you can considerate this an IMPROVEMENT of the previsous game: everything (event the assets) from there are here as well - with addition of some new enemies, and bosses - of course!
Although, there is NO MAP, the whole area is interconnected, wich makes the exploration very joyful!

Scanlines should be a mandatory feature for all retro-style games. It adds so much to Citadale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU3qTfPmGjU
If you want to see Citadale and its difficulty in action, watch my video. Take old-school Castlevania, add a second item slot, the generosity of checkpoints, and a couple of odd design choices. Stages can be tackled in any order, with the castle acting as a sort of hub. Bosses are painfully difficult.

You have a shield that is sometimes useful. If you pick up a subweapon, I hope you were paying attention because the one you just had is gone. (This is my only serious complaint. I wish you dropped the previous one so you could switch back, especially with the two slots available.) Some enemies bleed poison that will hurt you. Being deliberate and having good timing is the key to everything.

If you enjoy punishing retro-style games, Citadale fills the bill. It could use more polish, and the bosses might induce tilt and rage like they did for me, but the fun is in the challenge.

I wanted to like this game but I couldn't... Graphics are fine, music is OK, animations are meh, enemy IA non existent and story, I didn't gave it the chance.

IA is the main reason I'm not recommending this game. Enemies seems to move randomly or using some kind of pathfinding algorithm in order to reach you, which some times is just painful. There's a boss who will move immediately after being hit, sometimes it will move in your direction... sometimes it wont, aaaand if you enter the room without a subweapon you can throw upwards you might end up dying of boredom waiting for the boss to move down so you can reach it. Also I don't recomend it because I hate instakill spikes...

PS The game's not hard you just need to feel confortable with the controls... and the enemy behavior.

More frustrating than fun.
I received this game as a gift.

I've probably played 50+ metroidvania games & 300+ indie platformers. This one is a really nice looking game but there is no adjustable difficulty and NOTHING is explained in game.

IE: How to use a secondary weapons, basic attacks etc. Sure The Awakened Spirit is not rocket science but this would have been nice.

After dying over and over and over again to the first boss ( winged succubus ) I just wanted to play a different game...

Sorry but no.
I've completed the series so far and although it's been declining in quality at least they were some decent Castlevania clones. This one is full of bad design and more than questionable gameplay decisions. There is a reason that games let you give more than one hit to stage bosses and insta-death were discarded long ago among many issues i encountered just in the first stages.
I don't know why the devs has insisted on continuing with the animations and gameplay of part 4 when it was the dullest compared to the original trilogy. I don't think this sequel was necessary in any way.