Igavania is back and better than ever! This is essentially Symphony of the Night part 2.

Let me start off by saying basically if you got a hundred Symphony of the Night fans in a room to make a checklist of all the things they ever wanted in a SOTN sequel, this game would check all the boxes and I could not be more proud to have backed this project.

It's got the tactical soul system from Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, the NPC quests from Order of Ecclesia, and all the gameplay gimmicks from SotN. By gimmicks I obviously mean special attacks for weapons, joke items, references to SotN (I.E. the Librarian/Alucard, etc). there's a pair of Toy Boots that squeak when you run around in them, for example. There's a pretty nice, not-too-complex crafting and cooking system which reminds me of Curse of Darkness and all of the food items give you a permanent stat boost upon your first time consuming it which is a cool mechanic.

All the different 'Shard'/Soul abilities are able to be leveled up by accumulating more than one and stacking them and they can be upgraded further through crafting. There's transformation abilities, I literally got this shard that lets you transform into a demon Playboy Bunny just recently. There's guns right off the bat and you can actually create a gun build with specific passive Shards and gun-buffing equipment. There's shields, sort of, and they're actually viable to use. Your character model is customizable with new gear cosmetics and haircuts to equip. The game also has some tongue-in-cheek elements, there's a giant horned demon cat called the "Nyabon" or something like that and a lot of the NPC quests like 'Avenge the death of Insert name here' say classic Castlevania character names like Richter, Simon, Trevor etc basically saying 'Konami killed them lol'

The story writing is classic cheesy and melodramatic Castlevania, but by no means does that make it bad and all the voice actors are super professional and kept me entertained the entire game truly nailing their performances.

Oh and Michiru Yamane's score is just as phenomenal as always. It's very stylistically similar to SOTN (for obvious reasons) with tons of piano, harpsichord and violin in most areas but there's some areas of the castle that have a bit more emphasis on metal/rock guitar melodies which have a very neo-classical power metal style about them and the sound quality is just simply fantastic seeing as how they got a real full orchestra to record and play her music this time.

Honestly if you're a fan of Symphony of the Night/Aria of Sorrow/Order of Eclessia you'd honestly be a fool to not pick this up especially considering its base price is only $40 USD.

IGA IS BACK, BABY!

I have over 80 hours in this game and have yet to actually complete a game of it.

On one hand I respect it a lot, it's a cool and unique concept with amazing aesthetics and some interesting mechanics

However despite a lot of the mechanics being cool like the sanity meter, the diseases, the permadeath etc. The game just isn't fun to play most of the time due to the severe reliance on RNG, especially the hit accuracy which could rival XCOM on how awful it is.

One of the few instances of a reboot surpassing the original.

Really good character development and a good story that combines realism and survival instincts with supernatural elements.

It really gives a real sense of danger, being stranded on some (almost) deserted island on the coast of Japan fighting just to survive from the dangers of nature, the island and some crazy cult, which all adds to the immersion of the game.

Also, it is a perfect origins story, we literally see Lara go from being a scared young woman terrified to even shoot someone to being the badass Lara Croft we all know and love, fearless in the face of danger and ready to take charge.

Don't get me started on the weapon customization too, no old Tomb Raider game had weapon customization anywhere close to the level of the new game's system

Also reboot Lara best Lara. Step on me, please.

The best way I can describe the game is if you threw Red Dead, Last of Us, Sons of Anarchy and The Walking Dead into a blender and it all mixed into this with a sprinkle of Resident Evil on top.

The story though pretty basic and simplistic (At least at first, it gets a bit more complex closer to the end) is compelling enough to make you want to keep playing especially since it's being driven forward by very realistic, charismatic and human characters that are masterfully voiced acted. The world and how it effects the characters and ties into the story is the biggest strength of this game, it's incredibly well designed and immersive.

The gameplay itself isn't amazing but it was certainly fun enough to make me keep playing for 60+ hours. It's got your typical Last of Us stealth sequences (Though the gameplay in Days Gone feels better than that in The Last of Us to me) and your Red Dead cover shooter sequences (Including a time slow down skill called 'focus' for easier precision shots), but the melee combat is my personal favorite and when you hit enemies you truly FEEL the IMPACT.

The OST is honestly beautiful and fit so perfectly with the game. Hearing heartland folky acoustic guitar driven music playing while driving down the backroads of Oregon as a badass biker outlaw is just midwest personified. It's also got some very nice bombastic orchestral pieces for the more tense and epic scenes.

Honestly, the game has quite a few technical glitches and some minor pacing issues with the story and as I said before the gameplay itself while being serviceable is nothing to really write home about, but it certainly isn't anything to be offended at either and I rarely felt bored while playing the game.

Critics have unfairly panned this game and for very shallow reasons. Can it get repetitive at times? Yes. Does it have its fair share of glitches and bugs? You bet. Does that warrant a 5/10 while you give a game like Assassin's Creed a 10/10 even though it suffers from almost all the same problems? Hell no it doesn't. There's a reason the user score on Metacritic is so much higher than the actual critic score. Play for yourself and find out.

As Mark Copeland would say...Don't believe the lies.