Carpathian Night Starring Bela Lugosi

A phenomenal little Castlevania-like that goes hard into the Romanian folklore behind the Bela Lugosi version of Count Dracula and sets out to do its own thing while playing homage to both its original source material and the Castlevania series, making numerous references to it while establishing that the Dracula the protagonists are fighting in this game is a very different beast. Borrowing heavily from the paradigm set up by Castlevania: Bloodlines, Carpathian Night has you assume the role of either Dorin, a monk setting out to put Dracula to rest for good, or Irina, his descendant who plans to use her own background to put an end to his evil once and for all. Both characters have completely different gameplay styles and abilities, making for a challenging but legitimately intriguing little game with good music and solid gameplay. An interesting unlock system and a surprisingly good eye for game design make it an experience perfect for whetting the appetite of any oldschool Castlevania fan.

This is a fun Castlevania-style platformer that doesn't quite hit the heights of the best of that series, but also plays more than well enough to beat out a few actual entries as well. The pixel art is a bit of a meld between NES-style proportions and SNES color palette, and it looks very nice. I'd have appreciated a bit more animated touches in the backdrops, however, and would have liked for the text in the game to maintain consistency with the pixel resolutions. Those are just small gripes, however. I found some of the music to also be excellent, and I like how one of the last stages mixed things up a bit mechanically. Thematically, it made sense, too. On normal mode, the game isn't all that difficult, you'll respawn very close to where you died. It's a bit more of a challenge if you want to clear each stage with no deaths, as there are some tricky platforming bits. I haven't played Wicked mode yet, so I'm guessing that's quite a bit tougher, and may provide the challenge old-school Castlevania fans seek. Control maps closest to Super Castlevania IV, at least with the character I used. Multi-directional whipping, and full mid-air control of your jump. You also pick up skills along the way for grabbing hidden gems, many of which are very useful for some tough enemy placements when fighting near pits. All in all, I really enjoyed this one, and recommend it to folks that want some Classicvania vibes.

I first played this game in the demo booth at Dreamhack. If you're a fan of Dracula based "Vania" type games, you'll be right at home with this one. Perfect for Halloween! Bela Lugosi is the goat!

If you're reading this, there's a 98% chance you're a 'Castlevania' fan. Me too. I'm also a dinosaur who's a Bela Lugosi and Universal monster fan, so this game definitely piqued my curiosity when it was recommended to me. My assessment is...mixed. I've seen my share of 'Castlevania' clones, but this one could practically be grounds for a lawsuit from Konami. Pretty much every character, locale, several enemies, even a certain boss's entire moveset, emulates or downright rips off something from one of the 8 or 16-bit 'Castlevanias.' I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but...it honestly feels a little lazy. When you start the game, you're given a choice between two playable characters: Some monk with a spear, and basically a female Alucard wielding the Belmont whip. Both characters control identically, but deviate when it comes to their special attacks. Lady Alucard Belmont has a somewhat better moveset, so she's ideal for beginners. You can unlock specials and upgrades by collecting green gems hidden throughout 12 spooky stages. There's also five scrolls per level to find that fill in some of the game's lore. Progression is linear. Progress is saved between stages, so you can quit and resume later. Both the beginning of your path, and the end, however, will be the same regardless of which character you end up choosing. That's a letdown, and it leads me to my main complaint about 'Carpathian Night': It's repetitive. Some of the levels are cool, and feature great chiptune music (including some remixes of VERY famous classical compositions), yet others feel oddly unpolished, almost barren. Even the music will loop to an irritating degree. Between this, and the lack of enemy types, this game almost feels unfinished. I understand it was a Kickstarter, so maybe it caused the production to be rushed? I couldn't say. And as much as I love Bela Lugosi (he IS the original Dracula afterall), he's barely in this game; his likeness nowhere near used to its potential. 'Carpathian Night' isn't a bad game. It's definitely fun in parts, and it thankfully doesn't duplicate the unforgiving difficulty of the earlier 'Castlevanias.' It just kinda feels incomplete. And given this game is nearly two years old at the time of this review, I'm not optimistic about future updates. Check it out, but wait for a sale.

Just like OG SNES SuperCastleVania. Intuitive game play and map design. Very Impressed!

A fantastic Classicvania-type game. The characters play differently enough, and the score is terrific (some original, some arranged classical). Some really clever level design in here too. If you enjoy the NES/SNES era Castlevania, I feel like there's something here you'll enjoy. Addendum: I also really appreciate that the hard mode changes level and enemy placements rather than adjusting damage values.

I don't understand the positive reviews, the game is really bad, 4/10 at best. The gameplay is very dated and dull, the level design is incredibly boring and playing through the whole thing was just a chore. The game tried to recreate the quality of old school platformers, but as if it only took all the bad elements from the old school game design and skipped all the fun. In fact, you would have ten times more fun playing Rhondo of Blood instead of this thing that is on quality level of some freeware one man project. There is an attempt to add replay value by adding a second character with slightly different skills and adding achievements like having to finish the game 100%, no dying, etc.; but it's no point because the level design and the gameplay itself just sucks. The art direction and pixel art is pretty nice, but that's it. The music was onto something but the composer gave up mid-process, or didn't get paid or something and it's as if you listened to demo tracks of the ideas for the good tunes that could've been. It is definitely not worth the price, maybe just get it for 3 dollars or something but i doubt it will ever be that cheap, because they have to pay licences to the immoral lugocsi foundation that profits off a dead man's name for sublicencing to crap like this without any additional value. Oh yeah, and there is actually no bella lugocsi during the game, just his name and 2 static jpes during the boss/ending cutcene. I very much pity the 5 and half hours i put into completing this chore.

Un juego con clara inspiracion de los castlevania clasicos aun en la musica de lo buena que son la mayoria, de verdad que el ost de este juego es pegadiso y muy bueno, con mejor movilidad pero eso si en algunos lugares te avienta hacia atras si te agachas frente a una pared, muy nostalgico y agradable de jugar, solo que si quieres sacarle todo el jugo y los logros vas a sufrir un poco con la dificuldad wicked, solo le falta la localizacion al español para se un 10 para mi.

This is bloody fantastic. Reminds me of old school Castlevania in all the best ways. It runs perfectly on the steam deck too - which is what I'm playing this on.

Straightforward Castlevania-inspired platformer with charming pixel art and a more relaxed approach to challenge while still requiring some skill and focus. Feels like a labor of love from a small team (complimentary). Check it out if you miss the old school days of Gothic horror games from the 8- and 16-bit eras.