One day Konami might get the hint that we need Castlevania games to come out a bit more often. At least we have Belmont’s Curse nearly upon us. During those long periods of drought, it seems indie developers have taken it upon themselves to try and fill the void. We have covered a fair few here and Saint Slayer in the next in line.
It’s curious that side scrolling, linear, Castlevania likes
always stick to the 8-bit pixel look. You would think someone would take on the
16-bit era at some point. Saint Slayer is another that looks a lot like the
first three NES Castlevania games. It follows a standard linear level structure
and even has a little between level map just in case you still didn’t get the
inspiration.
Luckily, it plays a bit less clunky than the 8-bit Castlevania
games though. You are limited to the usual jump, attack and special attack
options, but there are also a few Metroidvania elements thrown in as skills which
you can acquire, such as a slide which is vital for taking you under traps at
certain points. There’s also a little bit of a Duck Tales inspiration with our
hero able to use his spear to pogo around on spikes.
That isn’t to say the game is easy though. It’s pretty damn tough,
especially if you have no experience with the rhythm and flow of these types of
things. If you are happily playing on your NES or Master System though, you’ll
have a much better time of it.
The loose plot follows a farmer in seventeenth century
Europe who needs to fight through twenty-one levels to stop a mad priest from stealing
relics and summoning all sorts of gothic horrors. It has a weird tone which moves
between wacky dialogue (and one scene where a donkey knocks you off a cliff),
to straight up horror with starving prisoners, bodies hanging from the ceiling
and rotten meat which makes you sick if eaten.
You can collect orbs which act as the in-game currency which
can then be spent at the travelling merchant. Interestingly the orbs stay with
you through multiple playthroughs. This means you could potentially farm them
on the easier settings and then use them when moving up the difficulties. It
adds a light consideration about if you should restart the game after death or
use the various passwords to continue your progress – minus any upgrades of
course.
Level design is generally strong, and bosses are well
structured in the ‘learn the attack pattern’ kind of way. An early fight with a
monster riding a donkey is a bit silly and frustrating as you must keep
dropping boxes on its head, but most others work well. Some levels are too long
though. Level eleven is set in a prison and after your hundredth death it
really does begin to look samey and bland. Generally, though the layouts and
look are varied.
Overall, Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege does pretty much
what it sets out to do. It’s a huge homage to a NES styled Castlevania game in
that its mostly successful. The biggest thing though about pretty much all of
these is they are never quite at the level of the games they are influenced by.
While this is a fun diversion, it won’t keep you away from proper Dracula
slaying for too long.
Overall 7/10
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