This review contains spoilers
As a fan of Metroidvanias, I must say this was a realy good game. If you changed the name of the game to Castlevania: Ritual of the Night it would fit right in the universe, BUT, that's probably because it's a mix of Aria of SorrowOrder of Ecclesia.
The story is quite simple, although that goes for most of the Castlevanias, but it's not bad at all. Something I liked was the hidden backstory of one of the Alchemists that worked on the creation of the Vessels.
The gameplay while not bad, only feels really satisfying at the end game, something that once again is imbued in this genre of game and that being my only dislike of these kinds of game. Although Hollow Knight does fix this problem for me.
One of my two gripes with the game is that it's kinda of an Order of Ecclesia Diet version. The concept of the Guild creating the Shardbinders is the same as the Order creating Glyph users. Miriam and Shanoa are the same concept, but different characters. Zangetsu is the staple Julius, Richter and Albus, the guy who appears the more you explore the game and have some fights against. You have Gebel the mind controlled friend a la Richter in SotN, but he is also kinda of a Brauner/Shaft kind of mid game boss. You also have the true real villain who I won't spoil, but yeah.
The Bosses are probably my biggest gripe of the game, while cool looking, they just end up feeling boring at the end. The more creative looking the boss is the easier it is.
The callbacks the game has to Iga's past works are nice.
While it is a good game it ends up being a bit dirivative from old Metroidvanias, especially from Aria and Ecclesia, but still fan. If they plan to make a new game in this franchise I hope it goes for a more original concept.
The story is quite simple, although that goes for most of the Castlevanias, but it's not bad at all. Something I liked was the hidden backstory of one of the Alchemists that worked on the creation of the Vessels.
The gameplay while not bad, only feels really satisfying at the end game, something that once again is imbued in this genre of game and that being my only dislike of these kinds of game. Although Hollow Knight does fix this problem for me.
One of my two gripes with the game is that it's kinda of an Order of Ecclesia Diet version. The concept of the Guild creating the Shardbinders is the same as the Order creating Glyph users. Miriam and Shanoa are the same concept, but different characters. Zangetsu is the staple Julius, Richter and Albus, the guy who appears the more you explore the game and have some fights against. You have Gebel the mind controlled friend a la Richter in SotN, but he is also kinda of a Brauner/Shaft kind of mid game boss. You also have the true real villain who I won't spoil, but yeah.
The Bosses are probably my biggest gripe of the game, while cool looking, they just end up feeling boring at the end. The more creative looking the boss is the easier it is.
The callbacks the game has to Iga's past works are nice.
While it is a good game it ends up being a bit dirivative from old Metroidvanias, especially from Aria and Ecclesia, but still fan. If they plan to make a new game in this franchise I hope it goes for a more original concept.