Castle Evil is an adult-oriented Metroidvania in where the world has managed to fight off an alien invasion and has decided to strike back at their homeland. To accomplish this, they send in a hero known as Eva, alongside an intelligence specialist called Tanya to help her out. Things very quickly go south as they take the fight to these unknown lands and ends with Eva losing her treasured minigun, left with nothing to defend herself other than her fists. She is also almost immediately sexually assaulted, which is where all of this game’s hentai aspects come into play.
If a monster manages to latch onto you before you can shake them off, a pixel animation sex scene will play out. Being defeated plays out the same, except nearby enemies will also get in on it, up until you either respawn back in the safe room or be taken to a torture dungeon. With bosses it is a different manner entirely. Once defeated a CG will play out and they are much more extreme in nature, featuring forced insect egg impregnation and other fetishes that fall far outside of the usual kinks. It is something to keep in mind for those not into that.
In any case, after that opening you can avoid all of the other hentai scenes as long as you don’t lose all your health points. What you’ll find is a rather competently made game. You start off fist fighting slimes as you make your way towards the castle and will occasionally find new weapons, as well as gear. Even getting a wooden club is cause for celebration to more easily smack aside this world’s inhabitants. As soon as you manage to make your way into the castle, things really open up. It is a massive place, containing many branching routes to take and things to see. At times you will need an ability such as a double jump or a magical projectile to reach an area. It keeps you from walking right into the difficult sections, yet doesn’t constrain you too much.
Slaying all of the ghoulish creatures roaming the castle’s halls will get you both experience and some money. Experience levels up your attack & defense, allowing you to make the game easier for yourself with a bit of grinding. Contrary to the intro, it can in fact get quite challenging after a while, and there is also a hard mode for those seeking even more resistance. There are a decent variety of monsters to discover as you get deeper into the castle, with some rooms featuring mini-bosses to further keep you on your toes. Regular enemies will respawn after you leave their room, and sometimes even the mini-bosses themselves, making backtracking for any reason quite dangerous as it will take a toll on you sooner than later.
Luckily, there are teleporters scattered all over the place. It usually is no more than a trek of a few rooms in order to make your way to one and be taken to the safe-zone. While you are in there, you can take a nap to heal yourself up, buy items from a merchant, or receive tips as to what you should be doing. You can also train against enemies you’ve encountered, test weapons, as well as talking to any people that you have saved. After you are all rested up, you can instantly travel back to any area with a teleporter in it. It’s a nice little haven before returning to the castle and slicing your way through many an enemy.
Speaking of slicing, there are a fair bit of different weapons to wield. They are all split into three categories which are Small, Medium, and Large. Even between each other, they will have different range, striking speed, and other attributes associated with them. Some may require you to use a specific outfit to get its real benefit, while another may poison you whenever it’s used. Its a good bit of fun experimenting with them and finding the one that suits your playstyle best. The rest of your gear like rings and necklaces are used to increase your attack, defense, or give you slight health regeneration to name a few of their perks.
Your character can always have a secondary attack equipped which takes up AP to use. From throwing grenades, to briefly summoning backup from characters you’ve saved, there is a fair bit of them to see. It is kind of an annoyance that you constantly have to go back into the menus to equip the Magic Bolt though. That is due to the blocks that hinder your path and can only be destroyed by that specific power. These blocks are used too liberally and will respawn once you leave the room, it gets old fast.
While exploring the castle, you will be given many missions and side quests. Side quests usually lead you to some good loot but can be safely ignored if you choose. Actual missions require you to kill that castle zone’s boss and obtain whatever unique ability they have. These fights can be quite challenging and it pays off to fork over some cash and buy yourself a couple of health potions. There are 13 bosses in total, all too eager to battle you and worse if you lose. You actually don’t unlock their hentai CGs if you win, you will have to face them once more in training mode and purposely lose in order to do so.
Dying, aside from the rape, bears no consequences other than being sent back to the safe zone. If you get sent to the torture dungeon once and manage to escape, you’ll never have to go there again unwillingly. One of the possible status ailments in this title is to get pregnant, which is far less serious and actually more horrific than you may imagine. You simply need to wait a couple of seconds to give birth, then immediately slay your alien baby now trying to eat your face off. It will damage you, but after a nap, you’ll be good as new. Another thing you’ll never have to worry about is money. You get cash by the boatloads and will never have trouble affording anything you want to purchase.
A little oddity with this title are its default audio settings. Sound effects are much too loud, so you will want to turn that down and the other options up a bit. There is no voice acting aside from a few Eva’s moans, all the story and events are told through text. It’s not the best of translations, though is perfectly understandable. With items however, many of them remain with Japanese text. The music is made to sound like old 16-bit consoles and while there aren’t many tracks, they are pretty catchy. It all ran well and had no crashes or other oddities.
In total, it lasted me approximately eight or so hours to explore most of the castle and defeat every boss. You can continue exploring after you’ve beaten it and will gain access to a room that lets you spawn in any enemy to view their sex animations. There is also a nifty chest that has an item that permanently keeps you at level 1 if you want to replay it in such a manner. Castle Evil has a good amount of content for its price and is pretty darn fun to boot. It’s hentai aspects may be a bit much for some, which keeps me from recommending it to those not into adult titles, even if there is an actual good game behind it. If you are okay with that kind of content however, Castle Evil is a title well worth considering for fans of the Metroidvania genre and lewd anime characters in maid outfits alike.
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