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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Fun fact: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow on the DS was my first Metroidvania type Castlevania game. Yes, I played the Holy GBA Trilogy a couple of years after this, and it’s 19 years since I first played Dawn of Sorrow. I’d not even had this diary going for that long at the time.

Somehow, I still remembered a lot of the game. Most of the bosses, how to reach certain areas, and certainly the plot were all there in my head ready to go again, which is odd because the same wasn’t true for the GBA games which I replayed recently on the Switch. This is on the Switch too, by the way, as Konami surprise announced Castlevania Dominus Collection which brings together Dawn of Sorrow and the other two DS games (plus Haunted Castle for $reason) and I preordered it so fast I got whiplash.

To the game, then. It follows on from the Game Boy Advance Aria of Sorrow, following Soma Cruz again as he ends up in Dracula’s castle again, this time up against a cult who are trying to resurrect the Dark Lord in the body of one a couple of prospective vessels.

As with all these games, there’s exploring, map filling, huge bosses and the usual things you’d expect from a Metroidvania. It’s also still really good!

Being a DS game (and following the weird DS trend where game subtitles had to have “DS” as initials) there are some hardware specific things which don’t translate directly to the single-screen Switch. The main one is that the game screen and the status screen (with the maps and stats) now fit on a single screen, although you have control of the size and arrangement.

The other thing is the touch screen controls. They’re still there if you play handheld, but otherwise you use the right stick to move a cursor. It’s hardly needed, just a few areas where you tap blocks. In the original game you had to draw sigils to “seal” beaten bosses, but you can now do these as QTEs instead.

The RPG and soul mechanics of the game are still excellent now and it’s just as playable and fun as it was all those years ago.

Densetsu no Stafi 3 (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Yes, it’s more of more of the same. Same baddies (mostly), same skills (that again need re-learning), same silly characters to interact with. But! Densetsu no Stafi 3 adds something new – a second, female, starfish. If my Japanese is correct, she’s Stafi’s sister Stapi.

At various times in the game you swap between the two starfish, sometimes at will, other times it is forced due to Events That Happen. Although similar, they have a couple of different skills. Notably, Stapi can wall-jump and crawl, so that’s one better than Metroid.

It adds quite a bit to the game, especially in a sections where you have to use each character’s skills to help the other character who in turn helps you. That said, this is really feels more of an extension of the series than a completely new game. If it ain’t broke, though. Oh! Except there is another thing which is new – WARIO. Yeah, for some reason Wario is in some of the levels and you have to guide him around. Weird.

There is a Densetsu no Stafi 4, which I own on the DS, but it’s a shame there’s no DS games on the Switch so I can carry on the series there.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (Switch): COMPLETED!

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See, I told you I was going to play them all. Soon after finishing Stafi 1, it was on to Stafi 2, which takes place directly following the events of the first game.

Somehow, Stafi has lost all his skills so they have to be re-obtained, so really it’s a re-tread of the first game only with different levels. And more levels – seemingly a lot more levels. And different bosses. And some new gimmicks. OK, so not really a re-tread. It does all seem very familiar and asset reuse-y though, which would explain how it originally came out less than a year after Stafi 1.

Still fun, despite the lack of anything properly new though.

Moving Out 2 (PS5): COMPLETED!

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Looking for a co-op game to play with my daughter (and mourning the lack of yearly, or even twice-yearly Lego games), I stumbled across this on PS++++++++ (or however many plusses I have). We’d enjoyed the first game a while back so why not?

It’s more of the same, really. You have to pick up and carry (or throw) furniture from houses to your truck, sometimes you have to do the reverse, and other times you’ve weird requirements like chucking certain things in portals or catching farm animals. All against the clock, and frequently with doors that are one-way, platforms that move, drones, and things that need to be broken (or not broken) in order to progress. With a multidimensional rift you have to sew back up with the help of some IT gnomes or something. Obviously.

There are plenty of silly moments that made us laugh, and it’s all very stupid in all the right ways. Much like the first game. Oh, and toilets. Of course there are toilets. There’s a whole level where you have to collect them. A++ would play again.

Twilight Survivors (Switch): COMPLETED!

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As you can guess from the name of the game, and how most games in this genre contain the word “survivors”, yes, Twilight Survivors is indeed a Vampire Survivors style game. By this, I mean you are swamped by hordes of enemies in wave after wave, collecting experience point pickups to level up, and each time you do you can choose from a random selection of new weapons or weapon improvements.

Hopefully this randomness is favourable enough to kit you out with all the blades, guns, magic and speed with which to survive a set amount of time, beat the boss, and complete the level without being overwhelmed. It’s a tale as old as time.

I’ve played a few of these games now and even the rubbish ones (of which there are a lot) are still mostly enjoyable. What Twilight brings to the table unlike the others I’ve had a go on is graphics. For no-doubt genuine reasons, Vampire Survivors and others mostly have little pixel art sprites with not much in the way of animation. Maybe so they can have 2387547825378 of them on screen at once. Maybe because they can be borrowed from other games. Whatever the reason, Twilight Survivors does graphics better with bigger, prettier, and better animated characters and foes.

Does it make a difference? Not really. It’s still just really good fun. Levels are generally shorter than Vampire (usually 15-20 minutes instead of 30), there’s less “secret lore” to find, and the game is structured more traditionally with worlds and levels and bosses, but it plays really well and I loved it. Maybe not as much as Vampire Survivors, but still – a lot.