Konami almost made a game! Whoa! Actually, they got someone else to make it, but it’s nice. What’s even nicer is that this is a sequel to a classic game that no one knows about because it never made its way outside of Japan (random note: stupidly, you can get the classic game alongside this, but you need to get the deluxe edition of this game and it’s not available otherwise… which is fucking stupid… also it’s not translated).

Getsu Fuuma Den was a bit similar to Castlevania, but it also had a world map to explore, NPCs to talk to, and dungeons where you’d have a cool “behind-the-back” view of Getsu Fuma. It was pretty darn cool, and it never got a sequel up until now (with a sequel planned for PS2 that was canned). You may have seen Getsu Fuma in a few places, like the shitty Castlevania smartphone game, or as a few cards in Yu-Gi-Oh, or as one of the playable characters in the also-japan-only game Konami’s Wai Wai World (also a great game). He’s been around, but generally, it’s been a dormant series since the Famicom. So I was pretty hyped when this was announced… and then the release was shadow-dropped during the last Nintendo Direct, so that’s fun.

Let’s see if it’s a good revival!

Developer: GuruGuru
Publisher: Konami
Release date: February 9th, 2022
Platforms: Switch, PC (Switch version played) (I believe it’s meant to come to other platforms later)
Genre: Side-scrolling roguelite

Review

Right away the game differentiates itself from the original entirely, because it’s not a regular action game that you progress through normally. Instead, it’s a roguelite. It’s still side-scrolling, but it’s very different. You get a few levels to go through that are punctuated by a boss fight. If you die, you restart from the beginning. And there are permanent upgrades you can get to be stronger in further runs. So, if you’re a fan of the original game, this is not the same thing, though it will have some similarities on a visual and audio design level. For example, some of the music comes from the original game. The first boss music here is the final boss music from the original game but in a great metal version.

I don’t mention graphics a lot in my reviews unless they’re really great, and here they do look super good. They have a bit of a Ukiyo-e visual style, mimicking the woodblock painting style you may recall from the “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”. Where that style really shines is when you get the boss intro animation, which ends with a really cool stylish static screens right before battles start. There are a few issues with graphics on a gameplay level, mostly in the fire level where some enemy-looking characters in the background sometimes feel like they’re interactive, but you get used to it.

Combat is fairly simple but fun. You can equip 2 weapons and switch between them. There are a few weapon types. Each has a basic combo attack that acts differently (obviously a spear and a club won’t function the same), as well as a “unique” attack. The normal sword’s unique attack is a counter, while the dual swords are a sword spin attack that does a lot of hits, and the umbrella acts as a shield. So you can choose weapons that fit your play style. I don’t like the whips, but you might. You can also carry 2 sub-weapons that have limited ammo, which replenish over time. There are rifles, bows, kunai, caltrops, mana bracelets, and bombs. As you damage enemies or use specific attacks in specific ways, you activate demonization, which just makes you stronger. There are multiple levels of it, making you look flashier as you attain higher levels. You lose the buff if you get hit though. Speaking of, you can dodge roll. As per usual, there’s some amount of invincibility during dodge rolls, and you can dodge through enemies. Also, there’s a stomp attack which is not great for damage but it can knock enemies back, and you have air attacks (some weapons have different unique attacks in the air, some don’t). It’s not a complex battle system, but there are a lot of options based on weapon types and sub-weapon types, as well as how good you are at dodging.

There are a few extra mechanics to battle that aren’t fully required to master to do well in the game. Break, which may happen as you attack someone repeatedly with a weapon (and allows you to Slay them, dealing a bunch of extra damage and giving the possibility to get weapons you don’t have unlocked)… and hitting an enemy by surprise does more Break damage. There’s Flash damage (if you hit an enemy while it’s attacking you can get extra damage and interrupt their attacks)… and I think that’s it, alongside Demonization which I already mentioned.

Killing enemies and opening chests gives you a bunch of drops. There are materials, which you can use to permanently upgrade weapons. There are scrolls that unlock new weapons in a certain menu. There are weapon fragments that you can use to properly unlock those weapons in that one menu. There’s money that can be used at shop portals to buy weapons and to upgrade your current weapons (non-permanently). There are yellow and green magatama beads that you can use for permanent upgrades (yellow for everyone, green for character-specific). Weapons and sub-weapons drop a bunch, you can either grab them (and replace another weapon if you already have 2) or dismantle them for weapon fragments. There’s also these purple soul things, dunno what they’re called. And there are souls.

Souls work like power-ups in Gradius. You have a meter at the bottom with 4 icons. Each soul moves the meter up one icon. If you press the Soul Devour button, you get whatever icon you’re on. There are icons for weapon damage, sub-weapon damage, extra health (get that one, until the returns are too diminishing to be worth it), and +1 potion. The only way to get more potions usually is to read these tablets but you do need 4 souls to get one potion so it’s a bit of a rough trade-off since souls are also a bit rare. If you have 4 souls and get another one, the meter loops back to the first icon (weapon damage) and you get 3 of those purple soul things.

There’s not too much to talk about with level design because… roguelite. Each level has its own level design “style”. So the first level is a lot of underground tunnels. The fire one is… basically the same as the first… The water level has lots of floating platforms and a big open feel… The mountain one has floating platforms going upward (where you have to get to the top of 2 sides to break a rock with eyeballs)… and so on. There’s gonna be different platform locations, or paths underground… but… you play a level once or twice and you know how your future plays are gonna be.  If you finish a run at your current highest difficulty, you unlock a higher difficulty. This means stronger enemies, different enemies in levels as well, and overall tougher.

So permanent upgrades… You have 2 occasions to get those. If you die you return to the estate… at first it sucks because you don’t tend to bring back much of anything to the estate after a run. Here you can unlock weapons, unlock potential power-ups for weapons, same with sub-weapons, then you have the yellow magatama that will unlock a set of power-ups for all characters, while the green ones will unlock a different set of power-ups that are character-specific (once you unlock Renge she has her own upgrades). The most important upgrade, especially at first, is increasing your potions. At the start of the game you only have 2 potions max, and the easiest way to advance further into the game is to be able to use more potions. There are a few other things like being able to bring back more materials if you die, and increasing damage. The same NPC from the estate also appears after you beat a boss which is useful. And alongside the 2 level choices, you can take after beating the boss, you can also just return to the estate without losing any resources. You’ll probably want to do this a bit early on.

And finally, the store upgrades are pretty simple. You need those purple soul thingies. They can be used for 2 things. Weapons and sub-weapons you have equipped can get upgrades temporarily unlocked (they’re the ones you gain access to from the permanent upgrades that use materials), and you can spend money and purple soul thingies to increase the rank of the weapon for it to do more damage. Yay. Speaking of rank, weapon drops come in different ranks. The higher the better. Yay.

Overall

I had a lot of fun with this one. The repetitiveness can get to a bit much since you’re playing the same levels a lot (even though the layout changes mildly each time, it’s still going through the same basic thing), but the combat is fun, the progression is fun, and there’s a decent amount of content as you keep playing and finishing runs at higher difficulties.

Plus I’m just happy for a game like this to finally get a sequel after like 35 years.

I’d put this as a decent recommendation. If you want to try the original the option is there if you get the deluxe edition.