How Luigi's Mansion 4 Could Blend Open-World Hubs With Rifts

Halloween just passed, which makes it a good time to talk about ghosts, and there’s still a lot to say about Luigi’s Mansion 4. Leaks and rumors have been circulating for a long time, leaving fans with plenty of questions about what Nintendo is working on.

For a while, the expectation was that the game would arrive this year, but there’s now a real chance it has been delayed to next year or even the year after. The franchise has always been fun, and Luigi's Mansion 4 has a chance to top what came before. Based on what we know so far and what Nintendo might be planning, you can form a pretty clear idea of what the game could be.

Nothing about the game is confirmed, and everything so far comes from leaks and rumors.

The best you can do is look at the series history and Nintendo's current habits and see where they point. With that in mind, Luigi's Mansion 4 looks like a game that could fix the complaints about the second game while keeping what made the others work. Look at how the earlier games are built.

The first and third games are open in a way, since the whole mansion sits in front of you and you move from room to room without any breaks. The second game did things differently. You started at one mansion and had to break down the door to enter it, and from there the game sent you to a bunch of other mansions, including a desert one and an ice one. It worked as a set of levels, where you finished one mission and moved on to the next.

Plenty of fans did not like that setup, because it felt less scary and less spooky, and it drifted away from the classic feel of the series. Nintendo may have noticed the same thing, and the next game takes a different approach altogether. Nintendo's recent games lean heavily toward big open maps, and that seems to be the main direction right now.

You might point out that the first game was already open-world, but the idea here is a fully realized open-world format. Dark Moon may have been re-released on the Nintendo Switch for a reason. It could point toward how the next game is designed. A re-release like that on the Nintendo Switch often signals that players are being caught up before a new game, and that fits here.

Dark Moon could return, just not in the form you would expect, with Nintendo making a game that blends all three titles.

The first and third games are more open-ended and take place inside a single mansion or hotel. The second game, on the other hand, let you visit completely different areas and was not stuck in one setting. Luigi's Mansion 4 could mix those two ideas and let you travel between different dimensions and realities.

Picture the Mushroom Kingdom acting as a hub mansion of sorts, and then Peach ends up trapped inside a painting or something along those lines. It would feel a lot like Super Mario 64, where you jump into a painting and land in a different level. That is where the variety of the second game would come in, while the experience stays anchored in one mansion or castle hub.

You would get an open-world feel alongside a structured, level-based system. With the Mushroom Kingdom serving as the starting point, each painting or rift, much like in Super Mario 64, could lead somewhere new, which is how the second game's variety fits in without cutting you off from the mansion. Whether the hub is a mansion or a castle in the Mushroom Kingdom, the idea works.

After all, the first and third games were layered by levels too. You could walk from one floor to the next, but each area worked like its own isolated stage. This time you could step into a rift and, thanks to modern hardware, jump from one side to the other while the new environment loads in around you.

In Luigi's Mansion 4, the new area could be a wide-open environment with plenty of creative mechanics.

There could be new ghosts everywhere, along with fresh abilities for Luigi, and he might even get a ghost sword or something similar. Ghosts do not like water, so there could be gameplay mechanics built around it. Instead of relying only on your vacuum, you could grab a garden hose and spray them down. It would be interesting to see which format Nintendo chooses.

From there, you could travel back, jump through the portal, and return to the main mansion. The mansion could serve as your base of operations. Professor E. Gadd could live in that central hub, monitoring and controlling all the rifts forming. Since he has always been the one handing Luigi his gadgets, running the rift operation from the hub would suit him.

Imagine jumping through a rift to land on another planet, or tackling a level set on the moon. It is not clear how the ghosts would get up there, but the developers figured it out would be fascinating. This approach would take what worked best from the first game, what worked best from Dark Moon, and what worked best from the third game.

Luigi's Mansion 4 would also bring back Gooigi, who is still part of Luigi's kit going by the canon storyline. Gooigi, the gooey copy of Luigi, would give the rift levels more puzzle options, since he can handle spots Luigi can't. Polterpup would return too, ready to revive you whenever you collect a Golden Bone. Polterpup would be a nice link back to the third game, and the revive mechanic through Golden Bones keeps you in the fight.

On top of that, there could be an entirely new companion or ability, because every game in the series brings in a new mechanic or gadget.

Professor E. Gadd could hand Luigi the new gadget, since that is usually his job. Water would be an intriguing pick given how many environmental puzzles you could build around it. It is a distinct element. The reason water and ghosts do not mix is that running water has a continuous, cleansing flow.

It keeps moving, and ghosts cannot easily phase through it. You could even use it defensively, as a water shield in Luigi's Mansion 4. Overall, it may be early to get carried away, but Luigi's Mansion 4 could be something special: a hybrid that mixes open freedom with linear pacing and balances two distinct formats.

Big open maps are a favorite among Nintendo fans right now, and the company clearly leans into that design philosophy. The Super Mario 64 hub idea has aged well, and it suits a ghost game that wants both exploration and levels.

Nintendo could really be onto something if it builds an open mansion in Luigi's Mansion 4. That does not have to mean a sprawling map, but rather a grand, interconnected mansion where you jump through rifts into different pocket dimensions. Outdoor levels would be welcome too.

Think back to the giant pyramid built right inside a room in either the third game or Dark Moon.

Seeing ideas like that return would be great. An area could feature a massive apple tree in an open field, along with a ghostly groundskeeper or farmer. You might even be able to drive a tractor around, and Luigi hopping onto one to escape would be hilarious. The same goes for the water weapon idea in Luigi's Mansion 4, since using a garden hose directly on enemies would be a blast.

In the end, it comes down to whether Nintendo goes fully open or stays semi-linear, and nobody outside the studio knows yet. Between Gooigi, Polterpu,p and a new water tool, the toolkit would feel familiar and fresh at once. Until Nintendo says something official, everyone with a Nintendo Switch and a love for ghost hunting will have to keep guessing.