The unique Deadly Body II launched in 2003 and struck a chord with many audiences, changing into essentially the most well-known and talked-about recreation within the collection for years to return, along with being the one which put the Deadly Body identify into the zeitgeist of horror gaming. The sport was remade in 2012 for the Nintendo Wii, utilizing the Deadly Body IV engine, with revamped visuals and management schemes in addition to some new content material, nevertheless it solely acquired a launch in Japan and Europe. Whereas the collection nonetheless did get yet another launch after the 2012 remake, with 2014’s Maiden of Black Water, the collection can be dormant for a number of years afterward, till Maiden was remastered for contemporary platforms in late 2021.
In 2025, they introduced they’d be taking yet one more stab at remaking Deadly Body II for contemporary platforms, and after attending to play a number of hours of it final month, my hands-on preview detailed how this remake adjustments lots of the core of the sport, updating it to be nearer to Maiden of Black Water‘s gameplay engine, however nonetheless retaining sure features near the unique recreation’s spirit. Now that I’ve absolutely completed and explored the total recreation on two totally different playthroughs, on two totally different platforms, and with lots of totally different choices, we are able to current a closing verdict on how the sport fares.
Visuals/Storytelling:
Beginning with the visible updates, the sport has been reimagined with a contemporary recreation engine that’s stuffed with life like particulars however nonetheless maintains the distinctive doll-like, anime-inspired artwork type for the characters, and almost the whole lot you see or expertise appears to be like visually stunning, even when some can be horrifying. The characters have gotten a considerable facelift by way of making them have extra life like faces, options, and our bodies, transferring barely away from the closely anime aesthetic the collection was recognized for, however nonetheless making them not fairly like actual people.
The rise in constancy and updating of the artwork type permits for extra nuanced character expression by way of facial and physique expressions, which enormously helps with the storytelling and immersion on this planet of Deadly Body. This additionally makes it really feel rather less such as you’re watching an anime, despite the fact that the options are nonetheless clearly exaggerated in some methods to honor the unique character designs.
The village the place the sport takes place has been expanded and improved in some ways, with extra areas to discover and extra issues to see, successfully making the city really feel slightly extra lived-in and expansive than within the unique recreation, which had a comparatively small map and few locations to see, all issues thought-about.
This recreation design component has usually been the norm for the Deadly Body collection, the place you solely go to a couple of bodily areas all through your journey, however need to retrace steps by way of those self same areas to come across new puzzles, ghosts, or info, typically by way of the eyes of one other playable character or in one other interval of historical past. Although issues are expanded right here, it nonetheless maintains the sensation of being a small, distant village, and this is among the few video games within the collection that doesn’t function the character-swapping, typically sticking with Mio for its complete working time.
I’ve all the time thought that Deadly Body II particularly may’ve used some higher storytelling for the reason that story of the sisters by no means had a lot specific emotional relevance for me and the characters principally felt like cute anime lady avatars, with their unique fashions trying far too younger in age for the mature-ish story they have been making an attempt to inform. I can positively say the storytelling hits more durable right here, because of the higher expressions of the characters, the brand new hand-holding recreation mechanic, and barely much less anime-level voice performing, all of which added some further immersion to the expertise.
With the ability to select the unique Japanese voice performing goes a good distance, which is one thing that the unique Western releases of Deadly Body by no means allowed as an choice, and that the current remasters included as an ordinary. Even when the Japanese performing can really feel slightly cliche and anime at occasions, it manages to precise slightly extra with the emotional performances from the primary forged and a few horrifying (generally irritating) voices of the spirits and ghosts.
That mentioned, that is nonetheless a Deadly Fame recreation, the place the storytelling tends to be a really obscure or romantic sense of storytelling that’s principally about ambiguous character relationships and feelings reasonably than being a straight-forward story, so it doesn’t have terribly profound issues to say general. It’s additionally so deeply intertwined with conventional Japanese mythology and beliefs that it may well typically fall flat on Western audiences who would favor to have a collection of narrative occasions taking place reasonably than studying notes and information about what a ghost was feeling on a selected day within the seventeenth century. In any case, this remake permits extra of the emotion to be conveyed than ever earlier than, even when it’s not normally saying one thing that’ll affect you deeply usually.
Its doubtful dealings of non secular possession over lots of of years, reincarnation, and Shinto curses goes an extended option to set a temper (vibes?) however doesn’t do quite a bit to maneuver a plot ahead in a significant approach; nonetheless, the overarching theme that people who find themselves not dwelling are nonetheless capable of be “with” us after they’re gone nonetheless resonates fairly properly general. This story (and most different Deadly Body tales) traditionally have tended to resonate slightly extra with some feminine audiences, and whereas I can’t personally communicate to that, I do know a number of pals who’ve mentioned that the story has a extra private which means for them as girls.
Nevertheless, I’ve accepted that the story isn’t all that essential to the sport general, for the reason that gameplay, type over substance, and immersion on this planet tends to hold itself to a big extent. No matter that, I can nonetheless say the way in which the story is advised right here is stronger than a lot of the different entries and positively higher than the earlier two variations of Deadly Body II, even when it won’t have private affect for me.
Gameplay/Controls:
The gameplay is the place a lot of the largest adjustments seem, with most of them being completely fantastic updates to the collection components, although it does include a couple of downsides. Issues just like the previously-mentioned hand-holding mechanic are a pleasant contact through the few components of the sport that the 2 sisters are collectively. This offers you some therapeutic and willpower restoration whenever you want it, in addition to permitting you to regulate Mayu and inform her the place to go, as an alternative of leaving her habits to be completely dealt with by an idiotic and cumbersome CPU.
Many different components from the newer Deadly Body video games are additionally included right here, like having to achieve out for gadgets (which may nonetheless be interrupted by a ghost,) an on-screen mini-map, improved fight controls and lock-on perform, barely quicker motion, and several other different quality-of-life features that the collection later developed.
There’s a number of different new components for the collection, together with crouched motion that introduces stealth-based gameplay mechanics, a monitoring system for facet tales and additional notes, a bodily dodge maneuver that can be utilized any time, and a enormously modified and expanded fight system.
Beginning with the brand new crouching and stealth system, this is among the finest additions to the sport general, introducing a number of new components that weren’t current within the collection earlier than and that make the gameplay much more fascinating and numerous. Whereas some fundamental stealth components have been launched very briefly within the further Ayane chapters of Maiden of Black Water, this remake makes them a major part of the entire recreation, with the flexibility to manually flip off your flashlight and crouched motion working collectively to allow your benefits in stealth.
Together with the overall capability to keep away from some ghosts whenever you don’t need to have interaction with them, the stealth mechanics assist you to sneak up behind some enemies and take a stealth shot, doing much more harm than you normally would, which lets you save movie and keep away from some drawn-out encounters. This additionally introduces the brand new component of getting to actively disguise from sure highly effective ghosts that you simply’re unable to fight at sure factors within the story, forcing you to run and discover a spot the place the enemy can’t see you and ready till they depart. There’s even segments the place a ghost may have a motion sample it follows, and also you’ll need to actively sneak round it, finishing puzzles and exploration with out getting caught by them.
These components all work collectively so as to add further complexity, technique and stress to most components of the sport and are a powerful success as a complete for me. It’s not completely mandatory to make use of the stealth mechanics other than a couple of scenes, however it may well work to your benefit should you select to make use of it recurrently. Along with the brand new areas to discover, the stealth mechanics up the extent of immersion in comparison with each earlier variations of the sport, to the place even should you’ve performed the earlier variations a number of occasions, the brand new components make the expertise really feel contemporary, and it even switches up the development of the primary story at sure factors to maintain you in your toes, making me glad they didn’t go for a 1:1 remake right here.
There’s additionally a brand new added system for exploration the place your digicam filters are used as puzzle-solving instruments in a approach that feels satisfying and provides slightly extra immersion reasonably than simply merely taking footage of sure spots to progress. Every filter has a distinct capability in fight and outdoors of fight, giving slightly extra complexity and usefulness to the Digital camera Obscura usually.
Now we’ll want to debate the most important flaw of this remake, which is the revamped fight system. Since that is the primary recreation within the collection that Group Ninja has developed, it appears they’ve taken it upon themselves to enormously change the fight system to not solely make it rather more advanced and numerous (considerably to a fault,) but in addition to make it very unbalanced and unreasonable from a problem standpoint.
There’s numerous new options for the digicam, and every lens has a number of totally different skills that may be upgraded in numerous methods, making for a couple of too many choices relating to customizing and prioritizing the way you need to improve your tools, with a lot of the upgrades feeling like they barely made any optimistic change in any respect after upgrading. These new choices additionally require having to always be enthusiastic about which filter to make use of in every state of affairs and towards every ghost, regularly juggling far too many components, which wasn’t actually an element within the comparatively easy unique model.
This over-complexity made the quantity of choices really feel overwhelming, and made it really feel such as you would possibly all the time be selecting to prioritize the improper issues. Fortunately, it’s fairly straightforward to reset your upgrades and re-assign them whenever you select, nevertheless it’s lots of further work to always be re-specking your upgrades simply to check out in the event that they’re price retaining. On prime of the quantity of choices already being overwhelming, the textual content descriptions that specify what every digicam’s strengths are don’t give a complete lot of precious info, and the improve menu provides you no actual information as to what every improve improves and precisely how a lot it improves.
The mixture of the brand new lenses, guide zoom and focus capabilities, the improve modifiers, and the brand new appeal attachment system simply made the Digital camera Obscura really feel unsatisfying throughout fight in most situations. Regardless of re-specking and making an attempt a dozen totally different mixtures by way of my playthroughs, none of them ever felt fairly satisfying or ample for the fight till I acquired to the New Sport+ choice, the place you possibly can broaden the digicam past its regular improve skills. This leads into speaking in regards to the problem of the fight as a complete, the place the Digital camera Obscura is just one of many components that enormously throw off the balancing.
Within the first few chapters of the sport, the fight is actually there as a slow-ramping tutorial to show you all the new fight mechanics and components you’ll be answerable for dealing with as you play, and the fight is greater than cheap in these early sections, with a good steadiness on problem and sources. Nevertheless, when you hit chapter 3, issues take a heavy step in a problematic course, when it introduces a few of the extra aggressive ghosts, the aggravated state, and multi-ghost encounters.
I’m undecided why this huge shift in problem happened, whether or not it was to probably compensate for all the brand new added fight skills, making an attempt to “shock” returning gamers who thought that they had mastered Deadly Body’s fight, or perhaps simply Group Ninja making an attempt to convey it as much as the relative problem requirements of their different video games. In any case, the quantity of movie you get from pickups plus a cap on what number of of every movie you may maintain, the harm that every movie does, and the overall problem of the fight is off the charts, even in comparison with the laborious modes within the unique Deadly Body II, which I replayed after ending the remake simply to straight evaluate.
As somebody who accomplished the laborious modes in each earlier Deadly Body, this one seems like there was far an excessive amount of problem imbalance within the fight, which made most encounters really feel tedious and much more irritating than they wanted to be, even after turning it right down to the simplest problem setting to match. Fight encounters in Deadly Body have all the time been a slower, extra meticulous affair, however I personally don’t need to really feel like I’m preventing a boss in an RPG each time I battle a standard ghost, and even after mastering the Deadly Body and Deadly Time mechanics, the encounters nonetheless drag out for much too lengthy.
Except for having much less sources, extra complicated improve and customization choices, and usually doing far much less harm than ever earlier than, it’s compounded by the slew of recent skills they’ve given the ghosts to additional drive you insane. Even widespread ghosts now go into an “aggravated” state a number of occasions in every battle, which permits them to heal most or all of their life bar in seconds, remaining enraged for a great quantity of the battle, permitting them to maneuver quicker, take much less harm, do extra aggressive assaults, and in addition to set off their therapeutic section any time they like.
Ghosts additionally now have the flexibility to sort out you to the bottom as soon as your stamina (willpower) runs out, the place you’ll need to wrestle with them to get a face shot whereas the digicam waves round wildly within the wrestle. Whereas Maiden of Black Water had a barely comparable fight component, it wasn’t almost as obtrusive as this one, which simply slows down the tempo of every encounter enormously.
Moreover, some ghosts now have the flexibility to utterly blind you for lengthy sections of the battle, the place you may’t see them in any respect till you get very shut, making you need to always change filters and cope with every kind of different further nonsense through the encounters that wasn’t current within the earlier variations. In direction of the top of the sport, because the enemies stored getting stronger or having extra skills to increase and complicate each single encounter to the purpose of feeling like a chore, I began merely wanting the encounters to be over earlier than they even began, getting nearly no enjoyment out of the fight even when switched to the simplest setting.
I hope they’ll add some extra choices to tweak or modify the problem sooner or later or maybe simply rethink bringing again the steadiness that made the fight fulfilling in earlier Deadly Body video games, however that is the most important sore spot for an in any other case wonderful remake.
Efficiency:
As for efficiency, as I used to be capable of take a look at each the PC and Xbox Collection variations, and the PC model ran and appeared nice, even on a gaming pc that’s already round 6 years outdated, with tons of choices for adjusting the visuals, decision, framerate, and rather more. Nevertheless, as of the construct we acquired to play, the console variations have very strict framerate locks on each PS5 and Xbox and only a few choices for adjusting any particular components for efficiency.
This might simply be a case the place they plan so as to add totally different “Efficiency” or “High quality” modes after launch to permit gamers extra choices, however within the present pre-release state, these variations are locked to 30 FPS most, and wrestle to even hit 30 frames more often than not. The efficiency on consoles wants lots of work, however hopefully will get there earlier than the sport is accessible to the general public later this week. The controls typically labored fairly properly throughout each variations, although utilizing the mouse and keyboard was awkward when the collection has historically used a controller.
Conclusion:
This remake goals fairly excessive at making an attempt to replace a survival horror traditional to the trendy period, and succeeds with flying colours on lots of its updates, but in addition fumbles a couple of of them, which want some extra work and tweaking earlier than the entire bundle feels really top-notch. It’s nonetheless a reasonably nice expertise should you can muster the endurance to navigate the obtuse digicam improve and fight techniques, however it could be fairly powerful for a lot of gamers to endure.
I’m hoping a couple of of those components will be polished to make the sport attain its true potential and in addition hope they’ll contemplate remaking the superior first recreation within the collection, however that is nonetheless a worthwhile expertise for followers of the collection, particularly on PC.
(7.5 / 10)
(7.5 / 10)Good
