This game is weird. Weird in all departments. While the first game was content being a retro-platformer heavily inspired by Castlevania 3 with a hint of Ninja Gaiden, this game feels more like its own beast with Castlevania 3 just being a very distant memory. I don't want to draw too many comparisons between the two games in the series, but there is a noticable difference in level design and enemy placement philosophy.
Your first playthrough sees you start only with Zangetsu, who is supposed to be the standard character without any special abilities. He can jump in one specific arc and attack. As you would expect. As the game progresses, you unlock further characters with considerably different movement and attack options, some of them being a weird fit for a game that is ostensibly supposed to remind you of the classic Castlevanias. The second Character, Dominique is already very unconventional for the genre with her multidirectional attacks, her attack pogo move and her sub-weapons that can revive or heal party members. The third character, Robert, provides you with a hitscan normal gun attack (unlimited distance, no less), a walljump and a very low crawl. The fourth character, Hachi (a corgi in a Magitek Armor) has a generous hover ability and a sub-weapon that lets you be invulnerable for a considerable amount of time.
Needless to say, all of this breaks the rules of classic Castlevania wide open. Paired with the fact that every level has multiple ways to go through it depending on how you utilize the characters abilities, it seems fairly easy to beat, and quite honestly, it is. If you’re looking for very hard retro challenge, you should look elsewhere. What this game does provide in droves is replayability. Level and room design seem to be less rigid than in classic castlevanias, but it makes sense when you think about it in terms of the new characters. Why should you craft very specific challenges if you also just hand the player abilities that break them easily? The great classic Castlevanias were usually designed with only one or two characters in mind, but this game accomodates the constant switching by throwing a lot of different things at you that you can solve with a lot of different approaches, and it’s commendable that the game gives you that freedom. The biggest problem is that – at first – it feels underwhelming and like you’re cheesing everything, but I learned to love that about the game on the many repeat playthroughs the game incentivizes you to do. There even are story reasons for playing through the game 5(!) or more times, but considering that every level has at least 2 routes, the experience stays equally fresh and familiar with each time.
The game also becomes noticably harder from the second campaign on, even going so far as giving the bosses way more health and (effectively) turning every single attack into an “EX” version of itself. The freedom and looseness present in level design surprisingly also translates to the bosses, and even the more rigid ones have a few ways to approach them smartly. A good example is the first boss: A Dragon. This boss in the first campaign is as standard as a big Castlevania boss can be, you have to avoid its 2 attacks and can only hit it when its mouth it open. Considering that you only have Zangetsu at this point, it is a very rigid experience, and even the sub-weapons can not really make you shake that feeling. Fast forward to the second playthrough, where you start with multiple characters and your options open up immensely. Hachi’s attack is slower but can hit the dragon when its mouth is closed. You can selectively use Hachi’s invulnerability at specific points in the fight to ignore the bosses big beam attack and just bloody punch him during it the whole time. You can shoot the boss with Robert at points where you couldn’t before, and you can of course now choose between multiple sub-weapons for multiple characters to play around with and see which one you can use at specific points in the fight. It’s exhilarating to find these options out and to see what you can get away with.
I can see myself playing through this game again and again and discovering new level and boss strategies for a long time, and the thought of challenging myself by setting up constraints like only using one character or not using sub weapons has also crossed my mind. The fact that I have these thoughts and actively look forward to replaying this game again after having done so 5 times already is a testament to the new design philosophy working out, and I highly recommend that if you ever play this game and feel like there’s a spark there, you should stick with it and see how it can surprise you with its freedoms.
Your first playthrough sees you start only with Zangetsu, who is supposed to be the standard character without any special abilities. He can jump in one specific arc and attack. As you would expect. As the game progresses, you unlock further characters with considerably different movement and attack options, some of them being a weird fit for a game that is ostensibly supposed to remind you of the classic Castlevanias. The second Character, Dominique is already very unconventional for the genre with her multidirectional attacks, her attack pogo move and her sub-weapons that can revive or heal party members. The third character, Robert, provides you with a hitscan normal gun attack (unlimited distance, no less), a walljump and a very low crawl. The fourth character, Hachi (a corgi in a Magitek Armor) has a generous hover ability and a sub-weapon that lets you be invulnerable for a considerable amount of time.
Needless to say, all of this breaks the rules of classic Castlevania wide open. Paired with the fact that every level has multiple ways to go through it depending on how you utilize the characters abilities, it seems fairly easy to beat, and quite honestly, it is. If you’re looking for very hard retro challenge, you should look elsewhere. What this game does provide in droves is replayability. Level and room design seem to be less rigid than in classic castlevanias, but it makes sense when you think about it in terms of the new characters. Why should you craft very specific challenges if you also just hand the player abilities that break them easily? The great classic Castlevanias were usually designed with only one or two characters in mind, but this game accomodates the constant switching by throwing a lot of different things at you that you can solve with a lot of different approaches, and it’s commendable that the game gives you that freedom. The biggest problem is that – at first – it feels underwhelming and like you’re cheesing everything, but I learned to love that about the game on the many repeat playthroughs the game incentivizes you to do. There even are story reasons for playing through the game 5(!) or more times, but considering that every level has at least 2 routes, the experience stays equally fresh and familiar with each time.
The game also becomes noticably harder from the second campaign on, even going so far as giving the bosses way more health and (effectively) turning every single attack into an “EX” version of itself. The freedom and looseness present in level design surprisingly also translates to the bosses, and even the more rigid ones have a few ways to approach them smartly. A good example is the first boss: A Dragon. This boss in the first campaign is as standard as a big Castlevania boss can be, you have to avoid its 2 attacks and can only hit it when its mouth it open. Considering that you only have Zangetsu at this point, it is a very rigid experience, and even the sub-weapons can not really make you shake that feeling. Fast forward to the second playthrough, where you start with multiple characters and your options open up immensely. Hachi’s attack is slower but can hit the dragon when its mouth is closed. You can selectively use Hachi’s invulnerability at specific points in the fight to ignore the bosses big beam attack and just bloody punch him during it the whole time. You can shoot the boss with Robert at points where you couldn’t before, and you can of course now choose between multiple sub-weapons for multiple characters to play around with and see which one you can use at specific points in the fight. It’s exhilarating to find these options out and to see what you can get away with.
I can see myself playing through this game again and again and discovering new level and boss strategies for a long time, and the thought of challenging myself by setting up constraints like only using one character or not using sub weapons has also crossed my mind. The fact that I have these thoughts and actively look forward to replaying this game again after having done so 5 times already is a testament to the new design philosophy working out, and I highly recommend that if you ever play this game and feel like there’s a spark there, you should stick with it and see how it can surprise you with its freedoms.