Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Well, I basically grew up playing games like these. I discovered the “Castlevania” series quite late, but I’ve played through every single game of it on almost every console. I’m pretty skeptical of games that try to capture the old charm (and most of them fail badly) but this series is actually enjoyable. Thanks to GDQ and the recommendations there, I started playing this game myself. First here on Steam, then I switched to Xbox and played through each of the 3 games (very casually). A few days ago, the GDQ speedrun popped up on YouTube, and well, I started playing the first game again, this time trying to complete it 100% (with every ending including the “Boss rush” mode). I had a lot of fun, and of course I highly recommend it if you’ve ever played anything similar. It’s good.

A short and sweet retro romp that punches above its weight.

Best Classicvania game that is perfectly suitable to newcomers or people that find classicvania too difficult

When you jump, it's either straight up or in a fix-angled arc in one direction. You can not change your midair positioning. Despite what all the positive reviews insist, I'm still not convinced that this movement style works and is my main critique with the game. It feels like you're puppeting your character and not actual being the character. Now, to its credit, the game *is* built around the movement, at least for the most part. Platforms are generously wide, and there aren't many sections in the game where you need to be super precise with your jumps. Most enemies can be handled with some well timed strikes and dodges, and the few that can't usually can be avoided. Realizing that I don't have to fight everything in my way made the game a lot more enjoyable on repeat runs, which the game does incentivize you to do if you want to get the different ending achievements. The movement works for the most part. [spoiler]Everything falls apart with the succubus boss, which requires so much precision and micromanagement that the best way to cheese her is to use the lightning strike magic attack. That's the only wait I've found to reliably get through this fight, which sucks because you …

This game is a total rip-off of Castlevania. Yes, I know, it's a "homage", but it is so similar that it is too similar and somehow not as good as most Castlevania games. Some of the areas are 1-to-1 copy of the areas from Castlevania games, it did not feel "neat" to me. It felt lazy and uninspired. It also takes many of the worst features and mechanics of the earlier Castlevania games and instead of improving upon them, they are just kept the way they were or made even more annoying. Starting with knock-back, luckily, this one you can disable by playing the casual mode, but you can still freeze mid-jumps and fall into your demise... One awful mechanic in this game, or the lack of, is that you cannot control your jumps once you start them. If you accidentally walk-off the ledge you fall straight down, even though you could land on below nearby platforms if you were able to control your jumps. And the other problem is the platforming. Because you cannot control your jumping distance it's terrible, there is no skill involved, just timing and jumping from the right spots. This makes your movement extremely limited. Dying instantly by falling into the pits is crazy too, at least, i…

A love-letter to Castlevania. Great leveldesign, characters are all unique and play differently from each other, the pixelart is gorgeous and the soundtrack is a banger. I just wish it was a bit longer, and had a higher difficulty, especially for the very simple bossfights.