The huge success of the Metroidvania genre has bestown us with many releases every year and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night fans are well served. However, when it comes to classic Castlevania fans, it’s hard to say the same. There’s but a handful of titles trying to follow in the steps of Belmont’s original journey, many of them being failed attempts to make their source content justice.
Fortunately, a light at the end of the tunnel often shows itself. Just a couple of days ago, Abathor was released by JanduSoft for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4|5 and Xbox Series S|X featuring up to four local players and a rather surprising variety of stages and boss fights.
Just like other players would let you know, the first chapter doesn’t set high expectations — not much to see other than crabs walking back and forth or flying tutorial scrolls. However, it’s a shame to think anyone could leave the game this early on, because what follows is nothing short of an spectacular ride through setpieces that pay homage to many of the best sidescrollers ever created. It is assuredly going to make you smile at least once or twice.
Since up to four players can play at once, there are four characters to pick between: Crantor (your average barbarian), Sais (a valkyrie that can parry enemy attacks), Kritias (a short-ranged but agile rogue) and Azae (a warrior that converts evil souls into magical powers). As the players progress and collect orichalcum, it also becomes possible to unlock slight upgrades and purchase sub-weapons (which are usually hard to come by). As a last resort, it is also possible to turn 850 orichalcum into a continue credit to avoid having to replay the chapter from the beginning.
The characters play very differently and face different hardships. Crantor won’t excel in the same chapters Kritias does and vice versa. This makes the co-op gameplay very fun and grants every player a chance to shine.
Excellent boss fights and creatively challenging (but not necessarily frustrating) stages aside, the heroes sometimes get a chance to collect purple pebbles to power up a statue and transform into super powerful forms until the end of the stage. We couldn’t help but feel this was a potential-rich mechanic that went underused in some chapters. It is, nonetheless, a pleasant surprise when it does appear.
To make it clear, Abathor is not devoid of dirty tricks and traps. You’re going to be taken by surprise and use your credits or even restart chapters many times — even more so if you’re going for the true ending, which requires you to beat the game a second time on a higher difficulty. But this is not only more bearable (and extremely funny) when you’re with friends, as you can promptly understand what got you as well.
Last but not least, there’s more to Abathor than just muscles and pretty faces. Every stage features a lengthy lore text you can check on the world map screen and occasional dialogs. That’s probably not something you’re going to get on when playing with other three people, but it’s still a welcome feature for those looking for a deeper understanding on what’s behind Atlantis’ fall.
Final Thoughts
8.5 (Very Good) according to the reviewer
Games like Abathor are usually hit and miss: they either know exactly how to please their target players and leave a lasting impression or get simple elements wrong and end up feeling nothing like they intended to. That’s not to mention some cases where the art style is sacrificed at the sake of gameplay or the other way around.
In Abathor, both the gameplay and audiovisual presentation are great, and the experience is even better with friends. So, to put it simply, the sum of so many upsides lead to a game every fan of its genre should check out.
This game was reviewed with a digital copy provided by the developer.
