I searched GAF to see if there was anything on Kuon, but found there's only been two threads made about the game, and the last thread was posted in 2005. I've been on a verge of beating games the last few days, and wanted to talk to people about the title.
Kuon is a 2004 PS2 Survival-Horror game, which was developed by the company that would later go on to make Demon and Dark Souls. It has strong Japanese folklore influences and features a combat system where you uses enchanted weapons, spells, and summoned monsters to defeat demons and spirits. However, the magic system is kind of overly simplified and really the game is more focused on atmosphere.
The story features three different characters with three different scenarios, though the third is sort of a 'final chapter' and is only unlocked after completing the first two character scenarios. However, these two first character scenarios maybe share a bit too much in common with each other. The middle section for both is completely different, but the beginning features the same first area (which takes up about a third of the game) except they go in reverse to each other (one starts from the entrance, one starts from the exit), and their last level, given not entirely too long, but is nearly identical. I played them one right after the other, and while knowing what to do somewhat from the first character I played as to the second character made the run through the first area go by a lot faster, some more difference outside of a few small changes and what order you do things in would of been appreciated.
But I must say the reason I think I want to talk about this game so much is less about the overall game experience. The game has good atmosphere, a few good scares, a pretty sizable variety of locations, and an actually pretty interesting story. The puzzles mostly were pretty weak, and the dub of the game was often laughable (there was a Japanese dub option in the options menu but opted for English), but I think some parts of the game are more fascinating and just something I need to talk about as opposed to the whole.
And I want to start off by mentioning the highlight of the game for me...
Rat Monkeys
I played the Yang story after the Yin story, and the game started finally going away from being a bit too similar to the other story line. I just fought a pretty creepy and unexpected boss, and was finally entering new territory in the form of a forest location the other character never visits. I'm a bit suspicious as I'm going in with other people who seem a little off, and raise my eyebrow further when a bit further in I see a scene involving a monster really different from all the other enemies I've fought so far. It doesn't seem human, it doesn't seem like a demon, it's... A monkey with a rat tail.
A Rat Monkey.
You don't fight one for a bit, you first fight this group of ghosts wandering the forest, and then backtrack eventually, and then you encounter a few.
They're tough enemies, they are fast and powerful, and are able to kill you quickly, but actually these pictured above are the only two rat monkeys you actually fight in the game. But if that was all there was too it, I wouldn't be writing to you guys how awesome they are.
So you either defeat them or flee (I took the option of fleeing), and soon you're told by one of the people you're travelling with that you need to get a mallet to reach the cliff she climbed as the path she took has crumpled. And that you can get one at the nearby cabin deeper into the forest, but to be careful, as she's heard of a beast in that area of the forest.
So I go expecting some sort of boss battle in the forest, and not too long after come across the cabin.
But I hear a monkey sound coming from around the cabin. Now the game has a bad habit of building up disappointing encounters, as in making it seem like some cool enemy for example has been locked up and sealed and you have to open the seal only for it to turn out the sealed dreaded monster is simply the weakest, most common enemy in the game, so I was ready to accept that the 'Beast' mentioned was going to be another regular Rat Monkey, so I enter...
But it turns out entering wasn't that smart of an idea.
It's the only instant-death thing in the game, and kills me in a pretty cool death cutscene. Of course I'm just a bit surprised, but get back to it and try to figure out what to do. Which leads to a rather cool active puzzle-solving section where you need to figure out when is the right time to enter the house by peeking through a window and outside and figuring out when its safe, to go inside and grab the mallet, and come back out.
And then the boss battle comes, but I liked the little change of pace the monkeys brought as enemies and the cabin section brought, and the sort of observant puzzle it provided, along with the boss, which was definitely the hardest boss in the game. It might not sound that amazing on paper, but I had a lot of fun with it in the game, and I sort of wish the game had more clever moments like this.
Well, it does, but a lot of its more creative moments, or even not creative but well-executed moments, are extremely underutilized. Like a monster that can't be killed which is well built-up too, but then is really underutilized. Or a pretty cool section where faces come out of the walls and your trapped in a room trying to find a way out. Or a section where one of your characters is in a haze of sorts and everything around them is all blurry and hazed. A lot of cool concepts, and some pretty cool moments, but they felt underutilized often, but left pretty cool moments all the same.
So, Kuon, any of you played it? Any interested in it? I sort of want to talk about the game while I digest my thoughts on it. I think it is a okay to good game that has a few sprinkled moments of something greater in it, but settles on just being okay to good most of the time. What did you all think of it?
