My first instinct was to regard this as a “flawed, but promising” take on the game-night horror boom - but as the experience sat with me, Ive started to realize: I dont think this game has a soul. I dont believe that the game itself' believes in its concept. Much like its subject matter, this feels like a stunt. A toothy-grinning facade hoping to capture nothing but attention, like a decoy predator. A skinwalker, a doppelganger. A veneer. It almost tricked me, almost got in.

Which isnt to say the game is nefarious. What Im saying is, I dont think its… well-meant. Theres an obscured hollowness to it. A fakeness. Plastic, dressed to look warm but when you touch it all you feel is cold - and there is a low-level deceptiveness to that. Your nerves sense it, they fill you with distrust. I withhold my trust from it.

I'm all for supporting local industry, as it is very small in my country, and that's why I bought it, but sadly, this game ain't it. The story and dialogue are obnoxiously childish, and the novelty of the gameplay (the time travel mechanic) is very shallow in its execution. It would be the perfect game for the go on Switch, but those loading times are inexcusable, even more so considering there are random encounters, each with its own loading time. Hope they learned a lot from this and hope their next game will improve.

After the mis-step that was Simon's Quest, Konami decided to return to the original formula for the next mainline entry in the series, which was definitely a good choice overall in my opinion. As such, it led to the release of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, the final game in the series for the NES, and, if you are asking me, the best game of the original trilogy. Of course, not everything about it is perfect, but as the next step for the series, it did a phenomenal job.

The story is exactly what you would expect it to be, except this time with a new Belmont, the graphics and artstyle are both very good, the music is once again an absolute banger, especially Beginning, the control is basically the same as the original game, so no need to go into that, the gameplay is fun, treacherous, and satisfying yet again, the bosses are challenging in just the right way, and the weapons, as always, are fun to use.

Not to mention, the new additions that this game implements improve its quality much further, such as multiple pathways to explore, giving a lot of replay value, and not to mention, the addition of three new playable characters, consisting of Sypha, Grant, and Alucard. All three of them are very fun to play as and mess around with, with Sypha in particular being my favorite of the three to control, with her spells helping out A LOT in tight situations. Not to mention, you even get multiple endings depending on who you finish the game with, giving even more replay value!

However, with that being said, this game is not perfect. This game is HARD AS HELL, easily the hardest game from the original trilogy, and it will push you to your limits. Yes, it is entirely doable, but you need to bring your A-game to it, and that could turn people away, paired with the same control scheme as always. It didn't turn me away, obviously, but it could do so for a general audience.

Not to mention, another aspect that holds this game back is STAIRS. These have been a thing for all of the games so far, but I swear, there are stairs EVERYWHERE in this game, and trust me, it gets pretty annoying having to constantly walk up and down these while dealing with the shit this game throws at you.

Overall, despite those small gripes, this is an absolutely fantastic way to end off the original NES trilogy, and definitely a must-play for any fan of the Castlevania franchise.

Game #50

So, just like with many NES sequels at the time, for some reason, Konami thought that, for the next Castlevania game, they needed to make it completely different from the original. However, unlike Mario or Zelda, who managed to get away with this (somewhat), this series doesn't get that lucky.

Yeah, it may not be an unpopular opinion, but this game isn't really that good at all, and it has a TON of problems. Sure, I don't think it's a terrible game, and it isn't as bad as others make it out to be, but it certainly has not held up all that well.

The story is pretty dumb, but you can accept it quickly when not thinking about it, the graphics are pretty good still, the music is yet again a banger, the control is just about the same as the original, so nothing to say there, and the replay value is actually pretty good, with the different endings you can get.

The main problems with the game all stems from the gameplay. It is a creative way to differentiate from the original game, and as proven by future titles, it does work, but it is executed very poorly in this entry, with elements such as the day and night cycle being very annoying and inconvenient, the level design being pretty terrible, grammar errors everywhere you look, a confusing menu and item system, losing all your hearts upon getting a game over, and some of the most PATHETIC boss fights in video game history. Seriously, the bosses range from being pathetically easy with the right item, to where you can just straight up ignore them by walking past them.

The biggest problem with the game, however, is the matter of progression. It is definitely a guide game, 100%, because some of the things you are required to do to progress through the game, and even collect everything to 100% the game, you would NEVER be able to figure out on your own. Some instances of this would be with all of the invisible gaps in platforms that plague the entire game, having to kneel by a body of water with a crystal equipped to... make the screen go down a bit, needing to buy and throw a stake at the orb at the end of each level, and possibly the most infamous part, going to a dead end, equipping a crystal, and kneeling down for a couple seconds, resulting in a tornado coming and taking you to the next area... seriously, how would ANYONE figure that out on their own?

Overall, I appreciate the attempt at changing up the gameplay, and there are some good elements about it, but it is plagued with WAY too many problems for me to say that it is good by any means. Thankfully, future games will take what this game started and fix it.

Game #21

I heavily enjoyed this game. I don’t care that the gameplay is minimal, it’s used to tell a very good story.

I think it’s pretty clear that AI and Androids can absolutely develop some form of conciousness and sentience given the chance, and so I also think it’s incredibly stupid and horrific that humans created life-like Androids and immediately enslaved them. And this is absolutely something that COULD happen.

It was interesting doing that survey about halfway through and seeing the averages. A lot of people seem to trust the Androids. I wasn’t really sure at that point, but after finishing the game I feel like I understand. These Androids have such advanced software that competent sentience is clearly achievable, to the point where they’re no less than human, apart from their body parts. IF Androids were like this in real life someday, I could absolutely see them as another living being. But whether that’s the case is another thing altogether.

On top of all this, it made me very happy and hopeful that I chose to pick peaceful protesting options throughout the whole game; even though it was tough and resulted in some deaths, it ended with the Androids getting the army to stand down and a talk on their rights. The fact that the peaceful option ends in an amazing way, despite all the struggle, is awesome.

An exercise in empathy.

In our modern times it's easy to start questioning usual videogame und genre conventions, but the crowning achievement of 'Undertale' lies in its heart-warming execution. It's so well written that only a few lines of text are needed to create sympathy and some sort of connection towards each and every character you meet throughout your adventure. It not only feels like a unique but also a very 'whole' experience with everything - from its melancholic music to its game design around "battles" - blending perfectly together to attribute the themes of morality, identity and loneliness in these ruins of a world.