Asian themed Castlevania

Beat on slow motion mode. I chose the jumping crystal and proceeded through the 1st stage. I bought the dog whistle, max hp potion and some sub weapons but I could only figure out how to summon the dog. That was a sweet ability, summoning a minion to kill enemies and retrieve loot, but he tended to take a lot of unnecessary damage from hazards. I later figured out I could unsummon him with the same button. He helped a lot with the 1st and 3rd bosses. The 2nd boss though was brutal. He was a giant that liked to jump around and use vacuum suck for contact damage. Getting behind him was bad because he could not be hurt from there. The optimal way to kill him was shooting with the sub weapons but I still had not figured out how to use them and thus struggled through this fight using only melee. I later looked up how to use sub weapons. It was hold down and press the button to cycle between the dog and sub weapon, though I do not think there was a way to cycle between each sub weapon. It seemed like you could hold multiple at the same time, but it was not displayed well. It should have been a menu like Mega Man. The enemy snowflakes in stage 2 were a little silly but could be farmed for infinite money. I spent mine on healing for me and the dog. Stage 4 was the most annoying because of platforming hazards. I actually got myself into a no win situation by saving state on a platform that fell soon after standing on it, and had to restart the entire stage. I soon realized the fireballs often dropped invincibility powerups, which was the best way through the stage. The final stage was a looping maze like Bowser's castle in Super Mario 1. I got to a green boss guy with a glaive who kept fleeing, and the room repeated over and over. I was confused about what to do so I checked a walkthrough to find the actual route to the final boss. The 1st form was like that giant boss again only worse, but at least he did not take as many hits. Phase 2 was crazy with blocks falling from the ceiling and it felt impossible to survive without the occasional healing pickup from those blocks. I quickly realized the pattern was to jump over the projectile then slash the mouth while it was still vulnerable, but it was very difficult to not get hit by blocks. Thankfully the blocks eventually stopped and I was able to safely stand at the far edge and snipe with fireballs. After this ths game repeated, giving enemies more hp and some with additional attacks. I read there was a secret princess so I chose the spirit crystal for weapon damage this time, though not sure if that improved basic sword damage or not. Enemies were taking more hits to kill with the sword while magic kicked their asses. I did until stage 2 and the princess gave a mirror item. It only had a limited number of uses and made the screen flash. It did not prevent damage, reflect projectiles or freeze enemies. I played until the final stage where I finally seen it destroy the flame hazards. Didn't bother to finish the rest of the game again.

This was a very fun well made game. Good platforming and combat, interesting enemies and bosses, cool special weapons, and variety for which power to start with and what to buy. The only real flaw was the lack of sub menu for the sub weapons.

8.3/10