Captured on Nintendo Switch (Connected)
Inti Creates, developers of the acclaimed duo Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and the Mega Man Zero/ZX series, offers a new Metroidvania rendered in a 16-bit graphical style, using modern hardware for various special effects, animations and sprites. creation. And it’s an engaging game, overall. While some areas are a bit bland, others, like the theater backdrop and haunted galleon, are visually opulent. In terms of detail and overall beauty, however, it’s a far cry from the gothic spectacle of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
There’s a touch of wise satire to the narrative setup of Grim Guardians: Demon Purge. When two sisters find themselves in a demonic underworld university completely different from their own, they must team up to fight their way to the spire, defeat the cute demon Kurona, save their schoolmates and return to their kingdom. of sunlight and Seifuku. . Playfully aware of how the schoolgirl-turned-heroine trope was killed off, it plays into the premise.
Standing out these days with a Metroidvania means doing something different with the formula. Inti Creates has a lot of experience in the genre, relying here on the Curse of the Moon model, with boss despair attacks and two-loop trials, with some innovative tweaks. Instrumentally, you control the two sisters in tandem, being able to switch between them with a simple pull of the trigger. Shinobu Kamizono is a ranged attack character, wielding a machine gun in a style strongly reminiscent of the developer’s Gunvolt series. You can reload by pressing down twice, which causes a short animated parry that requires some distance from invading enemies.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Connected)
Shinobu, while useful for staying out of harm’s way, is seriously underpowered compared to her sister, Maya Kamizono, who wields a scythe ready for close-range combos. Maya attacks with power, easily mowing down college monsters, but requires a closer, personal strategy. Additionally, she can crouch more and has the ability to crawl, allowing her to cross spaces that her sister cannot reach. However, its superior overall properties come at the expense of a lower amount of HP.
Each girl has a separate health bar, which means if one is near death, it can change until a health drop appears. However, if one dies, the game is not over yet. You’re taken back to a checkpoint, and the still-at-large sister must do a Dark Souls-style reconnaissance to find her sister’s downed body and perform a revive by pressing the “X” button. Although this revival will bring both girls back into the game, it will not fully refill the life bar and sometimes, especially at the start of a boss battle, you really need to be close to completing the revival without taking an extra hit . In a really nice touch, the game supports two-player co-op where two friends can independently control their hero of choice, which is a whole new idea for this genre.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Connected)
Each sister wields secondary weapons. Shinobu, initially an upward projectile blade, and Maya, a temporary Shikigami that protects with a single blow. Defeated bosses gain additional secondary weapons and switch between them using a handy overlay dial. Loading secondary weapons requires collecting magic items from upper shields, the Grim Guardian equivalent of Castlevania chandeliers. There’s also a rechargeable gauge that lets the sisters team up momentarily to fire an ultra-powerful projectile. Assuming you activate the warm-up animation and get it on target, it can be absolutely devastating to big enemies and it looks great as it momentarily distorts the background towards reality.
Unsurprisingly, each sister’s unique pros and cons are what make the game work. Although Shinobu is primarily useful as a revival assist character at first, over time the two become an integral part of the strategy through various challenges.
Grim Guardians is relatively short and only trying until you get familiar with the combat rhythms, maiden change, and enemy patterns. Then the initially frustrated things are quickly overcome and dispatched in a nice, jerky pace. It can also rack up a lot of lives, making Veteran difficulty the only one we recommend, and the occasional infinite life mode is too bland to sustain a satisfying loop.
Unlike something like Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, grinding and leveling are taken out of the equation instead of item-based power and utility increases. Its Metroidvania-lite properties also extend to complete map removal, encouraging you to think outside the box in search of extra lives and kidnapped school friends. Once you’ve cleared all the stages, you can take on the second loop (much like Curse of the Moon) where the bosses return with newer and more difficult attack patterns, before facing the real last boss to complete the game. That being said, magic portals can take you back to previous stages at any time, whether it’s your first or second run. For those who prefer exploring old terrain with new abilities early on, it can net you secret weapon bonuses and more, but some locked doors will remain impenetrable until the time is right.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Connected)
Grim Guardians is a little snappier than your average Metroidvania, and we like that. While there are plenty of alternate paths and a few annoying retreads in case you get knocked into the basements, it’s less extensive and less roaming than the genre’s usual fare; again, closer to the formulas established in Curse of the Moon.
And it’s entertaining overall, especially in how you power up and use the two sisters to their specific benefits. It looks and sounds great, with impressive ghouls and three-headed hounds with hanging eyes. The bosses are excellent, especially the guitarist demon bunny who plays electric death in front of a live audience, his opening cut short when he’s crushed by a giant chandelier. It’s also beautifully bloody, spewing buckets of blood everywhere, with large crimson puddles oozing from monsters and painting the walls.
On a personal note, we don’t like that the voice samples are so smooth with no option to switch to Japanese language or turn them off completely. They don’t feel necessary to note every character change, death, or rebirth, and it would have been nice to include a way to tweak them to your liking.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Connected)
Inti Creates really knows what it’s doing in this area. He’s proven himself as a developer who understands the principles of good old-fashioned gaming, including key elements from his previous work to form another animated adventure into demon lairs. It lacks that certain spark that elevated the Curse of the Moon titles, in that the engagement factor over time is only a notch below. That said, it’s still a solid, playable adventure that feels good moving forward.
conclusion
For Metroidvania fans and lovers of the works of Inti Creates, Grim Guardians certainly does enough to please. Going through combat negotiations and upgrading your weaponry brings a sense of reward and progression, and it’s nice to go back to finding secrets. It’s not quite on the level of Curse of the Moon, its closest relative, but it’s not too far off, and the idea of switching siblings is at least novel and fun to work with. Lively and at times creatively inspired, Gore hits all the right notes, sometimes in a way too sparse to be considered hugely compelling.