Uninvited or Akuma no Shoutaijou started out as a major improvement on the first two games in the series, as the atmosphere of being trapped in a haunted house was much better and the puzzles are actually possible to begin with. Unfortunately, this is quickly going down the path of previous games, not into the luck-based gameplay that was the focus in them, but into a crazy realm of "how was I supposed to know?" that leaves any gamer frustrated when they adapt to modern gaming conventions is used to.
Take, for example, the first big puzzle: how to bypass a ghost that kills the player. It seems impossible at first to go any other way until you find an item called "Ghost Away" which is used for the ghost to continue. It makes sense and the game leads to it. If the rest of the game was like this, it would be a lot better and actually be fun.
Look at the next big puzzle and how quickly it gets nonsense. After exploring, it becomes clear that a key is needed. There is a hint, “The chair hides the key.” Okay, except that there are over 50 chairs in different rooms in the house. The chairs can be "examined" - nothing. You can be "hit" - nothing. Players can "operate" the chair; they can "open" the chair - nothing. You can move the chair (which hides things and needs them elsewhere) - nothing. How is the riddle solved then? By going into the kitchen, grabbing a knife, finding the right chair, and “operating” the knife on the chair to cut it open. There is absolutely no suggestion that the knife could do this, the chair could be cut, or even what chair might need to be used.
Unfortunately sets uninvited this downward spiral only continues. Early on there was a book that contained words - a random selection of them. Much later, the player finds a lifeless doll, and to continue he has to “talk” to the doll - regardless, the “speak” command has not even been used and why it is used on a doll - and enter a very specific selection of Words from this book. The player cannot “speak” and say hello, and the game gives no indication that the puppet can be spoken to at all. There is no hint like “Why do I feel this doll can hear me?” Or even a distant reference to the particular phrase (which is nonsense, by the way). Is all of this absolutely necessary in order to continue at all?
Conclusion
uninvited is an improvement over the first Déjà-vu- Play and actually make fun, as the puzzles can be solved by mess and the atmosphere, unlike in the first games, exists. However, the outdated graphics and other glitch issues can only be ignored as long as the gamer is endlessly frustrated with no evidence of advancement - an advancement that is literally never hinted at, and requires a walkthrough or a million iterations of attempts to find bugs. All in all, bad game design.
Originally posted on 2020-11-30 16:52:00.