Exactly the afterimage of Castlevania.
Afterimage is a Metroidvania game that leans heavily on the Castlevania side of the spectrum. The focus on RPG mechanics and complex combat is a lot of evidence for this, but the death giveaway for me is the dash straight backwards from Symphony of the Night, which acts as the fastest move at the start of the game. A twist on Castlevania’s formula was a health system that came straight out of the Souls franchise, with a limited healing charge that regenerates at checkpoints, and when you fall into battle, it picks you up from where you died. resources remain.
I don’t like to completely define a game by just the game it’s most similar to, but the afterimages are so explicit in their influence that they’re hard to describe otherwise. Undeniably beautiful and attention-grabbing hand-drawn art, apart from his style, there are few things that make this game stand out from its inspiration. Unfortunately, I’ve always preferred the Metroid side of Metroidvania, so I’ve been frustrated by many of the Afterimage shortcomings that can easily be overlooked by those hungry for platform adventures with RPG-style progression. rice field.
Combat is where the game thrives most, as it seems to be the most sophisticated element of gameplay. Enemies can deal heavy blows, but their attacks are clearly communicated through unique animations and consistent attack ranges. Paying attention and learning your opponent’s instructions is the key to victory, and players are given a variety of weapons with their own unique movesets, giving them an excellent way to use their strengths to get closer to their opponents. You can come up with a strategy. Unfortunately, if you wander into an area where your level isn’t high enough, the flow of battle will quickly fall apart. This can happen very easily by accident. You’ll never see enemy stats or levels, and it’s common to cut through boss fights and quickly get crushed by a common enemy in the next area.
Things are made more difficult by a dull system layered on top of combat. Managing equipment can be confusing because statistics cannot be directly compared and can behave in mysterious ways. The Blackwood Sword’s stat is said to be Sword Attack 59, and the Blackwood Scythe’ stat is said to be Scythe Attack 61. Does this mean the scythe does more damage? Not sure! Comparing the stats of the two weapons, the scythe simply has more scythe damage and no sword damage, and the game doesn’t explain how that translates into simple damage. has a stat of 61 Dualblades Attack, but it’s not reflected anywhere in the stats, so it hits the opponent twice, so it actually does much more damage than a scythe or a sword. Magic attacks have their own dedicated stats that are difficult to parse. Fire spells have a spellbook attack stat of 56.3 and Pyro his damage stat is 2.5%. “2.5% of what,” you may ask, but the game never gave me the answer. All I know is that the wind magic spellbook attack stat I received later was 91 and Ameno his damage stat was 2.5%.
After 10 hours of playing, there were other mechanics that I didn’t quite understand before giving up. I didn’t find a way. Ingredients are plentiful, but it seems that you can’t cook unless you go back to the first town and talk to a specific merchant. Afterimages, as the game is named, are divided into major moveset upgrades and minor buffs such as being able to see in the dark, and what they are or how to use them. He never saw a single line of dialogue or tutorial box explaining Looking at the screenshots on his Steam page for the game, you can see that a player about the same level as me has 6 times more healing his charges than mine. I’m pretty sure I simply don’t understand the game and am playing it wrong, but I do believe that Afterimage is a game only for players who already have some familiarity with these mechanics, or are willing to play them. can only be pulled out. In time learning about them through an online guide that didn’t exist while I was playing.
Sadly, Afterimage also has some performance issues on Switch. The game constantly struggles to maintain a steady framerate, and the screen stutters frequently during camera scrolling. This is such a minor detail that it’s hard to notice at first glance, but it gave me headaches over the course of long play sessions. Load times are also particularly long. From 30 seconds after most deaths he has to wait 60 seconds and the first loading screen when the game starts he lasts close to 2 minutes. There are also completely random loading screens that can pop up suddenly while you’re exploring the world, and while they’re much faster, there doesn’t seem to be any timing or reason for them to appear. No one knows for sure, but it’s unlike anything we’ve seen on the Switch so far.
Clearly I’m not the target user for Afterimage. This game is clearly he made for 2000’s Castlevania fans, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If Konami isn’t going to make more, maybe someone else should. willing to put aside all those who are Many of its dull systems and mechanisms are poorly explained (or not explained at all). want You can understand everything and try your best to understand it. Afterimage will definitely win over fans as the game understands the difficult parts. It can be a frustrating experience for those who cannot fully “understand” it.