Grim Guardians: Demon Purge Reviews
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is the latest homage to the Castlevania series from Japanese developer Inti Creates.
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.
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.
With its stunning pixel art visuals and an intense mix of slashing and shooting challenges, Demon Purge satisfies
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
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 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.
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.
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 mixes classic elements with modern concepts in a great adventure. The idea of alternating between the two heroines with distinct skills is explored in the stages with a good variety of situations and the balance of linear areas and exploration bits is well-dosed. Some decisions are annoying, such as being unable to access the map freely but the charismatic atmosphere and good audiovisual elements compensate the issues. In the end, those who like good platforming adventures will appreciate Grim Guardians.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Despite some small nitpicks, I still very much recommend Grim Guardians: Demon Purge. It not only showcases Inti Creates’ skill at breathing new life into old series, but it does so with panache. The combat is varied and complex, and the challenge, though sometimes frustrating, nevertheless kept me invested during the entirety of my playthrough. Not to mention you’ll unlock a new mode and difficulty after beating the game once. Plus, if you have a friend close by, you can both play a sister in local co-op. If you enjoy platformers and are hankering for a new Castlevania-inspired adventure, look no further.
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is a love letter to the classic Castlevania series that fans can enjoy, even if only for a short time. There’s a lot of potential here, but there needs to be more to make it more memorable. Still, it’s solid entry in the Gal*Gun universe.
Overall I had a blast with Grim Guardians: Demon Purge. The gameplay was very solid and a ton of fun. The writing here is great, and there are plenty of things here to keep fans of both Castlevania style games and Gal*Gun happy. My only real complaint is there is no way to pull up the castle map while in the stage. This makes looking for some of the hidden rooms more a pain than it should be. The game will take you around 8 hours to complete an ending. There are a three of these in total and some extra things to collect once the credits have rolled. I feel like this one is well worth the $24.99. It’s rare to find a game that would please these two very different fanbases, but this one will certainly do just that!
Grim Guardians: Demon Purge manages to play with the format of one of the great action platforming classics and show again their mastery of the genre. Though some details such as not having a map during gameplay can make the experience more confusing and tiring than it should have been, this is still easily recommended for those who like the genre.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Summing everything up, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is a great game, one worthy of playing again and again, with its great soundtrack, responsive controls, the level of fun learning boss patterns, and completing the game 100% is a great accomplishment. In the words of Joe Bob, “4 stars, check it out!”.
Gal Guardians: Demon Purge is a wonderful addition to the genre with lots of ideas taken from Iga-era games, while adding their own high impact gameplay into it.
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.
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.