About five years ago I reviewed the original Obakeidoro, and now here’s the sequel.  A mysterious man in a top hat has changed a school into a haunted mansion so that ghosts and kids can play a spooky yet silly game of hide and seek together.  Help a schoolgirl and her friends, or the ghosts, play in this multiplayer centric mashup of hide and seek and tag.  Obakeidoro 2 is available on Switch 1 and 2, but reviewed on the latter here.

In this one, you can play online or offline.  Couch co-op modes include split screen or gameshare modes, which is nice.  Or you can play single player.  If you choose to play as the kids, up to three can go at the same time.  Your job is to hide from the ghosts without being caught for three minutes.  If all three kids are caught before the time runs out, the human side loses.  Ghosts who catch humans will put them in a cage in the middle of the arena.  Another boy or girl can unlock the doors on each side of the cage to free them and keep the game going.  But watch out because sometimes the ghosts will move the switches in this sequel!  Humans can defend themselves by shining a lantern at the ghosts to stun them, but you have limited usage.  If you play as the ghost, you must try to catch all the humans and put them in the cage without any of them escaping.  Ghosts can go through walls, but they move a little slower and must wait a bit before catching another human.

While the first game had more generic spooky locations, in this one you play in school themed areas.  It also has a very Japanese vibe to it (Obake means ‘ghost’ in Japan), so the school looks more like a Japanese school and the ghost is a girl who haunts the bathrooms, which is supposedly a Japanese folk myth.  By playing, you can earn coins and stamps to help you buy new lanterns and characters, as well as upgrade your stats and learn new skills.  But it takes a LONG time to do that.  Really this game is best as a multiplayer title, as playing single player is way too hard and not much fun.  But if you can scare up some real life friends online or offline, you may have a good time with this one.  It’s just more of the same from the first game.

Kid Factor:

Obakeidoro 2 is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  You can stun ghosts with a light, or grab humans and toss them in a cage, and they’ll have dizzy stars above their head, but that’s about as violent as it gets.  The game makes it perfectly clear that the ghosts just want to play with the humans, not harm them.  Even so, younger players might find it a little spooky and challenging, and reading skill is helpful, too.

Tags: Game Reviews