It's frustrating when a game sticks very closely to what another game does, and doesn't do enough to distinguish itself and be different. This does not apply to anyone who wants to make a Castlevania game with the serial numbers filed off. This is allowed and encouraged. Konami won't do it so someone's gotta.

Timespinner did an excellent job filling the Castlevania-shaped hole in my heart, especially since it clearly takes a lot of influence from Order of Ecclesia, one of my favorite games of all time. The presentation isn't outstanding, some of the enemy designs in particular are just... ugly, and not in a gross fun way, but the fundamentals are all here. Moving around is great, combat is fun, and though I found the game very easy, that didn't stop me from enjoying myself.

I found the story quite engaging, with its mostly well-handled depiction of warring nations. The game taking advantage of its time travel premise to offer multiple different endings that can't be definitively sorted into "good end" and "bad end" is very nice. I also always have to applaud good queer representation when I see it, especially when it depicts things I don't see as often in games, such as asexuality and polyamory.

A lot of love clearly went into this game, even though not everything works for me. I'm interested in playing the sequel when it comes out.