From the Beloved Franchise: What's New about the Castlevania Mobile Game?

Before we begin, let's take a brief look at what the Metroid/Castlevania-like is. This gameplay concept comes from exactly the same two series, Metroid and Castlevania.

They have a lot in common, the most obvious of which are 2D and exploration. And that is what makes these games so much fun: giving the player an open world in the form of 2D horizontal scrolling and filling it with interesting things and obstacles to explore.

So, does the mobile game Castlevania Grimoire of Souls, developed with the Castlevania IP, really achieved what its synopsis says, and restore on the classics?

In terms of the map alone, the game really does have a 2D open world that is rare on mobile. From the spires of the castle to the caverns at the bottom of the river, the latitude spans a wide range, recreating the "four seasons" unique to Castlevania-style games.

The visuals and exploration experience are different from those of the original, but the details are as interesting as the original. If, in the course of your playthrough, you get a sudden glimpse of a scene that looks familiar, don't hesitate to look for what you're thinking of and chances are you'll be pleasantly surprised.

That's what makes the game so much fun to explore. Forget the main plot, there are many forks in the map waiting for you to explore, there may be monsters that will drop good things, or there may be good things hidden waiting for you to pick them up.

What's more interesting is that there are a lot of hidden spaces in the game, and you need some special means to get in there, so when you're killing time on the way, you might just be able to open up a new world for yourself.

It doesn't matter if you're a newcomer to the game, there are hints in the game to tell you that there might be good things in that area, which to some extent diminishes the fun of exploring on your own, but still gives more people a chance to experience the fun.

In the design of the map, the game made what the Metroid/Castlevania-like should have looked like. In terms of the characters, it takes a different path.

Unlike the original, which placed more emphasis on the use of equipment and skills, this game puts more emphasis on the style and growth of the characters themselves. So far in the beta, there are a total of ten characters available to players, each with different active and passive roles.

If you pay a little attention to the details of some behavior patterns, you'll find that each character is quite different, such as the jumping action, each character's second jump will have its own style, such as a valiant red outfit Yolanda, in the second jump will be in the air in a circle, looking elegant and easy.

From the promotional material, we can clearly see that the equipment restores the original. In addition to the long sword, sword, whip, etc., also added wands, magic books, and other original did not have, the content is quite rich.

The props are relatively less rich and interesting, but the advantage is that the equipment and props are free to assemble on the character, and the equipment has additional entries, in general, can still play a lot of tricks to play.

But perhaps it's because you want to play too much, the visual experience is a bit annoying. In a normal run, you'll get a "this castle is lit up, this character is beautiful, this monster is a unique" experience. You'll probably be tempted to say "well done" when you unleash the various skills on their own, but when they're all mixed together, you'll know what to expect.

When too many special effects stacked together, only light pollution will be left in front of you, too beautiful but also affect your appreciation of beauty, this kind of thing is a clear priority, too much.

Here's another issue that comes into play, the cluttered nature of the special effects is due to a poorly designed combat system. Unlike the original, which emphasized step-by-step action, Moon Night Rhapsody places more emphasis on numerical growth and comparison.

On the one hand, this does add to the sense of accomplishment of character development, but on the other hand, it also makes the game a brush, even with the existence of such settings as time slowing down after successful dodging, it is difficult to reach the excitement that operations in Castlevania can bring. This, coupled with the fact that there are still many flaws in the current version's character movement design and combat feel, means that the combat experience needs a little more time to find the right balance.

Whether or not the numerical set is fun enough is left to chance, at least in the current beta, and it's partly an influence on how much fun the Metroid/Castlevania should be.

A big reason why we're keen to explore is to find good or new things, and the consequence of putting too much emphasis on numerical values is that the chances are that what you pick up is only valid when you pick it up and that you can get something better more easily after a while. This weakens the need for exploration and makes it comfortable for newcomers, but undermines the expectations of fans of the original, so is this exploration, then, still worth it?

From this test, Castlevania is a very promising game with a technically strong production team and a good enough framework. If it can settle down a bit more and make good tradeoffs on values and other aspects, theoretically restoring Castlevania while making a rhapsody of its own won't be a problem.