It probably goes without saying at this point that we're huge fans of Castlevania here at Time Extension, so we're always on the lookout for games that might scratch the same kind of itch. And that criteria definitely seems to fit Goth Donut Games' Lady Dracula down to a tee.
Lady Dracula is described as "an evolution of the Classicvania genre" as well as "a return to the glory days of precision platforming, retro challenge, and gothic atmosphere". It is coming to Steam and Itch.io in the future and is said to utilize "an authentic NES palette, resolution, and sprite color count" inspired by the original NES Castlevania while introducing new effects that wouldn't be possible on the original hardware to create fearsome bosses, raging storms, and multi-layered backgrounds.
We first came across the upcoming game earlier today after stumbling its recent trailer and knew we had to find the time to write about it, in the hopes of potentially spreading the word.
The game is envisioned as a sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula novel and sees you take control of the child of Lady Dracula. Your mother has been driven mad with grief, after monster hunters slay your father, leading her to release demons across the land to enact her revenge. So it falls to you to travel to her castle in Transylvania, to put a stop to her reign of terror.
Players will travel across 30 stages, including forests, mountains, caves, cemeteries, and even the depths of hell, doing battle against 10 bosses and countless demons, including skeleton bikers, gargoyles, and flaming skulls. To do this, they will have a bunch of transformations at their disposal to help them get ahead, being able to turn into creatures like wraiths, spiders, and bats to unlock new abilities.
The game promises a ton of customization when it comes to difficulty, allowing players to tweak the amount of respawns they will receive as well as more granular options such as player knockback and air control.
There is also a bunch of screen filter options available, which include a CRT filter and a green shader designed to emulate the original Game Boy DMG. If any of this sounds up your street, you can wishlist the game here. No release date is available yet, but we'll try and keep you posted when there is an update.