Spirit Hunter is a series of Horror Visual Novels and Adventure Games of the Point-and-Click Game variety developed by Experience Inc. It takes place in a Japan that is haunted by Spirits, vengeful ghosts who have suffered some tragedy in life and died horribly, becoming warped into terrifying beings that hunt the living. These spirits can also inflict curses upon people, leaving them to die if nothing is done. Connecting these beings is the Hyakki Yagyo, a mythical demon parade used to describe these spirits' emergence. Each game focuses on a specific protagonist who finds themselves dragged into the world of the occult and must team up with others to combat and repel these beings, thus becoming the titular Spirit Hunters.
The gameplay alternates between the usual visual novel fare and exploration segments where you must navigate a haunted area in a manner akin to first-person dungeon crawlers, clicking on points of interest and collecting items that will help you against the current spirit. You will also have companions to take with you in the investigations, but you can choose only one at a time - and sometimes you will need a specific partner to get past one obstacle, so choose wisely.
At times, you will find yourself faced with danger and must pick the correct decision from three choices to survive before time runs out. The games are split up into Chapters, with each chapter focusing on a specific spirit and concluding with a boss fight against the spirit where you must choose, from the items you have, the correct ones to defend yourself and beat the spirit. But beware, for there are two ways to defeat a spirit- you can either save them, and their grudge will disappear for good... or destroy them, but their grudge will remain, and your current partner will pay the price.
Games in the series:
- Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
- Audio Drama DLC
- Manga and Light Novel adaptations
- Death Mark: Blue Demise: A Voice Drama alternative story.
- Spirit Hunter: NG
- Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II
Spirit Hunter contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Yashiki and Akira find themselves on the receiving end a Spirit's romantic feelings, with deadly intent involved.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Only two people may investigate each area at a time, so you will have to choose who among your current companions to take along. In Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, Mary explains that having any more than two people could attract the attention of the titular Spirits and get them to attack, so it is safer to only travel in duos. Except this is a complete lie and a truly arbitrary limit imposed by Mary because she wants the humans to be as terrified as possible, and groups of three or more could ruin that. In Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II the justification is to not unwanted catch attention at night and to have someone on standby.
- Asshole Victim: The humans who are responsible for killing the people who would become vengeful spirits are often (but not always) among their victims.
- Creepy Doll: This seems to be a running theme throughout the series.
- Mary in Death Mark teaches the protagonist about the Spirits but is eerily immobile, who ends up being the one responsible for the spirits running amok in the city and therefore the Big Bad of the entire game.
- Kakuya in NG, who is responsible for cursing Akira and forcing him to participate in her game if he wants to live.
- D-Man's cards in NG indicate that doll spirits are in general particularly powerful, weren't uncommon in the Edo period, and are somehow related to Hyakki Yagyo. He also describes Leonard, a clown doll, who freezes victims in time, though without explicitly connecting it with the others.
- The doll dressed in red in Death Mark II, though in subversion of the past two games, the doll is actually helping Yashiki in regards to the Departed that seems infatuated with him, but it's still considered a suspect for being The Departed and originally was the Departed before swapping their bodies with someone.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The antagonists are the titular spirits, but, with a few exceptions, they are always tragic creatures. The real monsters, aside from the Big Bads, are the humans who turned the spirits into what they are, and they often serve as Asshole Victims to be hated in place of the spirits. Just a few examples are a pedophile Evil Principal, a gang of rapists, a team of Mad Scientists working for Imperial Japan, a Corrupt Corporate Executive, various school bullies, and two dogmatic villages.
- Marked to Die: Each game involves the heroes helping a Victim of the Week who is targeted by a Vengeful Ghost on the Big Bad's instructions, and having about the next night until they get killed.
- Multiple Endings: Each chapter has different endings depending on whether you destroy the spirit (in which case your current companion dies) or save it (in which case everyone makes it out alive), and this, in turn, will determine the overall ending.
- Orcus on His Throne: In NG and Death Mark II (and Death Mark I), the Big Bad is making the heroes and Spirits fight each other while hiding in the shadows, only showing up to vaguely hint at their hidden motives until their plans have advanced enough.
- Quieting the Unquiet Dead: The games revolve around doing this. Each chapter in the games focuses on a specific Vengeful Ghost haunting a specific area, wherein the protagonist and their companions have to investigate, find out the source of the spirit's grudge, and either destroy them by causing them great pain (which gets you the bad end where your companion is killed by the grudge) or assuage their pain and purify them (which gets you the good end where everyone survives).
- Villain of Another Story: The Japanese-only Sound Drama describes an apparition called Mach Princess, a younger take on the Turbo Granny Youkai who challenges bikers in speed and kills those who interfere. This gets referenced in NG and gets its own Extra Chapter in Death Mark II, but she has never appeared personally.
