13 Days of Halloween: Game Review: Seduction: A Monk’s Fate (Xbox Series X)

Oozing atmosphere, telling a delightfully dark story and delivering visual and audio treats throughout, Seduction: A Monk’s Fate is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle horror game from KOEX Studio and Eastasiasoft Limited.

Players take on the role of a Buddhist monk whose monastery holds some dark and evil secrets. His mind is being assailed by imagery. Images of demonic horror and temptation dictated by a mysterious woman. Who is she and just what is going on at the monastery? Through dreamlike exploration, puzzle solving and QTEs, players will have to dig deep into dark pits to discover the truth.

A highly original and interesting tale, Seduction: A Monk’s Fate is a captivating experience thanks to its tone and how it utilises religion and spirituality to enhance a state of horror.

Gamplay is limited to small exploration stages where the power of prayer is used to progress and deal with obstacles. Similar to point and click games, players will be picking items up and holding them in an inventory until it’s time for them to be used. Often it very creative ways. Nothing too taxing but challenging enough to make you think.

Alongside that, you’ll have to deal with the occasional enemy in unique ways. Sometimes praying is enough, sometimes you’ll have QTE-events and other times, it’s environmental. The variety in enemy types and how you deal with them keeps it interesting. Except for the underwater section, but what game has ever done an underwater section well?

It’s not a difficult game and that’s a good thing as it allows you to get immersed in the dark and twisted world it creates. The story is absorbing and cut-scenes help move it along nicely. You may not always understand quite what is going on but you will be interested to see where it goes. It can be completed, if you know where you’re going, in about an hour but it is a memorable hour.