Wallachia: Reign of Dracula Reviews

This looks nice, presentation is great, the stages have nice set pieces and transitions on them, and the level design was "ok". I remember the early stage songs were a banger but I have a hard time for the life of me remember the later stage music - I guess it was alright? There's certainly a strong arcade vibes here. Some flashy action set pieces, lot of shooting arrows, some occasionally light platforming. Stages are made up of several parts with bosses to end each one. Familiar attacks felt roughly balanced considering their energy costs and each of them had at least some seeming niche usage which is all good. I would say it's a good game, but I would be a bit hard pressed to call it a great one due to numerous various grievances. It doesn't seem like a bad purchase for some 5-10 bucks. [h2]Suggestions & Grievances[/h2] In normal mode the continues are infinite, so you can brute force your way through the game with that. I was a bit confused as to why there wasn't some sort of a [i]"load game"[/i] option where you could start from the beginning of the stage you had gotten so far considering there are infinite continues in the normal mode, but I've come to learn that the change away from limited continues on normal was an update done at a later point after release so I can get why any sort of 'save' functionality might not have been planned from beginning. I think a more fitting approach for this game instead of the infinite continues one might have been the classic one seen in beat 'em up arcade games with limited "credits" where upon dying you continue right from where you died instead of reloading the stage/screen. This would allow you to still brute force certain sections and/or bosses to get glimpses of the further stages, but getting through the full game would require getting better at preserving your "credits". However, I understand that this sort of change might be too late to make at this point of the game's life cycle. Personally, one of my biggest gripes would in fact be with the use of default arrows, which you have an infinite amount, and it's preferential to keep firing them out constantly out in front of you as you travel. Running and gunning is the name of the game, basically with potential carpal tunnel being the main drawback for the arrow spam. Perhaps this is the default for arcade games of this type and it just isn't my jam [i](though from what I recall games like Contra allowed you to also hold down the shoot button even if it might not have given you the optimal fire rate)[/i] but you can easily start feeling some trouble in your hand about 3 stages in if you ask me. You could assign your controller's turbo on that button [i](provided you have access to functionality like that as a player)[/i], but that would prevent you from using the 'charged shots' which require you to actually hold down the button unless you also then somehow assign the non-turbo version of the arrow shooting to yet another button. I would have liked it simply been possible to hold down the bow button to attack with the default arrows and perhaps the charged shot would be tied to another button. Alternatively, and the solution I would actually prefer, is that the number of default arrows would have also been limited like the special arrows, say 50-100 at start of stage or something and say like additional potential drops throughout the stage [i](think for example the classic Shinobi games with limited shuriken)[/i]. This would encourage additional usage of the sword, as well as spending more time thinking about the scenarios where the usage of the special arrows might be more optimal over the default ones - rather than say often defaulting to simply saving the special arrows for the stage bosses. Limiting the number of default arrows would additionally push players towards their tactical usage in that it would put an emphasis on the charged shots that I think I would be healthy one since at least personally with the current infinite arrows I simply often forgot that charged shots were even a thing that existed. I do realize that this sort of change would be a major one considering that the game is pretty much finished as it would among other things essentially require checking out that the whole game is entirely completable - at least theoretically - by only using the sword... though perhaps given the in-game only-sword stage 2 achievement maybe this wouldn't been as far-fetched as it might sound initially? Another more of a personal gripe of mine would be the excessive use of on-touch hit boxes where I would like that with enemies that have their actual attack swings, they would also not have so aggressive on-touch hit boxes, but I mean I get it's the usual default. I should clarify that obviously enemies such as horse riding ones should have a hit box in front of them when they are charging but maybe less so when they are basically standing still and idle. Anyways, there are other various minor annoyances I found throughout. While you're in the [i]"holding aim"[/i] stance, this locks you out of using your melee sword attack, which seems unnecessary to me. There doesn't seem to be any sort of sound or such when you try to activate your familiar without having the minimum required energy that confused me a bit first time around. Another recurring issue seemed to be that the camera should have often been more panned towards the up of the screen rather than straight-middle. This created some awkward 'climbing' sections where it's hard to see the enemies and your - as well the enemies - projectiles got often [i]"eaten up"[/i] by getting off-screen when you tried to [i]"peek up"[/i] to see the enemies. There were several occasions where the bottom section of the screen simply didn't have anything but ground to show yet the camera was centered dead centre on the main character rather than being more eager to show the upper sections. [h2]Some stage-by-stage commentary[/h2] [spoiler]To me it felt the stage 4 was easier than stages 2 and 3. On stage 5, part 2, the pit with the hounds has the aforementioned camera panning problem. The boss of this stage felt quite janky, easily repeating patterns, and sometimes feeling like nigh undodgeable if you don't abuse its AI. Once you figure out a strat, you can take it down in like 30 seconds but it felt quite weird to pull off and not necessarily intended(?).[/spoiler] [spoiler]In stage 6 it felt strange to me that also the rocks which had fallen but had stopped moving were still dealing damage while entirely stationary in the ground. I would have expected their hurt boxes to have gotten disable by that time. In cliffs the camera panning issue felt very apparent. There's a strange arrow power-up pickup at the start of the cliffs which seemed pointless considering I think all of the enemies in the area die from one normal arrow and you seemed to get another arrow power-up in the caves right after. In the caves I would make the first spike on the ceiling start shaking prematurely so the player would be alerted to the fact of such potential hazard being a thing the first time around. Projectiles getting eaten up by awkward camera centering was especially noticeable in the vertical screen with the crossbow & shield soldiers. Bear boss seemed kinda dumb - it is basically just meant to be a DPS check where if you dish out damage fast enough it's an easy clear but otherwise you're in trouble?[/spoiler] [spoiler]Stage 7 honestly felt quite solid all around. Felt it might have gotten extra polish in design and playtesting. Definitely like a notch up from the couple of levels preceding it. In hindsight, I think the mid-to-late sections of the game - stage 7 notwithstanding - were the most roughest and felt like some extra work could still be done to make them feel better to play.[/spoiler]

It's an interesting take on the whole Vlad the Impaler story, as it draws from the actual real life lore of the individual. That's all fine and good... but this is a video game, so we're judging this game based on the actual game play itself, and to that I say nay. It's alright, as an old school gamer myself, this game is not for the feint of heart. It requires precision, accuracy, reflexes and a boat load of memorization as well as muscle memory. The controls are a bit jank and the hit boxes are a little wonky so it adds extra frustrations... also, insanely well placed enemies so that when you go to make a jump and scroll the screen, chances are you're getting knocked back in to an instant gib spike trap or hole... it's quite obnoxious. It's doable if you're playing on Normal and just running through to see the sights. It's easy enough to beat the game if you have the time, as you have an infinite amount of attempts. However, be warned, if you lose all of your lives, it's right back to the start of the current stage with zero power ups under your belt... That sentiment alone could make or break it for some people. The achievements are where the real autism lies, as some of the achievements are just atrocious to try and attempt and will drain the life out of you. The challenge mode is also a chore and certain challenges require such precision and mastery to complete, it's not even worth the time spent on it. I managed to find a trainer of sorts and cheesed my way through most of the time consuming stuff that would otherwise just waste precious time... It's not a very popular game for a reason, it's like Super Ghoul's 'N Ghosts levels of balls hardness basically... So in other words, casuals and below average gamers, steer clear, this one is for the masochists.