Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2

Melhorou tudo o que já era bom no seu antecessor e elevou a dificuldade. Não é para todo mundo, mas ainda sim é perfeito para quem quer um bom desafio.

相較一代，難度著實上升了不少。尤其是第一章最後一關的跳平台，惡意塞好塞滿。 但演出、操作也比一代好上許多。

Worth it just for the corgi in the train mech.

awesome game 2

2D 80's side-scrolling nostalgia

Well, my feelings here are same as in the prequel. Art and music are really charming and nice. Vibes are great. Story is good enough, Characters actually had a glowup, as in they actually seem more real. New interactions between them are a really good addition. But when it comes to gameplay...I actually think this one is worse than the prequel. The difficulty is almost comically high, and I was playing on casual. I guess potentially a skill issue, or more like patience issue in my case, as my main strategy is to just rush the boss and sit in their face rather than wait for my turn, but still, it made the game ten times more frustrating than the last one. Controls also are bugged for keyboard a bit. Still, I think if someone for some reason is into the outdated retro gameplay, then this is probably a fantastic game. I still liked it for everything else, so I won't give a negative, plus I was well aware of what I was getting into, and I know it is what the devs were aiming for. But that aside, I won't be coming back.

Bloodstained is back and might as well be better than the first one. Taking Castlevania as it's working ground once again, particulary the third one (Dracula's Curse), with branching paths, different diverse characters and dynamic difficulty. It's cheeky that it makes you go through the game twice to see the actual ending, kinda like a game plus, thing is you have to get the sword the second run otherwise you get the bad ending, didn't realize this up until it was too late and that might be the only shortcoming I have with it, you know, the fact that you have to repeat it all again as replayability value, other than that it's as good if not better than the first one. 4/5

Only disclaimer here is that the game is that the game is an homage to old-school Castlevania, consists of stages, and is NOT a metroidvania. If you're cool with this style of game, you'll probably have a good time with it. This game also offers a nice increase in difficulty compared to its predecessor especially with the bosses. EDIT: Despite the small size of the game, it experiences optimization issues from time to time after playing for a while and the game will slow down to about a third of its normal speed. Fix this and I'd be ecstatic.

[h1]Twice the Content, Twice the Pain[/h1] A punishing sequel, that makes the predecessor look like a cakewalk. Albeit, barring maybe the final boss I found the first three episodes doable on Veteran difficulty with some patience. With the final boss I had to look things up to get an idea of how to manage the patterns as it felt far too chaotic even with all characters and upgrades collected. So all in all, what you could call the "normal" difficulty did push me often. At Episode 3's Final Boss, I was cycling through every character and trying to utilise the exact abilities and specific mechanics to squeeze out as much damage and ensure I can stay alive for as long as possible. It really does feel like the game expects you to push every character in your party to the breaking point. Yet, despite my experience it seems you can beat this game with a single character (one of the achievements requires this), much like the first one. This game gets mixed responses specifically due to its' difficulty. My assessment is that this game is focused primarily on managing your characters' abilities and mana points (and revisiting stages to gather stats upgrades) rather than on your platforming prowess like in the Castlevania games for the NES. Platforming and movement is still important here, but this game can be really relentless in certain sections, to the point that it is best to min/max the best character spells for optimal chances of your party's survival. [h2]New Approach to Characters[/h2] The balancing of characters feels substantially different to the last game where most characters were well rounded jack-of-all-trades, except for Alfred who was the main spell-casting support. The main cast of this game is more designed around very specific abilities they have, which differentiates their play styles a lot. It also means that in some scenarios, certain characters will feel poorly suited for the situation. For the most part, I enjoyed this change. It gives this entry a distinct feel and provides for new challenges. It also demands of the player to get properly acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of each character to gain advantage. What perhaps didn't work as well, was that a character like Hachi felt like the optimal choice for most scenarios, he has a lot of HP, does the most damage sans-abilities, he has an invincibility spell, his hover ability can trivialise some platforming, and his downward crush takes care of annoyingly placed enemies. Hachi also has some solid 'i-frames' in his attacks as well. He does however, have a massive hitbox, meaning he's very vulnerable when he doesn't have mana, and he can be mildly awkward to control but otherwise it felt like he could steamroll through most scenarios. [h2]Consensus[/h2] Curse of the Moon 2 is a fun entry which, to its' credit, attempts an experimental approach in lieu of the previous game's more orthodox style. For the most part it succeeds, albeit I think I enjoyed the previous game more. People who are adept at old school platformers are going to get the most out of this game, while others might be put off by how this game may humble them. In short, YMMV.

Brutally difficult and occasionally frustrating, but overall a great action platformer & companion game to Bloodstained.