Odallus: The Dark Call

𝔸𝕙, 𝕆𝕕𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕦𝕤, 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕣𝕠𝕨 𝕓𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕚𝕖𝕤𝕥 ℂ𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕝𝕖𝕧𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕒 ℕ𝔼𝕊 𝕘𝕒𝕞𝕖𝕤!

What can I say about this absolute masterpiece of a game? Absolutely nothing bad. Odallus: The Dark Call is a game made by the same devs that made the Ninja-Gaiden-esk game Oniken that I reviewed not long ago, but this one is more Castlevania from the NES era than anything.

You play as Haggis, a warrior and a hunter who is trying to find his son, who disappeared during a raid by demons that left his village in complete disarray. Prawling the nearby fields, Haggis is confused, as these demons seem to be serving a higher purpose and are led and organized by some verily conscious demonlords, each holding a piece of the legendary gemstone called the Odallus. Will he find his son and uncover the gem's secret?

This game is very successful at merging both Castlevania and Berserk... It just gives off such Berserk vibes as Haggis' son is not ACTUALLY who he thought he was, just like Griffith from Berserk. Odallus: The Dark Call is an 8-bit masterpiece and Haggis is a very likeable character even though he doesn't speak much. You can tell that the game was made with love. There are only nine levels, but the amount of backtracking you'll have to do to enjoy some collectibles-hunting is massive. I had to go back to level one six times, one time each time I find a new artefact that allows access to certain special powers: the Harpy's boots that you only discover in the latest levels will allow you to double jump, and you know what double jumping means? Yup, collectible-hunting.

The bosses are rage-inducing, Dark-souls style, the storyline builds itself around you as you interact with bosses and NPCs of this dystopian universe. It's an amazing game that you MUST have in your library, even if you don't like Castlevania. 10/10, I enjoyed every single bit of it, my only complaint is that it was just too short... and the Berserk-ish ending is like... just unexpected! Yeah well played devs, well played.

I've had my eye on this one for a long time. It was good, it draws influence from a few demon oriented platformer classics while still being its own thing. Level design & secret exits reminded me of Demon's Crest, which is listed as one of this game's inspirations. Very old school game design, for better or worse. Enjoyed the atmosphere. Achievements were a little buggy. Pretty unforgiving all around the board.

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The kind of retro style and soundtrack that makes me remember of the good old days of the 8-bit era. Reminds me a little of Castlevania Rondo of Blood, where you can go back to previous stages to find more secrets and passages, but this isn`t exactly necessary as it would be in a metroidvania.

I can see the potential here but man, there are some jank that's just not acceptable. Not to mention some achievements were made just to bloat the playtime.

My EYES!

i like this game. i wish more games fused together classic castlevania with more modern metroidvania elements.

Damn NES difficulty jumps.

Nice game with cool old-school aesthetic and gameplay
It does have quite a few bugs tho - on one of my playthroughs i got locked out of progressing due to a boss refusing to do anything

one of the best modern 2D oldschool games outhere, marvellous option to get for classic 8bit, 16bit era players.

It has a nice aesthetic with pleasing color combinations.
But gameplay is just boring, mainly because of the dull level layout and enemy placement.

Odallus' description says that Castlevania was one of its inspirations, and having just finished it, I can confirm that it delivers!

The gameplay is pretty great and well-balanced for the most part, introducing the traditional metroidvania format to a classic Castlevania setting. It is relatively short (my 100% normal playthrough clocked in at about 5ish hours), so none of the combat or exploration overstays its welcome.

On the negative side, most of the music was pretty middling to me (but your mileage may vary). Additionally, although I mostly enjoyed the combat, later encounters tend to be pretty easy if you have the strongest sword (which you can get early if you're good at the game's platforming), and the final battle was pretty ridiculous, even on normal difficulty.

The price is mostly right too, even at the full $10 (and even better value during a sale). Highly recommend this if you're looking for a great classic Castlevania experience!

Very nice game for people who are completionists but don't have a ton of time.
Also, very good difficulty level for me, specially on last boss, the fight was amazing, and it felt really good to beat the game!

Tight, enjoyable, worth the money