Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Part 2)

Continuing from Part 1, we still have three mansions to explore – and since I’ve gone through most of the gameplay mechanics, I’ll focus mainly on the plot.

Also known as: Creepy-Ass House #3.

"Friend?"

"N̖̯̠̤̯̣͙͌ͥ̀O̳̟̲͆͒̂͒͜T̳̳͕̭̘͕̻̍̂̇̕ ͗ͫ̈̊͌F̬̼̜̻̗͕̖̀ͪ̄̇R̃̋̀Ỉ̡̅̅̈́Ė̘̩͔̻̟̘ͬ̐̈̓͐̈́͜Ñ̥̦͉̾̒̄̽D̠̘ͩ͑̆"

Mansion #3, the Old Clockworks, has a theme that combines desert and sand with gears. Two things that usually don’t mix well. It should be pretty easy to get the Dark Moon shard this time; just gotta reach the big clock, then climb up the building, and get the shard at the top. But once again, that’s not even remotely what happens. Ghosts fly away with the two clock hands and the rotor, forcing Luigi to explore the entire building to retrieve them. First he needs a compass that can tell him where the items are; then he can start to look for them.

The ghosts have gotten smarter; Greenies disguise as mummies by wrapping themselves in tape and holding fake limbs. Good, the regular ghosts weren’t creepy enough. Then there’s that one, who’s not only figured out telekinesis, but also loves to summon wave after wave of enemies. A gauntlet of ghosts!

If Toads annoy you and make you want to hurt them, in this
game you an stun them, toss them around, and scare them.
They're still more tolerable than the ghosts.

After getting the clock hands, on his way to find the rotor, Luigi comes across a Toad once again trapped in a painting. He was captured when the ghosts went rogue, and Luigi frees him. The good thing is that Toad might come in handy to find what we need. The bad thing: That Toad is afraid of gears. Yes, really. E. Gadd sent a Toad who’s afraid of gears… into a place called the Old Clockworks, which is a building-sized mechanical clock. Bit of an asshole, aren’t you, E. Gadd? This makes the adventure a little more difficult as Toad will refuse to enter particular rooms, forcing Luigi to look for workarounds.

More ghosts every minute!

After gathering all the necessary items, Luigi repairs the main clock and gains access to the clock tower, with the Possessor taking residence up there, taking control of the clock itself and summoning another gauntlet of ghosts. The Possessor then comes out every fourth wave. Like previous final mansion bosses, it needs to be sucked in three times before being defeated. Down it goes, Dark Moon shard obtained, back to the Bunker we go.

The next area is the Secret Mine, a small chalet on top of a snowy peak with a gigantic mine beneath it. Our first task, this time, is to retrieve another Toad assistant. Once again, we rescue the Toad from a painting he was stuck in, but as the Toad celebrates, he breaks the icy floor and both he and Luigi fall into the mine below. It’s an adventure to come back to the chalet by reaching the only elevator. With the Toad saved, Luigi is taken back as well.

The literal version of "Walking on thin ice".

So many Gems! Are they useful? No?
...then why should I care about them?

By the way, aside from catching all Boos, the game has extra side-quests. The first is to get a three-star rating on every mission, which is done by completing any mission in record time with minimal damage. The second is to find all 13 precious stones hidden in every mansion; amethysts, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds. Many of them are fairly easy to find, but some are much trickier. Also, while several rooms are seen in almost every mission set in one mansion, other rooms are visited in only one or two missions. Many of these gems are also trapped behind short puzzles to solve.

We’re told to explore the deepest reaches of the mine, since that seems to be where the culprit behind all this seems to hide. Luigi now has access to portals! And the first thing he does with them is act like the loveable dork he is.

Now Luigi's thinking with portals.

“Hello!”

If only the Gems I collected powered ME up against
all these damned ghosts!

Going into the depths of the mine, Luigi finds the Boos experimenting with crystals. He sees that regular ghosts trapped in crystals become much stronger. That sounds like something a bad guy would do! On the very next mission, which involves repairing the ziplines in order to reach the room containing the shard, the Mario brother finds even stronger ghosts boosted by the paranormal chains they wear. After repairing the zipline, Luigi can access the room with the shard, only to find another Possessor for it. That one takes control of the ice itself and digs deeper and deeper down, and Luigi must first destroy its protective ice shell with bombs before sucking him in.

Not a fan of ledge walks.

Thanks to this progress, the mist has vanished across the land, and Professor E. Gadd can send Luigi to the Treacherous Mansion, and even lends him the key to the front door. Merely getting there is an adventure, the path crumbles and leaves nothing but ledges for Luigi to walk on. This, by the way, is an annoying part of the game, as you move Luigi forward… but his balance is dictated by how you move the Nintendo 3DS console while he walks. You need to keep Luigi balanced by, well, balancing the console or else he falls down and loses 5 HP. This gameplay mechanic happens once in a while, and I hate those sections. Upon reaching the door, guess what? The Polterpup shows up, startles Luigi, and takes off with the key. You son of a ghost-bitch! Luigi finds a path to the catacombs and hunts down the undead doggie, at the same time learning that powered-up ghosts are now taking control of suits of armor to fight. Oh, joy. At least, this time, when Luigi captures the Polterpup, it remains in the Ghost Container.

On the next mission, we learn that the Mansion is also a museum, and E. Gadd sent a Toad inventorize what’s in there. Let me guess, we’ll have to save him? So we’re pixelated there (though Luigi’s cap arrives a moment after him, uh oh), and we open the door…

OH CRAP

This one first involves going around the mansion to activate portals on the four corners of the place, and then carrying items between rooms to reach the Toad paintings. Yes, plural – turns out there are two Toads here. Not really more difficult than usual, really. Luigi takes them to a Pixelator and then also comes back to the Bunker.

E. Gadd had forgotten about the second Toad, and thought it was a ghost who tricked the Pixelator. ...Wait, you mean ghosts can do that? Shouldn’t you be more worried about it? That seems like some critical information to have! One Toad brought back a 3D picture that reveals Boos carrying… Mario trapped in a picture! And King Boo! …Who turns towards the camera in a still image! WHOA!

OH CRAP!

Beating 10 Boos at once;
Luigi has proven he could do it.

Much of the paranormal activity seems to be taking place in the train room on the next floor. Once again, the ghosts won’t let him go an inch forward without fighting. If Luigi needs something (like a book to complete a bookshelf, which acts like a secret passageway), they will steal it and he will need to take a 30-minute detour to get it, god damn it! Even afterwards, when Luigi is pixelated into the train room, he doesn't fight King Boo. Instead, he's ambushed by ten Boos who merge into a single Big Boo. The method of defeating that Big Boo involves beating every Boo one by one, so yes, it’s a long and tough (but fun and challenging) battle. Thankfully, after this fight, E. Gadd redirects us to the terrace at the back of the mansion, where King Boo is.

With the power of its crown, the ghost summons a portal that lets loose dozens of ghosts all over the Treacherous Mansion! And because nothing is ever simple, Luigi has to hunt every single one of them down before he can go fight his nemesis. Again: You walk an inch forward, they push the goalpost back by a mile, I fucking swear. Luigi does eventually catch the several dozens of them and returns to the Bunker to empty the Poltergust. Thankfully, the portal on the terrace is still open, so we can jump into that fight.

You were expecting King Boo? Nope, have another Possessor first. One that splits itself to take control of multiple suits of armor… then, later, a kaiju-sized armor. Okay, this might be the most awesome moment in the whole game. And how do you defeat these? You trip each one of them up by sucking in the rugs beneath their feet. Soon enough, the Possessor is taken care of, and we get the last shard. I can’t wait to take this back to E. Gadd!

Luigi will remember this nightmare for a long time.

The shard gets there. Luigi doesn’t. King Boo rerouted Luigi’s path into an illusory dimension that he controls. I sense a final boss! And a tough one it is; but it’s worth it for the satisfaction of seeing this scheming phantom get smacked upside the head with the spike balls that he himself summoned to hurt the plumber. These rounds of battle are separated by moments where Luigi is sent to an illusory corridor with a giant King Boo rolling behind him. After getting sucked into the Poltergust 5000 three times, King Boo is finally defeated.

"You were-a the hero today, Luigi!"

When Luigi reappears on the terrace, he finds Mario’s picture and flashes the Dark-Light at it, rescuing his brother. E. Gadd and the Toads show up with the shards of the Dark Moon, and Luigi repairs it, turning all ghosts friendly again. The professor releases the regular ghosts (Not the Boos, they can stay in that bunker forever for all I care!), and everyone celebrates. Even the Polterpup shows up to apologize to Luigi!

Sure, it had become mean due to the Dark Moon being broken, but… uh… damn it… no, not the puppy-dog-eyes… no no no… augh… shoot…

Okay FINE! You’re forgiven. Anyway, barring one instance, I'm bad at keeping grudges.

It's also cuter with actual pupils.

Luigi gets to revel in the glory of being the hero for once, and even gets a nice picture to hang on his wall for it. He has vanquished his fear of ghosts, has proven his worth, and got a nice pet out of it. Yep, he adopted the Polterpup. Happy ending, roll credits.

Advantage of owning a ghost dog: It's not heavy.
Probably doesn't need to poop or to be fed, either.

Quadruple the Luigis, quadruple the courage!
And the scaredy cat attitude.

If you have friends who also have Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, you can try the ScareScraper, a multiplayer mode with up to four Luigis going through the floors of a… well, skyscraper. It is officially a multiplayer mode, but it can be played alone. There’s many options: Hunter Mode to catch ghosts, Rush Mode is a timed race, the Polterpup Mode is about catching all the ghost dogs, and the Surprise Mode combines all three. The mode has several ghosts that aren’t in the Story Mode, especially powered-up forms. It also has a boss every fifth floor. After a floor has been completed, the Luigis can collect red coins and gain a bonus to fare better on the next floor. Upgrades to all Poltergust 5000s are awarded as the four plumbers gather money all together. A decent idea, decent enough that I heard it made a comeback in Luigi’s Mansion 3 on the Switch, but I haven’t experienced it much.

After all this, time for my final words. I’m somewhat divided on this one. I admit it’s a well-made game that works perfectly fine. The greater story is good, the music is pretty decent, and the graphics are great. The mansions are, for the most part, pretty fun to visit and the rooms are diverse. I didn’t mind that the game was split into missions; I heard the first Luigi’s Mansion wasn’t, but since I haven’t played it, I don’t have a point of comparison. It’s also good to have a new goal on every mission, for variety. I'll admit that it’s a bit disappointing that you can’t freely explore the mansions. Otherwise, there’s a pretty good dosage between the three genres of action, puzzle and exploration. The game also has a decent length, although I felt it dragged in several places in order to increase the game’s actual length. The boss battles are pretty creative, and the overall difficulty is just right. It also has a fairly decent amount of collectibles and extra quests. Lastly, the game makes use of the 3DS’s bonus capabilities, such as its tilt detection. So no, it isn’t a bad game at all, and whatever negative points I’ll make afterwards are based solely on my own experience with it.

Most of my issues with the game relate to the story and how it’s brought up. Several times during missions, E. Gadd will call Luigi on his portable DS and break the flow of the story; it’s usually necessary exposition, but it can get annoying fast nonetheless. Luigi also has the bad habit of reacting to things in mini-scenes that cannot be skipped; every mission is always treated like you’re playing through it for the first time, so even if you do know what’s coming (as an example, you know a ghost is hidden in a shower), Luigi will always react the same way (by being startled, giving the ghost enough time to flee). It’s understandable as a design decision, but it’s pretty annoying. This also sets up the mischievous ghosts and their behavior, and they always, I mean AL-WAYS, are a pain in the ass. If there’s a door you need to get through, they’ll lock it. If there’s a critical item you need, they’ll run away with it. When you think you’re done catching them, surprise! There’s more waiting. It’s a battle every step of the way. Again: Plot-wise, it makes sense. The ghosts were turned nasty by the Dark Moon’s destruction, after all. Doesn’t make them any less infuriating to fight. It says something when the friggin’ Toads are tolerable in comparison. Thankfully, most cutscenes and E. Gadd calls can be skipped by pressing the Start button. 

Some things aren’t explained; I didn’t know about the Gold Bone and how the Polterpup could revive Luigi if the plumber had picked it up. It was a nice surprise the first time, but it also means you need to find the damn bone. And if you don’t and Luigi loses all his HP in the mission, you have to start it all over. We’re talking missions that can be fairly long to complete, too, especially the first time you’re playing through them. Imagine being 25 minutes into a mission and dying without a Gold Bone in your inventory, and having to do it all over. You might know what to do now, it’s still tedious.

I think the early game’s annoyances had turned me off from playing the game. I saw all of these issues very early on and didn’t want to go through all that. Ultimately, I forced myself to play through the game. While in the end I don’t regret beating it, I think I understand why it took me so long to get through it. It really started to feel enjoyable only after a few hours in.

Anyhow, that’s my thoughts. I recommend it, as I do think it’s good, but be aware of those issues. Now that this is done, I think I’ll be reviewing a bunch of shorter games on Steam.