This is what Vampire Survivors was created for, and why you need to jump back in.
It’s weird to realize that Vampire Survivors is a three year old game. It’s *only* a three year old game. It feels like it’s been around for, well, forever. That’s likely because its inspiration, the Castlevania series, has been around for much of our gaming lives. Corporate business and IP protection being what it is meant that the game could only really be tangentially inspired by that Konami classic, even though IT VERY CLEARLY FELT LIKE A CASTLEVANIA GAME.
I’m happy to report that after squashing that IP bug and working alongside Konami, the latest DLC for Vampire Survivors lands firmly in the world of Castlevania, and it’s absolutely marvelous.
Ode to Castlevania does so, so many things right. It’s separate DLC, but it completely revitalizes the game. It feels like developer Poncle have probably been sitting on this since the very beginning and refining it over and over to get it perfect, capturing the essence of the inspiration but adding the bullet-garlic-like magic of the indie gem.
It starts with an incredible map. It’s massive, and the biggest in the game. It’s the castle from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, with rooms, multiple paths, and even some sidescrolling-ish areas. I especially loved the secret rooms and the bosses (there are *REAL* bosses here!) and there’s a beginning and an end, with a ton to do in between.
The DLC has a massive amount of playable characters, too. We start with Leon Belmont, but then can unlock others across the history of the franchise. There are weapons across the history too, like unique whips and magic spells. It feels great to mix and match some of the spells and weapons and characters from different Castlevania games for unique builds, because the screen can get absolutely obliterated with amazing crap going on. I thought my Switch was going to start smoking, but it held up.
There’s an absurd amount of fan service here and so much attention to detail, that it’s a very “pause-worthy” style of game to stop and inspect every pixel.
And the music and arrangements are fantastic. I often thought to myself, “I REMEMBER THAT TUNE!” but now those tunes have been adjusted in some fresh and different ways.
Ode to Castlevania is a crash course for people that haven’t played the series before (and let’s face it, most of this newer generation of kids hasn’t because no new game has come out). Vampire Survivors is always a great game to just sit and take for a run, but this brings new life into the experience that I didn’t know I needed. I can’t recommend it enough; it’s essential.
This review is based on a Switch eShop sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. It originally appeared on The SideQuest Live for November 12, 2024. Images and video courtesy Publisher.
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