Level-5 showed up big at Tokyo Game Show 2026 bringing four titles and tons of demo stations to the show. Holy Horror Mansion, dubbed the “Concept Next Yo-Kai Watch,” was also available at the show. While the game has seen a bit of a change visually since it was unveiled back in 2024, just how does this new look and the general gameplay hold up? I got my hands on the demo on the show floor and have a few thoughts. Let’s get into it.
Note
The demo I played at Tokyo Game Show was a 15 minute timed demo playable only on PlayStation 5. Also, the demo was only available in Japanese, though it pretty much follows the information that was shown off via the latest trailers. Japanese naming is a bit different than English, so I’ll do my best to present the proper English information. I’d also like to thank Level-5 for hosting me at their booth this year and allowing for me to get the footage that you are able to see on our YouTube channel. With all of that out of the way, let’s dive in.
Story & Background
Holy Horror Mansion puts players into the role of Ten Lordland, a kid who lives on the top floor of an apartment building owned by his grandmother. After finding a mysterious camera, Ten meets up with a ghost and the adventure begins. You’re tasked with searching for these ghosts/creatures called Mononoke to join your party when you eventually take on foes.
Gameplay
General gameplay around the town is pretty tight and super easy. Ten actually has a bit of momentum with his movement, which is quite different from many other Level-5 titles that I have played in the past, so that was a bit surprising to me but it felt fine. You’re able to jump with Circle, access the menu with Triangle and interact with the environment/talk with characters with X.
Control elements unique to Holy Horror Mansion revolve around your camera, aptly named Cameron. Pressing in the left stick (L3) performs a ghost scan, which will then bring up yellow or green wisps of sorts in the area. The yellow ones are used to transform the environment while the green ones are some kind of Mononoke that you can recruit to join your party. Once you see these wisps, you press L2 to take out your camera and the R2 to snap a shot which draws them out. Once they’re out of their hiding places, you can chat with them and get them to join you. The only complaint I have is that these little guys will join you no matter what. Maybe it’s just for the demo, but having adding a bit more to get them to join your party would be welcome. The yellow areas can be interacted with in the same way, but instead of creatures, these are transformed into essentially trampolines to offer more vertical movement. I really enjoy this aspect of the game quite a bit and it was just fun to explore the area.
Battle
Towards the tail end of the demo, you are prompted to go to the menu and go to the “Kill Time” option in the upper right hand corner of the menu. Once you do this, the game world goes from day to night, which will bring out a boss encounter for the demo The battle system here is card based, offering a variety of these that correlate to standard attacks, healing, elemental attacks and more. It’s simple to perform these, and like other RPGs, you’ll also have to keep an eye on your HP if you want to take out the foe in question. Given the short amount of time with the demo (and only having a few minutes left), I went through this part as fast as I could, so it was a bit tough to get a complete grasp on potential intricacies that can be found here. I’m usually not a huge fan of card based systems like this, but it felt fine but I didn’t feel it brought anything new or particularly exciting to the genre.
Visual, Audio & Performance
When Level-5 first showed off Holy Horror Mansion in 2024, I really liked the initial art style that they showed off. It was anime inspired and looked pretty similar to Yo-Kai Watch and several other of their titles from over the years. For this latest build, the game now features full, detailed 3D models, which look okay, but I feel that they lack the charm that was found in the previous reveal. I would even go as far to say that things look a bit more generic here, but there still is quite a bit of detail on offer. Ten’s facial animations look nice, as do the designs for the Cameron and the other Mononoke found throughout the demo - not all of them, though. Some were a bit too generic for my taste. I did, however, like “Sand Sam” (“Sand” being short for sandwich in Japanese), as he reminded me of the Big Boy mascot character. The city itself also packed quite a bit of detail with a variety of houses and NPCs. The nighttime lighting also looked quite nice. Still, it just feels a bit sterile to me overall compared to the original look. Music, on the other hand, is catchy and fun and the voice acting was charming. To top this off, the game ran at a smooth 60 frames per second.
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| Snap of the original art style |
Conclusion
The gameplay in Holy Horror Mansion was pretty fun. I enjoyed the mechanics of finding and befriending the Mononoke and the general exploration in the town in the demo. I’m usually not a fan of card based battle systems, but this one felt okay and for the most part, a good variety of moves were available. The graphical style on the other hand seems like a downgrade from the initial reveal back in 2024. It runs and performs fine, but it doesn’t quite feature the same kind of punch that Level-5 has delivered with their past titles. Of course, opinions on the visual style is subjective, and I’m sure you guys out there have made your own conclusions which could differ from mine. Outside of that, Holy Horror Mansion runs smoothly and the voice acting was fun and playful. The game is set to release on the Switch 2, PS5 and Steam in 2027 alongside what Level-5 is called its “largest cross-media project kickoff.” I’d rather they just focus on their games and complete them rather than get buried in more projects than they can handle.
But, let’s turn things over to you guys. What do you think of Holy Horror Mansion? Does it give you a Yo-Kai Watch vibe? What do you think about the new graphical style? Sound off with any and all comments down below. We’d love to hear from you.
by Danny Bivens
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