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Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony mirrors that of the Castlevania series which predominantly starred the Belmont clan going after Dracula throughout many lifetimes. Is the story as exciting in this game? Players will have to dive in and find it. Before they do, players should get a load of these tips and other things to know before tackling the powers of darkness.
7 The Difficulty Settings
There are four difficulty settings ranging from Extra Easy to Hard in Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony. These cannot be changed while playing the game but that is fine for a number of reasons which will be discussed later. Besides the overall settings, players can also boost the number of extra lives they have like in old-school brawlers and platformers.
The lowest players can go is three but extra lives can be extended to twenty. It’s a good idea to try the first level on the medium setting with the stock amount of lives and then players can increase or decrease the settings from there.
6 Not A Metroidvania
Before jumping in players may wish to know that this game is not a Metroidvania. It is clearly inspired by some of the great Metroidvanias, particularly Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The title is similar as are some of the design choices.
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The game instead falls more in line with the first run of Castlevania games which were all stage based. Players will go through a stage in Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony ending with a boss before they move on to the next. Beating a stage will also save progress in the stage select screen, so there is no need to beat the game in one sitting.
5 Double Jump To Fly
Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony has an interesting jump system. Tapping on the button once will have the protagonist jump around while double tapping the button will cause her to start flying which is not covered in the basic tutorial. There is no meter for this flight ability either.
Players can fly around as much as they want which leads to a cheat in the game. The more open areas will allow players to fly through levels, bypassing enemies on the ground. This may defeat the purpose and challenge of an action platformer like this, but this is a good strategy to keep in mind. If things get tough, jump into the air and soar like an eagle.
4 How Checkpoints And Death Work
Since this is a level-based game, players don’t have to worry about going through the whole experience in one go. Dying from falling in a pit or losing all life will reset players back to the last screen they passed through. Most screens in the game are short, giving players an ample amount of checkpoints to fall back on.
Losing all lives will reset these checkpoints but at least players don’t have to restart the entire game over. That was the case for a lot of retro games like this back in the day. The Souls series might get a lot of attention for being challenging today, but none of those games compare to the unforgiving brutality of the 80s and 90s. Thankfully, the game doesn’t follow in those footsteps.
3 Don’t Forget To Slide
There is no dodge roll ability in the game but there is a slide. It can be hard to pull off a slide without getting hit. Against normal enemies, the slide isn’t going to come in handy except for some later enemies like the Minotaur-like creature. The sliding ability shines the most during boss fights. Since most bosses can fly as well, being able to slide underneath them can mean the difference between life and death.
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At its very core Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphonyis a Shmup meaning that enemy beams and projectiles will fly everywhere during boss encounters. Sliding, jumping, and flying are the best ways to dodge these attacks. It can be tricky at first, but practice makes perfect.
2 Be Aware Of The Shortness
The biggest warning players should receive before jumping into the game is that there is not a lot of content here for $30. While the game doesn’t have to be finished in one sitting, it certainly can be depending on the difficulty and the experience level of the player. There are eight main stages in the game ranging from forest areas to castle hallways.
The length can range anywhere from an hour to two hours. There are a set of bonus missions after completion but they aren’t that long either. For hardcore enthusiasts of action platformers, this is a good throwback. Is that worth $30 without much value afterward though? That is the question players have to ask themselves.
1 Take A Look At The Challenges
The Switch is getting up there in age and the system still doesn’t have an internal achievement system. That is one thing fans have been dying for ever since the idea came into prevalence with the Xbox 360. The Switch may not have an internal system, but there are achievements within Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony. They are called Challenges and they range from very easy feats like defeating bosses to more obscure ones like defeating enemies in a certain way.
Since the game is so short, this can help increase the value of gameplay. It might be worth taking a look at these Challenges before starting a level.
Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony was re-released on July 28, 2022 and is available on PC and Switch.
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