Разработчик: The Pompous Pixel
Описание
Welcome To Castle Agony
Welcome to Agony. Inspired by the Resident Evil of old, the golden age of NES gaming and the Castlevania series, you play a local hero with a dog! Forced by your village to enter the crumbling castle filled with trickery, magic and monsters! Can you defeat The Vampire and live to see another dawn?
- * Sprawling castle and grounds to explore, filled with loot and monsters!
- * Learn the hidden history of the castle and make friends with unlikely allies.
- * Original art flooded with character and personality, with enemies too cute to kill.
- * Beautiful NES style soundtrack by Vesager"
- * Turn-based, Action point combat system: Choose to make Aim or Snap shots.
- * Craft potions of various types: make Molotovs and Holy Water bombs to use in combat!
- * Switch to your brave companion, Harry the dog. Sniff out secret areas and find secret loot stashes and XP!
- * Did I mention you can play as a dog?
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP or higher
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
- Memory: 64 MB RAM
- Graphics: 640x480, 32-bit colour: 700 Mhz system minimum
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 50 MB available space
- Sound Card: All DirectX-compatible cards
- OS *: Windows XP or higher
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: 640x480, 32-bit colour: 700 Mhz system minimum
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Sound Card: All DirectX-compatible cards
Отзывы пользователей
As much as I enjoy the ideas and aesthetics presented in this game, I have to dislike it for it's lack of polish. Sprites do not always mesh with the environment in a pleasing way, the trek through the haunted mansion lacks a robust enough story to keep the player interested through the monotony of dice roll face-offs against campy Halloween enemies. The layout of the mansion itself is cool and the way different rooms progressively unlock is satisfying in a way, although I am going to recommend people not play it.
I have attempted to play through this game twice, both times the game crashed, eliminating much of my progress. Do not play this game unless you are willing to lose your time not finishing it.
The vibe of this game is insane! The pixel artwork is beautiful, dialogs and plot are original with a nocturnal touch! I loved it. Game had an awesome puzzle walkthrough.
Also the 8-bit soundtracks were fire!
Short game but I had a lot of fun with it. It just has a cool vibe and is a clear labor of love. Music was great. I actually have a few more hours than it says I do for some reason so it's not quite as short as it might seem.
awesome.
One of those obscure, hidden gems I stumbled upon entirely by accident in the 2020 Halloween Steam sale. The images and description and gameplay all looked fantastic from what little there was, and the tiny handful of reviews over the course of two years only made it sound better.
Castle Agony is a *very* old-school style adventure game, reminding me of attempts to imitate the Lucasfilm Games on console, with faint touches of Resident Evil and Castlevania thrown in for style points. While the graphics look more like Zelda, the gameplay is pure point-'n'-click using the mouse to interact with the environment and choose your next moves.*
Even though the setting riffs off Resident Evil, the tone leans a bit closer to Maniac Mansion -- fluffy horror, I think, perfect for the post-Halloween mood. Depending on luck, you might have some difficulty early on, but assuming you're thorough and constantly making progress, the game never really hits notable difficulty walls and the ending is a bit of a cakewalk. I might even say it's unbalanced in favor of being too easy on the normal difficulty. The types of items I got in my run -- not sure if it's randomized -- meant I was only able to make a handful of the possible items a hundred times over, and the rest only a couple. This also meant I wiped out the final boss using a nigh-endless barrage of molotovs.
As the level design takes so many nods from the Resident Evil series, the mansion is full of secret nooks and crannies and lore. There's a lot of love put into this game by its lone, part-time developer, and while it ain't perfect, I'm really happy I stumbled upon it and got the chance to play it. One of those indie gems where the developer immediately joins my list of must-support artists.
* Don't use a traditional controller with this game. Steam controller works well, however.
https://youtu.be/ez33EvTgWao
This bite size survival horror game may have plenty of rough edges but the overall product is far more than the sum of it's parts.
I played this game with my girlfriend and we both had a good time with it. It's a point and click game with a strong survival-horror influence. You have limited resources and you're always just one health potion away from dying, which keeps the game nice and tense. It's definitely not a horror game and matches the tone of Zelda more than Resi but the gameplay and aesthetic tie together really well. The game is a bit unpolished which is to be expected from a game made by just one dude but overall it's pretty fun and enjoyable. For €6 I think it's totally worth it.
This is a good game, sort of a cross between maniac mansion and classic nes adventure rpgs, with a theme that seems heavily castlevania inspired. If you can get past the interface that seems to be somewhat riddled with strange, mostly visual oddities and glitches, and the slightly wonky u/d/l/r controls, which are sort of an optional extra to automatic mouse movement anyways, the game play is excellent for the money, and I would highly recommend it.
This game is bad.
The music is horrible.
Your character moves at a super slow pace that makes exploring a torture.
I love pixelated graphics, but this one is just bad.
This is part of a series I'm planning to do on games with few/no reviews, or that have long been on my backlog, or both. If you just want pros/cons and recommendations that might help you figure if you enjoy it, skip to the section denoted with ~tildes.~
What a wonderful night for a curse!
Fresh after feeling a little let down by Fresh Body, I decided to take a trip over to Castle Agony, since I'd hard that the charming Romanian village of, uh, Xadrin? Xadrin was having a Dracula outbreak. A vampire outbreak, I mean, and you know the drill.
You, a priest named Caldwell, and your dog are sent in to whip things into shape.
I'll get the negatives out of the way first; the game is slow, slow as molasses. My first run was easily the bulk of my 5 or so hours of playtime, not just because I was stumbling around a bit a lot, but because the movement speed easily could've been increased by about 1.75 to 2.5 times. So - make note, if you get itchy waiting around for things to happen, consider that a strong warning regardless of the rest of my review.
The only other real negative I can think of is that there isn't really any benefit to fighting; I hazard that a small chance of enemies dropping small keys would've been neat, and encouraged the players to avoid taking the most optimal routes, and avoiding enemy spawning areas. I might also have added a few 'save-on-use' notebook page items you could take with you, but...
Castle Agony is an incredibly charming game, from the start to the finish. Stylistically influenced by a milieu of NES favourites, it manages to avoid the trap of nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. There aren't any ham-fisted references or meta winks; rather, the game shows you that it understands its roots through the gameplay and actions.
I try to avoid too many references to other games, myself, but the game it reminds me of most was Shadowgate; the Dining Hall especially. I kept expecting wooden planks to give way as I stepped across them instead of sending Harry (the aforementioned good doggo) across, or the pause of the music warning me of something very bad.
But Castle Agony is a very fair game, and doesn't throw any curveballs your way. The combat system is simple, but I think that works in it's favour; you either are supertuff and may rely mostly on items to clear the way, or laugh as nothing can hit you.
The level design is crisp, and the OST - though relatively sparse - is breathtaking, especially the first track.
I also loved the 'standard' encounter theme, because it's kinda boogie, and that works bizarrely well.
Speaking of things that work well, the enemy and character design perfectly hit the sweet spot that 8-bit horror did. The main character seems to have a slight smugness to him that I found hilarious, and I like to think he's the sort who's constantly spouting really painful one-liners.
Also, a lot of the enemy designs are cute, especially the aforementioned boogie-ing skeletons.
Some of the writing is rather poetic, and a certain room that I felt just ascertain was going to Shadowgate me - a very meaty room, indeed - are surprisingly creepy. Harry the dog is a bit underutilised, but swapping between the two characters is a blast all the same, and anything to get me that sweet +1 skill.
It's neither a long game or a particularly difficulty one, my inability to figure out ANY of the non-guidebook recipes aside (I spent way too long trying increasingly desperate combinations... Two icons... Jammed into the sheep skull... Three pieces of rotten bread, uh, that'll make... Penicillin, somehow...), but I don't regret my visit to Castle Agony - quite the opposite.
The castle was so pleasant, I fear I had no desire to leave!..
~Cons~
* Slooooooow. Might be an engine(!) issue, might not matter to you.
* Enemies are a bit overwhelming at first, doubly so on agony mode; difficulty fades when you know what you're doing.
* I was able to secure a near-limitless supply of muckle cross gems. I actually hope this isn't a bug, because as far as I can tell, it's not like we got paid for our vampire removal, and Harry needs his dog chow...
~Pros~
* Charming in every sense of the word; each component of the experience contributes to a spooky RPG-exploration adventure.
* Atmosphere and journal entries are really something; if you like that sweet spot between gothic horror and cheese, you've come to the right castle.
* One of my hunches was right on the money; a few surprising plot twists for a relatively simple little game.
* You actually get to use a pitchfork. Finally, the peasant mob have their revenge!
* Harry the dog.
~In conclusion~
This was just what I needed, and reminded me of some of my own personal favourites of the era. To me, the pace wasn't a problem at all, and contributed to the atmosphere something fierce. Again, I feel like there are a lot of players who wouldn't be able to get over the delay between combat actions, and the protagonist's slow walk-speed, but...
If you've read this far and were curious, I'd hazard a guess you'd enjoy this gem as much as I do.
Just remember - conserve your small keys!
You never know when they'll come in handy, or help you get ahead of yourself!
Started playing this for a YouTube series, and ended up really liking it.
The shortest summary of this game for me would be: Resident Evil (original trio) style mansion-exploration, with the same-ish setting and mood, in an overhead view with turnbased combat.
It really shows that this was a labour of love, and while short and slightly janky at times, I would absolutely recommend it, with a small caveat:
I encountered a consistent crash after fighting my first boss (it's a fairly open trip, might not even be the first boss for all I know) which resulted in me losing the drive to continue, mostly because it occured specifically when trying to talk to one of the few NPCs in the game you meet right before it. I'm not sure if the game would allow my continuation apart from that particular scene, but being the curious guy I am I just couldn't stand leaving that room alone so I ended up hesitating too much to continue.
Bug report submitted, dev has acknowledged it, and it might have just been me experiencing this bug (nobody else seems to have mentioned it, but that might be because it's not a well known game).
Only con I can think of is the slow movement, with camera stuck on your character, which leads to some jittery screen movement. It's a tad annoying, especially if you die and have to re-do some things. Not enought to not recommend though.
Fun game with good exploration. Battles can get a bit tedius at times but overall, very fun.
Foreword:
Despite posting this Review in English, my main Language isn't English, so please excuse weird Phrases or Mistakes.
Castle Agony Review
Bought this on a Whim, wich is extremely rare for me. And I don't even regret it.
Castle Agony tries to blend in simplified Combat of JRPGs, the Level- and Riddledesign of the original Resident Evil and the Atmosphere of the old NES Castlevania-Games, all presented in a NES-Retro Look with pleasant and fitting Music.
You're playing a young Vampire Hunter tasked to kill an evil Vampire. Aided by an old Priest and your faithful Dog you explore an old Castle filled with Secrets and Riddles.
While exploring the Castle you may not only find Keys and Key-Items, wich open new Areas - but also new Weapons like Flintlock, Crossbow and your very own Boomstick, Crafting Items to craft Things like Potions, Molotov Cocktails and Holy Water and EXP Crystals, with which you can upgrade either you Health or your "Skill". (Skill being your Ability to hit an Enemy)
Gameplay is completely with Mouse in a Point and Click-Style, the Battles being turn-based.
Negative Points first:
- some minor Bugs, like Battle Music keeps playing after a Battle, some Tutorials not showing up properly and a Mini-Boss intitating a Battle, while I tried to loot a Drawer, wich forced me to restart the Game, because the Game got stuck - none of these really bothered me that much and when I had to replay anything besides the Bug with the Boss, it was because I forgot to save frequently (Oldschool Saverooms, no Quick Saves)
Edit: The Bug with the Boss got fixed, after I mentioned it in the Forum
- Battles not worth your time, as you won't get any loot and only waste Ressources (Ammo, Potions), while not being able to flee Battles; Enemies tend to respawn pretty quickly
- rather short - I finished the Game after about 3-4 Hours [...]
Positive Points:
- Battle may be simplified but still quite challenging, if you're not prepared
- Graphics and Sound really fit the Theme of the Game - not real Horror but spoopy fun
- the Design of the Castle can only be described as Resident Evil-esque and I love the Throwback to exploring a creepy old Building while unlocking more and more of it by finding Themed-Keys and Key-Items
- optional Secrets and Items, that aren't necessary to complete the Game, but do help
- Riddles are never too hard to figure out - I never needed any kind of Help or Walkthrough; when I got stuck, I just needed a few Minutes to figure out, where I had to go next
- despite the short Length, I had fun playing it and for 6 € I really can't argue with ~4 Hours of Gameplay
- Developer already announced free DLC, so there's that
[*]Edit: I didn't acknowledge the Agony-Mode, wich seems to have more Story and Puzzle-Elements and is also way harder than the Main Game, so it does have Replay-Value
Conclusion:
Castle Agony is a short but fun Game, that is neither too hard nor too easy. Everyone who enjoyed the original Resident Evil for it's Mansion-Exploration should take a look at this Game.
It might need some polish in regards of minor Bugs and without knowing, what the DLC will add, it might be a bit too short for some.
I for one really enjoyed the Game and for six Bucks I won't argue about the Length.
Still very early in the game. It really does play a bit like a classic NES title. Everything works; no bugs or crashes.
B+
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Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | The Pompous Pixel |
| Платформы | Windows |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 21.01.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 86% положительных (14) |