Castle In The Darkness

all this game has going for it is one-hit kills. every boss drops a heart that gives +1 hp, but you will never really use it, because they decided to stick spikes everywhere and spikes are all this game really seems to want to use to challenge you. I remember playing it years ago and liking it right up until I realized how much of a one-trick pony it is, and I just spent another couple hours playing it before I realized it agian. there won't be a third time, this review is to remind me that I don't like this game.

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Got this game because it was dirt-cheap, and I'm very glad I decided to stick through binding my controller with Steam input and playing the unimpressive first area. Soon enough, Castle In The Darkness becomes a fast-paced action platformer with lots of semi-precise jumps over instant-death spikes and pits. Death is not too punishing, there are save points scattered everywhere around the many areas in the game's open-ended and map, which helps making exploration and progresion a lot of fun, especially since the game has many rewarding secrets and optional paths to be found. My main complaints are the lack of a map system and the distance between the fast travel points, which gets slightly annoying when backtracking. Still, I imagine the game sits at mostly positive reviews due to its boring start, because past that first hurdle, it becomes very fun.

Fun. Challenging. And a love letter to classic NES games.

This game was...well it was something. Pros: - Great chiptune music. - Using melee weapons is *fast*. You can stab basically as fast as you can click the attack button. - Movement is also relatively quick, and this combined with the jumping made for some satisfying platforming. - The artwork is very authentically NES, and the references to other games were great. - The game rewards exploration well, with hidden bosses and more powerful gear. Cons - This game is difficult, and filled with trolls. Like pressing a button to that unblocks progress will also cause spikes to appear where you need to go without warning, or offscreen things insta-killing you. Some of it was funny (destroying the castlevania torches was a highlight), but some of it felt just plain mean spirited when most of them kill you immediately. - Even outside the trolls, the game difficulty is rough. It's clear this is intentional, multiple achievements are rewarded for hitting different death numbers. But getting sent back to a far off save point and backtracking, and remembering all the specific dangers and trolls can be a challenge. Part of this I think is that weapon/spell damage is extremely important, and if y…

[i]Recommend; But Some Aspects are a bit Rough[/i] Initial technical setup took a bit of time to get a DS4 controller working; also weirdly the game defaults to both sound and music at zero volume. Music and sound volume seems to fade in and out for no rhyme or reason; one minute its fine the next I could barely hear the music at all. As for the game itself it takes heavy inspiration from the best and worst aspects of the 8-bit console era. The game expects the player to have heavy domain knowledge from the era; somewhat lesser known tactics such a damage boost jumping are actually required in places; or having to hold jump after bouncing off an enemy increasing the bounce height. Fantasy walls are also present (some are artistically hinted, a handful are not). Heavy usage of one-hit death spikes and pits (sometimes completely offscreen); which shockingly become even more common towards the endgame. This makes the blind playthru feel pretty bad at times getting "gotcha!" by falling spikes. Some scenes require very precise platforming. The game areas are pretty expansive; with locked off/ability gated sections but you'll have to remember everything as the game provides no mapping…