2020
Straight up fire !!
This game feels like it was made for me from the synth soundtrack to the balls to the walls movement and the cyberpunk setting. From the reviews i saw on release i though this game was generic and just a tech demo for nvidia rtx and what not. But it couldn't be further than the truth, the game is no master piece, but is most definitely not boring. The game always keeps pushing you to move faster and faster, new moves, new power-ups, new mechanics, new enemies every level. You will fail a lot, but the game resets as fast as it moves so the flow is never lost. Everything comes together to make you immersed into the character and the world, the ost, visuals and game-feel it trully is special.
One of the dowsides is the story, which is nothing to be much impressed with, but it does its job, either way i wouldn't want the story to get in the way of the fast gameplay. The same can be said of the cameras/turret sections in the game that make you stop the movement and stand there waiting. The last nitpick is the bosses that feel a bit trial and error based due to the nature of how the levels work, wish it would be less guessing involved thats all.
Overall is a very good and complete package, if you enjoy mirrors edge and want something faster and more envolved, or are a fan of cyberpunk aesthethic and even synthwave/outrun this game is amazing and a love letter to the genres.
This game feels like it was made for me from the synth soundtrack to the balls to the walls movement and the cyberpunk setting. From the reviews i saw on release i though this game was generic and just a tech demo for nvidia rtx and what not. But it couldn't be further than the truth, the game is no master piece, but is most definitely not boring. The game always keeps pushing you to move faster and faster, new moves, new power-ups, new mechanics, new enemies every level. You will fail a lot, but the game resets as fast as it moves so the flow is never lost. Everything comes together to make you immersed into the character and the world, the ost, visuals and game-feel it trully is special.
One of the dowsides is the story, which is nothing to be much impressed with, but it does its job, either way i wouldn't want the story to get in the way of the fast gameplay. The same can be said of the cameras/turret sections in the game that make you stop the movement and stand there waiting. The last nitpick is the bosses that feel a bit trial and error based due to the nature of how the levels work, wish it would be less guessing involved thats all.
Overall is a very good and complete package, if you enjoy mirrors edge and want something faster and more envolved, or are a fan of cyberpunk aesthethic and even synthwave/outrun this game is amazing and a love letter to the genres.
Amazing way to use the DS touch pad, the story is pretty good although a little convoluted at the end. Perfect game for the DS
A fun and small little game, just wished some of the ideas had been a better explored, but for a dsiware game it impressive enough with such a small download size
2012
Pretty Good, addicting gameplay loop. Full of collectibles and secrets make it replayable. A good game to play from start to finish in a day
It's a surprisingly good game, specially the music probably the highlight of the game. Controls aside (and actual finger pain) it is a pretty enjoyable game that starts slow but after it picks up the pace it grabs you until the end.
2019
Damn, hard to think ID went from Doom (2016) to this. Its not the worst game in the world, but it is an enormous downgrade. The game feels bad in most aspects and just feels like a checklist based game, the only saving grace is the sound design and OST which are still pretty good.
Who knows maybe in a future a give it a go again, but for now its staying shelved
Who knows maybe in a future a give it a go again, but for now its staying shelved
2016
This game is amazing, but i played it wrong the first time (6-7 years ago). This game really needs to be played in the hardest difficulty you can handle, it needs to challenge you. I made the mistake of first playing in the mid difficulty and felt the game being boring and repetitive with long pauses in between action. But after cranking it to the hardest difficulties the game changed and became amazing, the systems started to work, the "dance" you make with the enemies, the counters, the changing of weapons everything felt powerful and was made mandatory to succeed.
This game almost everything in the game felt amazing, but other things not so much, the boss fights are a real let down, being so boring compared to the normal gameplay, you don't get use any of the mechanics that make the game feel so good to play you just empty your weapons at the monster in the center. The collectibles are cool and all but i could not care less about reading in this game.
That being said the music is one of the best ever, one of the best soundtracks in any game that alone makes this game worth playing. The overall package when it all comes together makes this one of the greatest games ever but the little details like the boss fights bring it down just a bit.
This game almost everything in the game felt amazing, but other things not so much, the boss fights are a real let down, being so boring compared to the normal gameplay, you don't get use any of the mechanics that make the game feel so good to play you just empty your weapons at the monster in the center. The collectibles are cool and all but i could not care less about reading in this game.
That being said the music is one of the best ever, one of the best soundtracks in any game that alone makes this game worth playing. The overall package when it all comes together makes this one of the greatest games ever but the little details like the boss fights bring it down just a bit.
2018
The game design in this game is straight up amazing, and the way it uses the 1 minute motif never really gets old because of the game being so short. The level design is so good that makes me want to make my own take on it.
Godamn this game was an hard one, it was the first DS castlevania i played, about 2/3 years ago and i could not finish it for the life of me, just got hard stuck.
Well after playing almost all of the gba and ds games i came back and still got my ass whooped, it was only after finishing dawn of sorrow that i decided to restart again and this time i would pay attention to everything and try hard. I soon realized why it was so hard for me, i was not paying any attention to the enemy weakness and just played as i was used to, but this game really made me look at enemy weakness and movements at times it really felt like a 2D dark souls with the magic/mana system now with a stamina like meter for attacks and magics. The game really made an 180 turn, once it clicked it was so satisfying, all of the glyphs made sense the bosses where enjoyable but hard it was amazing. The visuals where by far one of the best in all castlevania, Shanoa is one of the coolest main characters.
The game really felt like the pinnacle of everything done so far since SOTN, visuals, story and gameplay. The story is pretty decent with a good twist that doesn't feel forced and out of place.
The main gimmick of this game is the different world design, being a little different from the usual metroidvania, this game is separated in different levels and even has a main village where the player can return. I found that to be one of the best additions to the game giving it personality over the other titles, and even improving at the quest system in portrait of ruin. The game being so hard also plays into every upgrade you get in the village really helping out in the end.
Overall the game is really good but one of the hardest to get into, really needing to get invested and taking it seriously, and the end game surprise really is special and the final battle one of the hardest, quite the fitting end of castlevania as a series.
Well after playing almost all of the gba and ds games i came back and still got my ass whooped, it was only after finishing dawn of sorrow that i decided to restart again and this time i would pay attention to everything and try hard. I soon realized why it was so hard for me, i was not paying any attention to the enemy weakness and just played as i was used to, but this game really made me look at enemy weakness and movements at times it really felt like a 2D dark souls with the magic/mana system now with a stamina like meter for attacks and magics. The game really made an 180 turn, once it clicked it was so satisfying, all of the glyphs made sense the bosses where enjoyable but hard it was amazing. The visuals where by far one of the best in all castlevania, Shanoa is one of the coolest main characters.
The game really felt like the pinnacle of everything done so far since SOTN, visuals, story and gameplay. The story is pretty decent with a good twist that doesn't feel forced and out of place.
The main gimmick of this game is the different world design, being a little different from the usual metroidvania, this game is separated in different levels and even has a main village where the player can return. I found that to be one of the best additions to the game giving it personality over the other titles, and even improving at the quest system in portrait of ruin. The game being so hard also plays into every upgrade you get in the village really helping out in the end.
Overall the game is really good but one of the hardest to get into, really needing to get invested and taking it seriously, and the end game surprise really is special and the final battle one of the hardest, quite the fitting end of castlevania as a series.
It is without a doubt not as bad as people make it be, not even the rune system is as bad as they say, it made me lose like once or twice but pretty fair and not too annoying. The gameplay is good as always even better in some places the graphics are a pretty nice upgrade, specially those interactable environments like the cars at the starting area (that was legit incredible wish more games had it). But sadly the story and the portrait and visuals (cover, ui art etc) are quite a downgrade from the gba games, it literally threw away the castlevania legacy to become anime, and a bad one at that. The story is really bad with the shittiest villain so far and the most forced story in the post SOTN games. Somehow it had the worst final sequence of rooms followed by the coolest end of game final boss. Still overall a pretty good game sadly the story, artistic style and the more child friend nature brought it down a bit.
2013
I definitely was not expecting anything from the game but it was pretty enjoyable, always kept thinking it would be an horror game with that start but as i got to know the house, the scary rainstorm became "comfy" and relaxing. Pretty solid story to follow and not too annoying level design.
Goddamn now i understand why everyone wont shut up about this game, always played it for a bit but never had the patience to sit down and play it to the end, till now.
After recently playing aria of sorrow and harmony of dissonance i expected the same mechanics and feeling but damn i can clearly see where literally all of the enemies came from its actually insane the variety of enemies in this game and all makes sense for the most part, and way better suited for this game then in the future gba titles. The art style is top of the line, one of the best pixel art games and the little details with the 3D models brings so much style, the flying books some details in the bosses being 3D, this game really used the ps1 in a creative way, not to mention the lava zone being an actual 3D model peak design tbh. The Ost is so good, its crazy, pretty much every track is a banger, so much i feel sad the transitions are so abrupt. The familiar system is quite a nice idea, a bit sad it didn't make it to gba generation.
I would honestly say this is one of the best games ever, that is if the game ended at the half waypoint, even if great the reverse castle portion of the game feels very creative at first but soon it begins to crack you explore the zones you already know but in "reverse" going from top to down is all fun and games at first but soon you realize half the time you need to be using the bat transformation which is fine but not the best way to move in the game, the enemy placement starts to be a bit chaotic as well, with rooms filled with 20 enemies that push you outside the area, and the ost is not as good as in the normal castle.
That is of course comparing it to one of the best first half game ever, it still is an amazing game but if not for this flaws in the latter game this would be an easy 5/5 game, and honestly i can see myself change my mind later and give this the 5 stars because this game trully is something special
After recently playing aria of sorrow and harmony of dissonance i expected the same mechanics and feeling but damn i can clearly see where literally all of the enemies came from its actually insane the variety of enemies in this game and all makes sense for the most part, and way better suited for this game then in the future gba titles. The art style is top of the line, one of the best pixel art games and the little details with the 3D models brings so much style, the flying books some details in the bosses being 3D, this game really used the ps1 in a creative way, not to mention the lava zone being an actual 3D model peak design tbh. The Ost is so good, its crazy, pretty much every track is a banger, so much i feel sad the transitions are so abrupt. The familiar system is quite a nice idea, a bit sad it didn't make it to gba generation.
I would honestly say this is one of the best games ever, that is if the game ended at the half waypoint, even if great the reverse castle portion of the game feels very creative at first but soon it begins to crack you explore the zones you already know but in "reverse" going from top to down is all fun and games at first but soon you realize half the time you need to be using the bat transformation which is fine but not the best way to move in the game, the enemy placement starts to be a bit chaotic as well, with rooms filled with 20 enemies that push you outside the area, and the ost is not as good as in the normal castle.
That is of course comparing it to one of the best first half game ever, it still is an amazing game but if not for this flaws in the latter game this would be an easy 5/5 game, and honestly i can see myself change my mind later and give this the 5 stars because this game trully is something special
Pretty impressed with the game overall, not as good as aria of sorrow but a clear improvement over circle of the moon. The Dash is a godsend could be implemented in all "Igavania" games feels so good to combat and dash to wherever i want. The colors i thought would be a turn off, were not as distracting as expected (except at the end fight wth).
Pretty enjoyable game, the dash really is what elevates the game
Pretty enjoyable game, the dash really is what elevates the game
This game played in Retroarch with some color filters and crt really made it feel way more than a gba game. The art style really was amazing and the game feel clearly is an improvement over circle of the moon, almost as good as zero mission. The level design was good but the enemies were the most interesting part not to mention the soul "skills", that mechanic alone changes completely the way you approach the game. Overall is a really fun package so far the best metroidvania Castlevania
Its fine, but a pain to control sometimes. The flying zones are peak