Apple Arcade: Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls

After two weeks of streaming, I have not had enough Castlevania. And I think you haven’t had enough Castlevania, too. As in also, not the number. And as it just so happens, a Castlevania game I’ve never played has appeared on Apple Arcade.

In time immemorial (so before the pandemic), Konami released a gatcha-style Castlevania game for smartphones… but only in Canada. As suddenly as it appeared, it vanished again, never to resurface… until now.

Despite the seemingly ultimate defeat of the forces of darkness in Dawn of Sorrow, evil beasts once again stalk the land. A new character reaches out to Alucard with the answer: magic is stirring in grimoires containing the legends of dark times and the vampire slayers who persevered through them.

Alucard is charged with entering these tomes himself to quell the beasts within to keep them from spilling out into reality more than they already have. But in so doing, he comes face-to-face with Death himself who is ALSO visiting the book. Death has been stirring up the magic in the hopes of gaining enough to revive a copy of Dracula from the legends recorded in the grimoires.

…and as you may imagine, this whole setup — apart from finding a new way to revive Dracula during a time where it ought to be impossible for the sake of the story — is about having an excuse to pool heroes and stages from across the Castlevania timeline into one handy game. It’s not long before the magic revives Simon Belmont, who is then followed by Maria Reinard, Charlotte Aluin and Shanoa. Other heroes show up as well, but I haven’t been able to play as any but the five already named in this post.

Each character utilizes the same basic controls, but executes their actions differently in a manner loosely remenicient of how they played in their original games. Alucard attacks with swords and his transformations, Simon fights with his whip and brawling, Maria is still a crazy dove lady with other animals in her arsenal, Charlotte fires off spells at far range and Sinoa uses a number of aerial attacks. Each character also have a native element which merely serves to provide a bonus for levels with a matching element.

The game’s action stages themselves are nothing special compared to a regular Castlevania game. While they do have some variety to them, by and large they are quick platforming challenges with some monster bashing mixed in. Bite-sized for playing on the go rather than diving in to a long play session.

For what it is, it plays just fine on a controller. The touch controls less so. The characters have far too much to do to make it a smooth experience when you have nothing but your phone to get the job done. The game tries to help by adding an option to automatically attack nearby enemies so you can focus on movement, but there’s just too many situations in which your primary attack is the least practical and you need to start getting some of the techniques going.

I will say the gorgeous animated cutscene movies and traditional fantastic music make it each to come back to Grimoire of Souls. The soundtrack borrows heavily from existing remixes in the series, and it makes for a nice jukebox.

Grimoire of Souls still bears all the trappings of a gacha game. You have daily missions, log in streak bonuses, timed background tasks, and lots of leveling up junk gear destined to become obsolete. As per the usual rules for Apple Arcade, all the microtransactions have been removed. Instead, you get to grind your thumbs off for the various in-game currencies. It’s probably just as well; it’s my impression that gacha games based around summoning equipment don’t drive people to chase the dragon as much as ones in which waifus and husbandos are summoned instead.

Also not surviving the rerelease process was the game’s PvP and co-op gameplay. Konami’s not made of servers, you know.

What still remains to be seen is if the game will be served with updates for new events and moving the story forward. It didn’t exactly reach the end in the game’s original run.

All in all, it’s something I wouldn’t mind chipping away at, but aren’t motivated to actually play as a gatcha, live-service game.