Romancelvania already had a lot going against it by being a multi-genre game, which is difficult to pull off, but the game felt uneven at launch. The art direction, dialogue, and voice acting are all great, but the gameplay was a mess, with uneven pacing, and collision detection issues and this is before getting into the combat which flopped at first.
The game sees you take control of Dracula, or as he wants to be called, Drac, who is in a funk after being dumped. Drac’s friends have decided to get the swing back in the vampire’s step, by having the Grim Reaper renovate Drac’s castle as the set of a dating show, and Drac is the star. It is a fun concept admittedly, and the option to play as either a male or female Drac is an interesting touch, especially with how it was handled.
The voice acting and writing are top-notch, and the various characters are handled well, coming off as a bit of a culture clash for Drac when dealing with young hipsters to romance such as a genie or werewolf, or Eldritch monsters. There are options to romance male and female characters, though you can also just pursue friendship and friendly rivalries with some characters. You must build trust with each potential partner, and to do this you must complete tasks for them and choose the correct dialogue options.
Now, you will notice that I kept mentioning how the game had many issues at launch, and this is true. Originally we mentioned all of this, but by the time our review went up, numerous updates had fixed many issues we pointed out. As such, we took the review down and are now exploring the game as it is now.
The Metroidvania aspects in Romancelvania have been greatly improved, with Drac no longer being a slog to control and their attacks now feel satisfying. The various weapons that are attainable finally feel more properly balanced and combat is now much less stiff. The visuals, which previously struggled to keep up with the game and slowdown that was an issue even on a high-end PC are no longer a problem, meaning the game can now be appreciated to a much better extent.
A big problem with the level design originally was that Romancelvania did not include a map at all, which made it very easy to get lost at times. A recent update finally added a map feature, and while the map had been intentionally left out originally, the developers realized it was needed. It really changed things up and now the game is much better in terms of exploration, and finding things you didn’t know were there before, now feels very satisfying and the areas no longer feel like different level features were just thrown in without any sense of why they should be there, but actually make sense now, along with better lighting in areas so you won’t have cheap enemy hits now.
Romancelvania just feels like a game that wanted to be like Castlevania Symphony of the Night and while it still is not quite that game, it is far better than the game it was at launch. With the improved navigation, finding health increases and trophies to give Drac bonuses is far more satisfying due to being able to actually knowing where you must go. Romancelvania has also vastly improved on the special moves Drac could do via fighting game motions, and in some ways actually pulls it off better than the aforementioned Symphony of the Night, which surprised me.
I wanted to like Romancelvania at launch but it was not a good game. There was so much potential and the writing, art style and voicework were all amazing aspects, but the overall game was just undercooked. The developers did not give up on their game though and I commend them for it, because this is no longer a game I wish had been a visual novel or a game that mixed visual novel and light platformer elements, but can now recommend as a Metroidvania game for fans of the genre. Romancelvania is finally where it needed to be and is now a worthy game.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
