dead cells

content/games/switch/dead-cells-return-to-castlevania.md

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+---
+date: "2023-11-16"
+title: "Dead Cells & Return to Castlevania"
+tags:
+    - 'castlevania'
+    - 'roguelike'
+score: 2
+howlongtobeat_id: 118231
+howlongtobeat_hrs: 3.6
+game_name: 'Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania'
+game_genre: 'roguelike'
+game_release_year: '2017'
+game_developer: 'Motion Twin'
+---
+
+With its latest DLC, the world of _Dead Cells_ recently merged with the world of [Castlevania](/tags/castlevania), and as a 'vania nut myself, reading all these glowing reviews, I simply had to take a peek. Unfortunately, I came back disappointed, although to be honest, it's not entirely the game's fault, as I my brain simply refused to register the term _roguelite_ on the back of the cover. To me, the genre can very much be hit or miss, and as far as _Dead Cells_ is concerned, it's a clear case of miss. Allow me to elaborate. 
+
+I bought and played the cartridge version of _Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania_, which in essence is _Dead Cells_ with all downloadable content packs, including the latest _Castlevania_ cross-over. The cart and cover are lovingly decorated with a dark castle on a glooming reddish background, but to my confusion, the Switch icon showcases simply the classic _Dead Cells_ face. To make matters worse, I had no idea how to "get into" the _Castlevania_-specific DLC, as I wasn't interested in the base game. It turns out that you need to die at least twice before a swarm of bats appears just outside your prison, signaling the appearance of the castle entry exit. The fact that I had to look up how to actually play _Return to Castlevania_ proves that either I'm an idiot or that a DLC-specific cart release could do a better job at guiding players to the main appeal. 
+
+![](fight.jpg "As I crash into the enemies, I activate my egg-laying-chicken powers? (A not so subtle nod to Guacamelee)")
+
+It turns out that one can't objectively evaluate _Return to Castlevania_ without having a look at the _Dead Cells_ base game mechanics, which is one of the reasons why it ends up scoring lower than expected. _Dead Cells_ is a roguelite/[roguelike](/tags/roguelike) that many also categorize as a [metroidvania](/tags/metroidvania/). This means grinding, dying, and redoing a run starting from zero. Any cells or blueprints you collect from enemies to unlock new gear is lost. This also means procedural level generation instead of intricate castle design, but with the classic 'vania twist: very few upgrades, such as a spider-like wall-climbing ability, are permanent and help unlocking shortcuts and alternate pathways.
+
+This proved to be much more problematic than in other roguelite games I played. First, compared to hand-crafted metroidvania games, the level design is sub-par. The upgrades are simply used as locks that block progress and that's it---this ain't no metroidvania. Second, as you pour cells into a schematic to unlock a new weapon, your chances at encountering that previous powerful one you really like diminish. That means unlocking stuff works against you, but as you don't know which weapons are good and which aren't, unlocking after sweating through heaps of enemies plays out like a Russian roulette. 
+
+Third, and perhaps the most frustrating: as you grab power scrolls that should up the damage numbers in your favor, the enemies also power up. That is, some form of level scaling is put into place without telling the player. Even the puny zombie that populates the prison quarters, the first "biome" or level of the game, suddenly becomes very dangerous as you level up, up to the point of almost one-shotting you. This negates the feeling of becoming powerful and breezing through early levels to reach the later and more difficult ones. 
+
+![](inventory.jpg "Equipment during a particularly successful run.")
+
+After playing _Dead Cells_ for about six hours, I felt like every time I was doing exactly the same: hoping I'd encounter trap powers and good weapons, fighting through the same corridors with sometimes questionable dead ends, facing the same enemies, dying to the same lighthouse boss again and again. The middling soundtrack does not become better the more you listen to it, with a notable exception for the _Return to Castlevania_ levels, although that's because remixing great music usually yields great music. 
+
+Another thing that annoyed me is the writing that tries very hard to be funny but simply isn't. The overabundance of witty reference remarks gets old quickly, and true to the roguelike nature, even though it's clear that Motion Twin tried to craft a story based on the _Dead Cells_ world, there's hardly any meat to the bones. I think the game would have been better of if they stopped pretending any lore was there. Unhaunting's [The Insecurities of Dead Cells](https://timberowlscom.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/putting-on-a-tough-face-the-insecurities-of-dead-cells/) explains the strange lore slap-on in more detail.
+
+![](death.jpg "The Death boss fight in the Return to Castlevania DLC.")
+
+In a Video Game Choo Choo article, Rose digs deeper into [the wasted fun of Dead Cells](https://videogamechoochoo.com/the-wasted-fun-of-dead-cells/), calling both the game's core mechanics and writing incredibly flawed:
+
+> The more I played of Dead Cells, and the more I unlocked, the more I found myself regretting how much I’d unlocked, and the game could really use something like an unlockables toggle to help curb this. [...] Once you’ve unlocked those bonus abilities, almost all of your runs in Dead Cells will be exactly the same. [...] At [one] point; a bonfire with the words “GIT GUD” inscribed on the wall. It's ironic, that the developers would pull this phrase for a purely referential joke, because that toxic ideology that misrepresented the Souls series for so long is actually one that applies perfectly to Dead Cells.
+
+I completely agree.
+
+What about the Castlevania cross-over, then? Well... These add only three true levels and a few bosses that'll keep you busy for a few more hours. The real fun, however, is perhaps using whip-like weapons and dressing in vampire killer costumes in the base game---provided you amassed enough cells to unlock these. That makes it even more apparent that _Dead Cells_ is not a metroidvania, by the way. 
+
+![](biomes.jpg "The world map shows how different biomes are connected, provided you discovered their links, meaning this screenshot is obsolete.")
+
+Where _Dead Cells_ clearly can't be faulted is the presentation. The pixel art of the sprites, animations, and backgrounds are simply splendid, and some of the biomes/levels have a unique atmosphere that plays a contributing role in pretending to provide variation for the player. The Toxic Sewers glows appropriately green, the rotten fishing village comes with a lot of dangerously small corridors inside huts, and the play field of the lighthouse is vertical instead of horizontal. 
+
+Yet I wish _Dead Cells_ wasn't a roguelite. Imagine what would have happened if the world structure was actually thought out instead of generated, the death system and underhand level scaling systems weren't there, the game had an actual identify instead of leaning too much into referential jokes, and all weapons were balanced and fun to use? Then I wouldn't have to face the same either too easy or too difficult bosses again and again, wouldn't have to listen to the same music and would actually be rewarded with a sense of progress. 
+
+I'm glad the small development crew managed to gather a huge fan base (and many glowing reviews), but I'm also glad I can put the game down and consider myself not to be a part of that.