The Insane Asylum

The last time I played a Castlevania game it was way back on the NES. Can't remember exactly which one but I do remember getting stuck on a boss that had a head-like thing that bounced around. It was a hard game I never finished.

Now on the DS I hear about these newer Castlevania games. The series is said to still be quite hard so I decide to try it out once again.

Well, the game certainly is difficult. Perhaps not 8 bit difficult - especially since I can easily spam healing items simply by stockpiling cash and unloading it all at the local shop - but it's certainly a step up from other DS offerings. I died. I died a lot. Every boss so far has killed me at least once, but usually more. Even generic enemies can be quite challenging when you're being rushed by mobs of them and that has led to a few deaths where I got careless.

One irritating aspect is when fighting enemies near the edge of an area's screen, which happens a lot here. Get hit and you risk getting knocked back into the previous area. Wouldn't be so bad if the enemies didn't fully regenerate when you leave a screen.

Glyph system seems pretty cool, by allowing me to mix up varying attack methods. Generally the game seems free enough to allow me to basically spam the same kinds of spells against almost everything, so it's more of an enjoyable option to throw in hammer/lance combos. The support glyphs have some interesting adventuring properties and the gylph sleeve lets me set up three combinations and switch quickly between them.

Level design is pretty solid so far though not as much room for wandering off the beaten path yet. They are opening up more as I progress though so that's likely to change.

The story is a bit confusing at the moment though. Albus is currently playing the role of antagonist, but I've absolutely no idea why. Perhaps this will be explained later on, but right now I'm totally in the dark.

Game looks promising. It addresses the difficulty issue many games suffer from and a rather atmospheric setup to boot.