OK so now I finally got some time to post what I've done.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Seriously, we finally got a new 2D Zelda so I had to get this one at launch. I was still playing it the first 2 weeks of October, but like Kush said with Links Awakening, Zelda games have things like Skeletons and Ghost, so there's enough spooky things to still make them count for Halloween.
Anyway, I really liked this game. I'd say this game has the best Overworld in a 2D Zelda game. There's a lot of optional content to find, and most can be accessed pretty early on. I actually explored almost the entire world before even going into the 3rd Dungeon because I was so hooked. I really like how there's even some unique mini-bosses to find that are pretty powerful, and once you get their Echoes they really help with taking down enemies fast. Also a lot of the rewards for exploring and doing side quest are things that'll allow you to stay in Sword fighter mode longer, and make the Sword more powerful while in that mode. So all you people who complain about not being able to use a sword all the time have a good reason to want to explore the map and do side quest because that's what literally allows Zelda to actually use a Sword more often.
The dungeons on the other hand were just ok, with some cool idea's at times, but none of them really increased the complexity to what the series is known for. I know some people will say Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were like that but I disagree. BOTW and TOTK are still filled with a lot of moments that make you wonder what you're suppose to do, and require you to experiment a lot more to achieve what you need to do. In Echoes of Wisdom, they make it way to easy to solve almost every puzzle with the same set of Echoes over and over again.
The boss fights are awesome though. I was playing on Hero Mode and these bosses hit hard, with some having attacks that will take close to half your health if you get hit. The game gives a good reason to want to explore so you increase your health and have lots of Smoothies, but bosses at least on Hero Mode don't mess around.
It took me over 30 hours to finish the game and 2/3rds of that was doing things outside of dungeons so the overall game was still amazing to me. There's a good chance this will probably be my game of the year.
Lords of Exile
This is a classic Castlevania clone that came out earlier this year. It's pretty much ripping off Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon with the main character looking just like Zangetsu from that game, right down to the red sprite and sword as a main weapon. But I don't mind since the 1st Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is still my favorite classic Castlevania clone so somebody else just copying that game is good enough for me. Plus the developers of this game were also able to hire fucking Yuzo Koshiro to compose some song for the game. Damn, with all that going for it how can this not be a winner?
Well for starters, the level design could use some work. The first few levels in particular are kind of dull and not very engaging. Things do start to pick up by level 4 so the second half of the game is more fun to play, but even then, the difficulty never reaches the level of an actual Classic Castlevania or other varies clones.
The game also made the weird decision to have blocks in levels that require you to use a charge attack to destroy, but that's all they do. So many times you just come to a set of blocks, need to charge up and attack to destroy them and move on. It constantly stops the gameplay and literally adds nothing to the gameplay. Also when you get the double jump, it's not the most reliable thing where there's several times where it just doesn't want to work and I'm not sure why. This is why I hardly every use it except for moments where it's required.
The best part of the game is the boss fights which I found most to be pretty fun. But other than that, it's hard to recommend this game to anyone, even other fans of Classic Castlevania. The main game took me less than 2 hours to beat, and then I unlocked a second playable character that took another hour to beat, and then the boss rush took about 20 minutes. It only took between 3-4 hours to do everything in this game. There's so many other games in this stye at similar prices or less that are not only better games, but have more content as well. Unless you're a big fan of Classic Castlevania that can get this game on sale for under $5 dollars , it's not really worth it.
Infernax
This game is pretty much if you combined Zelda 2 and Castlevania 2, and filled them with lots of gore and disturbing images, so it fits the Halloween theme very well. So yeah I really enjoyed this game. The gameplay is pretty much taken directly from Zelda 2, so I had no problem getting into it right away. It started out rather challenging but as I got more upgrades the difficulty got easier toward the end, for the most part. I got the basic ending for the Good path my first time though, which doing so gave me the password to unlock the rocket pack to give my character to now hover and fly around the air. It's a good thing I did this first since when I went for the True Ending of the Good and Evil path, both sections have some rather BS area's and boss fights that probably would have sucked if I didn't have the rocket ability unlocked. But hey, when a game has multiple endings I always like to see the bad ones first before getting the good ones, so I like that doing so gave me a reward this time that helped make getting the better endings easier. Give a good reason to make people want to see the different endings this way.
Oh and I also got the hidden ending that just made me LOL the whole time. I was not expecting that, but damn it was a perfect way to end things. Of course doing so has unlocked a new way of playing the game that'll I'll come back to in the future, but right now I'd prefer not to get burned out on this game after ending on such a high note.
Crypt Stalker
Now this is another Classic Castevania clone except has an Egyptian theme. It came out on Switch earlier this year but when I look it up online it looks like it originally came out on Steam back in 2020. Now this is a game I originally bought reluctantly because it was being sold for $2 on the eShop and from a publisher that specializes in releasing a lot of shovelware. But one of the Switch YouTube channels I watch that talks about new releases was praises the titles and heavily recommending people buy it. So since it was only $2, I thought what the hell, even if it is bad at least it's dirt cheap so I'm not losing much.
Well I finally played it and it was actually pretty good. The first 2 levels felt kind of basic so I started to worry if it was going to be like Lords of Exile again, but then it picked up in the 3rd level, and kept getting better as it went. Unlike Lord of Exile, the later levels in this game had an appropriate challenge to them.
The gameplay is similar to Classic Castlevania, with the main character having a whip, but she also carries a gun. For the gun you collect ammo, and the equivalent to sub weapons changes the types of bullets it shots. The main character also moves faster than Classic Castlevania games. Because of her speed, and the fact you have a gun to shoot, there are times where the game feels like Mega Man as well.
Now the main game had 9 levels, which is already one more than Lord of Exile had. But there's also the option to pick something called, The Lost Sequel, which is 6 brand new levels that have new bosses and a new ending as well. Even though there's only 6 Levels, these levels are harder than what was in the main game, so it balances out to a similar length. Then there's something called Handheld Mode, which is 4 new levels that are done in classic Gameboy visual style, and these 4 levels are pretty challenging as well, and this mode also has a new ending. Then there was DLC that you can download for free that has a new campaign with 3 new levels and another new ending.
So in the end, this game is like 4 classic style games in one. There's also a set of different challenge levels that added about another hour of gameplay. I think I got about 6 hours of gameplay out of this game by the time I was done, which is pretty good when it only cost me 2 dollars, compared to something like Lord of Exile that cost my $14. Seriously, it show that price doesn't equal quality when a game that only cost me $2, had better gameplay and more content, then something that literally cost 7 times as much.
I'd heavily recommend this game for anyone who's a fan of Classic Castlevania games. It's not top tier, but it's a solid 8/10 game. The fact it's constantly on sale for $2 makes it a great deal for fans of this type of game.
Overlord: Escape from Nazarick
This is something I got over a year ago when I've seen several Youtube channels refer to it as an underrated Metroidvania title. It's based off of some anime series, and it's filled with skeletons and other undead creatures so it fits the Halloween theme. So is it really an underrated gem that some Youtube channels say it is?
No it's not. The game does eventually give the main character some really good movements, where you can move pretty fast and swing around certain blocks like Bionic Commando. The problem is the game doesn't really do much with the different abilities it gives you. I mean there are some fun sections that do take advantage of your abilities, but they're pretty brief and then you're back to doing some pretty basic platforming and combat. The combat in particular is dull, since you have a very small selection of enemies and they don't pose that much of a threat, and I was playing the game on Hard mode. The boss fights are the only time combat gets fun, and some had a decent challenge that killed me a few times.
It took me about 6 hours to beat the main game, and another 3-4 to collect all the memories to get the True Ending. Overall I thought it was OK, but nothing special. It had the potential to be great if they would have done more with all the abilities they give you, and focus more on the tricky platforming challenges that where the best part, as well as increase the variety and types of enemies.
Topic: Shocktober V: The Dream Child (Read 4856 times)
