Sonia Belmont, girlfriend to Alucard and sadly stricken from the timeline. Anime legend. She has the ability to go super saiyan and become invincible for a few seconds. What more could one ask for?
Okay probably like, a better game. We could ask for that. This is in many ways somehow the worst of the Gameboy 'Vanias but about halfway through it's incredibly bizarre idiosyncrasies kind of won me over. It was one of the times I went down an entire, multi-room path full of enemies only to discover it was a dead end containing one (1) chicken drumstick at the end which gave me back maybe half of what I lost.
There's a sort of accidental survival horror element here. Enemies are frequently nigh-impossible to properly dodge both due to their placement and movements and also the extremely "hmm" hitboxes, but they very rarely do significant damage. The levels are very, very long slogs. Your 'burning mode' can be activated at-will once per life per level to give you invincibility, extra strength and speed, but there are segments that seem intended to force you into using it. This is also the literal only classicvania where the first whip powerup doesn't come free from the first candle you hit every time.
All that said, checkpoints are very frequent and running out of lives doesn't send you any further back than that. The difficulty is entirely a facade, propped up by a number of hidden items you need to find to get a slightly expanded ending. Instead of subweapons, each level earns you a new magic power which you can select freely, including a heal for a whopping 20 hearts. It's actually kind of cozy in a way, despite the rampant frustration of bats that start at the top of the screen and can only fly directly downwards onto your head god DAMMIT
Some good things: Alucard is in this and looking like his SOTN self because this game came out in nineteen ninety fucking seven. There are some very neat enemy sprites, including one of my favorite Dracula forms. Having a super invincible mode you can do is objectively very cool. It reminded me of shitty old games I made as a kid again, something that just seems to be endemic to monochrome handhelds
Okay probably like, a better game. We could ask for that. This is in many ways somehow the worst of the Gameboy 'Vanias but about halfway through it's incredibly bizarre idiosyncrasies kind of won me over. It was one of the times I went down an entire, multi-room path full of enemies only to discover it was a dead end containing one (1) chicken drumstick at the end which gave me back maybe half of what I lost.
There's a sort of accidental survival horror element here. Enemies are frequently nigh-impossible to properly dodge both due to their placement and movements and also the extremely "hmm" hitboxes, but they very rarely do significant damage. The levels are very, very long slogs. Your 'burning mode' can be activated at-will once per life per level to give you invincibility, extra strength and speed, but there are segments that seem intended to force you into using it. This is also the literal only classicvania where the first whip powerup doesn't come free from the first candle you hit every time.
All that said, checkpoints are very frequent and running out of lives doesn't send you any further back than that. The difficulty is entirely a facade, propped up by a number of hidden items you need to find to get a slightly expanded ending. Instead of subweapons, each level earns you a new magic power which you can select freely, including a heal for a whopping 20 hearts. It's actually kind of cozy in a way, despite the rampant frustration of bats that start at the top of the screen and can only fly directly downwards onto your head god DAMMIT
Some good things: Alucard is in this and looking like his SOTN self because this game came out in nineteen ninety fucking seven. There are some very neat enemy sprites, including one of my favorite Dracula forms. Having a super invincible mode you can do is objectively very cool. It reminded me of shitty old games I made as a kid again, something that just seems to be endemic to monochrome handhelds