Controls :
O : Jump
O + UP : Throw subweapons (Requires hearts and you can throw multiple if upgraded)
X : Whip attack (Longer if you pickup the green upgrade)
Hello everyone ! Here is my latest game called Ghostvania, which is obviously an hommage to the Castlevania series but most specifically the first entry on the NES. I wanted to make it feel as close as possible as the first castlevania in the way it plays (difficulty, continues, lives, jumping, attacking, game loops, bosses).
So the story is you are a ghost and you are traversing the world of death. For that you need to go through portals but the problem is those portals are protected by creatures known as "Passage Demons". So embark on this adventure to help the ghost find it's way!
Have fun! Let me know if it's too hard or unfair, I would like to tune the difficulty. I tried my best to balance it.
And thanks for playing,
Au plaisir!
I like the graphics style, good job! ⭐
I suggest to add a Controls section in the description (e.g. for knife throw)
Edit: I've checked code and to throw projectiles press O + UP (if you have orange hearts).
Thanks Heraclum! I Really appreciate. I just posted a fix for the destructible objects not reappearing.
Jump, see you're gonna collide, say "no no no no...", collision, say "oh no", perfectly land into a small hole smaller than the player's width, scream NOOOOOO and laugh.
Yep, that's definitely an accurate reskin of NES simon ...
Anyone wanting to play ghost and goblins or cauldron 2 after that ?
Even though I raged a lot, I still really enjoyed my time with it, and will have to come back at some point to finish it! Perfectly recalls how brutal old games were with controls, with a really sweet atmoshpere and look!
Oh my god! This was insanely difficult! I have no idea how many times I died and continued. Was it worth it? I don't know, because unfortunately I don't speak French...
There's so much good stuff in this game but the difficulty level, particularly on the later boss fights puts me off returning to this. It's a fairly long cart: 14 levels with restarts every 4 levels due to section loading. I am torn as to whether I'd recommend this. There is obviously so much love and effort that has gone into this cart. The presentation is great. It feels so retro. The music is good. The levels (on the most part) have been designed really well. Unfortunately I did found the levels more of a slog at the end. I loved the change at level 9, but was less keen on the change at level 13. After completion I returned to it (briefly) and really enjoyed playing through the first few levels. Once you get used to the retro style and the rhythm of the game it became a lot easier. But the last parts are just so, so, tough.
A fantastic cartridge but definitely not for the faint-hearted. Now I need a good lie down...
edit...
Coming back to this about 12 hours later, I started playing it again. I am still so frustrated by parts of this game, but it has got under my skin! I can't leave it alone. I think I can complete it again, but the sensible part of me, says "not a chance!". There are so many parts of this game that I love offset by the bits that I hate. But getting past the frustrating sections feels like a real reward.
I do love what this cart is doing and it scratches that retro vibe itch. It really is a wonderful cart , probably mainly for those of a certain age. I think I love this cart, but also hate it at the same time...
One last point - it's a shame that unless a player sticks with it, that they won't get to see some of the wonderful features towards the end of the cart (such as the final boss). But I guess that's part of the reward for plugging away at the levels and struggling to get through.
Given the rollercoaster this game was I feel very compelled to write up a review. I checked out this game specifically because I was interested if anyone had recreated Castlevania on PICO-8, Castlevania currently being my favorite NES game. You game had fit the bill the closest by accurately replicating the controls from that game so I was excited to check it out. I did not expect this game to surprise me in the ways that it did, so I feel like a compliment sandwich is the best way to review this game, basically just jumping back and forth from something I liked to something I didn't like.
First off, the controls are sublime. The jump animation and lack of landing lag makes stringing jumps feel super satisfying like you're hopping around like a ninja. The whip sound effect really sells the power of the whip too. Using special weapons is so much quicker, these controls take the original Castlevania controls and make them so much more snappy.
A massive issue I had with the game was with the level design. Many times in the later stages there'll just be a ton of enemies, and due to the still limited movement of your character, will make some sections feel impossible to not take a hit. This was at it's worst in the second level such as in the room after the elevator where two lobbing enemies surround you. The afermentioned lobbing enemies and skeleton shooters felt really overtuned too, a few parts where the skeleton fired faster then I could react or the lobber firing projectiles that I couldn't avoid given my current position. Feels like there was a misunderstanding of how Castlevania's level design was done where enemies and their placements were generally restrained to accommodate your limited movement and instead decided to crank up the difficulty.
Level 1 was a nice introduction for the mechanics in the game, teaching the player about the nuances of whipping, the knockback from damage, and being able to destroy certain blocks in a safe environment by guiding the player to discover them for theirselves, I thought it was pretty well done here. Overall the first level was pretty fun.
Level 2 however was really frustrating to complete. The enemy numbers mean a lot of rooms are crowded with the problem I mentioned earlier. The main mechanic of switching blocks was pretty cool and well used but ended up feeling frustrating to use since enemies could interact with it. I assumed the no timer switches were on a timer because I didn't see the skeleton disable the first one. It also caused a unfair feeling deaths such as the skeleton that can activate one below your feet after the checkpoint right before the 2nd boss. I also would've appreciated some kind way to tell what blocks will be activated by what switch as that caused some deaths before I figured out which blocks connect to which switches.
Level 3, despite being very out of left field, was actually a very pleasant time. It felt very out of place right after the forest and castle setting more so evoking the vibes of Castlevania, but I didn't mind it since it was really memorable just being plopped into a beach out of nowhere. I found it very inventive, using my whip to move the ship forward while also digging through the sand to reach the next boat very fun. The boss at the end was a really good way to utilize the boat. After timing out on it and realizing I had to play more aggressively really made the boss for me and made it a satisfying takedown.
Level 4, being far more surprising than the beach, yet felt incredibly poorly designed. Having controls where you're locked into your jump arc in a level where your jumps are massive and you can't see where you're going made every jump a jump of faith and the level very full of trial and error. I was stuck on the first screen for a long time because I didn't know where I was going to land and ended up falling into pits constantly. Genuinely boggled how this was in the game.
I will say though that I thought the music was really nice. The first 2 levels had good bops while the 3rd song was genuinely really nice. You have to tell me where the level 3 song is located in the music editor because I looked and couldn't find it. Maybe it's me not being familiar with the editor but please tell me I would love to listen to it on my own time.
One final negative to wrap this up is that the game is rather unpolished and a good amount of bugs I encountered in my playthrough. Some minor ones like some collision errors, managing to get on top of the 3rd boss arena, sprites not lining up with hitboxes like somehow being able to duck under skeleton bullets despite touching my face and a jump in the 3rd world that didn't seem possible because of platforms behind the water. Larger issues include the 2nd boss being lined up and constantly firing attacks, the boat being fairly janky and my boat getting stuck in the 3rd boss wall because I tried to slow down since I didn't know what was coming up. Not really a dealbreaker, but I suppose this game could've had a bit of polish? Idk.
I wanted to end off the review by the mentioning the element of surprise. After getting through the 2nd world I was rather bewildered by the next level being a nice feeling beach level.I believe I already mentioned it but it was a complete left turn from the game before since it adopted a darker tone with the undead and castles so landing on the beach was really jarring as if this was some kind of weird exe game where the beached served some deeper narrative. Not to say it's bad, I genuinely found it fun and I can tell it was a level you were very passionate about given the ambitious mechanic of the boat. And again please tell me where I can find the music for this level genuinely beautiful track. Despite my distaste for the level the 4th level just bewildered me even more, going further than the beach level could even think of doing. When I reached the final boss I genuinely just yelled out along the lines of "I'm fighting the moon", really fun final boss. Unfortunately I couldn't understand the ending as it was in French and I couldn't understand it, but at the very least I can say it was a nice way to tie up the adventure given the weird last two levels.
Overall I had a fun time with this game despite the sours pots. It was a really charming and memorable game I was happy to go through, that moon fight almost made the whole thing worth it just for the concept of fighting the moon. Pretty impressive you were able to fit 4 levels with unique gimmicks into one game too!
@Fish_Eggs Thanks for playing the game and taking the time to share your thoughts. I really appreciate and it will definitely help me improve my future games!
I'll be more than happy to share my music. I'm glad you liked this song!
https://palrecords.bandcamp.com/track/beach
It's all tunes from my pico8 games and I'll update it soon with new entries.
Finally for the game ending let me share the english translation just below
Thanks again, have a great day !
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