Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness, known as Kokumeikan (刻命館) in Japan and Devil's Deception in Europe, has the distinction of playing unlike its successors in almost every capacity. It used a first-person perspective similar to DOOM or the then-popular King's Field series. At the time, Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness was also rather controversial with its storyline about a murdered, nameless prince who makes a pact with the Devil to become the master of what's known as the Castle of the Damned, in order to get revenge on his brother Yurias, who framed him for the murder of their father, the king, in order to usurp the throne and claim the fiancée of the player, Princess Fiana.
Despite the surprisingly soft rating of Teen (for animated violence and blood), the back of the game's jewel case contained an additional disclaimer which reads as follows: "WARNING: This game contains satanic references and may be inappropriate for some individuals." All later Deception series titles, although no longer about service in Satan's name, received ratings of Mature.
The first Deception title was home to a number of features that would never be seen again throughout the series' run. First and foremost, as stated previously, it was played from a first-person viewpoint, lending the game a different play-style from its successors. Secondly, instead of being limited to position one wall-, ceiling- and floor-based trap in each castle room, the player could place as many traps as he could make fit into the room, assuming he or she had enough Magic Points to construct them with, although all traps vanished after striking an invader once, necessitating a need to reconstruct them if invaders dodged or survived them all. Third, monsters could be constructed from captured invaders' body parts and summoned using "Block Orbs" to fight for the player. Fourth, the Castle of the Damned could be built onto and expanded with more rooms. Finally, the trap enhancement engine was much weaker and simpler than what would come in later entries, with each "family" of traps having only two upgrades each, and merely being stronger variations of existing traps. However, this game was also the most RPG-like of the series, with an emphasis on carrying and using items, increasing stats with item upgrades, and gaining character levels by killing or capturing invaders. Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness contained six different endings which could be attained by making different choices at key storyline junctions, and saving required nine blocks — over half of a single memory card.