Tl;dr review - Game is like a spiritual successor to Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, just with it's own coat of paint and a few different gimmicks. If you like Castlevania, you'll definitely like this and I feel it's highly worth your time. A small heads up for those who may care: the game includes LGBTQ+ themes. I personally have no problems with this, but I know some people have problems or really want more inclusion in their games, so that note is for them.
Now, for a longer, more in depth review, keep on reading (I'll try not to get into spoilers).
So, for starters, gotta' say, the pixel art and animation work are superb. The music in the game is also quite good too. The game-feel is definitely really solid too; was definitely a fun jaunt to explore the maps and beat up some baddies. I know I mentioned it above, but the game really does have a lot of elements from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, and I do think it not only works in its benefit, but makes it quite the enjoyable time. There are a few choices that were made however that OoE also made that I have some issues with, but I will get into that a bit later.
For now, I'll continue singing some praises I have with the game, and I will do so by going on to say that I found the gimmick of certain chests in the game to be a new, interesting idea. I have not seen a game yet, or at least I don't think I have, where certain treasure chests across the map will refill with random loot; sometimes it's a piece of gear, other times it could be a healing item. Speaking of items, a nice little addition the devs added was when you receive an item/armor/etc. a small pop-up will appear on the screen with the pause button next to it. If you press said button while the pop-up is on screen, it will take you to that item in your inventory, showing how many you have if you are farming for them, or just letting you use/equip it then and there. I did really enjoy this gimmick, especially when I was doing some late-game farming. Another handy gimmick, which isn't new per se, but it was appreciated regardless, was how the warping in the game was handled. Since the game is about time and hopping around in it, I was assuming jumping between areas and time would need two different "portals", but no, not here; they're all in one portal. That definitely made hopping around much nicer than it definitely could have been.
Moving along to other topics, I will say that I felt drop rates in this game were a lot nicer than some other Metroidvanias I've played, but it could have just been my luck, so who knows? Concerning the movement, there is something you get later on that makes traversal much nicer and not only do I greatly appreciate its inclusion, but I also love that you get to start with it on NG+ (definitely another thing that wasn't necessary, but is SUPER appreciated). On another note, I will say the game felt surprisingly easy and most enemies/bosses did not do a whole lot of damage on normal (not that I'm complaining, just pointing it out). Honestly, there was only 1 difficulty I thought was even somewhat of a challenge, but I won't spoil it here (when you unlock it, you'll know exactly which one it is).
Now, here's where the critiquing cap goes on and I go over a few of the things I had some gripes with in the game. Now, as a dual-edged sword to start things off, I really liked that you could level up a lot of your characters things, other than just their level, but I find the rate of exp you get compared to how short the game is and what the highest possible level caps are is kinda' bad. I would also like to say that familiars only getting exp (without an item) if they hit an enemy before it dies just feels awful, especially seeing as they are not very aggressive. As a final note on levels, I do like that max level cap is a callback to OoE's, but it shares the same problem it had with this; there's little to no point in it, other than bragging rights (at least getting to the max level didn't take ages like OoE, so thank you for making it less of a slog, devs). It would have been nice to have a superboss or a super challenging area that is only doable at max level, but that's just my 2 cents there.
Now, this may be a slight spoiler in some way, or just shows how I played the game, but I did not find many uses in the game's "main" mechanic. You would think there would have been more puzzles/environments tied to using it, but I can probably count on 1, maybe 2 hands how many times I used it on a single playthrough. Speaking of the mechanic, I find it really strange only 1 enemy in the whole game responds to said mechanic differently (minus the last couple of bosses, for obvious reasons), and that all other enemies are basically invulnerable while the mechanic is active. I understand the reasoning for the last bit there, but still, it just feels wrong. Another thing that I feel was a bit of a missed opportunity was showing all of the places you have found on the map on a NG+ run, only grey it out so you know where you have and haven't been on the current run. I am kind of surprised this is not a thing in the game, giving how player friendly it is overall, but it's easy to overlook things, so I get it. One more note before moving on to the final talking point: I wish you were able to farm the items you use to level up your orbs and I wish there was a better spot/way to farm for the game's currency.
Now, as my last point, I would like to talk briefly about the characters and how they are written. I will say, their dialogue is fine, for the most part, and everything flows decently well, but the way the LGBTQ+ elements come into play feel a little forced, in my opinion. Again, I do not mind LGBTQ+ characters in any media, but I want them written with the same care and subtlety as their straight counterparts. Having most of the characters just plainly state their sexual interests, or lack thereof, comes across as very amateur and just makes the cast come across more as characters than real people. Now, don't get me wrong, a character making a joke or hitting on another character of the same gender is fine (both of which do indeed happen in the game). Hell, even explaining how it fits into lore of the story (again, which it also does) is fine, but having these sexual themes constantly arise in a game where the focus is saving worlds/fixing timelines just feels off. As an example, I would have just as much of an issue if the cast were straight characters telling you how straight they are and what kind of business they've done with one another in the past. Again, I want to state, I am cool with LGBTQ+ characters, I just want them to feel like authentic people and not just like a bunch of characters.
All that said, again, I do think this is a great game, even if I have some gripes here and there, and I'm interested to see what the sequel has to offer. I highly recommend it and keep up the great work, Lunar Ray Games!
