There's not much to say really. If you already know the story, this was one of the last Castlevania games released by Konami before leaving the franchise into oblivion, however, this particular game is even more unknown because it was exclusive to Wii and was only distributed in the digital store (currently closed).

In itself, this game is a return to the roots that retakes the most classic gameplay of the series. At the same time, in order not to mess with the official chronology, it was decided that the game would be a reimagining of the infamous Castlevania The Adventure for the GB, a game that I'm sure no one will mind being replaced by this one.

Talking more in detail about the gameplay, this is the basic one as always, the only notable change is that now you can redirect your jumps without restriction (although there is a game mode that retakes the classic control, which was the one I played by accident), this time there are no weird mechanics or balancing like in the original Adventure, in this game there are sub-weapons as well. I appreciate the attempt to recover those ideas and concepts from the Game Boy original, for example, the whip that throws fire projectiles is something that exists, but as it would be too broken in the long run, a time limit was added and it's also a power that you can lose when hit. My only big complaint, is that this game has no save system, no password system, so you have to finish it in a single play session, which is quite annoying. I for example, mistakenly opened the game in classic mode, and when I realized that the game was not completely designed for that control scheme it was too late, as I already had a lot of progress and did not want to start the game from the beginning, so I had to suck it up and finish the game in that mode which frustrated me at times.

The level design first starts off quite friendly even for casual gamers, it starts off as one of the easiest and simplest Catlevanias games in terms of difficulty, which makes you have a nice time because of how smooth it feels to control Christopher Belmont, however, once you advance to Stage 5 everything becomes considerably more difficult and tedious, so you will have to have a lot of patience and skill if you want to have a chance to beat the game. I like how in this section the game feels like a breath of fresh air, as there are alternate paths and doors that need keys to be opened, however, it's no big deal either, and most of the time the only thing you benefit from taking the alternate paths is in getting more points, and not as such in significant rewards.

The game looks too good in terms of its scenery, there I have no complaints, in fact I wish all games that want to mimic the retro era had this look. It's a detailed pixel art, but also stylized, there is one or two sprite reused from a past game, but in general all the other sprites are original from this game, and I quite like the use of colors given, it perfectly matches the kind of atmosphere I expect from a Castlevania game. I played this game in a modded Wii, so I used the option to disable the deflicker filter, which made the image look sharper and got an especially remarkable result on a CRT TV.

The music is just too cool. There aren't any new songs, as the soundtrack is made up of pure remixes, but boy are they really good remixes that take on some of the more obscure and underrated tracks in the franchise, just listen to this song.

Conclusion
Overall, it's a great title, although I must say that it doesn't present anything we haven't seen before, in that sense it's just another Castlevania adventure, that if you're in the mood for something with the classic formula will satisfy you.

It feels mean to compare this to its predecessor but Virtue's Last Reward just doesn't have the sheer joy and thrill that Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors had. Its lore simultaneously wants to develop and exacerbate the insanity that 999 spent slowly unspooling, but it doesn't want to approach that level of multifaceted storytelling with nearly the same drama or heightened sense of panic. When I learned of a new element within the story, I didn't feel as strong of a sense of bewilderment or clairvoyance-level realization, but rather a sense of mild satisfaction. That's the thing that gets me about this game, I suppose: It works, but it doesn't tug at my emotions as much as 999 did. The chaos is ramped up but it just doesn't feel as urgent or interesting.

The character drama in particular is maybe my biggest gripe with the game overall. Every conversation is considerably longer and more quippy at the cost of information density, there's this sense of irreverence that feels extremely out of place. Of course, you could blame this on the advent of the Danganronpa franchise and its mockery in the face of certain death, but that series has its moments to refrain from indulging in its hypersexuality and humor in service of a bigger idea that climbs towards a hostile thriller screenplay. Additionally, the irreverence is used to help build onto the dread—were it not for Monokuma's complete and utter disregard for his subjects' lives, there'd be less panic among them.

The characters in VLR, on the other hand, are poised to joke and shove corny banter in nearly every conversation given enough time, such that it stands to kill a lot of the intensity that the holistic story builds. I would much rather a short, important conversation than a long one that stands to remove any given amount goodwill I have for the main characters. This lack of brevity is also not helped by the gargantuan amount of time that it takes between various novel segments, showcasing a very annoying dot moving across the map for every single possible migration of the characters. At a certain point in my playthrough, I started scheduling for these intermissions and texting friends over actually trying to remain immersed with a medium that ejected me from immersion to begin with.

That's not to say it's a bad game, far from it—once again in no small part to the thoughtful escape room design employed with a similar (but not exact same) grace as its predecessor. The increase in difficulty is something I rather appreciate, even if it comes at the cost of breaking immersion sometimes. I especially appreciate the safe system, though it has its drawbacks with certain room-end puzzles. The broader story itself, divorced from being attached to the game and the individual writing choices I dislike, is excellent scaffolding around the original lore that 999 set up. It's just a shame that this story had to shake out this way, because as a game it fails to excite me beyond its lore and individual chambers.

EDIT, 23-MARCH-2024:

My neglect to mention the very casual misogyny present in this game is starting to bug me greatly, so allow me to comment on the reality that Sigma and the rest of the characters either are victims or enablers of horrific womanizing. In a shocking departure from 999's relatively minute jokes about sexuality that are unimportant, minor facets of individual characters only appearing once or twice, Virtue's Last Reward takes the bold move to make Sigma a sexual harasser. In every possible route, he is poised to interact with at least one of the female characters with a variety of dehumanizing and, frankly, horrible sex pestery. He even remarks that Clover (who in VLR is small and skinny but an adult) is seemingly jailbait.

Misogynist characters are not inherently detrimental to a story if it is done with the tact and angling that it deserves. I hold the idea that depiction is not necessarily endorsement of the depicted. However, VLR's main character being an incessantly horny poon-hound who can be led to do just about anything with the promise of someone's panties getting stripped off is so irritating after 20 hours of playing the game that it ceases to be worthwhile as a facet of a character worth exploring. There is no benefit to it in this story.