on further it added yet another layer of depth to the secondary mario brother that was previously unexplored this is something that luigi's mansion excels at it doesn't just go out of its way to enrich luigi's character alone the mansion he explores in and of itself oozes character luigi's mansion carried with it a unique vibe ever since it came out it could be spooky or unnerving as you roam the halls not expecting what might be around the corner but it's immediately softened by this cartoonist charm the ghosts have these plump goofy designs that feel plush and huggable the sound design is delightful and they all have unique characteristics that contribute to their memorability it was the first spooky game that i still considered spooky without it actually being spooky in fact most of what i find endearing about this game's atmosphere comes from how it can make me smile luigi's reactions to the ghosts he encounters his humming and whistling braving the dark halls to brighten rooms that haven't been solved it's all surprisingly comforting yet mysterious at the same time i can attribute the mysteriousness to the game's overall structure you visit rooms all over the mansion that are each thematically rich and i found myself wondering what i was going to see next each and every time i'd wonder about secrets that were hidden away in locked optional rooms and stuff and i'd also wonder about the rooms themselves who lived here and what did they do well the portrait ghosts actually answer that question the family of ghosts that serve as bosses extend to relatives butlers friends stowaways and even a lost soul in a graveyard on their own they are responsible for an unparalleled level of personality now every room could be home to a new member of the family and you'd have to figure out how to suck up each and every one of them in a different way perhaps you'd need to trap bogmeyer in his own shadow freeze miss petunia's warm bath or draw spooky the dog out with a bone they each have special dialogue that hint at their method of defeat when you examine their hearts and they all have their own mannerisms that keep them distinct and they're not generic mannerisms the noises they make their behavior and their animations are all characterized effortlessly with this unexplainable nintendo charm the way chauncey screams and cries as he sucks on his pacifier and shakes his rattle the couple in the ballroom dancing together melody playing piano renditions of mario music the butler wandering the halls even the bulldog in the backyard all of the portrait ghosts have these little nuances and traits that give the mansion this lived in feeling but there's more after capturing them you'll be able to read their biographies from your game boy horror you'll learn about how they died what their hobbies were and then some neville is catching up on all the books he missed out on in life mr lugz ate himself to death and still isn't satisfied and slim bank shot died before he could play a living soul in billiards some of them are darker than others actually little sue p died in her sleep and bogmeyer who was once the embodiment of fear and despair isn't sure who to fear and what to despair of anymore and you can see that in the expression on his face but perhaps the darkest implications come from vincent von gore his name is an obvious reference to the famous painter a tortured unsuccessful artist that struggled to sell any of his artwork he died at the age of 37 before he could see the fruits of his labor a few of his paintings also exhibit the manifestation of his extreme loneliness von gore could be interpreted as a satirical continuation of his problems as an artist in life in an effort to finally diminish his loneliness he paints a family to inhabit the giant mansion and king buu brings them to life as luigi you are essentially crushing his dreams by capturing his ghosts after he loses all of his artwork he gives up and allows luigi to capture him without putting up much of a fight perhaps this is an insightful commentary on how the public consumes art without giving it a second thought or i'm reading too much into it still his character demonstrates that waluigi's mansion isn't outwardly focused on horror the spookiness lies in the subtext nintendo is really good at creating subtext for their games link's awakening in the ephemerality of escapism ocarina of time and growing up and now this it's a testament to nintendo's dedication to games as a unique storytelling medium this is how the atmosphere surrounding luigi's mansion goes from curious and exciting to meticulously enthralling it changes from a simple puzzling adventure game into something worth getting lost in and enjoying a lot of luigi's mansion's world might have been lost on the majority of players on their first playthrough and that's a shame because it inspires creativity and intrigue in every moment it gives the player a definitive drive to explore and solve the mansion note that i said first playthrough implying that you'll need to play through the game multiple times it's not that you'll need to i believe that you'll want to everything about luigi's mansion is deliberately designed to be appreciated more with each playthrough yes some things might click on your first run but most of the time the genius of luigi's mansion shines through and you realize how you can do better critics originally detested the game's short length but i couldn't disagree with them more nowadays my playthroughs of luigi's mansion never last longer than four hours and if the game were any lengthier i'm not sure i'd feel compelled to replay it as often but let's talk about why that is let's examine each of this game's aspects from two angles a first time playthrough and how things change with experience let's start with the act of vacuuming up ghosts itself this simple action that you perform countless times throughout the game becomes the catalyst for improvement and exploration of the game's systems you hold down the r button and pull away from the direction the ghost is traveling in to suck them up faster as you meet portrait ghosts you'll discover that consistently tapping and pulling the analog sticks will keep the ghost stuck in your poltergust pull allowing you to maintain an unbroken stream and keep draining their health certain ghosts behave more aggressively than others and they'll drag you and break off if you aren't careful this is what the game lays out for you but perfecting the art of ghost hunting is a journey in and of itself no one will know the ghost patterns on their first playthrough down to a t so it's a constant game of improvement sucking up ghosts again and again until you can pull back on their trail effortlessly also let's not forget that you have to flash them with your flashlight first you need to be up close and it needs to be a brief targeted flash otherwise regular ghosts will fade back into the darkness for a bit once i learned to use these in tandem properly the act of sucking up ghosts became emphatically satisfying due in part to the development of my own skill the speed in which i could absorb ghosts into my poltergust and the sound design [Music] booze however turn your knowledge of ghost hunting upside down in order to capture them you'll want to be in a lit room otherwise their health won't drain nearly as fast they won't get caught in your poltergust pull instead they'll only be slowed down so you'll need to constantly be moving and pulling them backwards to stop them from escaping the room all of this creates a system that is endlessly rewarding and deep every ghost you catch and how fast and consistently you're able to catch them is on you making the act of catching them permanently exciting and gratifying and catching multiple ghosts at once is gratification yet to be matched few games give me the feeling of exhilaration i feel when i scoop up multiple ghosts in one shot all thanks to how good i am at said scooping but how are you rewarded for your performance physically well depending on how successful you are in maintaining a steady stream with portrait ghosts you'll net yourself some pearls pearls count toward your ranking and capturing the ghost ideally you'll want to suck up each portrait ghost in one clean shot without breaking off to earn all of the possible pearls also count toward your total gold now racking up gold is the ultimate goal beyond each playthrough yeah saving mario is one thing but there's a lot to learn about luigi's mansion and a single playthrough doesn't give you enough time to learn these things but with that said a drive to replace something doesn't come out of nowhere so let's talk about how luigi's mansion makes a great first impression in its design we've already discussed its unique atmosphere and novel combat system and what they bring to the table so let's talk about the structure of the game itself it adheres to a metroidvania-esque layout as you grab keys to unlock different parts of the mansion and acquire a small number of items that help you solve problems and unlock more rooms the puzzle solving that goes into capturing portrait ghosts finding secrets and lighting up rooms across the mansion might just be enough to entertain people for one go the combat is immediately enticing exploration stays varied thanks to madame clairvoya sending you on a non-linear journey to find mario's missing items and the mansion-wide blackout that brings a ton of ghosts back into previously solved rooms and each room is enriched in detail with new interactive elements being introduced depending on the theme some potentially involving your own knowledge of where things are located in the mansion and how you can use the contents of another room to your advantage even looking at this alone luigi's mansion is a game unlike any other but if you were to just simply solve for the main objective in this game you'd be doing yourself a disservice it's not guaranteed to leave a lasting impression that's why critics weren't amazed by this game when it came out most reviews you'd see in magazines and on the internet came from critics whose jobs don't allow for them to play something over and over again they need to be able to get a review out fast so they can beat other publications to the punch and move on to the next project in fact that's part of the reason i tend to stay away from covering very recent media on this channel unless i feel like i have something unique to say luigi's mansion has had almost 20 years to grow on people and those that have poured countless hours into it understand it better than those initial reviews could have ever hoped to so let's go back to gold totals you're being shown this information as you clear each chunk of the mansion learning about how much this gold is worth and being graded on your performance as if this is an arcade game i went through a good portion of my childhood replaying this game and doing whatever i felt like until i was old enough to realize why i was being graded and why there was so much gold strewn about and why there were gems and diamonds this game is an arcade game and when i say it's an arcade game i don't mean that literally let's take a quick look at pac-man world 2. a platformer from the same era as luigi's mansion based on an arcade game pac-man existed solely in the minds of the public as an addictive arcade game for years and that's mostly what its identity is built upon today pac-man world 2 attempted to merge two schools of game design arcade and collectathon platformer into something that was designed to be replayed its focused collecting meshes well with digestible level designs so that progression is the goal while grabbing every collectible is something that you can work at when you revisit the game later that compels you to come back along with tight platforming and challenging gameplay i made a full video on the game if you'd like to learn more this is how the arcade philosophy can thrive in a modern game based on progression and in luigi's mansion doing better each time simply boils down to getting more gold everything you do can net you gold in this game from how well you do in boss fights to collecting booze to solving puzzles to checking every nook and cranny you will be rewarded for your efforts the maximum amount of gold possible to obtain is 142 million three hundred and ninety thousand let's break down where that gold comes from how the game teaches you to obtain it and how it makes luigi's mansion more than what it seems at face value alongside portrait ghosts booze offer a grand reward for collecting all 50 of them there's one in every room excluding bathrooms and outside areas as soon as the room is lit up it'll hold a boot if you want to maximize the amount of gold you get in this game it is highly recommended that you grab every boot because it'll give you a gold diamond worth 14 of the game's total treasure this is hugely motivational in the context of the game's final ranking and thankfully it's fun to keep track of the booze if you ever lose a couple when they drift into a locked room it's on you to memorize where they've gone and memorization is a huge part of solving luigi's mansion as a whole they acquaint you better with the layout of the mansion enabling you to seek out those optional rooms or keys that lead you down branching paths this also forces you to sharpen your own ingenuity in searching rooms which can lead to some unexpected discoveries to clarify booze require you to examine things in rooms based on your game boy horror's boo radar doing this both teaches the player to search for interactable objects to net themselves some treasure which leads to heightened resourcefulness this skill set is required in finding the two hidden rooms which are tucked away in locations difficult for the average player to find and they both have booze in them remember how i mentioned you can examine things with your game boy horror if you're curious enough about everything in the mansion you just might be rewarded for it examining strange pieces of cheese lying around will cause a gold mouse to appear netting you some coins and sometimes a jewel worth between 500 000 to a million g this is but the start of how resourcefulness can reward you the first hidden room can be accessed by examining a mouse hole that this guy crawls away from the second hidden room later in the game can be found by climbing the second chimney opposite the treasure chest both of these rooms reward you with a ton of gold once you've cleared them out and it's dependent on the player's knowledge of the game's mechanics puzzle solving in regards to the layout of the mansion and memorization speaking of memorization here's where the other gold diamond comes from once you collect the water elemental you can put out fires and water plants egad explicitly references the rewards that come from watering plants although there's one plant that i didn't figure out until i'd play through the game a few times the event that allowed me to figure this out was the blackout that happens in area 4 as it made elements of the mansion change on your first playthrough it's the overwhelming amount of ghosts that'll strike you tough ghosts too ghosts that grab ghost with masks ghosts that'll make you slip and slide it's a true test of how acclimated you are with the poltergust but for me it's an opportunity to seek out new speedy spirits these little devils hide in dark rooms on your initial run too they're definitely designed for people that are optimizing their gold collecting as they are extremely difficult to capture they scamper around rooms if you don't flash them immediately and if you're too far away when you shine your light at them you'll lose them forever but they're vital in expanding your treasure collection making them a worthy test of reflexes for seasoned players during the blackout new speedy spirits appear in rooms you've already checked creating a compelling risk versus reward system as you avoid other ghosts and it establishes a precedent the mansion changes between phases of the game luigi's mansion is split into four areas although the mansion itself is seamless only specific things in the mansion change between areas like this plant in the backyard if you remember to water it every time you enter a new area by area 4 you'll be rewarded with another gold diamond these two diamonds amount to 28 of the game's possible treasure and if you're overwhelmed by boo hunting you can stick to this one getting all the booze watering this plant cornering speedy spirits finding old mice discovering hidden rooms checking every shelf or vase and optimizing your boss fights will all play a part in the ranking you get at the end of the game and it exponentially fleshes out luigi's mansion's gameplay the replay value is through the roof here and the straightforward metroidvania-esque level design as you figure out how to get to your next room or capture a ghost becomes secondary to what you're doing in between and since i can complete this game in under four hours i see this as an absolute win that's why luigi's mansion is a short game if it were any longer replaying it just wouldn't be as fun if it were to overstay its welcome i might have grown tired of my maniacal scouring for gold and once i've mastered the game i can go through the hidden mansion which doubles your capture rate while also doubling the damage you take among other small changes the pal version got a more brutal and frankly way better version of this which further rewards the player for becoming invested in everything luigi's mansion has to offer all of this makes luigi's mansion a favorite game of mine at first glance it's a whimsical romp through a well-designed mansion with problem-solving seamlessly integrated into its action and exploration but upon further examination it's one of the most engrossing games to become invested in and replay in an afternoon or whenever you're in the mood for it to this day i'm finding new ways to optimize my runs i'm taking less damage which means losing less gold i'm finding new gems and speedy spirits that i previously missed out on i'm getting gold frames and netting myself the big pearls on portrait ghosts i once struggled with i'm always improving meaning that luigi's mansion has remained a fresh experience all these years later what am i missing out on and how can i find it is always a question at the front of my mind when i replay this game and that is a testament to its timeless genius it has yet to be replicated by any game i've ever played a lot of its charm lies in the little details as well something that you'd only appreciate when you've replayed the game a few times booze having stupid yet charming puns for names the personalities of the portrait ghosts the shared residence of a family that felt connected the dark undertones in certain ghost biographies the feeling of mastering the poltergust nuances the optimization of my runs solving all the mansions various puzzles it all resonates with me and i'm happy to replay it every halloween it never gets old and it's a game so distinctive that i doubt it'll ever be topped not even by its sequels but that's okay it took a long time for luigi's mansion to get a sequel and when it finally did it took a few liberties it attempted to redefine luigi's mansion for a new audience and the result was luigi's mansion dark moon from here i'll be documenting next level game's take on the series and how the rocky road and understanding luigi's mansion led us to where we are today but in order to see how this happened we need to figure out how nintendo became convinced of their abilities in 2005 nintendo and next level games released super mario strikers at the time the art style immediately caught my attention it was striking huh anyone yeah okay i think anyone can attest to this though some of this stuff was pretty outlandish from mario but it left an impression and looking back now some of the game's art was dazzling and unique the art alone seemed to convince me that this was more than your average mario sports game which already were pretty fun games so in the year 2020 i finally decided to pick the game up i mean it probably isn't anything remarkable right uh yeah this game is awesome the tech is surprisingly simple to grasp allowing basically anyone to deek their opponents and make some sick plays i can imagine myself having an awesome time with a full four player group at some point needless to say i can totally see how this game convinced nintendo of their ability to create games with individuality they would later go on to make a sequel a remake of punch out for the wii which i absolutely adore and finally a follow-up to luigi's mansion before we begin i just want to thank my friend scott for recording a playthrough of this game for me i don't have a 3ds capture card and citra still can't run this game adequately so without him i wouldn't have been able to make this video i mean i could just borrow footage from a let's play channel but i'm already embarrassed enough when i have to do that for 30 seconds so no thank you scott check out his channel by clicking the link in the description anyway let me preface what i'm going to say about this game with something important the gap between luigi's mansion and darkmoon was sizable to say the least short arcade-like experiences were becoming less prevalent aaa games can be upwards of 100 hours and the general public is leaning towards this direction for games if they're going to pay 60 dollars they'll want something that can last as such it wouldn't be wise to repeat the formula of the first game it became an unfortunate gate for its audience back in the day and jumping through the same hoops isn't necessary rather than making something that is infinitely replayable they instead brought the things that made luigi's mansion replayable to the forefront and fleshed them out into a full-length experience with proper progression enriched puzzle solving and more variety in level design and although they took a step forward with darkmoon they also took two steps back and the game is trapped between two schools of thought creating a replayable arcade-like experience and crafting a well-rounded adventure game that lasts for an appropriate length it's a sequel to luigi's mansion in some ways but a disappointing follow-up in others my feelings toward darkmoon have been complex for quite some time but after replaying it for the video i've finally been able to nail them all down luigi's mentioned darkmoon excels in some areas but makes dire compromises on its own design in others first off darkmoon feels significantly more barren in comparison to the original although they've done their damnedest to make sure every room is a sandbox full of interactable objects the entire adventure can feel void of personality there aren't any portrait ghosts or substitutes for those kinds of bosses and bosses only appear at the end of each mansion as weird contraptions or monsters thus the only other inhabitants of these mansions are your standard cookie cutter ghosts that you fight throughout the game while these ghosts aren't generic or anything it can feel a bit lonesome and slow when they're the only enemies you spot throughout the mansion i feel i have to ask this was there really no reason to have portrait ghosts or an equivalent strewn about each mansion figuring out how to capture them would still fall in line with this game's focus on puzzle solving and exploration over replayability and finding them all could still count toward your gold total right so the gold total is still a thing here but it no longer counts toward a rank at the end of the game it instead unlocks upgrades for luigi's arsenal equipping you with a stronger vacuum a better flashlight etc this completely shifts the philosophy of the game it's no longer about self-improvement it instead actively encourages the player to seek out gold in order to feel properly equipped to face new challenges gold can be acquired in many ways just like the last game catching multiple ghosts at once will net you more gold gold ghosts are worth a ton elusive gold bones hidden in each mansion are worth 200g and gold mice still roam the halls from time to time you can also use the new dark light mechanic to reveal hidden chests and objects filled with gold rewarding player ingenuity that organically develops throughout the game the dark light is also used when going after the main objective as you have to spot where something might be missing so that you can proceed based on context with that said there's still more they could have done because by the end of the game i felt exhausted looking for gold here's what i mean gems return in darkmoon although they function as collectibles that you uncover and they can be some of the most rewarding things to hunt down both testing you on skills you've developed throughout each mansion and your own cleverness when you spot an oddity i have to give them credit for this they are a wonderful addition to the game however your reward for seeking all of these gems out a statue of luigi gems do not contribute toward your gold total and since there's no ranking system they exist solely as a fun diversion from the main objective they're tricky to unearth and subsequently flesh out the player's knowledge of their arsenal and problem-solving skills but they are worthless in the grand scheme of the game's design to clarify my thinking let's just take a look at mario 64 for a second under no circumstances did you have to grab every star you needed just over half of them to complete the game and you could collect them in any order you liked darkmoon's only mcguffins are well the darkmoon pieces even if the gems can be fun to collect they are not a factor at all in progression hell you could completely neglect gold if you wanted to you don't need these upgrades to finish the game well you could argue that you didn't need to collect gold in the original game because it was all based on your own drive to grab it and that's fair but the difference there was that the game was designed around the desire to maximize your gold in every aspect making its purpose quite clear here when things don't have a purpose it just makes for a more barren game this shines a negative light on the game's mission-based structure actually believe it or not you're ranked at the end of each mission here but this was a trivial addition that seemed to be the only lingering connection to the first game's philosophy there was no reason for this game to be broken up into missions separate mansions yes they're all thematically cohesive and offer something new and exciting and design and exploration but missions why all they really do is take you out of the mansion just as you find a new area and force you to retread areas you've already been through for seemingly no reason it's hard for the mansions to feel seamless when you're walking through already cleared areas in the search for more gold these missions can take a long time by the way luigi's mansion encourages the player to be thorough and that's a good thing but if for some reason you die during a mission you'll be forced to start from the very beginning imagine spending 30 minutes on a mission being careful so as to not miss any hidden treasures or gems and then dying and having to do all of that over again if they just kept the original setup for the game with safe spots placed throughout the mansions then this wouldn't be an issue parts of the mansion could change after clearing one objective opening up a new objective for you to investigate i feel as if the only reason missions exist in this game is to force the game to cling to some part of luigi's mansion's original identity when they instead should have fully embraced what their game had become boo hunting is also bogged down by this structure while finding and fighting them can be fun as you have to locate the room they're hiding in and shine your dark light on them before sending them bouncing around the room if you miss a boo in the mission you'll have to replay the entire mission over again just to find him if you decide to do that and then rush to the end just to get it over with the game will give you a poor ranking it's a failed method of positive reinforcement that pointlessly connects the game to its predecessor in theory you could still take this opportunity to grab more gold in the gems you missed but the main objective still grows repetitious in the end boos at the very least unlock a secret level in each mansion enabling you to collect more gold and experience more of the game and the act of defeating them will grant you some gold too but doing so ended up being so taxing that i couldn't be bothered this kind of structure just cripples the rest of the game's design as a result although each room is packed with things to do and gold defined their size and the time spent doing so against a mediocre ranking system and the risk of restarting from the very beginning if you either die or miss a boo made the act of finding gold become monotonous by the end this is something that the original luigi's mansion avoided through a short length clever design and a balance of elements for everyone's playstyle even though darkmoon wants to steer clear of an arcade-like experience there are still things holding it back and that's why i tend to avoid replaying it nowadays if they had done away with the things tying it to the original game's philosophy and went all in on its gold-based progression system while doing away with rankings and missions this would have been a much more enthralling game now i know i'm making this game out to be a disappointing sequel and to some extent yeah i wish it were better but luigi's mentioned darkmoon also gave me hope for the future of the series at its core it is a well-designed adventure game that goes out of its way to be inventive and fun for starters the combat it might be less skill driven than its predecessor but next level games still manage to come up with some great ideas for streamlining the process as you're vacuuming a meter will gradually fill up depending on how much you've tilted the circle pad against the ghost trajectory once it fills you can press the a button to drain a good chunk of their health in one satisfying wave depending on when you press the a button you'll be rewarded with more gold this is where collecting all that gold can pay off and i really like what they've done here as you reach incremental gold goals your poltergust will gain new levels of suction that can be used as the meter fills if you manage to capture a ghost at the maximum level you'll be rewarded with the maximum amount of gold since each ghost has a different amount of health your timing in your a button presses and how many levels of suction the ghost will even take to capture will be at play in every encounter now this system may not be nearly as organic and deep as the original games but they've still managed to streamline combat yet give it its own skill ceiling and it's also a great way of repurposing gold for progression's sake your flashlight also factors into capturing ghosts as you can charge it up to increase its area of effect this introduces a risk versus reward system when capturing ghosts as you line up your shot just right so that you can stun a group of ghosts and suck them all up at the same time it's a great system by the end of the game they throw a gauntlet of ghosts at you and it proves to be one hell of a challenge but the game effortlessly sets you up for situations like this and since gold contributes to your poltergust's increased effectiveness this is where the game's new use of gold shines the brightest it also shines brightly in puzzle design being rewarded with a plethora of gold to collect is something that should never be neglected when designing a luigi's mansion game and darkmoon balances gold-based rewards and progression-based rewards through puzzle design tremendously well creating an interactive sandbox unlike anything the original game had seen it was at the heart of the original game but there was so much more that could have been done and i have to thank next level games for giving it everything they had here are some examples of how darkmoon uses puzzle solving to facilitate progression in one of the missions of gloomy manor cobwebs will suddenly fill the halls of the mansion's west wing in order to get through them you'll need to figure out how to spread fire across rooms by bringing balls of webbing to candles and using your dark light it gets trickier throughout with the player's ingenuity coming into play far more than in the original game by the time you fight the boss which is a giant enemy spider you'll need to spin the web attached to the ceiling fan above you into a lit candle while dodging its attacks haunted towers features many different elements like floating around rooms changing the water levels and filling up buckets but even though there are some common themes some of the puzzles are super out there and i respect that in the playroom you'll need to spring the correct jack in the box by looking into the dollhouse where you'll be able to spot the jack in the box that's shaking old clockwork has a lot of cool stuff as well generally by this point in the game darkmoon nails what it's going for every room seems to be its own unique sandbox revisiting rooms can be fun thanks to polter pup chases and the way things change with each visit and the missions are broken up into much more respectable chunks that fall in line with how areas were broken up in the original game that problem of being yanked out just when you wanted to explore more still exists which sucks because the game gets really good here the secret mind plays with mirrors in three-dimensional depth in impressive ways plays with concepts like pulleys and traversal mechanics the obvious snow and ice based puzzles are a thing here too and there's even freaking portals maybe i just have a soft spot for snowy cabins in video games but i love this place the treacherous mansion becomes the ultimate test of everything you've learned and all the skills you've developed you'll need to bring items through portals to their appropriate locations in order to solve puzzles and as a culmination of lateral thinking i kept saying to myself wow this is awesome i hesitate to elaborate too much on the puzzle-solving and darkmoon because if i were to explain every single concept it teaches and tests the player on we'd be here far too long it'd make for a dry video and there's still a lot i want to mention i just wanted to give you a brief overview as an honest look into darkmoon's best aspect take my word for it this is next level game's strongest suit darkmoon is a focused interactive sandbox with a ton of stuff to investigate for all kinds of rewards every room seems to be filled to the brim with potential goodies and using my brain to progress has never felt this good in luigi's mansion the unfortunate part it's bogged down by the game's many issues trapped between two worlds as it attempts to both adapt and survive in its own weird ways it was a transitional experiment for the luigi's mansion series as we know it today that said i still found myself satisfied with the game even back then the spirit of the original was still alive in this game and it gave the formula established in the original longevity if they could make a comparable puzzle sandbox game like this while trimming the fat of darkmoon luigi's mansion could finally be reborn as something that could survive in the modern era and that is exactly what next level games did with their best game [Music] luigi's mansion 3 had a bit of an identity crisis to overcome like i've said already darkmoon couldn't decide where to maintain aspects of the original game's replayability and arcade philosophy resulting in mechanics that bottleneck its focused progression and oodles of creativity at e3 2019 director bryce holliday acknowledged criticisms of darkmoon and said that they had changed the design whilst retaining elements from the original game like an equivalent for portrait ghosts the game was shaping up to be one hell of a sequel and in the end i felt inclined to say that it was it was one of my favorite games last year alongside stuff like sekiro and control but how does luigi's mansion 3 address problems that arose in its predecessor and what still needs changing and above all else why is it so much fun well remember how i mentioned the team wanted to retain or otherwise bring back elements from the first game well they weren't kidding about that the ranking system is back from the first game seemingly resurrecting a philosophy that i thought had been lost good thing too because luigi's mansion 3 is a physics playground everything seems to be interactive this time and that's almost not an exaggeration you can perform a burst to both keep ghosts away and knock objects around the room in order to sift through for gold you can use your new suction shot to pull and rip things apart to reap rewards and just generally suck up and interact with virtually everything around the hotel every room is tremendously lively and the most explorative players can find gold and gems hiding almost anywhere it's a wonder that the switch's cpu isn't on fire while trying to run this game gem collecting is also way more focused although your reward for finding them all is a mere cosmetic there's only six of them per floor and there's so much fun to unearth they even conditioned you to explore for gems just after you unlock guiji as the first floor hides all six gems in one room you're introduced to the various methods of searching for goodies and this kind of tutorial goes a long way in organically conditioning players to problem solving in such an overwhelming sandbox they offer some of the best layered puzzle solving in the entire series and although they contribute nothing to progression they're fun and that's what matters most and hey finding them actually made me better at looking for gold so i'd argue that they're essential here so we're already off to a great start but what's the caveat well the game is too lengthy for a gold-based ranking system to even warrant existence and gold is only used for extra lives boo finders and gem finders completely stripping away its original purpose and progression there's no upgrade system like in luigi's mansion too now gold is just going towards chasing a ranking and that was fun throughout the majority of the game but i became apathetic by the end because you're doing the same thing for like 12 hours opening this cabinet sucking up garbage doing a quick puzzle for some gold bars you get the idea i can only do this for so long before i feel obligated to gather gold although now that i think about it this is more of an issue with gold usage in luigi's mansion 3 as a whole it is heavily focused on being an engaging adventure game they've pulled out all the stops and i can't wait to show you how and why they've succeeded but since you can't upgrade your abilities through gold your drive to grab all this stuff will be for items that you'll rarely use thanks to internet walkthroughs and the game's difficulty curve being fair or a ranking at the end of the game but unlike the original where you were rewarded for gold and virtually all of the game's tasks like sucking up boss ghosts capturing all the booze watering plants you know stuff i've mentioned already luigi's mansion 3's gold comes from checking every nook and cranny perpetually for a much longer period of time than the original game don't get me wrong i'm glad they've attempted something like this again but when discussing an arcade philosophy potentially returning from the original game either you go all in or you don't bother playing halfsies with both takes on a luigi's mansion game plagued darkmoon and while it isn't nearly as cumbersome here it could have been used more effectively especially when it begins to hamper an otherwise focused experience other than that my only gripes with this game are minor boos are much more manageable in this game to collect although depending on the layout of a floor it can be obnoxious to track them down the seventh floor is structured like a giant tower in which you can either travel up or down there's no in-between if you lose track of a boo they'll go into a different room meaning that you could travel in the opposite direction only to waste your own time on top of that the only reason this cat exists is to create varied pacing but instead it becomes one of the most useless wastes of time i've ever seen you'll have to chase it around floors until you can finally yank out its tails and they do this twice i'd grown every time i'd run into this thing is there anything else uh oh oh yeah right the ghost dab gonna have to take points off for that one chief anyway missed opportunities and gripes here and there were not enough to deter me from enjoying luigi's mansion 3. this game knows exactly what it wants to be and it does a damn fine job at doing that first off combat it is largely the same as darkmoon although now you can slam ghost into other ghosts the same level of timing is at play and it never gets any less satisfying sure i'll always miss the skill driven combat of the original game but i understand why things have changed there are also way more ghost variations in this game to consider and the bosses can be genuinely intense as you think on the fly the game takes place in a giant hotel it's not as seamless as the first game as the game is broken up into distinct floors that are traveled to via a hidden loading screen that you can mess around in to kill time but that doesn't matter anymore because each floor is distinct and thematically enriched in every detail imaginable the game's personality is palpable due in part to the beautiful animation and visuals i think this just might be the best looking game on the nintendo switch thanks to the team's full utilization of its architecture the lighting is strong the effects are gorgeous and there can be a lot going on at one time without any noticeable slowdowns or frame drops these details only make the animations flourish even more i have to congratulate the animators at next level games on this game's animation it looks and plays like a full-scale pixar production it gives the game so much life with luigi's expressiveness and complex movements being the highlights for sure when he's startled in game he'll jump and shiver in fear and wander away stiff as a post during cutscenes he is an absolute joy to watch no matter what's going on i could go on about this for a while but i think this game winning the outstanding achievement and animation at the dice awards this year was absolutely warranted even if i ever get sick of playing this game i don't think i'll ever get sick of seeing luigi put in a new elevator button that's a testament to the sheer quality of this game's animation still the personality of this game returns in many forms most of it oozes from the look and feel of each floor the boss ghosts that inhabit them the things you can interact with and how you go about solving puzzles these are the elements that make each floor so memorable and distinct from one another and no floor is the same as the last the third floor is a shopping mall and this is where guigi's special powers first come in handy oh yeah luigi's mansion 3 is cooperative and it proved to be a blessing when sweeping through floors for gold that and messing around with one another is endlessly entertaining guiji can slip through bars and grates but he can't touch water there are four stores to investigate and they all have a ton of stuff to interact with you'll need to find the keys and return them to their respective registers which ends up turning into a bit of a mind-boggling treasure hunt there's a medieval floor that has two players working together since sharp projectiles and objects can pass right through guiji and there are a lot of times where you'll need to have the two of them on separate paths to solve a puzzle my favorite cooperative floor happens to be the boiler room luigi and guiji are constantly working together guiji raises gates slips through pipes and catches ghosts while luigi floats around and tries to find ways to let guiji pass through the water that threatens him the tomb suites have you pushing around sand sometimes in order to climb to higher areas and combing through it in order to solve puzzles and fight ghosts the twisted suites completely randomize entrances at one point and solving it feels like you are the victim of one giant magic trick there are boss floors as well where both players have to work together in solving problems to pinpoint a boss's weakness i love the bosses in this game so much leading explosive barrels into the ship and stunning the shark ghost at the right moment while running around like a decapitated chicken fighting a demonic piano that shoots keys at you vacuuming up all the sand surrounding surpsi again i have to stop myself because this video will turn into a giant summary if i don't i am consistently blown away by everything the team has created i strive to be as imaginative as them the point i'm trying to make with all this is that each floor focuses on something completely different and its problem solving always pertains to the thematic content in creative ways i was always surprised by what they do on every floor they far surpass any expectations i could have had usually in games like luigi's mansion puzzles are separate from the atmosphere of a level but in luigi's mansion 3 puzzles are a byproduct of the places you visit this game is absolute genius and a joy to experience and i know i said i'd limit myself but i have to talk about my two favorite floors first of all the final floor is brilliant it not only tests everything you've learned up to this point but also new kinds of puzzles like a seesaw that requires both players working in tandem to ascend to the key there's lasers to factor in when you're solving rooms and there's this one room where you have to rotate in various parts to figure out how you're able to get the key there the fight with helen gravely mixes this series trademark problem solving with fast-paced action as both players have to avoid hazards while guiji shuts off laser walls so that luigi can capture her it's an absolute explosion of creative brilliance and the film set is amazing you have to explore four sets and bring objects between each set so that you can solve each puzzle that is presented through the things that are being filmed it's so much fun it reminds me of the treacherous mansion from the second game but with way more personality and in the end you don't capture a boss ghost you instead help morty scorsese film his masterpiece as you have a beam struggle with godzilla and if you let him edit the film you can come back later and watch it and voice your opinion of it if you played this game you'll understand the sheer unbridled joy i'm expressing here luigi's mansion 3 is one of the most imaginative adventure games i have ever played this establishes a new direction for the series far better than darkmoon ever did and somehow i feel that this game has already solidified itself as a classic and although i'm happy that luigi's mansion is going down this road in the capable hands of a development team passionate about their work i can't help but miss what the first game accomplished [Music] in a perfect world a luigi's mansion sequel would be more in line with the original game but we definitely don't live in an idyllic world like that the video game industry has changed and it's become less and less likely for a sequel like that to exist in this landscape as such next level game's take on the series will suffice but there's still more that can be done and i know they're capable of doing it there has to be some way to incorporate both of these philosophies on fun into one experience i know they're great at taking feedback and i'm really proud of them for that they've come a long way since spider-man friend or foe yes they made that but i'm still leaning towards replaying the original luigi's mansion every halloween it's digestible and i can do more than one playthrough without getting exhausted i'm still learning things about that game and i'm still getting better at it meanwhile luigi's mansion 3's length is a commitment as much as i love it i can't commit to it when i have responsibilities to take care of at least outside of my initial playthrough on top of that it must have taken a long time to make this game i mean they prototyped it for the wii u and it didn't come out until halloween of 2019 two and a half years after the system was discontinued how long does it take to make a luigi's mansion game as creative and well constructed as lm3 and will it take any longer if they're trying to make something that appeases fans of both designs well if by some miracle anyone at next level games happens to be listening to my ridiculous ramblings here are some of my ideas for a potential luigi's mansion 4. i'll be drawing from across the series to make sure that it is both a success as a replayable arcade s game and a linear adventure game with a punch so number one have more abilities that luigi can unlock throughout the game the plunger is nice and gouigi is awesome but why don't we have more variety in gameplay perhaps bring back the elementals for dynamic ghost capturing and introduce new ones if possible maybe give luigi some upgrades to his vacuum that allow him to tear down heavier objects organically instead of having designated spots for that like an lm3 it felt gimmicky there maybe have a module that lets luigi charge through things with his vacuum at high speeds like super metroid the potential is there speaking of metroid number two these upgrades would allow luigi to reveal new rooms and possibilities for puzzle solving like metroid the original game was a seamless mansion with intersecting and branching paths facing an entire mansion around this concept yet still keeping those thematically distinguished areas gives the level design flexibility and depth at its core although i love the structure of lm3 i yearn for a mansion that doesn't feel segmented and rewards exploration and player ingenuity like a metroid game maybe even have some optional upgrades that aren't required for progression but still grant you some gold if you look around or help you in combat too number three allow the player to level up their upgrades through gold goals like lm2 so that the player continues to seek out gold regardless of where their priorities lie this was something that lm3 removed and i am still perplexed by that decision i grew apathetic toward gold by the end of that game because i didn't have any reason to keep collecting it it was the same thing over and over with no extra challenges to overcome like boo collecting plant watering etc speaking of which number four maintain the ranking system but make sure that alternative methods of obtaining gold that were possible in the original luigi's mansion are still present gems and booze especially this would make going for a ranking at the end of the game not feel underwhelming as you realize that it's because you went the extra mile number five make the reward for getting an a-rank something more substantial than a rebuilt mansion what if it were an alternate ending like the original plan was for luigi's mansion what if the concept of not being able to save mario in time was a real threat or make the rebuilt mansion explorable all that gold you've accumulated goes into something tangible full of all kinds of challenges and goodies to take in that'd be so cool oh and as an aside number six do we really need scare scraper these multiplayer modes take development resources right why not spend that time making the best game you can possibly make if you've never played scare scraper before it's a procedurally generated mansion where you run through floors with friends against an assortment of objectives capturing all the ghosts collecting gold etc teamwork is of the essence here and it can be a fun diversion but when i talk about what i remember most about the luigi's mansion sequels i never mention scare scraper it's not a bad multiplayer mode but if i'm to accept its existence it needs a serious revamp that gives its core gameplay loop more variety and purpose otherwise it will remain a diversion that i rarely revisit so those are all of my ideas for my ideal luigi's mansion sequel now you can accept or ignore whichever suggestions you like but i believe there is a way to strike a balance between the philosophies for both games i love the original game and i love the sequels well i don't love darkmoon but i still like it at the very least if next level games is going to continue down this path while attempting to satiate fans of the original there are so many avenues they can check personally if luigi's mansion 4 were to take into account some of my suggestions it wouldn't just be my favorite game in the series it just might be one of my favorite games period it'd be a combination of everything i love about this medium of entertainment and i like it when games do that a little bit now regardless of what the team does or doesn't do i will continue to revisit the original game for years to come it is a masterclass in replayability and developing player experience and familiarity through replayability while the sequels may have deviated for legitimate reasons the last thing i want to do is immaturely criticize them for being different i wish the original game could survive in an industry like the one we've seen today especially under nintendo's wing but occult following doesn't always translate into mainstream success years later i mean take a look at shenmue 3 shenmue 1 and 2 had a cult following and the sequel tanked sometimes things have to change luigi's mansion 2 gave me hope for the future of the series thanks to its new direction in spite of its problems and luigi's mansion 3 followed through on that vision exponentially so the series is in an accessible place and next level games is at the height of their run as a studio whatever they make in the future will no doubt be wondrous and i look forward to seeing it come to fruition i've been liam triforce and i'd like to thank you for watching [Music] mario [Music] [Music] mario

Channel: Liam Triforce

Views: 101,664

Rating: 4.9351559 out of 5

Keywords: luigi's mansion, dark moon, luigi's mansion 2, luigi's mansion 3, gamecube, nintendo switch, 3ds, retrospective, critique, analysis, review, series

Id: -0kvqrf28wY

Length: 57min 37sec (3457 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Timmy127_SMM]

There’s a lot of interesting detail about how replayability shapes the experience, and that’s why the game’s reception has improved with age. But I could also see nostalgia playing a significant factor as well — the replayability of the game heightening that nostalgic feeling. What do you think? Are there any new games right now that might go through the same reception shift that Luigi’s Mansion did?