Dragon Quest XI part 5

*SOB*

Of course it continues with a funeral for Veronica, Serena cuts her hair and receives all Veronica's magic in a dream and turns into the real reincarnation of Serenica that helped Erdwin. With that the elder tells of the ancient creature that gave Erdwin the power of flight and gives the hero a flute. Playing the flute on a certain points awakes a flying whale that can let you travel to points indicated by some golden light. Mostly there are one or two hidden areas to the normal areas where you can fight certain monsters and find material spawn points or locked away treasure chests. After going around checking everything and finding some kind of weird temple I can't enter our hero travel to a floating island above Octagonia. Arriving you find a building that looks eerily similar to a crashed building in Octagonia that appeared after the cataclysm. Apparently it just to be a floating town for the keepers, the guardians of knowledge since time immemorial. And now there is only one left, the youngest and he tells them about how Erdwin forged the sword of light. So it's a quest for getting another sword to defeat Mordegon with. You also get some lantern with holy fire so you can travel to a flying mining rock where you get some orichalcum, them travel to Gallapolis to get a hammer in order to bang the metal into shape. And then it's off to Hotto.

Now, Hotto is at the grip of a dragon and have turned into sacrificing to satisfy its hunger. But the ones preparing the sacrifice can't get there since a monster is blocking the way and the protector of the town can't fight it with her injured leg after fighting the dragon in the battle that took her son. So you get hired. Apparently it's the kids for the mother chosen as a sacrifice trying to save their mother. She claims she saw the protector speaking with the dragon and feeding it. As you go to the volcano and confirms this you confront the protector as the dragon appears. The lord stops you from hurting the dragon and promptly gets eaten. Well you beat him, and he escapes to the volcano. You go to the lord's room and reads her diary where it is revealed that the dragon is her son, turned into a dragon by a curse which was the reason the dragon reappeared all the time. She tried to cure him with the mirror of Ra (that have been in several Dragon Quest games), but she couldn't do it without more training... game... I haven't recovered from Veronica yet and now you throw this at me? You get the mirror and kills off the dragon for good, not able to save him, but turn him back to human before he dies. Goddamit game.

You get a key to the inner sanctum of the volcano where you unlock this ancient smith where Erdwin forged the sword of light and now you are able to do the same. So now I just finished sidequest until confident in attacking Mordegons castle. Reach him in his dark castle you have to once again fight Mordegons generals that had the orbs, ending with a fight with Jasper that tells the reason for his betrayal. And it was his jealousy for Hendrick which he felt overshadowed him, leaving him behind as Hendrick became the hero to the people. Well, sucks for you. Defeating him leads to anther awesome scene as you all try to enter the teleporter to Mordegon and all generals appear once again trying to occupy the heroes comrades so that he has to face Mordegon alone, but the power of friendship prevails, destroying them all. You fight Mordegon and kills him, taking the sword of darkness. The world is at peace and you travel around it seeing everyone coping after the cataclysm. And it ends with all surviving heroes standing at the grave of Veronica, taking a drink in her memory for making the sacrifice to save the world... 

So that was Dragon Quest XI. I really liked this game. It was fun and at the same time hitting you in the feels constantly. With 60 hours in it just about the right amount of time... wait, what happened to that strange tower with all the spirits around? Is there endgame content?

Let me just open this door and check!

Dragon Quest XI part 4

Time for a world tour!

Having Hendrick as the voice of the party is actually really fun. He is the most serious of all characters, but at times there is cracks for example when he realises who Sylvando and it strikes him like lightning or when he finds Lord Rabb's Oglers Digest #1 and seems to have a fair bit of knowledge about it. From hated adversary he became my favourite character. So you set off travelling to find your comrades. The bad news is that all the commotion with the falling world tree and all have disrupted the magical transportations of your spells so you gotta travel the world again.

First up Phnom Nomh where Sylvando's Soldiers of Smile have gone to in order to find out what happened to the people. Apparently a dragon appeared and took everything that every one loved, anything from jewels to actual people. Story mostly centers around this boy that runs away from his dad cause he said his wife's jewel is his most treasured possession. The kid goes to get it back, but of course the father's most treasured possession is his son, but he was smart enough to see the trap the dragon laid and lied to it. Stupid kid. You rescue everyone and since you now have the soldiers of smile in tow you go to Port Valour to put them under the protection of Sylvando's father, the greatest knight ever lived. Which put you on the way to Angra-La, a place you never been to. It's a monk monastery up in the mountains that was blocked off by Heliodor before the cataclysm. Arriving you learn that the grand master passed away protecting everyone during the cataclysm and since the hero is a prince of Dundrasill he was supposed to come here as a child and train like all princes, including Lord Robert. Rabb was here, but climbed to the top of the mountain in order to meditate and achieve the greatest attack that the dead grand master could teach him, explaining his episode when he was the main character since it was a trail for him. The hero enters the spirit world to get Rabb before his physical body succumbs to the stress of the cold weather. Both of you learn the best attacks in the game and then the grand masters soul fight off Mordegon from the spirit world, pushing her spirit into the void and disappearing forever.

With four party member it's off to Svaardrust to save Jade, but I got sidetracked with a reacuring dream at the inn with some Dundrasilian spirit haunting everyone sleeping at the inn. Apparently it's the hero's father's restless spirit who haunts the catacombs of Dundrasil so the party sets off to rescue him. Beat up the soul-eater demon and then it's off to rescue Jade from the demons at Octagonia, that was turned into a casino instead. Still, beat them up and now we can... take another detour to Gallapolis where Erdwin's Lantern is about to fall on the ruins in the desert. You escort the prince that found his courage and observe some writing on the falling star or whatever it is. Rabb reads true some binoculars and reads out C.A.L.A.S.M.O.S... what is a calasmos? Maybe a secret weapon? Also there some kind of spirit monster that instead of white like everyone else, is dark that stands just at the centre of the crash site, with arms stretched out in anticipation... maybe it's Erdwin's spirit that is returning and takes form at the worlds darkest hour? Well, jokes on me since Mordregon appears and just slashes the lantern, destroying it shouting that non will rival him. Leaving the spirit wrought with despair. And now I can leave the inner sea. As we do, we found Eric as a stowaway on the ship, having lost all his memories he don't recognise anyone, but is brought in anyway. You try to get to Sniffelheim and onward to Aboria, but it's blocked off by golden pillars. So you travel the seas until you can beat up that damned kraken that attacked Nautica and restore the water travels so you can enter Sniffelheim from the north instead. And get an orb. Do that and apparently Sniffelheim is caught is some gold plauge where people turns to gold, they blamed Krystalinda and locked her up, but also a priest seems to recognise Eric and it is revealed that he was a slave to the vikings in the cave just besides Sniffelheim. He and his sister lived there, but then disappeared. Seeing a way to unlock his memory they try to jog it, but then the vikings arrives, turned into skeletons taking all the people turned into golden statues. Eric follows them and the hero right after.

Turns out that Eric slaved for the vikings together with his sister and one day he gave her a necklace he got from one of the raids I assume. Turned out it allowed her to turn things to gold, like Midas touch and just like that curse it didn't end well for her since she was turned into a golden statue. Yet another gripping scene. Well, he left her statue there locked inside their shack and traveled the world to find a cure or get forgiveness. Meeting the seer, ending up in prison and then meeting the luminary, and now restoring his memory. They travel toward a golden castle where they battle golden enemies (good gold grind-spot) and ends up in the throne room where Eric's sister preside, freed from her statue, but now a demon. The ending scene for the battle is fantastic as Eric jumps in and pulls her out of the demon body. I feel... I feel emotional. Now, everything back to normal we can continue to Arboria. After being faced with the dragon frozen in the lake. And suddenly Serena appears and with her harp banishes the dragon forever. Apparently she got separated from Veronica during the cataclysm and was on her way back to Aboria. You finally get there and it's horrible. The parents that baptised their child the first time you arrived lost the child during the cataclysm, the town is a wreck and Veronica is nowhere to be seen. You go to the clearing just beside Aboria as something draws you there and you see her red little hat near a tree... and she lies slumped toward the tree, dead. You can't do this to me game! My eyes are overflowing with tears... and of course she sacrificed herself to save everyone from the cataclysm by using her magic, I can't take this.

*SOB* She was to good for this world! *SOB*

Dragon Quest XI part 3

So this is how it's gonna be?

After that failure we start with Sylvando on his ship, waking up after the fall of Yggdrasil. He travels to Gondolia that is falling apart with a gang bullying shopkeepers and what not in order to get money and trasures. You trash them and start the Soldiers of Smiles to give the people back their hopes. You get to Galapolis and gather more and then to Hotto where you construct this giant wagon where Sylvando can parade and direct his soldiers. It's a bit... flamboyant so to speak. 

Next is Jade who have travelled to Octagonia where the demons have set up some kind of casino where you always win, being some kind of statement on gambling I assume. You try to fight the head monster, but is transported into a prison dimension where the fighters are trapped which you fought against, losing hope as they fight over and over again. Jade have none of that and fights her way to the guardian of the prison and with the help of a demonic bunny suit that the head monster forced on you, you are able to fight of the guardian and return, but the cursed suit than forces her into serving the head monster. 

Lord Rabb meanwhile relive the fall of Dundrasil, guided by the bunny girl from Ogler's Digest #1. It tells how the luminary parents got married, the luminary was born and the council of the five kings that took place right before the fall of Dundrasil. Apparently the Bunny girl is actually the spirit of the grand master of Angri-La and she does this to test Rabb for being able to get the greatest power the monks of the shrine can teach him. The grand master apparently is something like over 100 years old and have teached the princes of Dundrasil for several generations.

Erik finds himself trapped in prison and with some healslime prepares to bust out, skulking around and avoiding all monsters. Healslime reminds me of the first chapter of IV where Ragnar the knight was followed by a healslime. They are cornered on the edge of a cliff of what I assume is a flying island by one of the generals of Mordregons armies. The healslime is brushed aside and suddenly Erik hears a voice that can give him the power to push back the general, but he would lose what he hold dearest or some kind of things, and that is his memories of the travels with the Luminary. He charge up super-saiyan and almost beat the general, but the power leaves him right before the finishing attack. In a desperate attempt he jumps from the cliff and ends up at the coast near Costa Valor. The healslime then turned out to be the seer that set him upon the quest for the beginning.

Which leads back to the luminary, turned into a fish by the Queen of Nautica as the only way to heal his wounds after he fell from Yggdrasil. As the queen tells of what happened to his companion for the months he was out cold the city's protection is being hammered by another of Mordegons generals. As you are whisped away by the queens magic and turned back into a human as you are fished up by a fisherman near the first continent. You travel back to Cobblestone and it has been rebuilt, into a fortress by the survivors from Heliodor and the Cobblestonians that wasn't killed by Jasper as it turns out, since Hendrick had arrived and stopped it from happening and instead locked them all up. And guess what, both your mother Amber and Gemma survived. And here's King Corneleon and who's leading the soldiers in the search and rescue of the innocent and fighting of the hordes of monster from Heliodor? Well, it's sir Hendrick who sold of his black armour in Gondolia. As the luminary Cornelian asks you to join Hendrick in an attack to first disrupt the monsters and then do a raid into the castle through the sewers that the luminary and Erik escaped Heliodor from. Hendrick and you gets in, defeats the commander and bring back light to the world and now it's back to travel the world in order to save the world.

Dragon Quest XI part 2

Love the artwork!

Well I got it after waiting some time for the mail to arrive. Apparently the reason for the cut-off is that at that very moment the hero is approached by one of the "spirit" creatures that tells them of a problem at their home which the party is transported to... in a 2D world. Looks beautiful. Apparently some mischief have happened and the library of the spirits have been disrupted and spirits have been sent to search for the "pastwords" that will give the hero entry to different worlds within books. Books that leads to the other games in the main series. So nostalgia trip. There you have to solve different quests to set them right. I gather it was something special for either the 3DS or just the Switch version. Although, this isn't part of the main quest, just a side one. Find more of those "spirits" to get more pastwords and visits more places in each book.

The real adventure quest continues in Gallapolis, the sultanate of knights. This is the usual Dragon Quest cliché with a spoiled prince that begs you to do task to cover for him. Think they done this since V. He's not as irritating as Charmless from VIII, basically he feels he have been pushed by his parents to do more and more and since he early began getting his servants do the work he was trapped in a negative spiral where everyone expected more of him, which forced him to get others to do them for him. Now it was winning a horse race which the player gets roped in too since they need the branch that Gallapolis sultan have. So you partake in the race (and I won) so that the prince can give a word to his father so that you can get the rainbough, a branch of Yggdrasil (which appeared in I and III to get to Dragonlords Castle). Sadly a monster appears and the prince, since he appears so capable is sent out to slay it, and you follow, togheter with the flamboyant jester Sylvando that seems to be very knowledgable in the way of knights. Defeat the monster and as the prince drag the corpse back to the cheering crowds it awakens again, but Sylvando slays it and this gives the prince the courage to tell his father the truth. Alls well that ends well, except that the sultan sld the rainbough to a travelling merchant in order to pay for the races... and it was a national heirloom.

Next stop is Gondolia, a merchant town that is preparing a mr universe contest. The mayor don't want anything with you since you are the Darkspawn, but his kid have been cursed so you get out and get an ingrediant that Serena can make holy water out of and dispel the curse. Turns out that Jasper, one of the two mighty knights of Heliodor talked with a monster, the kid saw it and was cursed for it. Something is rotten in the state of Heliodor. Still, Sylvando has a ship ready, but Jasper appears, taking Erik hostage. You save him and escape on the ship while sailing right into a Kraken, which Gondolias fleet under the mayor kills since you helped his son and therefore showed the darkness of Jasper. The kraken is probably a callback to VIII since you had to fight one to get toward the second continent. Here the games open up a bit. Travel to Zvaardrust and on to Octagonia where you take part in an MMA tournament, but the fighters are kidnapped as you try to win the rainbough which is the number one price. Only randomly chosen fighter pairs so you get teamed up with last years winner, a fighter who runs an orphanage which he himself grew up on. There is two mysterious fighters, an old merchant man that just looks on and a swift feet kicking woman. You fight them and win, but after the match the former champ disappears as well as the young woman fighter. You run into cave below the orphanage together with the old merchant that is named Rabb. There you find that the champion have been kidnapping the fighters to give to a monster spider that use them to heal up after its fight with Sir Hendrick, the other knight of Heliodor. In exchange the champion is given some monster juice that enables him to win his matches so he can sell the prizes to pay for the orphanage. Trash them both and rescue al the fighters. Now, this one was one of the most emotional segments since the champion didn't do this for anything evil, he just wanted to protect the children who had no one else to protect them. And he even started to cry. Once again, the small stories have a really heavy punch. The next day you both do the final battle and win, but to redeem himself he challenge you one on one, which you win easily when he isn't doped up with monster juice. Sadly, Rabb and Jade (the kicking woman) have stolen the rainbough and urged you to get them in the ruined kingdom of Dundrasil.

I hate spiders

Turns out that Dundrasil was the kingdom which you hailed from and was destroyed around your birth which you saw in the opening cutscene. Rabb is actually Lord Robert, your grandfather and former king of Dundrasil and Jade is the lost princess of Heliodor. Both have been on a mission since that faithful day in order to find the one behind it, a person named Mordegon. You are attacked by Hendrick that have tracked ypou down, but you escape and head toward Pouerto Valor so you can leave the inner sea. Leaving you end up on a small island where a mermaid is waiting for her beloved Kai, and if you help her she will give you access to the underwater city of Nautica. Turns out that she waited for 50 years and that Kai had to stay at his fishing village after being ostraciced for breaking up his former engagment with the chiefs daughter and therefore stranded when they burned his boat. The chiefs daughter married someone else, but when her husband and father both died in a storm said to be sent by the mermaids for taking revenge on the people for holding Kai, she took her life leaving her daughter which Kai felt responsibility for. The daughters son told the story and as the party returns with Michelle the mermaid (short name Shell... HaHa), she turn into a human as she walk toward the grave of Kai, and then turns into foam as she finally have found her beloved again...man, no disneyfication of old stories here.

Get to Nautica to meet the queen of mermaids that hands you one of the orbs you need to get to Yggdrasil. Now, able to go into secluded inland seas you get to Phnom Nhom, a tourist trap village with some Ankhor Wat ruins where a mural is said to give luck to anyone looking. Turns out that the mural is trapping people to feast on. Defeat it to get the magic key. Get to the north and enter Snifelheim, which have been magically frozen by the witch Krystalinda. You defeat the beast said to be guarding her, but turns out it was guarding her magical powers, so she have been powered up. You get to the great library where you find the grimoire that sealed Krystalinda before, but where the Queen of Snifleheim is trapped, the same queen that gave you the mission to defeat the beast. Shenanigans, fight and defeat Krystalinda, twice since she was able to trick me both times. But the real queen, who only recently took to the throne after her father King Gustav died (and yes, they sound and looks like some medieval Scandinavian city) stepped in the way before we could seal her in the book again. I suspect Stockholm Syndrome, but she feels bad for her after being trapped in the book for some millenia. Turns out she was freed by some handsome man... gut feeling is Jasper that already have been making deals with monsters and such. Anyway, continue to Arboria where Veronica and Serena hails from and learn more about Erdwin and his companions as they defeated the dark one and you begin the climb up Yggdrasil and uses the 6 orbs you gathered on your travels. Your rewards is the fabled sword of light and...

You get hit in the back by Jasper

You get pretty much trounced by him since he is guarded by some dark force. You are beaten and then Henrick and King Cornelian shows up. Hendrick rushes at Jasper for joining the dark one, but is in turn stabed in the back by Cornelian which is revealed to be possessed by Mordegon who now takes the sword of light, turns it into the swords of shadows and destroys the world tree and pretty much destroying the world... Think this is the first time Dragon Quest have done this. One could argue VII, but that's before the game starts. Final Fantasy VI did this, but Dragon Quest never before. 

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch)

I have plundered time itself, put the world inside it
I'm the mysteries, day and night, divide it
A plague of wonders, on your knees beside me
Know the secrets, you shall not deride us

So instead of doing it like everyone else and play the game first released in the series in wait for the main game I played it afterwards. Or I rather started and didn't finish it until afterwards when I just went for it. Basically an alternative reality from the main game since you play as Zangetsu fighting his way toward he castle. On the way he meets up with Miriam, Alfred and Gebel, allowing Zangetsu to choose if he will let them live or die. I went with letting them live for this playthrough. Which, to the credit of the game made it a lot easier when you could spam homing magic on the final boss, killing it instantly. Always loved a legit method to cheese the final boss. 

Basically it plays like Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, although better I gotta say. Casual allows me to play with infinite lives, you don't start at the beginning of the stage if everyone dies, and each character have their own life bar. And you can go back to earlier parts of the game if you missed something and play from there, although I assume you can't wind it forward. Funny enough, Miriam plays like a Belmont with a whip, but with a high jump. Alfred is Sylhpa, and Gebel is Alucard. Zangetsu is the one that stands out since he isn't Grant, but Zangetsu, sword wielding demon slayer. 

Rather fun playing it and the 8-bit graphics speaks to me more than the 3d of the main game. Fun to see all monsters in 8-bit that appeared in 3d in the main game, bosses and all. Game is set up so that the first playthrough leads to Zangetsu sacrificing himself to protect the others as the final boss does it's last strike. Which in like Dawn of Sorrow leads to the other heroes needing to get to him, by doing the game all over. Thanks game! There is one thing I'm a bit miffed over and that is the bosses last desperate attack as they are dying. Some of them are rather easy to avoid, but others don't miss... or rather I'm not good enough to avoid them, but as of yet the characters haven't died of it, but I would be mighty pissed if that would be the case. 

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch) part 2

I have plundered time itself, put the world inside it
I'm the mysteries, day and night, divide it
A plague of wonders, on your knees beside me
Know the secrets, you shall not deride us

So after a couple of days I was finally able to boot up the game again and could continue it. Like proper Castlevania the easy way isn't the right way. No, here you needed to traverse the castle in order to find Zangetsu and fight him for a second time after your first meeting. Proving your worth he gives you his blade that can cut the moon in half. And that is your clue that when the full moon behind Gebel turns red, slice it with that sword sewering the demon Gremory from Gebel, releasing him from her possession and giving him peace before the crystal overtakes him and turn him into a red crystal. Meanwhile he drops the Liber Logaeth that Alfred is able to catch with Gremory following him and you hunt for away to enter the other dimension to find them. Find another blood moon and cut it to enter it. There you find Alfred mortally wounded and the plot is revealed.

Gremory worked on the orders of Dominique to get Gebel so that Miriam, the strongest shardbinder of them all would follow and become corrupted by the demons in the castle and then use her powers to unleash Bael. Alfred tried to get the book back to stop it and Dominique set Zangetsu to stop him, but got suspicious when Miriam arrived instead of letting them team up to hunt Gebel. Zangetsu and Alfred talked it over and Zangetsu gave his sword to Miriam since Gremory feared him more than her. Zangetsu arrives with Jonathan that talks to Alfred before he begs forgivness for what he did to Miriam and Gebel, but it was also he who put her to sleep to make the guilds plan fail, thinking it was better to do something and give the world a chance of survival than let the world get destroyed by inaction. And then he passes away.

Zangetsu tells Miriam to follow him as quickly she can since he will trap Gremory now that she thinks him harmless. Traversing the icy domain of the castle you find Zagetsu trapping Gremory in a room with those paper charms before Gremory drags him into a dark dimension. Killing Gremory gives Miriam a teleporting ability and access to the last part of the castle where Dominique awaits. First for she just jumps around whipping you and defeating that form leads her to summon Bael, but before he enters our dimension Miriam jumped in and destroyed him as well as Dominique. Back at the castle Jonathan arrives. Miriam gives him the Liber Logaeth she took from Dominique and using a spell from the book together with explosives  set around the structural weaknesses that Alfred put in place, the castle is destroyed and drawn into its own dimension. Jonathan reveals that Alfreds last words where how he could stop the crystal spreading in Miriam permanently. Miriam puts Zangetsu's sword in the ground and they walk away. Cut back to the sword and it's gone leaving the opening that Zangetsu survived.

It was a fun game, the nods here and there to the Castlevania-series where fun, but also how they distanced themselves from it by doing many things the opposite way. Instead of Gebel throwing fireballs like Count Dracula he throws ice spears, instead of a burning hell, there is an ice hell pretty much. It's pretty much Castlevania in all but name and I like those games. Zangetsu is pretty much a Belmont, but with a sword and until the reveal I though Dominique was akin to Belnandes in the Sorrow-games.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch)

Stranger than the comet as it streaks across the sky
Stranger than the truth I know before my open eyes
I have dealt in mysteries and trickery of light to entertain
Looked into the abyss, called it by its name

Being a fan of the Castlevania-series, and especially the action-rpg games for the Nintendo handhelds it was just a matter of time before getting this game made by the same people for those other games after IGA left Konami. This game was apparently delayed, they released a short 8-bit game in the style of the first Castlevania games, which I got but never finished. This game stars the Shardbinder Miriam, a girl that have been asleep during the last 10 years as the Alchemy guild unleashed demons upon the world by sacrificing the other shardbinders. Sharbinders are somehow fused with a crystal that gives them tremendous power and the ability to absorb demonic powers and use them for themselves. Problem is that the crystals will devour them. The alchemist tried to use them to summon  the king of demons Bael, but since Miriam fell asleep they didn't have enough power. They still went through with it, but it failed and instead unleashed lesser demons upon the world wrecking havoc and killing innocents. All but two shardbinders where killed, one being Miriam and the other Gebel, her best friend. Gebel seems to go insane and starts killing alchemist and disappears... and then Miriam wakes up.

Together with Jonathan, an alchemist apprentice that tried to stop the ritual they set out to stop Gebel, and are helped by Dominique, an exorcist from the church. They travel to the Alchemist Guild location where a demonic castle have appeared and fused with the guild base. Miriam rescues a couple of villagers just outside the village and heads into the castle to find Gebel. From here it plays like any other Metroidvania game. Miriam is very much like Soma Cruz from Aria of Sorrow (GBA) and Dawn of Sorrow (DS) that takes the souls from the monsters and can use their abilities as weapons, abilities, summons or stat boosts. Dominique acts as a shopkeeper where you can buy stuff or sell things you don't need or even shards. Jonathan can use his alchemist skills to create weapons, items, shards or food or just enhance the shards you got. That one is new for me and is one of the more fun things in the game since you gather ingredients and such making it a bit more justifiable to carry those 20 rings. There's also a couple of quest giving villagers. One gives you a couple of bounty hunters quest in order to avenge the killed villagers. The other is a nun that want to give the dead one a proper burial so you gather different things and bury with the dead. The third one is some old lady that wants some food.

You're not alone in searching the castle for Gebel. Skulking around is also Zangetsu, a demon hunter from Japan that have been asked by Dominique to find Gebel and Alfred, Jonathan's master that ensured that the corruption of Gebel and Miriam from the crystal didn't kill them but now looks for the Liber Logaeth, the book that was used to summon the demons in the first place. Other denizens are the cursed barber Todd and O.D., the vampire librarian. Good time to mention that the game is voice acted and you got David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake, as Zangetzu and O.D. is voiced by the same voice actor that did Alucard in the original Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Cool.

It's a fun game if you like the Metroidvania games. Music is great and it looks good as well, but I don't know if I'm all that into the 3d character models and such. I assume also that is the reason why the game gets seriously sluggish when too much is going on, especially in rooms that are gigantic, like the Twin Towers that sometimes feared the game would crash. Of course, the reason why it might not was due to me waiting until they released a patch at the beginning of November that solved the most egreroius parts, with another patch supposed to follow afterwards. Apparently the Switch version was almost unplayable before they fixed some bugs and stuff. Still, I got to Gebel began slashing away and after some time I gets out victorious, Miriam stands outside the castle and... Game Over? I beat the boss what more do you demand of me?.... What do you mean I only finished 60 % of the map? Great, now the game crashed and didn't allow me to finish it... guess I have to wait a bit before continuing.

To be continued...