It was inevitable; they turned Castlevania into a free to play mobile game. But it’s not bad actually!

I was interested in this game since it was announced years ago. After a soft launch exclusive to Canada in 2019, it was soon discontinued, seemingly cancelled. In reality Konami must have done a deal with Apple to rework the game for the Apple Arcade service, and it resurfaced a month ago! It feels like some other F2P conversions to the platform; gacha system and various currencies intact, but clearly a stamina/energy system and the ability to pay real money were once there and have been ripped out. Also removed from the soft launch version was the multiplayer mode and with it larger, Harmony of Despair-type maps.

The game as it currently exists is a level-based experience like the Classicvanias of old, but with a core loop revolving around loot and upgrading your stats. There’s five characters to play as, fun choices all: Alucard (Symphony of the Night), Simon (Castlevania 1), young Maria (Rondo of Blood), Charlotte (Portrait of Ruin), and Shanoa (Order of Ecclesia). It’s a good mix from different eras who play differently; I favoured Maria as I did in Rondo itself for her small stature and nimble, bird-based attack pattern, but it was also fun playing as Shanoa again and using her magnet launch to zip around and get out-of-the-way treasures.

Being a crossover with seemingly low stakes seemed an uninteresting angle to me. I preferred how the similar Chinese-developed—and sadly cancelled—Moonlight Rhapsody had a robust cast of new characters to expand the series. But GoS does try harder than HoD at least with its framing story, set nebulously post-Dawn of Sorrow, and I came to appreciate the character-building conversations, especially the ones rewarded for completing optional levels.

In terms of content it’s a lot of rehashing, given the plot involves records of past events stored in magical tomes being tampered with (sort of like Dragonball’s Time Patrol). But again it’s a fair variety of different environments, even if the enemy types feel like an extension of the Rondo->Symphony->DS games->HD recycling. Everything is redone in cel-shaded 3D models, so they really could have broadened things out in this department. At time of writing there are four worlds each with fifteen levels and a boss; difficulty (ie. stat numbers) ramps up with each but the game provides you with enough resources to keep up pretty comfortably. There’s also side modes with different kinds of challenges to keep things fresh. I feared the game would be dumped as it was and left as such, but during my playtime it received an update with UI improvements and a themed event, which gives hope that new levels and the implicitly promised Soma roster expansion will come.

Since this is an Apple Arcade game, it supports play on all Apple devices. I swapped around a lot, from my phone for casual play at any time—navigating the many menus is much better with touch—to the Apple TV with a Dualshock 4—more precise in-game controls for serious gameplay—to a hybrid approach with an iPad on my lap, allowing for touch menus and gamepad for levels. They all worked pretty well!

I can see myself returning to this when it’s updated but as it is it’s a decent little package. I’m just glad it was finally widely released in some form or other. Not that I’m getting my hopes up for what this means for the series, but Konami was invested enough in this to get Ayami Kojima back for portraits and Michiru Yamane for music, two big names from the franchise’s history, which is encouraging. Either way we still have the Bloodstained games for “proper” game experiences as well… but this is pretty good too!