Luigi's Mansion ( 3DS 2018 )

[Ike]

Copy just dropped through the letterbox, anyone picking it up?

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, Ike said:

Copy just dropped through the letterbox, anyone picking it up?

I wasn't going to pick it up but im too busy jumping between Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Soul Calibur VI, FIFA 19 and the odd bit of Monster Hunter. There's far too much to play at the moment and so little time.  Saying that, this game can be easily knocked out in a few hours.

[Ike]

This version has awkward controls, just like the original I guess...

[Ike]

Ah, didn't realise area 2 has a point of no return. I explored too far ahead and missed a ghost. Not a big deal, but would have liked to get all of them.

[Hero-of-Time]

I finished the main game on Saturday morning. I forgot just how short the game is! It must be one of the shortest 3D 1^st party Nintendo games, surely? I ended up getting together just enough treasure to get an A ranking.

I was thinking I could move on to my next game but I delved into the menus to find that the game has achievements to unlock, portraits to upgrade and a Hidden Mansion mode to play around in. It’s in these tasks where the game really started to shine.

The achievements are layered by difficulty. Things like sucking up a few ghosts or burning down a fake door are in the easier brackets. Once you finish one bracket then another more difficult one is unlocked. If you do manage to achieve something in a higher difficulty bracket than you have yet to unlock then there’s no need to worry as these will already be unlocked once you get to that difficulty level. Some of these achievements have been great to go after and will require multiple plays of the game. Stuff like finding 20 gold mice or 30 of the speedy ghosts can’t be done in a single play through due to the limited number of them. There are some tricky ones to achieve, such as getting platinum level frames in the ghost gallery. This requires you to take on the harder versions of each ghost found in the Hidden Mansion mode and then you have to get their HP level down to at least 10HP without them breaking free. Easier said than done as a lot of the time it does seem a bit random as to whether they break free or not.

The Gallery mode is where you can see the ghosts you have captured. Providing how well you have done, the frame around each of the ghosts will be either bronze, silver, gold and eventually platinum. This has offered a nice challenge, especially a couple of them which have been a right pain in the butt to nab in one go. Apparently it’s much easier to achieve the better frames in co-op but where’s the fun in that….plus I have no one else to play with.  

I have yet to finish the Hidden Mansion mode (I’m about halfway through it) but it’s been a much better experience than the original mansion. There are more ghosts to capture, you get hit harder and the ghosts themselves have more health. I’ve been trying to get the platinum frames in this mode rather than in the Gallery but it has been quite difficult at times. Mr. Luggs took me well over 40 mins of restarting the game. He kept breaking free, a lot of the time right at the end, as well.

The amiibo integration in the game comes in really handy during a Hidden Mansion run. Using a Luigi amiibo will net you the ability to be revived if your HP reaches 0, but only the once. A Mario amiibo will replace any shrinking mushrooms that appear with health mushrooms, this is VERY useful while trying to get platinum portraits. Scanning in a Toad amiibo will let you get a health top up every time you visit Toad and save your game, which is very handy in Hidden Mansion mode where health supplies are limited.

I think this is a good example of achievements helping to give a game that is short a nice bit of longevity. The game can be beaten in a single sitting but Grezzo have given the players that little bit extra to do, which has certainly helped add to the experience. Will I manage to unlock them all and get the best statue in the Gallery mode? I’m not sure but I’m having a great time trying to do so.

As a side note, I was playing this on Saturday afternoon/evening and I had Comedy Central on in the background. It wasn’t until later on that I realised I was sat playing this and Ghostbusters was on the TV. Very fitting.  

[Ike]

It's a really great port that's been overlooked just because it was released on the 3DS in 2018.

Finished off my playthrough tonight as I was near the end of the game, only managed a B rank as I don't really know where all the good treasure is hidden. Got a few golden frames, not sure about going for the platinum, I'm sure there's a method to capture the ghosts easier but I don't know how you're supposed to do it, plus you often have objects thrown at you during the struggle.

[Hero-of-Time]

I finally finished my Hidden Mansion play through today. During this play through I was aiming to get all of the platinum portraits and it ended up being an absolute nightmare, so much so that I shelved the game numerous times. Sadly my gaming OCD wouldn't let me just walk away and I kept going back to the game time and time again, even though the whole process was bumming me out. I was stuck on Biff Atlas for a while and then I got stuck on Slim Bankshot for a couple of days. The one that really broke me was Nana. She was such a pain in the backside to catch and it took the best part of the week to finally wrangle her in without letting her escape. Once she was caught it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way to the end and I felt much better about being able to finish the game. 

I done my best to suck up every ghost I could find, grab all the cash I could and water every plant that I came across. This netted me the S ranking ( only available in Hidden Mansion mode ) and got Luigi the best mansion in the game.

I think this whole ordeal is why I haven't been able to settle on another game all week. At the back of my mind it was bothering me that I kept having to shelve the game but I just couldn't move on because I knew I could do it if I just kept at it. 

My adventure is not over yet though. I've now done the hardest task ( platinuming all the portraits ) and now I have a couple of other runs to do that require me to finish in under 3 hours, grab a hell of a lot more cash and finish the game without my health going under 80HP. I can go back to playing the normal mansion now which should make things much easier.

@Ike there are ways to help you in catching ghosts, such as flicking the stick rather than just holding it, but in all honesty this past week has highlighted that a lot of the ghost catching is purely down to luck. You could be doing nothing wrong but the ghost will somehow still manage to get free. As for the ghosts that throw things ( Sue Pea, Jarvis ) who can actually suck up their objects before you even start attacking them.

[Ike]

19 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

 

@Ike there are ways to help you in catching ghosts, such as flicking the stick rather than just holding it, but in all honesty this past week has highlighted that a lot of the ghost catching is purely down to luck. You could be doing nothing wrong but the ghost will somehow still manage to get free. As for the ghosts that throw things ( Sue Pea, Jarvis ) who can actually suck up their objects before you even start attacking them.

I'll have to look into it more if I ever do a Hidden Mansion run, but I got a few gold frames purley by accident. Sometimes if you get Luigi into a corner you can do it quite easily. Some ghosts seems to have their projectiles respawn so sucking them up first doesn't always work. 

[Hero-of-Time]

16 minutes ago, Ike said:

I'll have to look into it more if I ever do a Hidden Mansion run, but I got a few gold frames purley by accident. Sometimes if you get Luigi into a corner you can do it quite easily. Some ghosts seems to have their projectiles respawn so sucking them up first doesn't always work. 

I wonder if the projectile thing is different on Hidden Mansion mode? For both ghosts I mentioned I sucked up the teddy bears and jars before attacking the main ghost and neither of those respawned during the course of the fight.

There are a few ghosts which are legit harder than the rest of them. Mr. Luggs, Biff Atlas, Nana, Slim Bankshot and the Clockwork Soldiers seem to be the ones that move more erratically and are harder to pull in.

[Ike]

11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I wonder if the projectile thing is different on Hidden Mansion mode? For both ghosts I mentioned I sucked up the teddy bears and jars before attacking the main ghost and neither of those respawned during the course of the fight.

There are a few ghosts which are legit harder than the rest of them. Mr. Luggs, Biff Atlas, Nana, Slim Bankshot and the Clockwork Soldiers seem to be the ones that move more erratically and are harder to pull in.

I might be wrong, but I'm sure I sucked up one of Sue Pea's teddy bears and I'm sure it respawn. I don't suck up both though.

[Hero-of-Time]

I just finished off another play through of the game. It's crazy how fast you can get through it when you're not bothering with trying to get the best portraits and catch all the Boo ghosts.

Speaking of which, I wasn't aware that the game gates you off at certain parts if you haven't caught enough Boos. I think every time I played the game back on the Cube I always went for a full 50/50 so this is the first time I've seen the gating happen.

I think I'll need another 2 play throughs of the game to get enough cash for one of the achievements.

[Hero-of-Time]

It's finally done.

All achievements unlocked and the best statue obtained.

It's crazy how much time I've spent with the game purely thanks to the addition of the achievements. It's turned a short 5 hour game with very little replay value into 5 play throughs and 32 hours spent on it. I got my money's worth out of this and certainly got more out of this version than I ever did with the Gamecube version.