Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania Review – Somehow It’s Real

It’s impossible to ignore the irony of there being a Castlevania DLC for Vampire Survivors (2021). A game that owes so much to the Castlevania franchise and is built on its very foundation now has official Castlevania content in it. It almost sounds like a silly joke your friend would try to get you with, but no Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania from developer/publisher poncle is somehow a real thing you can play. And it’s great, of course.

The sheer amount of content here, especially for the low price, is probably the most impressive thing. This isn’t a few iconic, fan-favorite Castlevania characters being added. They have so many of them from the entire series, each with a unique playstyle. And accordingly, this DLC adds a whole bunch of new weapons too. And the map is massive as well. So big that it’s practically impossible to do every event on it within the 30-minute timer of a single round, even if you have a great run.

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I always welcome giant Medusa heads in my video games, especially as boss fights

So for the map, you’re basically fighting your way through the castle. It’s the most linear any Vampire Survivors (2021) map has ever been, since this one has a very clear path of progression. Most of the other maps, in particular the DLC ones, certainly have points of interest, but in the Castlevania map, you’re literally following a very very long corridor from beginning to end. There’s even teleporters you can unlock that can jumpstart your future runs so you don’t have to redo the entire thing and can jump ahead, further emphasizing the pretty clear progression in this level. You can unlock these teleporters, as well as locked doors and other things, by defeating bosses, of which there are many on this map. Like we’re talking upwards of 10 bosses sprinkled across the map, some optional and some mandatory for progression.

All of this creates an interesting new dynamic to Ode to Castlevania. First of all because you’re working towards a goal that’s more specific than just surviving, but also because the teleporters, one unlocked, create a nice risk/reward equation that you can make. You’ll probably need to jump ahead to some degree if you want to make it towards the end in a reasonable time; however, skipping past parts of the map also means skipping past enemies, EXP, items, bosses, chests, etc. You are quicker, but you’re also much weaker. I really like what they did here by essentially overloading the map and forcing you to choose your priorities. It’s not something I’ve really had to deal with in Vampire Survivors (2021) until now.

The power of Christ compels you!

However, the new weapons have left me just a bit disappointed. It’s not that they’re bad, just uninteresting. When I look at some of the other past DLCs and the insane stuff some of these weapons did, along with the sheer creativity required to even come up with those things, the Ode to Castlevania weapons feel rather slight in comparison. Especially for the first handful of characters you unlock, there’s a whole lot of whips that you’ll be greeted by. And it’s not that they’re all the same; they do have their differences, but not massive ones. And the effects upon evolution are similary just good enough. I feel like I’m being a bit too negative on this, because the weapons here really aren’t bad, especially looking at how many there are; it’s just that poncle themselves had set a pretty high bar in the past for these things.

Ode to Castlevania isn’t the best DLC that has come out for Vampire Survivors (2021); it gets outclassed by the likes of Emergency Meeting (2023) pretty handily (and yes, I’m aware of how insane that sounds; the Among Us (2018) DLC is better than the Castlevania DLC). But it’s nevertheless a fantastic new addition to this ever-growing game and offers a massive amount of content for any fan of either (or likely, both) franchises.

Nairon played Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania on PC with a review code.

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