Since its first announcement on Kickstarter, Romancelvania is a game that undoubtedly catches our eye. With its original concept mixing Metroidvania and Dating Sim, its quirky bias and its totally assumed parody of Castlevania; he had everything to succeed.
Second game from The Deep End Games, an independent studio founded by former developers who worked on BioShock and BioShock Infinite, the title has also had a successful crowdfunding campaign.
In other words: all the stars were aligned to provide us with quality entertainment. But what is it really?
The Bachelor : Twilight Edition
Romancelvania puts us in the shoes of Drac, the most famous vampire in Transylvania, totally depressed after his defeat against humans. Far from his former glory, he was also dumped by his beloved. Left behind, disgraced and abandoned by his minions; he broods in his impenetrable fortress for nearly ninety-nine years.
Problem: Lost in his decay, he has not done his job and the balance between life and death is now broken. The Grim Reaper then sets a trap for him to force him out of his home: she invites him to a game of poker with monstrous friends.
Drac accepts, but quickly finds himself caught up in… a reality show aimed at enabling him to find love. Entitled Love At First Bite (reference to the 1979 film), this show is subject to strict rules: the Grim Reaper withdraws all his powers from Drac, and only gives them back to him sparingly, at each new encounter. Our hero will therefore only be able to recover his full power if he finds love with a… singular panel of suitors.
Who are we going to choose between Ilessa the dominating succubus, Medusa with the petrifying gaze, PS Elle the busty scarecrow, Fenton the werewolf, Brocifer the ever-hot DJ demon, Robert the pirate… or even Dolce the unicorn? Unless our dear Drac finally decides to confess his attraction to his old enemy Van Helsing in a very virile homoerotic fight?
In the end, there are thirteen suitors who offer themselves to us in order to awaken Drac to the joys of love.
Endowed with a deliberately quirky humor featuring pastiches of the recurring protagonists of Castlevania, Romancelvania is a particularly funny title, with lively verve and particularly neat writing.
Two important details at this stage of the test: despite its deliberately gravelly tone, the title is never vulgar or insulting. Admittedly sometimes fat, he manages with astonishing ease to dodge the pitfalls of the beauferie by surfing brilliantly on a sometimes very dangerous limit. A real success on the writing side.
The second point, clearly negative but still understandable: Romancelvania is entirely in English, without any translation. However, the studio has already announced that a localization in several languages was in progress. To see if the latter, once available, will not distort the jokes too much and will manage with as much subtlety not to slip into the dark side of humor.
Love Lord of Shadow
What about gameplay? As said in the introduction, the latter is divided into two parts, intrinsically linked.
The first is of course a metroidvania could not be more classic: we explore the castle and its surroundings, collect weapons and equipment like a Symphony of the Night and fight hordes of monsters.
If this part is qualitative, however, it risks leaving fans of the genre somewhat dubious because of two major and totally incomprehensible flaws: first, the action is surprisingly heavy and slow. Whether in terms of animations, movements or fights, the game seems to lack a bit of vitamins to be up to it. We had, throughout our game, this strange feeling of playing at 50 Hertz. If this pitfall is not completely prohibitive, it is however relatively embarrassing in the first times.
The second, on the other hand, is quite simply inexcusable in this type of game: there is no card. We repeat: He. Don’t there. A. Not. Map. In a Metroidvania!
Who could test the game and think it was a good idea? Who validated this? Who can forget to implement a simple card in this kind of production?
Don’t get us wrong: just like in Castlevania, Romancelvania forces us to go back and forth in order to reach previously inaccessible areas by unlocking various specific powers. This is literally the definition of the genre, its DNA.
A map is then the basis, essential, so as not to get lost in a loop for hours each time we find ourselves blocked. But no. Not here. All we have to do then, regularly, is to go through all the rooms of the title to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything. Aberrant. Simply absurd. Hopefully the developers will realize this issue and fix it soon.
Let’s take a moment all the same to talk about exploration despite this problem. Searching and discovering secret areas can grant us bonuses, ranging from increased life to the ability to carry more gold to immunity to poison. The progression curve is good, never frustrating.
Regarding these famous powers, we voluntarily waited until the end of this part to talk about them. The latter are certainly not original, but they have the merit of taking up what we already know of the protagonist: turning into mist, performing a double jump, running at high speed, summoning bats, etc.
To unlock them, you will have to find (and face) the various suitors scattered throughout the castle. And this is where Romancelvania reveals all its value.
Bite me without hesitation
Once defeated, the bosses join a kind of central hub that will allow us to discuss with them, to better maintain the fire of our relations.
And where Romancelvania excels is precisely in these exchanges. Because we are never forced to bond intimately with others. It is freely possible for us to simply flirt, to establish a friendship or even to despise the “allies” that we do not support.
Whatever happens, increasing his bond with the various protagonists is of paramount importance, since the latter grant Drac welcome improvements to his special abilities.
Thus, you have to choose your allies well in order to forge your own Drac. Especially since the game never forgets its own diegesis. We are in a “Bachelor” type reality show. In fact, we will have to eliminate candidates until only one remains. In other words: we are regularly asked for our preferences in terms of possible couples… but also of skills to be developed. Decisions are difficult, and push us to play strategically.
If this choice of game design is quite confusing on the part of the developers, it is only in the light of a first completed part that all the superb of this idea is revealed. Because yes, Romancelvania is a good game. And in doing so, it becomes all the more simple and pleasant to restart a new game once the scenario of about ten hours has been completed, without however feeling too much the redundant side of this kind of production.
The replayability is there, enhanced by the possibility of developing a completely different character from the first, while discovering new unique and particularly tasty exchanges and dialogues.
Tested on Xbox Series S
