It’s been well documented by the team at Causal Bit Games that Battle Princess Madelyn is both a love letter and spiritual sequel to Capcom’s Ghouls ‘n Ghosts series. As for the rest of the title, the inspiration comes directly from the mind of a child who happens to be one of the creator’s daughters. As you might have read in our March 2017 interview with Causal Bit’s Creative Director Christopher Obritsch, it’s his daughter – who also stars as the heroine in the game – that has helped select the locations, levels and even devised full-blown battle plans for a number of boss fights. It’s essentially the imagination of a child directly translated into a playable video game experience. So how’s it shaping up? It’s quite promising based on our early playtest – adding just the right amount of nostalgia to the mix while expanding on plenty of original concepts.
Taking control of the young knight in training (aided by her ghostly pup named Fritzy), your task is to save your family (and kingdom) from an evil wizard. If you weren’t already aware, this is actually a universe set within a story being told by Madelyn's Grandfather, while he sits at her bedside. After a lovely retro-style animation sequence sets the scene, the game warps Madelyn from her bed to this fantasy world on the brink of collapse.
As welcoming as it might look from a visual standpoint, if you have a lapse in focus you’ll likely be punished – much like you would in an older game of this variety. This applies to both the platforming and combat aspects of gameplay. The enemies are – for the most part – utterly relentless, and that includes the many oversized bosses. When you’re not taking down a variety of dangerous, ghoulish and undead creatures, you’ll likely be threading the needle between multiple projectiles whilst making a jump across a platform or two. Every challenge you successfully overcome manages to provide a good sense of accomplishment and should satisfy even the most hardened of platform veterans. Even the earlier sections of this game will help you dismiss any concerns you had about the overall difficulty.
In terms of how this game builds upon the foundations of Capcom’s classic series, much effort has gone into advancing beyond the arcade-like conventions. At the beginning, it seems as simple as just moving forward but then, not long after this, you’re told to turn around and go back. It doesn’t completely throw linear design out the door, but there’s a certain sense of freedom as you work your way through multiple interconnected levels. There are even multiple routes that can be taken to access different areas of a level and eventually you can teleport around the map – making tasks like fetch quests assigned by villagers less time-consuming. If the challenges become too much, Madelyn can recruit a companion to fight by her side. There are also different tiers of armour, offering Madelyn more protection in certain scenarios. Then there’s the toy room, where you gather unique items from far and wide. As you can appreciate, there's more depth here than you might initially expect.
When it comes to a title such as this, controls are of utmost importance. While we played a PC version of the game with an Xbox One controller, we’re still pleased to report the controls were responsive in the most frantic of moments and could rarely be blamed when something went wrong; any mistimed jumps are on the player alone. Madelyn also has the ability to perform impressive feats such as being able to double-jump to access different areas in a level – another reference to Capcom's legendary series.
With these responsive controls, the environments are able to push your platforming skills to the limit with steep hills, levitating platforms and even vine-hopping. There are a lot of platform challenges to overcome in-between all the monster slaying, so expect to die again and again until you get it right. The bosses add to this challenge, mostly due to the amount of damage they can take. The patterns aren’t necessarily the most difficult to memorise; it’s just a matter of repeating certain movements until enough damage has been dealt. Once you’ve developed a rhythm, there's a real art to it.
Battle Princess Madelyn is everything you would want a game like this to be. It expands on the core idea fans know and love and continues to honour the source material at the same time. It’s absolutely nailed the minor details that more often than not make or break small but ambitious games like this. The platforming has a good sense of flow to it and the controls are responsive when required. Even in the most frustrating moments, you’ll be enjoying the 'classic' level of challenge on offer – which proves how enjoyable it is.
Keep an eye out for our full review when the game hits Switch soon.
Comments 37
Cool. Looking forward to it.
This looks great, huge fan of ghouls n ghosts so looking forward to it.
Sounds good so far!
I've gotten to where I can't bring myself to buy an indie game day 1.
They go on sale so quickly for such huge discounts, I often haven't even gotten to playing them before they are discounted.
I'm interested in this game, but will wait for a sale. That's going to be my standard approach going forward. It's just me responding to how the indies are running their businesses.
@cyrus_zuo I hear ya. I’ll buy it on sale in a few months.
Hmmm.....a Ghosts and Goblins clone, sounds fun
wouldn't hurt my feelings if Capcom wanted to port all three Gargoyle's Quest games over to Switch.....(hint)
Looks pretty neat! I just don't prefer to play super challenging games these days.
Looks great every time. I'll definitely be buying it!
@Stargazer won’t be going into sale for a good while, believe me.
Yes! I'm so glad this is still coming. Now where's Cursed Castilla and the entire Ghosts n Goblins/Gargoyle's Quest series?
@eripmav Fair enough. The problem is that there are too many good indie titles, leading to too much competition, leading to some titles getting buried and having to resort to drastic price drops to gain attention. Then the end user ends up buying a bunch of cheap games and adding to a never -ending backlog, unwilling to buy new releases at full price because there is no time to play all of these games anyway.
@Stargazer Lots of competition, sure. But quality always sells. 👍
Wish that were true. Best of luck.
@Stargazer imagine what would happen if everyone had the virtual console that we hear so much crying about. The indie market would crumble, less developers would consider the Switch and then people would complain that all Nintendo is doing is rehasing old games for the millionth time at the expense of new games and indies.
This looks great ghouls and ghosts is one of my favourite games punishing but always fair hope this plays along the same lines I was put off by the games title but after reading this I really want to try it and I love the graphics
Also props to these devs for keeping their promise and releasing the game on Wii U as well as Switch. While I completely understand why most devs have moved their Wii U projects to Switch at this point (Wii U isn't exactly a booming economy at this point), it's still nice to see creators sticking to their original plans and their fanbase's wishes to bring the game to all the promised platforms.
@Mallow Probably true! Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
@cyrus_zuo
Usually whenever I buy a game it'll go on sale the next week. I told my buddy if there is a game that he wants then just wait for me to buy it and then it'll be 50% off within a couple of weeks. It's the same on Xbox, if I buy a game it'll probably be a 'free with Gold' offering the next month. It really does seem that they only go on sale after I buy them too.
LOVE IT! I love platform games like in the 80s~90s!!!
@Gorfvic20 Yeah, Cursed Castilla is such a great game. For me it's too hard though. I've played it a few hours, but never gotten close to beating it. I hope this game is at least slightly easier, or has an adjustable difficulty.
@CaPPa I have that happen too. I think we always just notice it when a game goes on sale right after we buy it. I've also got games I'm waiting to go on sale, then it seems like they never do. I could've missed it, but I love Kero Blaster, and haven't seen it go on sale. I've got it on Steam, but man, that's exactly the kind of game I love to play on my Switch!
Can't wait for this one
@Mallow
Probably true...which is why it was wise to not release VC right away, let indies find success and want to dev for Switch.
That said, I still very much want VC, and think it would be a huge waste of potential value for consumer and $ for ninty/publishers not to release it on Switch at some point in time. Here's hoping.
@Mallow I think the reason there is no Virtual Console is that software companies saw something they could cash in on and benefit directly, without paying Nintendo as much of a percentage. Hence why we're seeing Neo Geo games, Sega banging out old classics and Capcom jumping in as well. I think if a Virtual Console appeared now it would be very barebones in comparison to previous generations because everyone else is rereleasing their back catalogues.
So in some ways we are still getting those old games, but just not under the Virtual Console banner.
@cyrus_zuo And don't forget sometimes they even see a retail edition in time.
I want to support them, but I don't want to be the guy who buys them and can't play them because of the backlog and then they're discounted after a few weeks. Or in other systems sooner and more heavily.
This is a “high profile” indie. Not a random bit of eshop poop. I don’t anticipate a sale in the first year on this one
@WiltonRoots people keep saying that, but there are no snes or n64 games available on the switch. So no, virtual console is not just "a banner", we are not getting the games.
@VotesForCows Its done. it's out this month.
@Moroboshi876 This has full retail and will not be on sale anytime soon.
@YANDMAN You never know with digital games we've seen all sorts of things in Switch, but if this has a retail version that's good news. It didn't seem so. Usually indie equals digital until Limited Run Games makes the superexpensive retail edition.
Not that I found any confirmation of this, by the way. Can you link or tell me the source?
@TheFongz True there are no SNES or N64 titles. At the moment. For some reason I get the feeling they're going to end up part of the online deal. I could be wrong though.
@YANDMAN - wow, that's news to me and it's me organising this side of things. To my knowledge, we're only releasing Switch physical in Asia.
@eripmav YEP, that's exactly what i was talkign about.
@Moroboshi876 All Limited Run Games cost less than standard retail price and often come with manuals which normal retail do not. This is a very high quality game that has no business in evenh being considered for a sale until it's a year or so old. people put a lot of work into games and that should be supported if you enjoy them. The STEAM race to the bottom business model doesn't help anyone.
@YANDMAN OK, but I prefer physical. Where did you read it will have a retail version, apart from rumours or good intentions that have been there since the beginning?
I don't mind if I have to wait one year. I can't handle the games I already have. I'm waiting for retail Celeste (not announced, but might be as like this one is a "high profile" indie) and Hollow Knight (confirmed, but TBA).
Well I backed the physical copy on Kickstarter and pre-ordered it from Nin-Nin Games.
I'm gonna die sooo many times. Can't wait!
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