Really fun. Traveling across Europe is really damn cool, and the stage design is generally really good. The bosses weren’t anything too special, even Dracula himself wasn’t all that intimidating as long as you’re paying attention to the final phase. The final stage feels very slapped together having the fight against Death, Elizabeth, and Dracula all in one level with as stated previously, the fights aren’t all that special. But admittedly the room in that stage that segments the screen, displaying different parts of the level was pretty cool. The two player character’s are nice. I personally preferred playing as Eric. The charge jump and spear twirl are just too fun. And on one last note, I really do not like that this game has limited continues. I’m a purist when it comes to using save states in this series, and this is a game where it sadly felt necessary to use save states in later levels because I couldn’t be bothered marathoning through the last couple of levels with only one extra life after reaching boss fights.

First game I’ve beaten this year!!! It probably doesn’t deserve 5* for how cryptic the last dungeon, solomon shrine can be. As well as some boss fights that are pretty bad (bat demon guy in book 1. Darm is also one of the hardest bosses in any game I’ve played, if not the hardest). And the combat feeling rather janky at times. But I’ll give credit where it’s due, for a game that was released in 1989, it generally does a pretty good job of giving you hints on what to do next, so I only had to resort to a guide maybe twice for each part of the game. The QoL is also surprising, menu saving is a godsend in this kind of game.

And to cap this off with things I liked about the game:
-Maze level design is fun! The game almost feels like a metroidvania at points because of it.
-Music is fantastic.
-Bump system, while previously stated as janky, still has a lot of charm within.
-Story as well as the world building is decent-good

This game was amazing. The changes made to the SMT formula are greatly appreciated, but at the same time, the game still has the challenge and feel of the rest of the series. The new semi-open world does wonders for this game, and is a good replacement for dungeons, as there’s plenty of content in the various areas you visit. From collecting miman to unique area bosses, there’s always something that kept me feeling fulfilled and engaged while playing, even if I wasn’t progressing in the story. Speaking of, the weakest link is this game is probably the writing, but I don’t find it bad or anything. It just has some off pacing and the story doesn’t really get going until the second-half of the game. But despite this, I still enjoyed the characters this game introduced, and I absolutely want to do the other routes soon (I got the neutral ending). So, to repeat the start, this game is amazing, 100% my goty, and I would highly recommend to any rpg fan who hasn’t already started.

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is an amazingly simple game. For a Metroidvania it doesn’t go too heavy on exploration, and focuses more on the action/combat, which is mechanically solid and never gets all that difficult. The combat in question revolves around a cool elemental switching system, with some lite rpg components sprinkled on top which combines to make a fun, engaging, and sometimes hectic experience. And another thing to note, I really liked the main theme of the narrative, at least what I interpreted of it. Naturally, since it’s a metroidvania said narrative isn’t really too prevalent, and you only get small bits of dialogue here and there, mainly after boss fights and such, but for what’s there, it’s nice. Also the game has beautiful pixel art, and the animations of the enemies/bosses as well as deedlit are fantastic as well. Looking at a couple of Deedlit’s animations, I can draw comparisons between them and Alucard’s animations in symphony of the night which is really cool at least I think. The only critiques that I have for the game are that I feel it could be harder, or at least a hard difficulty unlock would be appreciated, the way the game is structured makes it feel a bit too linear, and on-top of that I wish they went deeper into the exploration (as-in adding more hidden rooms, and other secrets to find).