The Best Castlevania [NES] Romhack? - Castlevania: The Holy Relics - Speedy Playthrough and Review
10ROMHACK can be found here: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3759/
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ART DESIGN & GRAPHICS (4.5/5):
• Player Sprite Work: (4/5): Serviceable, his arm movements do not have a sense of urgency.
• Enemy Sprite Work: (5/5): It's hard to imagine the care detail used for every enemy in this hack. Enemies are easily recognizable on the backgrounds.
• Boss Sprite Work: (4.5/5) With 6 unique bosses, there are 6 unique sprites to go along with them, many in which look even better than the original boss sprites, a couple look a little out of place.
• Backgrounds: (5/5) Superb use of color and textures.
GAME PLAY AND LEVEL DESIGN (4.5/5):
• FLOW CHANNEL: (4/5): With the ability to choose any stage at the beginning, the first stage is the easiest, and the others generally are equal in difficulty, including vrad manor which was a little too short. Having additional relics to play through actually make subsequent levels easier and in turn the game has the feeling of eating popcorn at the cinema, which is not all that bad. Starting in some levels could be difficult for a new player to understand some of the core mechanic changes like keys.
• FEEDBACK AND REWARDS: (4.5/5) Sub weapons are placed well throughout the levels and generally provide what the player needs. Hidden walls are great and provide useful tools. Many candles are out of reach without the axe, and random keys and blue hearts can trivialize sections however. Some drops from the bone skeletons are broken including tons of 5 hearts and health which is a tad silly.
• CORE MECHANICS: (5/5) Adding a stage selection and use of relics increases replay-ability. Keys and doors work well with this hack and provides an interesting level design and routing
OVERALL SCORE (4.5):
This romhack is absolutely incredible, and you can really tell the love and care that was put into it. This is the best castlevania romhack I've played to date. The two unique OSTs are incredible and do consider sending a sub over to Optomon at https://www.youtube.com/@Optomon
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🎮Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/crunan__
🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crunan__
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Played on a NES Toaster with original controller and Everdrive N8 PRO
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