Castle of Heart Reviews
Castle of Heart is a great indie for Nintendo Switch and it brings some great features from classic arcade games.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Castle of Heart is a generic, infuriating, and ultimately underwhelming experience. It doesn't even come close to emulating what made the old Castlevania games classics, as it just crams enemies and traps into levels and hope it works, rather than having coherent level design. If anything, all that Castle of Heart has done is reminded me of how good the old Castlevania games were and that this doesn't fill that void that has been left behind.
An average adventure that fails to excite or entice.
Castle of Heart is a fun platformer with an interestingly challenging twist. The levels are well designed, but depending on skill, they may not take too long. The story is your run of the mill " slay the bad guy and save the girl" plot, but that meshes perfectly with a world of knights and monsters.
The mechanics behind Castle of Heart's combat system make it simply a treat to play
Castle of Heart goes for that Souls level of challenge but without the nuance and balance needed to make that kind of difficulty satisfying. It's visually striking for an indie game but it needs some fine-tuning; for now it's mostly just frustrating.
In addition to its insignificant art direction, Castle of Heart can be really frustrating. Indeed, you spend most of your time making your way by fleeing from tenacious enemies and lethal projectiles. Actually, this game is not worth your time. Run, you fools !
Review in French | Read full review
Castle of Heart is a good example on why one shouldn't judge a book by its cover: while its visuals look rather appealing, the game's experience quickly becomes an ordeal once the gameplay begins. Due to poor level design, controls that feel very clunky (though in line with the game's premise) and a difficulty level that is frustrating but not challenging, Castle of Heart missed a good opportunity to be an enjoyable experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Castle of Heart looks great and offers a stern challenge to those who don't mind repeatedly playing the same level over and over before finally beating it and moving on. There's definitely some fun to be had finding the best route through each stage and delicately picking off enemies, but the constantly-depleting health bar and frustrating combat will have many players giving up and moving onto games which are less harmful to their general well being.
Castle of Heart supposed to be a challenging platformer with action elements, but in the end it isn't good at any of those genres. Wasted potential.
Review in Polish | Read full review
I can therefore recommend Castle of Heart only to those who are up for an extreme challenge or who have something to prove to their punk children (or punk parents). It's a beautiful game and the development is almost flawless, but the rewards don't come often enough to help you past the game's brutal difficulty.
With recommended retail price of $14.99USD/EUR, Castle of Heart targets those gamers who seek a more classic experience and 7Level Studios does deliver but just be warned that it does become a little repetitive and the portable mode is a little cluttered.
Some genuinely intriguing ideas and a great looking setting are set against some control issues and poor pacing. The game has high aspirations but falls short on the execution unfortunately. Not a bad game, but not a great one either.
Clumsy platforming and unbalanced combat are the main weaknesses of this dark fantasy 2.5D platformer.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Castle of Heart is a linear but good looking and fun 2.5D action platformer on Nintendo Switch that is worth a try. The game has been improved considerably from the version that was originally released by 7Levels on Nintendo Switch, and while you can certainly feel the Castlevania influence, the game has more to do with Super Castlevania IV than with Symphoni of the Night, so be ready!
Castle of Heart is an entertaining action platformer that has been released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. The graphics are good, and there's minimal voice acting, which is understandable for an indie release since voice acting would considerably raise the cost of releasing a video game. I liked being able to get weapons from enemies since this helped me to get through some sticky situations, especially when I used the environments to defeat enemies.
Castle of Heart simply has nothing of substance to offer. It's a ridiculously difficult game without the reward.
Castle of Heart is a pleasing concept at its core, but is held back only by a few minor annoyances in the gameplay department. The most original aspect - the hero being turned to stone and losing health progressively - ends up also being a hindrance at times, which gets almost frustrating after replaying through the same section multiple times. Overall, though, it feels good to play and is an all-round pleasant experience with production values so high that it's worthy of applause. It feels perhaps a bit too linear at times, when some environments could have probably benefited from being more open to exploration but, nevertheless, it is well worth checking out. Its price is a bit steep for the amount of content currently, but those who strive to complete it 100%, finding all the crystals, should get their money's worth.
It is quite nice to look at no matter how you play. If you can overcome the controller lag, Castle of Heart can quench the thirst for classic action platforming among diehard genre fans. For more casual players, mileage may vary.
Castle of Heart may look like a promising 2D action game that's reminiscent of the classics but it's so poorly designed that you'll want to plug in your NES so you can play a far superior selection of games.