What Made Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon A Masterpiece

[Music] foreign [Music] super mario 3d land and a couple other titles helped matters but the 3ds had a rough beginning we know the 3ds today is a well renowned system and a successful one at that but it was until 2013 when a game released that changed the system's life forever a game so critically acclaimed a game that would become a 5 million seller a game that would save the 3ds i'm innocent kristoff gavin and this is luigi's mansion dark moon i played the original luigi's mansion once through it was an enjoyable time and it was a good game that took risks as of now that's all i have to say about it well we should analyze the legacy anyway luigi's mansion was a launch title for the nintendo gamecube and was met with fairly positive reception it didn't receive much attention but it got a massive cult following throughout the following decade to the point where every year fans would be begging for another luigi's mansion well created entirely out of popular demand a virtue in the gaming world we live in a sequel began development luigi's mansion dark moon known in europe and australia as luigi's mansion 2 is an action-adventure video game developed wait wait wait what do you mean i'm reading off of wikipedia don't plagiarize development history is important to me so let's take a quick look at how dark moon was developed next level games and shigeru miyamoto's vision is what led to the game and the final product bryce holliday of next level games is also a key director of this title it was 2013 the year of luigi this was a year consisting of four titles that starred mario's forgotten brother and these were aimed to diversify the mario series during the 3ds and wii u era they absolutely succeeded in that the games included new super luigi u mario and luigi dream team this game and lastly dr luigi literally on the last day of the year as you would imagine the hype leading up to darkmoon's release was off the charts well how was reception for the game critics and fans worshipped the game we all know that having a high score on metacritic is pretty tough but luigi's mansion darkmoon sits at an 86 even better the game sold just under 5 million copies as i alluded to earlier this means that luigi's mansion darkmoon is one of the most critically acclaimed games that i will be tackling at this current point in time excluding the 1996 reviews of super mario 64. well it's been four years since i played it on my 3ds so let's analyze it and see if it truly is this good [Music] let's discuss the plot on a dark and stormy night in evershade valley professor egad tinkers with some machinery right off the bat the players are introduced to the ghosts who are helping egad with his little project king buu the antagonist of the first luigi's mansion shatters the dark moon that hangs in the sky this causes all of the ghosts to become evil we then go to luigi and see him sleeping in a chair egad communicates with luigi through the tv epic mickey style and asks no no forces luigi to meet him in the bunker the ghosts have become so rampant in so little time that egad refuses to leave the bunker this is somewhat surprising considering he was not concerned with his own safety in the original luigi's mansion i mean just look at him taking care of the ghosts right here regardless egad explains to the player and luigi what happened and why it's a problem this could have been the most bland opening of all time and secretly it may be on paper but egad's writing and luigi's expressions put this on a whole new level [Music] luigi is surprised to hear that egad has found one piece of the darkmoon by himself and requests luigi to do the unthinkable that poor guy is very afraid of ghosts and in a clear effort to avoid copyright infringement egad praises luigi's past abilities when facing the ghosts this still doesn't convince luigi to rally the ghosts up and restore the darkmoon but we know we get that's not going to change his plan at this point the player gains control and is able to navigate the menus to their liking upon selecting the first mission the story continues but the opening premise has officially ended here in terms of story darkmoon doesn't shatter my brain with complexity but it does with tone and writing the opening is rather spooky but egad's charm keeps the balance even between humor and darkness i'll elaborate more on this later darkmoon has a linear structure between missions so we can expect more dialogue than the original luigi's mansion indeed there is a lot more dialogue and it's superb the more time you spend in the bunker the more you'll appreciate the atmosphere in this calming lab of professor egad i love hearing all the computerized noises and the ever emphasized machine noises i'd like to think these function as relaxing white noise rather than as cartoonish effects but your mileage may vary this game has an atmosphere that is worth praising in general the combination of visuals music and tone are what let this game shine in that regard secret mine the fourth mansion in this game actually made it onto my top 10 winter atmospheres countdown and for good reason atmosphere is hard to describe but this analysis will touch base with it in a few indirect ways that will hopefully paint a broader picture in ways other than blatant chatter but besides that point there's something else i need to take note of that is relevant to the bunker ninety-five percent of darkmoon's plot takes place inside this lab with luigi always coming back after a mission to talk to a gad every time a mission is finished i'm excited to head back to the bunker and take in that atmosphere once again it's true i look forward to the bunker constantly it's the only place in evershade valley that you can feel safe in egad is an absolute delight as well he's very enthusiastic about researching what goes on throughout luigi's adventure and instead of acting like fee from skyward sword he gat is a guide in only the best way a pleasant comfortable force to have behind your back the professor will prepare luigi with his mission objective and will then teleport luigi to the mansion via the pixelizer let's be honest boys and girls luigi is terrified about his missions with mansions but if you notice he actually becomes more accepting as the game progresses however to keep this arc from being so linear the plan fails multiple times in a way very reminiscent of sly 2 band of thieves ok i realize there have been a lot of comparisons so i promise i'll stop for example take a look at what happens at the end of b4 pool party [Music] no no no bad dog [Music] [Applause] well the next mission has egad coming up with a completely new plan and this makes getting the key the priority rather than finding a way to the dark moon piece and as my point from before suggested luigi gets anxious when he's told to chase down the dog nobody likes a quick change of plans at this point i'll cover the other main plot points whenever they become relevant again i promise by the end of this review you'll have all the details luigi's mansion darkmoon has a basic plot with layers and layers of finely crafted storytelling with examples being the character's personalities the animations and the writing to something as specific as the check-ins with the professor back at the bunker without going into gameplay there's already an established motivation to keep playing so long that you enjoy luigi egad and the atmosphere of the bunker on to the gameplay darkmoon is a linear but exploration based game that takes place in five separate mansions everything is connected via rooms of various shapes and sizes sometimes you'll need to find a key or solve a puzzle in order to make a room accessible here's how the game is organized the first mission of each mansion is usually the longest and the most thorough in terms of exploration you go through a lot of the rooms and are introduced to the mansion in a very informal way once you explore a lot of one mansion the later missions become less linear after what are roughly 20 minute missions egad will transport you back to the bunker meaning that you'll be forced to leave the mansion including leaving alone any money or any collectibles you've missed linear gameplay is never bad by principle no matter what people say and not only is that true but darkmoon's gameplay and storytelling is only as strong as it is because of its linear structure yes this game has excellent gameplay but i'd like to analyze it more before we preach it to the high heavens i'm aware that there are a large portion of fans fans of darkmoon by the way who happen to prefer the original luigi's mansion i can understand people's preferences and different tastes but i can't understand what concrete arguments the elite minority of these people have against darkmoon but kevin ouija board mcmansion duo's tim lunar is inferior to the original ouija board mcmansion because it has a mission structure ruined forever oh be quiet i am aware of that vague argument the original was mostly non-linear in its gameplay please understand that i enjoy the original for this exact point but i cannot deny that darkmoon has a superior skeleton luigi must use his poltergust 5000 to suck up objects around him as well as the opposite with blowing out air this machine is pretty much the most important gadget luigi has and i really enjoy using the poltergust 5000 for how it often leads to puzzle solving in many cases by default luigi will carry a flashlight so that you can see in the often dark rooms there isn't much of a use for this in puzzles but combat is a whole other story you'll be fighting hundreds of ghosts by the end of the adventure and thankfully the mechanics are tight and never lose their fun factor for me the ghosts could be holding weapons such as shovels or be protecting themselves with a helmet for example so unless they taunt you you cannot do anything offensive in these cases using the precision offered by the gyroscope on the 3ds it's possible to suck the gadgets right off of them leaving them wide open but from here sucking up ghosts is always the same process stun them by charging your flashlight then hold down the r button to latch onto the ghost and pull back with the circle pad in the opposite direction that they're moving to do the most damage the poltergus 5000 produces electricity that will quickly damage the ghosts one numerical factor at a time after building up what i presume to be enough energy you can shock the ghosts to speed up the damage and or killing process once their health reaches zero you suck them in it sounds extremely complicated but it's fairly straightforward in practice i love this combat system for three main reasons for one charging the flashlight immediately places luigi in a strafing mode so if you're being careless and you're aiming the light behind the enemy you not only can't do anything to change your position but you're gonna get hit the second reason i love this combat system so much is the way it encourages the player to have good spatial awareness if there are ghosts attacking you while you're trying to suck up another one you have to time your hop with the b button or take a hit and lose grip of that pesky ghost and it feels devastating to mess this up let me inform you that failing to use the circle pad correctly will prompt luigi into sliding around all over the room which is incredibly dangerous in late game encounters the third and final thing that i need to discuss is how the upgrade system affects your decisions mid-battle collecting money during missions will open up equipment expansions courtesy of professor agad these range from a larger stunt radius on the flashlight more dark light battery which i'll get to soon or a stronger electric charge that can be unleashed on the ghosts these upgrades especially the latter one may encourage players to take more risks mid-battle a player might decide that they want to store up a huge blast of electricity but then defense becomes harder in luigi's mansion dark moon when you really boil the combat down it's about this how quickly can i clear this room before i take too much damage the ways you can experiment with the combat will lead to a thrilling time again and again because of this the combat can get very stressful and very cluttered late game a flaw i can't think of the solution to but you'll have to bear with it unfortunately next level games made a bold decision if you die during a mission you have to start over yes potentially 20 minutes of gameplay gone down the drain this is dumb and i don't have to explain why despite how ruthless this is they grant you an extra life with the gold bone which you can find by investigating around the mansion so if you lose all health you'll come back immediately to full health still i think this is too unforgiving not because darkmoon is a hard game it's not but because the consequences of redoing so much content is just plain stupid now luigi can interact with the environment with the x button this could literally range from sitting on a toilet to checking a drawer for goodies i enjoy this a lot and people who enjoy taking their time in exploration based games will get great use out of the x button i'm not gonna lie and say that there's a lot of optional things to find but in addition to money you can score yourself some gems the dark light is a somewhat controversial gadget that luigi gains in the game and i think it's fairly interesting it's a little cumbersome the dark light allows you to restore parts of the mansion that have been taken away if anything looks missing use the dark light and suck up the indigo orbs to restore the object now i said this was a little cumbersome but that's because the orbs are small and require precise aiming to suck up easily the good news is that the 3ds's gyroscope makes this a lot easier so there shouldn't be any difficulties when restoring these objects do i believe that the dark light adds to the gameplay not really but it's fun to use the puzzles are a little too easy to have the dark light be credited as necessary and super beneficial and that's what i have to analyze on the main mechanics and structure i think the best way to analyze darkmoon is by describing each of the missions mansion at a time this game is best looked at in context so let's roll into it the first mansion is named the gloomy manor aesthetically it's your typical looking mansion the layout is also fairly standard there's a foyer there's a garage there's a bathroom a common hall and many bedrooms despite the simplicity the color is rich the sophisticated browns are very pleasing to look at the gloomy mansion looks very well kept and that's something you can't really say for the other mansions in this game the patterns on the walls are especially charming the layouts see some simplicity as well with easy navigation between the rooms yeah that's all i have to say on the gloomy manor as for the missions a1 is simply about equipping the poltergust 5000 in the garage the end a2 has you on the hunt for gears that were stolen by the ghosts and by the end you retrieve and replace them to expand the mansion this mission sends you all over and you'll notice something is incredibly off ew all those spider webs one of the gears is hidden in the mansion study but to reach the room you have to sit on a bed and get thrown into the other side egad tells luigi that he will create a mechanism for him to put the gears into place a3 begins with the mechanism ready to go which is hilarious to see if you dive right into a3 after a2 i suppose a little bit of time passes between some of the missions but the game doesn't explicitly say that a3 has luigi exploring the rest of the gloomy manor climaxing with the fight at the library notice a certain tune being played this is basically the ghost's main theme but trust me it leads to something awesome in the final level a4 sees the obvious but neat return of the booze and lastly a5 is concerned with getting rid of all the spiderwebs to progress ending with egad calling luigi to tell him that he's identified the source of the mansion spiders the basement who would have guessed and then there's the boss stage of the mansion where luigi takes out the giant spider and collects the piece of the dark moon oh about those e-gad calls before we move any further we need to talk about something [Music] yellow [Music] one detail i glossed over is that egad gave luigi a ds to provide two things to luigi one a map being an in-game universe explanation for the map on the bottom screen of the 3ds and the other being that egad can call you once you complete an objective and pretty much whenever he wants in the gloomy manner this man won't shut up and he will continue to call you and interrupt you until the final mission in the game now i know that sounds awful it sounds very reminiscent of alia in mega man x5 but it's not as bad as people make it out to be egad's dialogue is still very charming and he never comes off as if he's insulting the player would i have preferred less hand-holding absolutely but this is tolerable still just warning you they'll call you a lot the second management is technically a two-for-one deal the haunted towers this is by far my favorite mansion in the game for its scope and missions the two towers are separated by outside catwalks that provide some scary views the greenery is pleasant to see and i think the gray-colored walls help for contrast purposes in addition to nature being a prevalent theme so is water b1 sees luigi looking for the hydro generator in hopes of repairing it the haunted towers is entirely reliant on this generator to work so it doesn't demand explanation as to just how important it is that luigi can fix it he does a fine job though he got ambushed by yellow ghost oh well b2 sees luigi finding a way to the top part of the mansion the tree egad received readings of the dark moon piece being somewhere up there however the ghost stole the parts to the pinwheel gate restricting direct access to the tree b3 now having the pieces of the pinwheel gate luigi enters the newest section of the haunted towers luigi is introduced to the first toad in the game these toads are helpers of egad who were sadly transported to paintings by king buu before the adventure began a fun escort mission ensues yes fun escort mission b4 is awesome there's a special key needed to access the tree section and the red toad took a picture of the ghosts who were handling it luigi makes it all the way there with some of the most fun puzzles and combat encounters on the way there just for the key to be taken away by the cute dog named polter pup v5 is a chase mission not bad but not worth discussing uh and oh the boss level tree topping is freaking genius the entire level is simply a large staircase to get to the boss room here's the catch only one staircase per level is real and the others will fall beneath you each time you fail you fall all the way down i know a lot of darkmoon fans hate this level but i adore it if you pay attention you'll see a path given by the flames so in order to maximize your progress and time you should look carefully and memorize as many flames as you can if you take guesses you'll be here for a while a long while the music speeds up too an awesome piece mostly comprised of string instruments plucking the haunted towers has an incredibly strong lineup and a solid atmosphere to boot moving right along to the third mansion the old clock works this mansion is quite good but there are two missions i'm not so fond of c1 is centered around finding the major clock near the top of the clockworks in order to proceed it's fairly standard but a quality mission i really enjoy the large and scoped feel and you are required to travel quite a distance c2 involves tracking down the clock hands in the old clockworks underground cavern oh my lord this mission is incredible the featured cavern is one of the scariest areas in the game with foreboding music low lighting and mummies yes mummies not only does c2 have an excellent atmosphere but it also features great combat encounters with these mummies now if you're assuming that c3 is where the quality dips you're incorrect investigating the remaining sections of the mansion are a priority in addition to tackling this mini boss however more interesting than the mini boss itself are the rooms leading up to it this is the mansion where the developers start to create more challenging puzzles and combat scenarios so how about that c4 look in the haunted towers we had a mission revolving around the poulter pup i said it wasn't worth discussing but the one thing i can say about it is that chasing the dog was a fun mission for what it was however bringing back the idea is quite repetitive c4 is the definition of filler and keep in mind i'm being so harsh on all of these missions in darkmoon because every single mission is at least decent c5 is our toad escort mission for the mansion and it is certainly polished and well paced despite this i prefer the first three missions of the mansion the boss stage is fairly simple and straightforward no interesting staircase this time sadly so the old clockworks is an excellent mansion but it has some holes in its armor to make it inferior to the haunted towers now for something really interesting the fourth mansion in darkmoon is the secret mine the mansion is only three missions long compared to the standard of five huh well don't fear because the developers certainly understood the concept of quality over quantity the secret mind comes very close to the haunted towers for me with fewer missions d1 is the toad escort mission for the mansion but because this is the player's first time through it's automatically more difficult and interesting than the previous ones the secret mine has lots of slippery floors and collapsed wood structures such as bridges you'll have to carefully navigate toad and yourself to the goal and i wouldn't have it any other way d2 is one of the most important missions relating to the darkmoon's overall plot the blue toad presented his photograph to egad and we see the ghosts are more powerful than ever through the picture we can identify that mario has been transported into a painting and being lugged around luigi explores the crystal quarry and by the end of the mission a teleporter is discovered the orchestrator as dubbed by egad is extracting these crystals to make the ghosts more powerful you know i find it interesting that king boo sends the ghost to each of the mansions for a specific reason i mean that is true right if you go back and think about the previous mansions there was a sense of common goal in each this i can appreciate d3 is my favorite mission in the game flat out the set pieces are varied new territory is explored you know what just know that d3 is a culmination of everything i've been praising darkmoon for up to this point also the mission ends like this and the final mansion the treacherous mansion in e1 egad is completely transparent about how dangerous the paranormal activity is in this final mansion and that he wouldn't touch it with the 200 foot pole but that's what luigi's for right egad struggles to pinpoint the exact location of the final darkmoon piece so he gives luigi the front key that he suspiciously has and the mission begins after luigi nearly falls bridge to the turnabout style he approaches the front door and poulter pop takes the key i would be more dramatic and upset but the mission itself makes up for this dumb contrivance it's with this mansion that we see a culmination of the previous mansion's ideas everything is expanded upon in a new way but that does leave the mansion lacking an identity once again leaving the haunted towers my preferred mansion by a slim margin comparisons aside we are lucky to have such a great mission for the contrivance in e2 we have our final toad escort mission moving right along e3 is a solid mission mario is properly identified in the picture that the purple toad presented and it's an image that's also showing a train exhibit in an admittedly creepy way king buu hijacks the photo and corrupts it creating an illusion luigi makes his way there solving puzzles leading to it considering that a path has been created egad is satisfied and transports luigi back to the bunker e4 is replaced by a boss fight luigi gets transported into the train area and fights a whole bunch of booze and now the final mission e5 paranormal chaos this is easily the most famous mission from the game and it's easily one of my favorites luigi falls down in fear as he witnesses a paranormal portal sending wave after wave of ghosts around the treacherous mansion all of a sudden the tensions have increased the entire world is at stake i'm not making this up the portal will spell doom for the entire world because time and space is being destroyed it would be too ridiculous for this game to have such an intense final level but the music the atmosphere and the challenge make it deserving the piece of music you are hearing is the same motif used for the ghosts since the beginning of the game but now look it has been fleshed out into a full composition with more parts than before as time and space collapses the music speeds up making the repetitive tune more and more haunting adding to this tension and fear are the purple lightning strikes and the constant combat this level is not joking around it's hard as hell and i love it not only are you running from room to room and portal to portal under a time limit but you have to fight tons of ghosts in tough situations the final showdown by the paranormal portal is insane please take a look [Music] professor e gad calls you back once matters have been handled so that luigi can empty all of the ghosts into the vault before he goes to the final mission and after king buu is defeated in the final battle the world returns to normal and the game concludes we'll touch more on the ending a bit later [Music] i briefly touched on the bosses with the spider in the gloomy manor but i have little to say on the others the boss of the haunted towers is visually lame and not very interesting to fight and it lacks the puzzle aspect the first boss had the old clockworks battles it's okay defeat these enemies and avoid the clock hand if possible the secret minds fight is alright as well and the semifinal boss and final boss of the game are okay i'm sorry there's nothing left to say on that wow luigi's mansion darkmoon has excellently crafted gameplay across the board maybe minus the boss fights some of the missions are a little uninspired and some of them are repetitive and the difficulty can be quite cheap but the mechanics and mansions are absolutely out of this world but what is perhaps most notable is the presentation darkmoon is often hopping between two distinct tones witty and frightening the latter happens only occasionally until paranormal chaos so let's analyze the wit gosh no better place to start than the animation luigi egad and especially the ghosts bursts with fluid and exaggerated animation during many times in a mansion there will be little holes in the walls that luigi can peer into and get a glimpse of the ghost's behavior some of the ghosts are very calm and do human things while others get into pillow fights this is great stuff the animation is just as smooth in gameplay luigi's off-pace walk and hunched back help you see into how he feels and his bumbling run depending on the situation could be of excitement or terror and of course you can cry out for mario as well the lighting in the mansions is top notch many areas will be darker than others and there will be occasionally some whiplash once the room is cleared of ghosts it suddenly bursts with light i feel that the visual effects are way ahead of the 3ds in terms of pop the electricity on the poltergeist 5000 is a key highlight these colorful lights and effects make the game more pleasing to look at which is an impressive feat considering how darkly lit this game is on a more musical side the presentation satisfies expectations you'll see that there is a heavy emphasis on woodwinds and plucking performed by string instruments i think these choices paid off as they allow the eerie and melancholy pieces to stick out other pieces have a nice calm bounce to them like with the pause menu theme have a listen to some of the soundtracks [Music] highlights [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the soundtrack composition is certainly satisfactory as well with great variety in how prevalent motifs are tackled there's one catch though as you probably noticed from my examples in the video's brief intro the music is quite compressed especially on the clarinet and other low woodwinds as you could probably tell from this video's intro [Music] but it doesn't distract all that much in terms of more how should i say quality of life matters the frame rate is sometimes 60 usually dips to 40 and it's rarely under 30. only brief moments of action will actually reach that low i really really wish darkmoon maintained a locked 60 frames but the graphics are so impressive that it doesn't matter too much now do you know it really brings all of these elements together for me it's the charm this game has so much personality that it often hides some of the weaker missions faults sucking up ghosts is incredibly satisfying thanks to the sound design and the animations present listen to the sound that plays when you suck up a ghost [Music] this is just one example of how charming this product of entertainment is because at the end of the day video games are forms of entertainment i can't think of many experiences more entertaining than the complete package we have in darkmoon what heightens the sense of charm and entertainment values the slapstick luigi has so many unfortunate but hilarious events occur to him and to cap it all off the final cut scene after defeating king buu evershade valley returns to normal and so do the ghosts the ghosts are not only friendly to the main characters once again but are happy that they themselves have returned to their true selves egad is just as happy and luigi is thrilled because mario is saved what ensues is a full voice acted conversation between mario and luigi i can't think of any other time we've seen mario characters talk to each other this much other than super mario sunshine mario hi luigi you a mario i did it way to go oh number one that's my bro thanks mario [Music] that my friends is the definition of charm before we close out this review i want to briefly touch on the multiplayer in darkmoon the scare scraper is an online and local co-op mode where you and other luigi players must work together or compete in taking out the ghosts the mansion layout is much simpler than the campaign one as you'd expect but this mode is surprisingly fun okay i'd be lying if i said there was a lot of depth here but it's certainly worth trying out with your friends if everyone's on board [Music] the best way i can summarize luigi's mansion darkmoon is this the game can be a little repetitive a little overwhelming and maybe a little too unforgiving when you pick at the finer details but at the end of the day no matter how much i gush about the atmosphere and type design the game is pure fun and well-spirited even when they pull the stairs out from under you or take away your key in the next room the game has a positive spirit that cannot be matched by many other games sure darkmoon has charm that i will admire until i die but the positive spirit that brings a smile to my face is what elevates this game to the level of quality that i hold it to with all that said and done how would i recommend luigi's mansion dark moon jumping ahead of myself for a second this is the easiest decision i've ever had to make in my entire life dark moon is a nintendo select for the 3ds meaning that there are new reprinted physical copies out in the wild availability is looking favorable as you can always download the game on the eshop but remember that because this is a nintendo select the price is only 20 an absolute necessity it's a downright phenomenal and easy to find game at a cheap price nonetheless buy it play it love it [Music] you

Channel: IKG Productions

Views: 10,718

Rating: 4.8080001 out of 5

Keywords: luigis mansion dark moon, luigis mansion, luigis mansion dark moon review, luigis mansion dark moon analysis, luigi's mansion 2 review, luigis mansion 2 review, 3ds game reviews, mario, super mario, mario reviews, super mario review, ikg productions

Id: SruphrBQcN0

Length: 39min 53sec (2393 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2017