Recent reviews by 1-800-STAGGER

First off, this isn't "like" a Castlevania game. This is a Castlevania game, and a great one at that. It's a companion game to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, but completely stands out on its own and shows many wannabe retro platformers how it's done. The GOAT himself Koji Igarashi was involved on this one. This game at full price is worth it, and you might as well add ROTN to your cart as well. Okay, but WHY is it good? The level design is awesome. The music is good. The controls are crisp and are a throwback to Castlevania I. You have to think and aim before you jump because of knockback and the lack of mid-air adjusting just like in the early games. But it is also fresh because of the decision making and multiple endings. The bosses are cool and unique. Instant Classic.

I'm going to be disappointed when this gets released for the fact that I'll have to find a new example to use when insulting the early access label.

Let me interrupt all the reviews comparing this to "Advance Wars" to remind everyone that Fire Emblem and Military Madness existed long before.

When you create a job system (and I realize I'm yelling into an empty room because this game was released 100 years ago), you don't want to punish people for selecting a job. This game has the same problems as FF2, in that they trick you into thinking that it's going to be fun to experiment with the different jobs, then punish you severely for not playing it exactly how they want you to. An example, a few dungeons in you need to shrink your team in order to progress to the next area. Oh, you didn't level mages? Go F yourself, then because you now have to grind until your mages are strong enough to cast multiple shrink spells. Also, you're now in an area where monsters are over-leveled compared to your level 1 mages. Don't like it? Too bad, see you in a few hours. Thankfully, the final fantasy games get exponentially better after this.

This game is so bad NA banned it and then went ahead and banned FF3 and 4 just to be safe. Nasir single-handedly caused the Iranian revolution by creating this leveling system. Also, my parents walked in on me playing this and I quickly switched to a Hentai game because it was easier to explain. This game is digital filth. Anyone that plays this regularly is monitored by the FBI and added to the national no fly list.

This was a very disappointing game that feels unfinished. During the Steam Christmas sale, this game was $14.99. That's twice the price of Hollow Knight and three times the price of Ori and the Blind Forest. This game is far from the experience of those games as it's beatable in a day. There is no sense of exploration as you progress from stage to stage. Backtracking is a formality as the best items are on the way to the final boss. Color-coded doors separate areas instead of requiring the player to use movement skills or solve puzzles. Simply kill the boss, step on a switch, and walk to the new location. Bosses are easy since there are obvious safe spots you can sit in to hack away. Enemies plod toward you while you mow them down. The experience and leveling system is useless since you do enough damage as you progress through the game and enemies give very little experience making grinding inefficient. The pixel art and soundtrack are nice, but it feels like a Castlevania SotN mod more than an original experience. Even Deedlit’s cape is animated the same way Alucard’s is, except he wore it better 24 years ago. The story is mush and the characters are forgettable. Skip this one as there are better games to play in this genre.

This is the first game I ever played. Originally released in 1990 in the US ('87 in Japan). Compared to other RPGs of its time it was incredible. It has iconic music that has been used throughout the franchise, open world exploration, and long and confusing dungeons. There are some quality of life improvements in this release, but not enough to attract new players. Nostalgia aside, this version of the game is really only for completists. New fans will get bored quickly as its a reminder of how far RPGs have come.

This used to be a wonderful game, but has become the victim of many of the issues that plague major releases today. Valve has failed to address cheating and aimbot engines that have ruined games. The competitive update came too late as many of the best professionals have moved onto other games like Overwatch. Balance changes have ruined the flow of the game. Even simple things like the economy have been ruined by changes to the Steam Marketplace, and item duplication problems. Development is more concerned with releasing skins for microtransactions than it is with fixing any of the issues above.

Game is dead. Do not purchase. Official servers are offline and it's unplayable. Should be removed from the store.