Dead Cells Return to Castlevania Review: Belmont vs Dracula, new act

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Dead Cells Return to Castlevania Review: Belmont vs Dracula, new act
dead cells return to castlevania review: belmont vs dracula, new

Dead Cells pays homage to Castlevania with a new, unmissable DLC and consecrates itself once and for all in the Olympus of Roguelites.

Dead Cells Return to Castlevania Review: Belmont vs Dracula, new act

Since its release in early access, Dead Cells has come a long way (to refresh your memory you can read the review of Dead Cells). It has in fact evolved gradually, DLC after DLC, until arriving at an excellent collaboration: the one with Capcom and a legendary series. Return to Castlevania is a heartfelt, recognizable tribute, but with a strong identity. Compressing the 37-year saga into one add-on must have been no simple task.

The repertoire was indeed vast, among gloomy woods, ghostly manors, historical sounds and countless enemies to use in the Dead Cells roguelite stages. Yet, in Motion Twin they didn’t just mention the characterizing elements of the series, but they remodeled them effectively and in a completely personal way. We faced skeletons, werewolves and spear-wielding knights, modern evolutions of their counterparts: for those who have experienced the original Castlevania, we guarantee it, “familiarity” and “surprise” will go hand in hand.

Lots of quotes

We had already witnessed the ability of the developers to “translate” the works of others with their own style, on the occasion of the “Everyone is here” DLC. Hollow Knight, Risk of Rain, Shovel Knight are just some of the titles with which Dead Cells has already confronted. The purpose of this content was to allow fans to have experiences inspired by their favorite indies, varying the gameplay loop of Dead Cells with a few well-targeted additions, mostly of an aesthetic nature.

First, as in “Everyone is here“, many Castlevania-themed weapons have been made available to the protagonist, represented in an almost identical way to those of the original counterpart in terms of effectiveness, moveset and even timing of action and reaction. There really is everything and more: the holy water grenades, throwing axes, spinning crosses, the sword/chain and much more. However, the armaments are not available immediately: they are unlocked by playing, paying for them with the blue souls snatched from enemies. Depending on your skill it could it takes a lot of time and patience to pick them up – a factor which, given the nature of the game, is perfectly consistent with the playful experience of Dead Cells. We will then be able to dress the undead fighter with wearable skinswhich transform it on an aesthetic level.

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In this regard, the quality of the artistic direction is very high, in an excellent combination of richness of detail and uniqueness of the design. We prefer not to dwell too much in the description, nor provide explicit examples. After all, exploring and personally discovering each quote is a pleasure we don’t want to deprive you of.

A perfect fusion

We wouldn’t have been so happy with the DLC if it had nothing to offer other than a set of references and a few character costumes. Thankfully, Return to Castlevania also contains three new Boss Fights to hunt down, past Dracula’s Castle and its labyrinthine surroundings.

These are levels more or less extended as those already addressed in the updates The Bad Seed, Fatal Falls and The Queen and the Sea. In this last DLC, in any case, the level design is more articulated compared to the base title and explore the unpublished areas impose a different rhythm.

In Dracula’s Castle there are many more locks to open to reveal paths or shortcuts, moments of more or less challenging aerial platforming, and even environmental mini-puzzles to solve. All enriched by a set of equipment that increases the number of rooms reachable, depending on how much you have played Dead Cells before embarking on the DLC. The key objects are the same ones to be used to get to the branches of the base title.

It is therefore not essential to have unlocked wall climbing or teleportation to enjoy the Transylvanian journey; however, if you possess such talents, you will be able to see and do more within the add-on content. It being understood that the landing in the new maps, as per tradition in Dead Cells, is not bound to the completion of the basic campaign, but is integrated very naturally into the general play and narrative system. This is one of the reasons why we hold all Dead Cells downloadable content are a positive example for the modern gaming landscape: they have not been inserted in a forced way, but branch off with simple plot pretexts from the main body, intertwining with it. In short, those who bought Dead Cells at launch enjoyed the organic crescendo of their playful ecosystem, the viable paths, the challenges and multiple conclusions.

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Accessing the Impaler’s Castle is just one of the choices we can make every time we venture into the game’s paths. We can do it immediately, just after the first stage or as a replacement for the second level, so as to vary our runs and get some of the unique DLC items first. Or we can challenge Dracula by experiencing the content as a much more demanding end game challenge than normal.

Portable slaughterWe carried out our test by alternating medium-high-end Desktop PCs and Steam Decks. On both platforms we never had any stability problems: the game is very light and well optimized. It obviously gave its best on PC, while in portability on the Valve machine we had to give up a few handfuls of frames. We were positively impressed by the very low battery consumption. Dead Cells actually lends itself well to mobile use, but a selector for the size of the text on the screen would have helped, which unfortunately are very small.

In addition to being organic, therefore, Return to Castlevania is also chameleonic: it adapts to the moment in which we challenge it, offering tests and suitable rewards, making each session different and unique. Once certain conditions were met, we then unlocked a secret alternate mode, and played Richter Belmont. Attention: not a skin for our avatar, but the very original vampire hunter. On this occasion, the paraphernalia available proved to be that of the real Castlevania, to be used against enemies who, however, showed the agility and wickedness typical of the creatures of Dead Cells. Therefore, the challenge of this optional session was more intense, more stimulating. Overall, if the aforementioned method is excluded, the difficulty curve of the new levels is in line with that belonging to the starting title. In short, there is no way to get bored, even if you choose to enter the castle during the early stages of exploration: until you have learned to know all the new opponents, we recommend the utmost caution.

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Not everything, unfortunately, seemed truly impeccable. Balancing combinations and power ups it is still far from being fully balanced.

On the other hand, the bosses – which are revisits with increased offensive power and mobility of opponents well known to Castlevania fans – present the same criticalities as any other enemy. If you’re lucky, and you challenge them with the right main and secondary weapon combos, they become too docile.

dead cells
dead cellsPC Analyzed VersionReturn To Castlevania integrates into Dead Cells without distorting it, proving to be a heartfelt tribute and well placed within the flow of the main game. Fans of the Motion Twin title will find in the DLC the dynamism that has always distinguished the basic experience, plus new stages and exciting boss fights to overcome with equipment never seen before. However, given its harmony with the original adventure, Return To Castlevania is also a good starting point for those who, perhaps fans of the Belmont saga, want to get closer to Dead Cells: they will thus find themselves faced with the most complete version of one of the most magnetic , fun and challenging Rogue-Lite on the market.