Mary Skelter 1 & 2 Switch and PS4 Review

By Nate

In 2017, Compile Heart released Mary Skelter for the Playstation Vita and it was a fantastic dungeon crawler for its time. It included fairytale characters and creepy dungeons. Now, it will be only coming to the Nintendo Switch in the U.S. (It’s still available for the PS4 in Japan.). Are these games worth your $40? Let’s find out in this review.

STORY

The first thing that I noticed was that there is an extra story mode if you use the L1 button at the main menu on the PS4 Version. It’s all story and it will extend your love for the game if you are interested in more story. You don’t have to play it at all. The same can be said for the first Mary Skelter game. You don’t have to play it and I’m going to give you a forewarning about the previous entry of the game series. You can literally spend hundreds of hours in it. I didn’t spend that much time, but I’ve seen people in forums who said they spend over a hundred hours on it. It can be quite a lengthy game. In the Nintendo Switch, North American Version of the game, you have to download the first game separately and I have not heard if it will contain the additional story menu.

What’s different with Mary Skelter Nightmares? The game has been revamped. It looks better and performs well on the PS4. On the Switch Version, everything seems less vibrant and sometimes, I noticed more lag on Mary Skelter 2. The dungeon sizes have been scaled down because many players had complaints about them being too big. There is a new toggle feature which allows for manual and automatic checks of the Jail Roulette. The game has been balanced more to make it easier and better for players. There is also an additional sort feature which enables the direct use of gift items from storage. In addition to this, there is a feature to track the amount of materials needed to complete quests and missions. The quest system has also been enhanced. Additional categories have added a new dimension to the Jail Roulette system, and new criteria give more control over growing dungeon areas. Jail effects are now displayed via a pop-up when activated.

For the size of the maps, they are still huge. I don’t remember how big they were on the PS Vita version of the game, but, for Mary Skelter 2, it still took me sometimes 3-4 hours to complete one dungeon. On the PS Vita Version, I would get lost for even a longer amount of time.

The story for Mary Skelter Nightmares is as follows (From my Review for MSN):

“The game is set in 1999’s Japan in a living prison known as “Jail.” When this prison was birthed, it was swallowed by the earth and buried 666 meters below the ground. The results of this cataclysmic event were hostile monsters known as, the “Marchen.” These monsters threatened humanity.

The story of the game takes place decades after the cataclysm. Our main protagonist, “Jack,” and his childhood friend, Alice, are tortured by the Jail guards. As they were about to give up on living, a girl holding a pair of scissors appears before them. Jack and his many heroines must escape Jail by solving the dungeon’s mysteries and fighting through the Marchen.”

I adored this game’s story and love the many characters that come with it. For instance, we get characters like Alice (Alice in Wonderland reference), Kaguyahime (Princess Kaguya), and Rapunzel. I also enjoyed the dark and treacherous environments. At times, it was a little too creepy for me. As you proceed through the dungeon, you will have special nightmarish monsters actively stalking you. It adds a sense of creepiness to the game. Also, don’t forget that this isn’t some 10 or 20 hour game. You will spend tons of hours completing this adventure. However, in order to play the first game, you will have to download it as free DLC at launch.

About the story for Mary Skelter 2:

“Mary Skelter 2 evolves the core elements in Mary Skelter: Nightmares to bring to you a world teeming with twists and turns, topped with a new battle feature where the previous protagonist, Jack, is now a Nightmare. Players can use his Nightmare powers to defeat enemies, but at a maddening cost. Set in an alternate reality that includes familiar characters from the first installment, players must relive the torturous dungeon experiences and find ways to feed an almost insatiable prison. Will you be able to escape this prison and find sanctuary or will you fall into the clutches of madness?”

Mary Skelter 2’s story is not as magical as when I first played the original game for the PS Vita. The game’s story is very interesting sometimes. However, without the voice acting, it can feel boring. There are many unvoiced scenes. I wish that there would be voice actors in these parts of the game to fill in the void. It’s still a very fun game, nonetheless.

For how much you pay for these games, you are getting so much story and it’s fantastic. I love these games for what they are and they are still some of my favorite dungeon crawling games.

GAMEPLAY

Both Mary Skelter 1 and 2 feature a turn-based, dungeon crawler gameplay. The dungeons used to be excruciatingly hard and long to get through. However, Compile Heart has made it easier by balancing the battles more and downsizing the dungeons. You may also change the level of difficulty if it’s too hard for you. I didn’t die as much in Mary Skelter 2 as I did when I played the original game.

I haven’t gotten to play Mary Skelter 1 for the Nintendo Switch in English yet, but from what I played on the PS4, it’s very fun. I think that Idea Factory added extra hacks to make the game harder and easier. For instance, there is a hack that lets you makes the map disappear completely. This made it too hard.

Since I didn’t get a full grasp of Mary Skelter 1’s English gameplay, let’s talk about the intense gameplay for Mary Skelter 2. You traverse through many floors of the game’s dungeons. You will have to use skills to get by obstacles. Some of these skills include using a giant woven ball to fill in holes or temporarily block an unstoppable monster from attacking you (it is not as bad as it used to be on the PS Vita), using a skill to pull doors towards you so that you can get through, and even tear flinging skill that lets you destroy hearts within the dungeon to fulfill your bloodlust.

Early in Mary Skelter 2, Jack is turned into a Nightmare. You can use his skills in battle. Usually, he is not that special. He is just a big oaf. After you use him, if he doesn’t calm down, he can become insane and kill both you and the enemy. He will become unstoppable.

You have HP, SP, many skills that you choose to unlock, and so many weapons in your arsenal. This game has so many things that you can choose to do in battle. I will choose a couple of these things to talk to you about.

One interesting skill is licking. When you lick one of the other party members (if they have enough blood on them), you will use a skill that will have one of many kinds of effects. Sometimes, you’ll get a defensive shield against one attack or heal your whole party. There are many effects to licking a fellow comrade.

When your bloodlust gauge is fully filled, you can unleash an ultimate attack. Some of these will cost you 0 SP or a few SP. Usually, they are cheap and deal a lot of damage.

You can choose what skills to unlock with Special Points earned from leveling up. There are many of these. So, you can build your party to your liking.

Because this is a dungeon crawler, there will be traps. I found that red balloons will usually be bombs. Sometimes, there are knights that swing at you if you are slow. Spikes will come out of the ground too. From what the game told me, if you are in battle and near a trap, sometimes it will attack you in the heat of a battle. Personally, I didn’t experience it, but that’s what I think one of the many in-game tutorials told me.

One thing that I hated was getting lost. I spent hours in just the very first dungeon because I don’t think the game was clear in making me understand how one of the skills worked. Also, I think that if you haven’t finished a certain part in let’s say, “a couple hours,” the game should give you a hint at where you are supposed to go. I felt lost many times, even with the smaller maps.

There is an auto-walking feature that makes the game more bearable if you don’t like to walk yourself. This can be useful if you already filled in the whole map and need to get somewhere without having to press any buttons. The game will stop you from going into a trap too.

I felt like the gameplay was made much easier (I played on normal mode). You can play on Easy, Normal or Hard. This also can be changed by going into your settings.

GRAPHICS

An update to the graphics makes it really look good when comparing it to the original game on PS4. However, on the Nintendo Switch, it felt less vibrant than my PS Vita and PS4. I also tried it on Handheld mode and it seemed the same as the TV mode. The graphics didn’t change, even though it was on a smaller screen. There were times where it didn’t feel smooth on the Nintendo Switch.

FINAL OPINION & RATING

Overall, this is a great package if you have a Nintendo Switch. Playstation elitists can only buy the Japanese version. So, you can forget about that ever happening because Sony is being stingy with censorship. Because Idea Factory doesn’t like to censor their games and Steam & Nintendo are being very pro-developer and consumer, you will likely be able to find it easily in the Nintendo E-Shop and Steam store. Everything is great except for the graphics seeming worse on the Nintendo Switch and the, “confusing to maneuver,” dungeons.