Chronicles of the Wolf

• Genre: Action Platformer (Metroidvania... emphasis on the vania.)
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much.
• Time Played: 12 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It was pretty solid, actually a bit longer than I expected but didn't really wear out it's welcome.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: Way better than I expected it to be, the music went pretty hard.
• Why I played: It looked like they were really going for that classic Castlevania-style gameplay, but more wolf-centric, what else did I need?
• Jank: There are some aspects about the platforming I could nit-pick a little. Some things I think I could do before I was meant to do, and times where the controls feel a little finnicky - not as responsive as they should be, such as when trying to climb a rope, but for the most part it's not really a problem.
• Difficulty: It's not too difficult overall, but there are some ridiculous difficulty spikes and upgrades that level things out passed those progression barriers - I usually reexplored areas enough to always be the most upgraded I could be at whatever point of the game I was in, but there were a couple bosses that were pretty tough.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased. Overall, I think the game was very well thought out and while very traditional and not really modernized in any ways - did an excellent job of recapturing that classic Castlevania feel.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. This goes toward the top of games for people who "wish there were more Castlevania games". I mean thankfully we're getting at least one pretty soon, but it's been a bit of a dry spell for some years. This definitely fills the void in the way games like the Bloodstained series do.
  

Chronicles of the Wolf surprised me a few ways. I didn't expect it to have voice acting at all, and most story dialog is voiced. Most of the music is pretty solid, but some tracks are especially good. There is a day/night cycle, which does have an effect at least on a few situations in the earlier part of the game. The puzzles, riddles, etc. are generally well thought out, a couple maybe ruined by them more or less telling you, but it really fleshed out the environment to have so many little things going on. Speaking of which, I thought the game was maybe going to be a few hours, based on how much of the map there was, then when getting to a specific section, I thought "oh this will be the same size as the others", only to really learn that I hadn't even explored half the game and it truly was a Castlevania game in all but name.

Pretty much just full of pleasant surprises. I do wish that the pacing was a little better as far as upgrades. Some of the "upgrades" barely feel like anything because they're only used to access one or two little areas and are used for nothing else, and that kind of takes the spot of more useful upgrades you get late game. By late game I had everything I expected, but there was a long time I felt like "I must have missed something" and kept retreading all the prior locations hoping to find a secret I missed. I didn't miss many secrets throughout my playthrough, the upgrade progression is just tilted a little bit in the wrong direction.

Overall a very minor complaint. It's a great game, a great classic-style Castlevania. No stamina bar, no parries, technical combat, no secondary equipment systems and crafting, no gem slotting, no farming materials(maybe just a little gold to buy all the shop items), no ridiculously low item drops requiring farming enemies to get special abilities. Just a straight forward game that is fun to play and has a lot of neat little environmental puzzles and riddles.