Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
Well I'm not sure what to think so far. Two years ago I praised the first one for being the remake of Castlevania 3 that IGA always wanted to make. Now this game is a more of the same sequel with some new character added. The new characters are really fun to control and each is quite different from the last.
So on paper I should be loving it. The problem is this game fucking hates me and anybody I might have every known as well. I'm sure it hates whoever is reading this as well. The difficulty is just insane and not always in a good way. I finished Episode 1, and those last few stages were just bullshit. The game is obsessed with literally putting you in situations where you're next to a bottomless bit, with an enemy shooting projectiles at you, and a flying enemy swooping down at the same time. Some sections literally require you to keep track of enemies coming from both sides and the top, and if you don't have the right character and sub weapon equipped on that character you're fucked.
I have to wonder if because some complained that Casual mode was too easy in the previous game, Inti Create went our of their way to make it way more challenging in this game which as a result turns Veteran mode which I prefer to play into cheap BS mode. Of course, I have to imagine some of these area's are just as cheap in Casual since some of the level design feels like Inti was trying to create another Mega Man Zero or Gunvolt game, and didn't realize the jumping mechanics of classic Castlevania do not fit that type of level design.
Oh well, I do like a good challenge and maybe after completing the later episodes I might appreciate the game in the end but right now a lot of the challenge feels more on the cheap side then fair, which is kind of disappointing since the original did a great job of being very accessible with it's regular mode while offering a good challenge with stuff like doing a solo Zangetsu run that was hard but still fair. This game literally punches you in the face and steals your car by the halfway point of what should be the easiest part. It makes me fear what's in store for me in the later Episodes.