Grim Guardians: Demon Purge Reviews
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
Grim Guardians has a few issues, but ultimately is a fantastic retro style platformer that fills the Castlevania shaped hole in my heart.
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is a mediocre Metroidvania through and through. It starts with a solid foundation but lacks the kind of all-around refinement and conceptualising to be taken seriously. There's some fun to be had here, but it's not worth the price of admission.
While the game is an excellent spiritual successor to the Castlevania series, it also does enough on its own to help it stand out from the crowd.
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is exactly what I thought it was going to be and sometimes that is a good thing. Games don’t have to change dynamics to be fun and while the dual sister mechanic is fun, it isn’t game changing. I had a lot of fun with this title as I do most Inti Creates jams. I definitely recommend it if you enjoy anything they put out, or classic homages to games like Castlevania or Mega Man. This developer has done a nice job of taking the torch from Capcom and Konami respectively.
In most ways, Gal Guardians Demon Purge sticks very close to the retro-Castlevania template. The best parts of the game are those ideas and mechanics which add something new, like the swappable sisters with unique strengths. For those gamers tired of uber-challenging action platformers, Gal Guardians Demon Purge’s streamlined gameplay and accessible difficulty might be a welcome change, if not a particularly revelatory experience.
For Metroidvania fans and lovers of Inti Creates' works, Grim Guardians certainly does enough to please. Getting to grips with combat negotiations and levelling up your weaponry brings with it a sense of reward and progression, and it's enjoyable to backtrack for secrets. It's not quite on the level of Curse of the Moon, its closest relative, but it's not far off - and the sibling switching idea is at least novel and fun to work with. Gory, spritely, and occasionally creatively inspired, it hits all the right notes, just sometimes in a little too sparse a manner to be considered overwhelmingly compelling.
Inti Creates did it again, we have an excellent 2D style classic game that will remind you of the Castlevania series but with its own personality. Despite some minor issues related to a gameplay mechanic you can enjoy it and have fun with this game, we hope to see a sequel in the future.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is an enjoyable romp through a demon-infested castle.
With a more energetic soundtrack, funnier dialogue, better GUI, and a more useful super move, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge could be one of the best. Even with these nitpicks, expect another excellent Inti Creates game that is on par with some of the classics it is inspired by.
Some of the enemy designs are clever callbacks to Mega Man and Castlevania, but ultimately the title manages to stand on its own merits. Even though they never seem to stop dictating all the action happening on screen, Shinobu and Maya are delightful to play as and make enough banter and jokes between them to keep the narrative light. If you'd rather purge something new than the dozens of games in your backlog, Grim Guardians provides a devilishly fun ride.
For now, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge comes highly recommended. It may be the best Castlevania in years at heart, but it’s also unmistakably its own distinct thing, too, rather than simply being a slavish recreation of a Konami classic. Its solid gameplay, well-crafted mechanics and interesting structure all show that there’s still very much a place for classic 2D side-scrolling action in today’s video game market, and I sincerely hope it ends up a big success.
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is Inti Creates at its safest, working in a genre it is most comfortable with. That’s not a criticism, given how talented the developer is at this stuff. If you enjoy the older Castlevania games, you’re going to love this. At the same time, as confident as this production is, it’s hard not to wish that the team at Inti Creates had pushed themselves a little further for this outing. It’s just a little too safe for broader appeal beyond its main niche.
Despite being technically competent, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge fails by playing too safe in certain aspects, leaning too much on its inspirations, and also by not paying attention to simple and basic things expected from the genre. In the end, it delivers an average and unimpressive experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is a great-looking 2D platformer that feels just like a Castlevania game. With entertaining characters, and the ability to swap the main characters on the fly. Can get repetitive seeing the same enemies constantly respawning and lack of animated story, it is a solid title overall.
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is the latest homage to the Castlevania series from Japanese developer Inti Creates.
It took a long time for Grim Guardians: Demon Purge to grow on me but once it did, I became hooked thanks to its assortment of clever abilities and oodles of secrets to discover. So, if you long for the return of old-school Castlevania then I'm sure you'll enjoy this.
Inti Creates knocked it out of the park with a game that feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch. What little I have to complain about is so minute it feels like nitpicking. If you’re a fan of Castlevania, but are fed up with the sheer volume of metroidvanias flooding the indie scene nowadays, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is the perfect pick.
This game may yet be my favorite Inti Creates title of this era. A well-considered, refined, and lovingly realized tribute to Castlevania combined with the quirky, yet fully sincere personality of Gal*Gun makes for a one-of-a-kind platformer. Although I do have some grievances with the overall execution of parts of its level design and partner system, the smile I had on my face the majority of the time outweighs that many times over. Stylish, funny, and breezy all at once—Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is an easy recommendation.
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is a good action platformer that comes together remarkably well. Another score for Inti Creates’ catalogue of fun 2D platformers.