Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania

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NA release: 31st October 2024
EU release: 31st October 2024
JP release: 31st October 2024
Developer: poncle
Publisher: poncle
Nintendolife Review: 9/10
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Mobile
Version Played: PC

When Vampire Survivors came out, the Castlevania influence was very clear. Many of its weapons and imagery is based on what Castlevania does, especially with its subweapons. So when it eventually got a Castlevania DLC, it made a lot of sense. Vampire Survivors is a game where you run around a map, using autofiring weapons to kill enemies and level up to get more weapons or upgrade them, becoming an unstoppable force until your time runs out. It’s simple, but there’s a lot to make it addictive.

Ode to Castlevania comes in two parts. The first is a new level for the main game that lets you unlock all the Castlevania characters and items in the main game, but the other is what e game called an Adventure: a separate campaign with just the Castlevania characters, the new weapons and various items form the base game that fit the franchise (such as the axes, knives and crosses that already function similar to the original Castlevania games.

The DLC also had an immense amount of characters, including almost every playable character from the core series (thankfully not caring about the wonky continuity of some games). Lords of Shadow has been ignored, so the game doesn’t have Gabriel Belmont, plus Desmond Belmont (and his sisters) from Order of Shadows is also not here. Many supporting characters are also here (you can finally play as Hammer), and you can even play as Soleil Belmont (from Castlevania II Game Boy) and Quincy Morris (from Bram Stoker’s Dracula).

You’ll need to buy power-ups to build up your permanent stat boosts, but there’s a lot to do once that is complete. While you start with Trevor Belmont, you don’t have the Vampire Killer whip. Instead, you need to wait until you find Leon Belmont, who has the Alchemy Whip, and then evolve this by levelling up to upgrade it to the legendary powerful Vampire Killer whip. The ultimate goal in terms of story is to track down Richer Belmont, let him get hold of the Vampire Killer then face off against Dracula… which does not go down the way you’d expect.

There will still be an immense amount of secrets to find at this point – and that’s just in this adventure, with each level having special bosses to find and kill. And then, on top of that, you have the 80 characters and 107 weapons to unlock in the main game – something best done over time rather than all in one go. Really, there was enough here to release as a standalone game, and is by far the most substantial Castlevania crossover DLC.

Great

The only real criticism we have of the DLC is that some of the later unlock requirements and secrets are extremely esoteric. Even if you have the Castlevania knowledge, you’ll probably need to look up a guide or throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.
Alana Hagues, Nintendolife

Remake or remaster?

This is great.

Official Ways to get the game

Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania is available on Steam, PlayStation store, Xbox Store and Nintendo eShop