In celebration of all Hallows’ Eve…there be a vampire lurking around ‘verrry corner. This is Vampire Survivors’ newest DLC, Ode to Castlevania. It is said to be an all-out celebration of Konami’s classic franchise, Castlevania. It features over 40 new weapons, 20 new characters, 30+ new music tracks and the biggest stage ever developed for the game, yet oddly they advertise no vampires? *thinking intensifies*
This review will be all about this seemingly awesome DLC that launched at the perfect time (you could say…the vampires planned it). Let us bite right in. By default you get one character unlocked, “Giovanna Grana” which already seems more powerful than the ones I had previously from other DLCs, and the base game.
We’re going to be chilling out in what is advertised as being the biggest stage in the game to date, which is conveniently the name of the DLC.
Starting out we get a brand new item with this character, referred to as “Gotti Amari.” Its a cat that summons projectiles and it is luck based, meaning the higher luck you have, the better chance you have of your projectile hitting something. Admittedly its not the best weapon you could introduce to start this DLC off but it is also a rather intriguing one so I don’t have many complaints.
It took me quite a bit to adjust to how this new weapon works compared to the ranged weapons I’m used to (oh and a friendly tip…they can hurt you, and even seek you out, so be careful!).
Now even though there’s only one map, you still get tons of new enemies to fight, characters to play with, etc. that more than make up for that! You can even see some in the above photo (and you’ll probably see more in future screenshots in this review). I decided to track down the map first, and once I got it, I did make a big discovery, and that’s that it was pretty big, but just wait until you see the photo below that one.
Two separate sections…this map is huge, they weren’t kidding. Now I want to go after that question mark, I don’t know about you, so let’s try to unveil it. Speaking of unveiling, look what a monster happened to drop when I died…lots of level-ups on this new weapon.
Ahhhhh lots of enemies by the question mark!!!
I did catch a revive whilst I was there, and using it restores you to half health, which is pretty decent in my opinion. (Too bad its one-time use…unless you level it up)
Mark my words I will get it…let’s try again to try and experience more (and yes this was utter chaos…).
I FINALLY DID IT!!! I have now unlocked a new character to play: Leon Belmont.
Interestingly, you need a specific item to be able to access more of the castle, which I had attempted to do so earlier, and that would be this. It was dropped when the creature that spawned finally got slaughtered.
I did end up making it to some weird gravity stage where you can jump??? I ended up dying the moment the creature came out, and its funny too because they were the size of my character. Must have been the vampire I was looking for.
In my opinion, playing as Leon Belmont is so much easier and better, and if I’m being honest, I think it should have been the default pre-unlocked character for this DLC. I also LOVE the weapon.
And with all this being said…meet Sonia Belmont! You unlock her by getting at least 50 entries in the collection (also an achievement).
The music tracks appear to be different for the stage depending upon which character you’re playing, and I would say it really helps get you into the zone. The starting character, Giovanni Grana, had nice, more peaceful music in my mind, but Leon’s was starkly different. Much louder, much more action-packed, and I just liked it a lot more but I like the variety. I also feel like it matches the characters and how they work.
In conclusion, there is hours upon hours of fun to be had with this DLC. I cannot recommend it more. From the more retro-sounding tracks added to the already impressive library that it has, to the new weapons you get to experiment with (and their subsequent evolutions) and to just how the new characters work themselves and the gigantic map. You can tell that the developers of this really enjoyed making it, and I think if any DLC is worth buying right now, it would be this one.