Game #1199: Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

 Alucard is not a girl!! Deedlit, however.. 

 Well, I know next to nothing about the Record of Lodoss War, besides owning one of the light novels which I haven't read yet, however, I do love me some Metroidvanias, and Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth looked like a banger so I didn't let my lack of knowledge stop me from getting it. Getting to brass tacks, this is basically a budget version of Symphony of the Night, but there ain't nothing wrong from borrowing from the best.

 You play as Deedlit, an elf that found herself in a mysterious place, lacking the knowledge of how she happened upon this place, but as she explores the place she'll come across mirages of familiar faces. I'm pretty sure the bosses are characters from the franchise, so you'll probably get more out of the plot if you are in the know. I understood the gist of it, but while it tries to be emotional in a few places... I didn't know any of the characters, nor did I care about them, so the plot added nothing to my enjoyment of the game.

 The game plays like the Castlevania side of the Metroidvanias, which is something I liked, so you'll be getting a lot of different melee weapons to attack with. Many of the swords behave quite similarly, but there are a few weapons that stand out like the Charkrams, which I liked. There are also a few spells you can use to even the odds. Deedlit also has another slot for bows, bows cost mana to use, but a very small amount, so you can use it quite frivolously. 

 There's another wrinkle to the combat, Air and Fire spirits. At the tap of a button, you can swap your affinity to Air or Fire. Some enemies are resistant to Air and others to Fire, plus, some attacks can only be avoided/blocked by changing to the correct affinity. There are a few exploration benefits, for instance, you can glide with the Air affinity or make barrels explode with the Fire affinity, but you'll mostly use it for combat. Defeating enemies using Air affinity increases your Fire affinity and vice versa, to the maximum of level 3, at which point you'll gain regenerating health and your attacks will have more reach. Getting hurt will lower the level of your equipped affinity. I can't say I was particularly fond of this system, but I'll admit boss fights were kept exciting as you'd desperately try to restore your affinity level and keep both affinities at 3 for health regeneration.

 The rest of the game is made up of exploration, like any other good 2-D Metroidvania, you'll come across obstacles that you'll only be able to clear by having the right ability. The game's map is disappointingly small, as the game took me about 3 hours to complete. Mind you, the game has lots of goodies to collect and hidden walls and areas to find, but it feels rather small when compared to other games in the very same style. On the other hand, finishing the game allows you to toggle some options, such as having every weapon from the start or staying at a fixed level 1, which are some neat options to toy around with.

 The controls took me a bit of getting used to. It's hard to explain, but the controls are somewhat sticky, which makes attacking feel a bit stiff when trying to attack and change sides. By the same token, it's easy to attack on one side while moving in the opposite direction, which came useful at times. On another note, I came across about 3 crashes. Thankfully I never lost much progress, but this being a Metroidvania, losing progress and exploration to a crash leaves you feeling miserable.

 I quite liked the game, I just wish there was more of it. Controls and movement could see some polishing, but the game is a fun time. While knowing Record of Lodoss War lore would probably help care about the characters and understand its story... it didn't deter me from following the plot, it simply lacked any emotional impact it could've had.

 7.5