I… ABSOLUTELY loved this game!!!
Taking a dumb dating sim parody, Gal Gun, and turning it into Castlevania… Why not? And they did it extremely well!
The tone of the “main series” has been kept, especially so in the game’s later half. Maybe that’s to the dismay of people who wanted a “real” Castlevania game, but I thoroughly enjoyed the silly juvenile humor.
While this is not a metroidvania, you do unlock new abilities and can revisit all the stages to reach new areas in the stages and find more collectables and powerup items. I’d say it’s Castlevania Portrait of Ruin style with the two protagonists who specialize in different attacks. If playing single player you’ll need to switch constantly (which is fast, one button press) to make up for their weaknesses. The game also supports local coop.
The biggest flaw is that there is NO collectable tracker for the levels! There IS a compass that tells you if an important collectable is near by (there is one type of collectable the compass does not point out, and you need them all for all achievements). If you’re missing something and don’t know where it could be… The only choice is to search through all 8 levels again. Really hope they patch in this highly need QoL feature even though I am already done with everything.
As a final thing, the “true ending” of the game actually has you battle against Kurona in the gameplay style of Gal Gun! It turns into a rail shooter! It’s so hilarious that I had the world’s goofiest smile on my face. Not to mention the ending just kept that smile going.
In the words of Kurona, this is why I love Inti Creates so much. They honestly feel like a company run by fans of themselves, if that makes sense. It helps that this is an exceedingly well done 2D platformer.
