Mansion of Hidden Souls
Sega CD
Before Playing:
I had never played Mansion of Hidden Souls until now. I'd heard the name in passing before, sure. But seeing as how I never owned a Sega CD growing up, it is one of those games that completely fell off my radar.
What prompted me to play it here in 2025, 32 years after the game's initial release? I listened to a podcast about it. It's a podcast called Retrovaniacs. Most of the hosts disliked the game, but there was one host who was very passionate about it. He even went so far as to say it was possibly his favorite game of all time. It was his passion that inspired me to finally check out this game. So here we are.
Let's dive in.
Story:
Maybe the manual does a better job at explaining things, but the game doesn't give you too many hints as to what is going on. Listening to the podcast in advance helped, because I'm not sure I would have understood the game if I had come into it blind.
Essentially, you control an unnamed character who is looking for his sister. His sister has wandered into this "Mansion of Hidden Souls." There is a curse in the mansion that turns everyone who enters it into a butterfly if they don't leave in a certain amount of time. So it's your job to find your sister and get her out of there before she is turned into a butterfly forever.
As you explore the mansion, the previous occupants (who have already turned into butterflies) talk to you and give you little clues about what is going on and what you need to do next.
It's a somewhat surreal game. I cared more about exploring the environment and taking in the sights than I did the story. The story is kind of weak. But as a whole package (environment, exploration, and story combined) it works.
Gameplay:
This is one of the most simple games you'll ever play. You don't really do much but walk around and look at things. I guess you could say this is one of the very first walking simulators out there.
The game starts in a mansion hall that is shockingly similar to the original Resident Evil. Open space, big red staircase going up the middle of the room, wooden doors on the sides of the room. You can look around from the first person perspective. There is no clicking or moving a mouse around. All you do is use left and right on the d-pad to point your character in the direction you want him to move, and then press up to move him forward.
The goal of the game is to explore the mansion. Normally when you enter a room, some kind of cutscene involving the butterflies will start. Then you search the room and find a key. Sometimes just coming into a room and looking around will trigger something in another room. You basically just want to trigger all the scenes and advance the story. Eventually you'll be able to get everywhere in the mansion.
The first place I got stuck was in a room with candles. I had picked up a lighter, so I knew I had to light the unlit candle. But that didn't trigger anything. I must have spent 20 minutes snuffing and lighting candles randomly before I gave up and searched for the solution online. Apparently, there is a certain pattern in which the candles need to be lit. I must not have been paying attention when the game showed me a dartboard with the pattern on it. Woops.
Once I made it past that part, the game took a slightly more difficult turn. You explore the lower levels of the mansion, and there is a room that instantly kills you if you walk into the water. That's annoying. As you advance the story, there is a character that chases you in a hallway and can kill you if he touches you. Shortly after that, a timer starts where you must complete the rest of the game in one hour. I hate being on a timer, but luckily the game is not too hard.
The only other part that tripped me up was a section at the end where there is a series of doors in front of you, and you have to pick the right door each time or you are transported backwards in the mansion, and you lose precious time. Apparently the solution to the puzzle is that you can only pick doors with multiples of three on them, or some kind of nonsense like that. I would have been able to make it through easily with time to spare if I just trial and errored my way through it. Instead I looked for the solution online. Plus I remember them talking about it on the podcast.
Right after the door puzzle, the game ends and you see the ending credits and cutscenes. The whole game takes about two hours, give or take.
Graphics:
This game looks rough. It's blurry, it's grainy, it's absurdly pixelated. The picture quality is scrunched and terrible. But you know what? I still kind of like it. The game is a product of its time, obviously. It may not look like much now, but the truth of the matter is that back in 1993, I would have thought that it looked absolutely incredible.
Even though I realize it doesn't look particularly good by today's standards, I still feel charmed by the graphics of this game. And I like the atmospheric vibe of the mansion, especially as you get closer to the end of the game. It's clear that this game was an inspiration for Resident Evil and future games to come.
Sound:
The music and atmospheric sound effects are pretty good. The game has a cheesy B-movie feel to it, that is conveyed well by the musical score. The voice acting on the other hand is terrible. But what can you expect from a game from 1993? I couldn't understand what was being said a decent amount of the time. There's one particularly plot heavy point in the game where they finally take the time to explain some things, and you can barely hear what the narrator is saying.
So as far as the game's sound goes, it is a mixed bag.
Overall:
I liked my time with the game, but overall I can't say I was enamored by it. It was okay. It was mid, as the youngsters like to say.
I'm glad I played it, though, as it satisfied a long standing curiosity with me. As I said before, I never had a Sega CD as a kid. Now that I'm an adult and have access to the system's full library, I just love exploring titles I never had the chance to play when I was younger. And Mansion of Hidden Souls is one of them.
That said, the game itself is only slightly above average. I enjoyed it and had fun overall, but it could have been better. Things could have been explained better, like what exactly the book does. Seriously, I kept trying to use it in every room, and nothing would ever happen. I later found out that using the book saves the game. So all I was doing was just saving over and over again in every room. What a waste of time! I suppose if I had read the manual, I would have known that.
So yeah: this is a slightly above average game. And boy, do I ever have the perfect review score for that?
THE GRADE:
C+
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