Original Release: Critical Bliss, 2019, PC
A re-imagining of Castlevania 2 with lewd monsters and a minor smattering of modern gameplay elements added, and an impressive level of attention to gameplay detail
Midnight Castle Succubus (PC, Critical Bliss, 2019)
Where to Buy: DLSite (free demo available)
Review by: Master-B
Midnight Castle Succubus is definitely one of the most lauded “adult” games of the past few years, and most of that is on its aesthetic and gameplay design rather than the adult stuff. It’s a remarkably accurate recreation of NES gameplay look and feel, with Castlevania 2 as its obvious direct inspiration.
But therein lies the rub. Castlevania 2 is among the most controversial of the 2D Castlevanias, short of maybe Castlevania Adventure or the trash port of Rondo of Blood to the SNES. Midnight Castle is thus saddled with overcoming the deficiencies that structure, and with the “erotic content” as more of a pixelly side note than a prime selling point. Obviously, its popularity indicates a great deal of success in transcending its roots … but how is it if you REALLY don’t like Castlevania 2 and have zero intention of fapping to it?
Fortunately, you’ve got the perfect man for the job. But let’s start at the beginning. The game got its start as an indie “doujin” title from a Japanese developer in 2019, but a remarkably clean English translation gave it worldwide appeal. Quickly developing a considerable fanbase, a little polish was added and it was given a commercial release via DLSite, Steam and possibly some other ones I’m not aware of.
We play as a sexy female monster hunter type who has just strode into yon medieval village, apparently here to take on a succubus that has occupied a nearby castle and is using a monster army to kidnap the local girls. The core gameplay loop is basically finding bosses hiding out in the maze of twisty passages that make up the game world, killing them to get a key, then taking the key to somewhere else in the maze to rescue a girl who some monster always seems to have locked up in a F Shack of some sort.
Rescuing the girl not just provides a sexo scene (though its of her getting ravaged by the monster rather than any lezzing out involving your character), but also an upgrade to your health. It’s technically a Metroidvania, but other than health you don’t really have stats; power improvements come from finding new whips, and you can eventually find CPU partner characters that follow you around a la Magic Sword and add some new abilities (like being able to spot hidden treasures).
The game not only copies Castlevania 2’s look and general structure (down to seemingly swiping some backgrounds and tiles here and there outright), but also commits to its gameplay style. No addition of later Castlevania staples like back-dashing or Street Fighter move inputs; you got your jump, whip attack, one sub-weapon, and that’s about it. The two concessions to modernity are the addition of a basic Super Metroid-esque world map, and random old men scattered about the landscape who sell “tomes” that gradually add the ability to whip in eight directions.
But within those limitations. the gameplay is quite good. The game avoids falling into most of the pitfalls that made Castlevania 2 a headache. There are no obtuse hidden secrets to which the only guidance is random townspeople speaking borderline gibberish, for starters. A series of teleporters also greatly cuts down on that game’s slow and tedious trudging. Also, no need for worrying about timing your treks to avoid the much tougher monsters of the “horrible night.” Bosses are also sprinkled about more liberally and are much more creative and fun to fight.
It did eventually descend into jumping contests and “precision platforming,” however, which kinda got on my nerves. The “ero” content isn’t much of a cookie to play for, either; a static screen of each girl being cuddled by the same mud monster and a goofy two-frame sprite animation when you bust in on them. I don’t really care one way or the other on this aspect, but given how limited it is one wonders how much better the game would have done if it had just been cut entirely. That aspect also focuses entirely on monster ravaging, which is kind of a specific interest that not everyone may go for.
Still, if you enjoyed Castlevania 1-3 and want some more it’s probably worth a spin, particularly if you’d like to see their gameplay in a more Metroidvania format. You can turn on a “SFW” version too that excises the most explicit stuff if you just want a good explorey retro-platformer. The price is appropriate to the content and length, too; seems to be $12 USD regular on Steam but has dropped to $9 on sale, and if you can deal with the Japanese version I’m seeing it for just under $8 on DLSite right now.
Links
- This is probably fixed in the modern “digital download site” versions of the game (such as linked above), but if you start the game and get a screen of the main character stuck in a walk cycle forever, you probably need to change the system locale to Japan. To do that in Windows 10, go to Control Panel > Region > Administrative > Language (non-Unicode programs). There are also emulators available for this, though a lot are sketchy. You may also have a problem with directory length, in that case the game needs to be moved to the root (c:\ or whichever for you) with a short directory name like “mcastle” or something.
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