Kotodama could have been a perfectly fine mystery school adventure if it didn't leave you blindly groping in the dark through repeats of repeats for a tiny morsel of fresh content.
It's a rare game that can start off tense and then continuously ratchets up the mood to almost unbearable levels until the final moments of the final chapter – and an even rarer one that has enough alternative characters, dialogue, and endings to make it worth playing through more than once – but Death Mark succeeds where it really counts. There's plenty on offer here for both horror fans as well as those looking for a mystery that requires more than hoarding knick-knacks and waiting patiently for your character to officially notice something before you can proceed.
If you bought this hoping to see girls and panzers then the game does at least deliver on its titular promise, the polished presentation and copious amounts of chirpy schoolgirl banter trying their hardest to mask the game's numerous weaknesses. Unfortunately, Girls und Panzer's gameplay never makes you believe it's doing more than inoffensively coasting along on the back of the license's appeal; gaming's long history may be littered with half-hearted tie-ins, but there was no need to add another to the pile.
