Hydra Castle Labyrinth is (from what I can tell) a 2011 proto-Metroidvania that only recently got an English translation. It’s obscure, and honestly isn’t much to write home about.

It definitely has some strong points - a maze-like castle, solid 8-bit art, and a nice range of character upgrades. But this game got very tedious by the end.

There’s no map, which is an automatic weakness for me personally (luckily someone else compiled one that I referenced). Most of the upgrades don’t change your mobility or how you interact with the environment.

The level design is good in the hub world, but the majority of the dungeons are extremely linear and just not that interesting (the final dungeon being THE WORST part of the game). The bosses are also very tedious, usually having 1-2 moves and way too spongey.

There were moments I had fun, but when I quit at the final boss because I know how unrewarding the fight is - that’s a bad sign. I can’t say I recommend this one unless you are researching pro-Metroidvanias… this feels like an underdeveloped game.