Started playing it and enjoying myself quite a bit so far. To start with I'm a little surprised at the minimal mentioning of the first Death Mark game. There's a few brief asides where they recall some events in vague terms, but outside of that even when you're talking to characters from the original game they don't give much mention to the events 4 months prior. I'm neutral on this, it doesn't quite strike me as a good or bad thing, but it's interesting to think of especially remembering that in Japan this game is called "Death Bite: Shibito Magire" and doesn't carry the same direct sequel branding.
The standalone horror story Death Mark II is telling in it's first 3 or so hours is great. You've probably heard a similar haunted high school story, but the charm of these characters and the visual design for the horror scenes really elevates this even before the twists and turns I'm sure are to come. I like the new side scrolling exploration, it adds a lot to the presentation and there's still 1st person P&C scenes when they're called for. So you basically get the best of both worlds.
Changes to the gameplay I'm more iffy on. I'll wait to play a full chapter before I really weigh in on it. Suffice it to say, I feel like the new suspensive act system is a bit too simplistic compared to how you confronted spirits in the previous two games. But anyone who's played games like this know they can take their sweet time slowly tutorializing their mechanics before getting to the full level of depth things settle on for the remainder of the game (like 1~5 hours is typical).
Eager to play more and see how this mystery takes shape. I've been admiring these designs from afar for a while so it's cool to finally meet the all characters behind the designs.
