Rating: 60/100

My low score is mostly because I have no nostalgia for Castlevania, which means how this feels and acts is more frustrating than enjoyable for me. So the main issue is a me thing. The rest of the game is good. The soundtrack slaps hard. The visuals are nice. Story's entertaining. I dig the little touches in the visuals and how you interact with the stages. If you're into Castlevania you should really enjoy this because it nails what it sets out to do.

Full review:

Just to elaborate on the first bit of my mini-review:

I played on Normal, for the record, and am aware that Easy does change some of this.

I played the Castlevanias that influenced this game back in the day when I was a kid and didn't know any better. Castlevania 3 has a place in my heart, though that's mostly because as a child I loved the branching stage system and playing as Grant. I'm sure if I actually played that game today I wouldn't enjoy it, so I ain't gonna. Some things are best remembered fondly.

I'm not the target audience for this and only tried it because I watch Last Stand Media content and figured I'd give this a shot. Lillymo's whole thing is making retro games, and I enjoyed the one other game I played, Habroxia 2, but that's because I DO have more nostalgia for those types of games.

Saint Slayer doesn't feel good to me because I no longer enjoy how the NES Castlevanias feel. It's slow and clunky. When you fall off something you drop straight down. Climbing stairs requires you to hit up. But that's fine, I guess. Normal mode and higher makes you fall back when you get hit, though maybe it's not fair to criticize the game for this when it has an Easy difficulty. But the balance here, how it's meant to be played, is either Normal or probably Classic for those who want a challenge, so I didn't feel right playing it on Easy. And it's doable on Normal, anyway.

And just because old games had passwords, doesn't mean they're still cool today. I never remember liking passwords. It was too easy to fuck them up. I intimately remember being frustrated and being so relieved when we no longer needed them. You lose a bunch of shit when you use a password to resume where you left off. I'm glad you can resume where you left off, but a regular save system that functions when you turn off the game would have been better. I also don't like being kicked back to the beginning of the stage when I die, and it's easy to die in this.