On previous part, Arthur is chilling around only wear his boxer short and Princes Prin Prin enter the scene only kidnapped by flying demon less than 5 minutes afterward. Not only that but her castle also burning and shadow surrounds the realm. As per usual Arthur goes after her through the classic enemies including the infamous Firebrand/Red Arremer. Arthur has slain dragon (as the genuine knight should do) in icy stage. Huzzah!
I have enough Umbral Bee to get ability to carry more than 1 weapon. Even though it was just for 2 weapon but it's pretty bliss anyway. Did you know that there's hack for Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts that allow Arthur to carry all weapon that he get and select them by pressing shoulder button? Maybe someone at Capcom learn about that and implement it here. You don't need to keep all of the magic that you have learnt to Magic Waistband. You can erase some of them to browse them more easily. Personally, i only want to keep 3 magic spells at most.
Here i'm at Hellfire Hamlet which is the remake version of 2nd level of Ghouls 'N Ghosts what's with windmills, antlion, and rock turtles. I forget to mention about those annoying tortoises before. I really hate them. Most of the time they're invincible when they're inside their rocky shell and they like to jumping around so you have hard time to dodge them. Imagine Castlevania's medusa head but invincible and you know how very annoying is that. There's small chance that they come out of their shell. They move slower in that state and sometime spit fireball. It only takes 1 hit to kill them while they're vulnerable.
The antlion area is more complicated. Now there's sand platforms that i need to climb up with lesser antlion around them. The darker sand part will crumble after stepped. There's also hornets that can drop a stone on you (while the original version, can't). They're like beedle (which is bee + needle) from Vectorman. If you fall to the bottom, you will get devoured by the greater antlion and then spits your remain to nearest Banner of Rebirth. He's up to something.
Passing that sandy platform and another windy area, Red Arremer/Firebrand awaits you. But he doesn't kindly sit on the ground like usual. No. He sits at the top of pile of rock turtles and kicks one of them at me periodically. He really know how to makes me feel better. [Extra Large Sarcasm]
If you get killed by him, tough luck! The nearest Banner of Rebirth is the one before the antlion lair. Engineer_negativevocalization11.wav
If you skillful or lucky enough defeating my "bro" and getting pass the quite difficult platforming section, you will arrive at the burning town which is inhabited by these fire foxes. Not the internet browser, mind you. Implementing "Fight fire with fire", i cast the fire wall spell which is very useful against enemies who come to me on the ground. Pyro_laughhappy01.wav
Do you know what they really shouldn't add on this game? Rotating platforming. Especially when Arthur is deprived from ability to double jump. This wheels move clockwise and the solution is quite obvious, right? You move from left platform to right and the center is stationary so you can wait patiently there. But turns out, the exit from this section is not on the right end yonder. No. The exit is somewhere on top. So you have to climb up through these rotating platforms which is not as easy as it sounds, believe me. On top of that, this section is inhabited by spider that spits fire slime (that stick to surface for very long time) and the fire bats. Heavy_negativevocalization06.wav
Somehow i get pass that tedious platforming section only get killed by these 3 Cerberuses. Capcom realize that Cerberus in Ghouls 'n Ghosts lacks of 2 other head. But decide to give players 2 other hell hounds instead in order not to give them some unnecessary respite. "We can't afford to make player getting soft on playing Ghosts 'N Goblins game, can we?".
I should inform you that this section isn't boss fight yet. This is still on my way to it. The red Cerberus like to jump at you and cause fire blast in process. The pink ones straight blows large fire breath at you. The yellow ones running in the sky and drop rain of fire while doing so. As you can see. If they gank on me at once like this, i won't stand a chance to survive. Let alone to either climb that ladder or capture the umbral bee. Turns out i can make them go away in this section simply by damaging them hard enough. Pick them one by one, and you can finish this platforming section with very less trouble.
On top of that is the genuine boss fight. On first phase, they do their special routine like i mentioned. For each defeated Cerberus, the boss goes into next phase and sometime emerges into bigger ones. Believe me or not but this boss fight is lot easier than the dragon because i can defeat one Cerberus at the time thanks to hammer. As if God has His own way to tell me something. I defeat the Cerberus pretty easily by using the melee weapon that often underlooked in Ghosts 'N Goblins. Back then i use sword that swing fast. It's fairly obvious that hammer is heavy weapon that i can't swing it as fast as the sword. But not only it inflicts tremendous damage but also it causes shock blast upon hitting floor which increases its reach. If i swing it in mid air or when aiming it upward, it will produce some kind of wind wave and again increases its attack reach. But you have to be careful on area where there's lots of narrow space like this. Because the hammer will stuck/stop upon hitting ceiling. The discuss also good here because of those platforms. That also means kilo rock also has practical use here.
Next level is Caverns of the Occult which introduce us with lighting mechanism. You can extinguish the flame on candles by using your weapon. They often place these candles on the spot that block your way unleash you extinguish them first. After Some time, the fire reignite itself. Naturally if you put out the candles, the area around them will be darken. You can see semi-transparent zombie near the candle on most right here. This dark type of enemy will be clearly visible on dark area, strangely. I can still see the terrain on that dark area due to gamma setting or by design. But the normal type enemies can't be seen in dark area. So you have to struggle with this weird mechanism.
There's also unlit candle that you can light up by using fire weapons. There's only 2 of them: the wrist bow and the firebomb. Because there's lots of bats here and firebomb is bad against flying enemies. Thus i advise you to keep the bow instead. By equipping the fire weapon, you can either light up or extinguish candle at your will which is handy for this situation.
There's some candle that if you extinguish them, a Dark Firebrand/Dark Arremer will comes out. Obviously you don't want that to happen. But that demon clown will certainly appears if you climb the ladder here and first thing he does is extinguish all of candle in area. The ladder somewhere in that dark area, you have to take my word for it. Not only the jester will often trigger Dark Firebrand/Dark Arremer to make entrance, he also gives you harder time while dealing the flying dark bastard by giving you slowdown status/debuff or summoning array of lightning bolts. Fortunately, i find another way to progress besides this area. There's much easier section if you go to platform on right part than this.
Eventually, i reach the first Banner of Rebirth. This "elevator" section is filled with flying goblins. I feel at home already. But i'm not pleased to see rock turtle around here.
Arthur now has ability to summon Medusa that will petrify any enemies on screen. But on 1st level of the magic, only small fries that will be petrified. Once petrified, you can use the enemies as stepping stone [Get it? :P] to reach higher elevation. If you destroyed petrified enemies, there's a chance that they will drop item. But don't get too excited though, the loots most likely that useless statues. Even though Arthur has access to magic that affects enemies on screen. None of them are destroying enemies directly. They're Transmogrifrog that makes all enemies turn to frog but you can still harmed by them and the mentioned Medusa. If you want to kill enemies right away, you should resort to magic with less area of effect such as Firewall or Thunderstorm.
After passing the "elevator" section, i have to ride a stone dragon while killing giant jellyfish. Heavy_sf12_badmagic10.wav
To progress in this section you have to jump to stone dragon after another. Eventually, one of them lead me to this cavern filled with armor/flesh shredding stalagmite and those rock heads. I thought they're going to eat my ride because they constantly lick their mouth everytime we go pass them but no, thankfully. They only lets out smaller skeleton murderers.
The last stone dragon flies very fast. I jump to that stone ledge but alas! It's lethal to touch and i die. Also it's very near the Progress Pennon. So i respawn at the early section of cave inhabited by those rock heads. Eventually, i reach here only to fall into oblivion because i thought that stone ledge background is the one with Progress Pennon. They're quite identical! Sniper_jeers01.wav
Pass that Progress Pennon is boss fight and it's The "Satan" who kidnapped the Princess Prin Prin like in first Ghost 'n Goblin. He will block any of your projectiles with his wings except when he's charging his attack. So when he's focus for his future attack, that's your cue to throw arrows/lances/knifes/discusses at him furiously.
As you can see in prologue that Satan now has ability to become dark. Meaning he's only visible in dark area. There's candles and candelabra that you can utilize lighting in this boss fight. There's one time that Satan accidently break the chandelier. I usually comment that every chandelier in video game will break but this one doesn't automatically fall when you pass it and there's good chance that it will remain intact throughout the boss fight so i give it credit where its due. Anyway, The Satan doesn't have phase. His routine remains the same so you don't need to worry about getting surprised by new move or whatnot.
Next level takes place in Citadel Approach which mean this could be penultimate stage but i get killed in very early part of this stage. Dark zombies. Mini Red Arremer/Firebrand. Skulls that will become skeleton which hop frantically. I can't take them all at once. To be fair, it's all my fault. You see those eyeballs? If you awaken them due to (most likely) stray shoot, they will summon additional enemies. Awaken them too much and you will get surrounded very bad and end up dead. To avoid making unnecessary enemies appear, you have to be more accurate with your weapon. Those jumping skeleton is the one who's the most likely bait you to shoot at the eyeballs. You also have to keep in mind that the hitspot of the eyeballs is bigger than themselves. Trust me!
Oh look! Ohme is back. But he's demoted to sub-boss/moving platform. Sniper_DominationHeavy02.wav
Ohme leads me to area filled with slimy floor surrounded by giant moving jaw. After that, it's showdown against Beelzebub! They put more detail on his egg-spitting cloacae. Wonderful! [Medium Sarcasm]
He also can turns into swarms of bee to attack me in 2 pattern: 1) Fly along the ceiling and then fly back to the original spot along the floor 2) Fly along the floor first and then fly back to original spot along the ceiling. To avoid the first pattern, you have to stand on the opposite corner where he was because he only cover about 80% of the area. As for the second pattern, well tough luck. He will flies along entire ceiling and floor. Sometime there's platform that come from below that you can use to avoid him or sometime the platform is spiked! There's alternative solution to that: using invincibility period while casting Thunderstorm. I also happen to get magic mirror weapon which is the equivalent of cross or shield of first Ghost 'n Goblin. It travels in short distance but able to block projectiles along its way.
Unlike Satan, Beelzebub has 2nd phase where he become smaller and spits eggs more often. They hatch into maggots. Very gross! In this phase Beelzebub flies less in mid air but charge along the surfaces. But that means he's easier target now. You can attack him with any weapon that flies in straight lines such as: lance, knife, you name it.
Now i'm in the Shadowlord's
Citadel. How naive of me to think that the final level has calm section on its
entrance like in previous Ghost 'n Goblin
games. There's 2 Cyclopes suddenly fall on my left and right and now they
proceed to stomp me into Jill Arthur Sandwich. They have less health
than the one in first stage but still exponentially more threatening.
Thankfully, there's banner of rebirth after that duo Cyclops. But now i have to deal with series of seesaw platform while i get bombarded by one of the Cerberuses and giant piranha plant. Then there's Umbral Bee that's rather tricky to catch considering that i'm at unstable platform. Here's my general tips: whenever Umbral Bee appears, catch it at all cost and don't think of making progress yet. Level progress can be saved by any of checkpoint but opportunity of catching Umbral Bee is very rare. Plus, with captured Umbral Bee you can have more various magic/ability which can be useful to make progress easier.
Later on, i get into another Banner of Rebirth within huge room inhabited by another Cyclops but he will only attack from background. After climbing long ladder, i arrive at this section where lots of Beelzebub's swarms homing on me while on these fluorescence platforms that will disappear after a while. I focus so hard in this section that i forget to take screenshot of the bloody bee swarms but believe me that they're freaking there. Even with speed-up magic i can't outrun them. I thought there's only 1 wave that relentlessly chases after me. Turns out no, there's more of them. You're not supposed to outrun them. You have enough time and opportunity to kill any of them in time so you can climb these platforms more leisurely. If you unfortunately fall from the platforms, you have to fight the background Cyclops again. You can't just rush because you will get log flying on your head while climbing the ladder.
On the other hand, i manage to take picture on next arduous platform section which filled with Shielder's turrets, fire foxes, fire-slime-spitting spiders, and bee swarms. Thankfully the platforms here won't dissolve into nothingness ever so you have time for platforming here. I like that ladder that covered with (possibly) demonic fungi. It looks surreally beautiful. It's very funny that Arthur won't get some kind of nasty mold after he climbs that ladder while wearing nothing but his boxer.
Oh, yes. There's also dragons but only their head. But i have no time for that particular git because i'm about to reach that Progress Pennon for real!
Then i encounter Astaroth! Oh my! All those year hiatus, he works on his height to compensate not having genitalia. As per usual, his weakpoint is his head but it's not that easy. His right hand will blocks any of your projectile. There's floating blocks that you can use to take aim at his head. But be careful that you will get damage if they fall on you. You can hit him easier by using the wrist bow. I accidently find this cool trick. If you have both doppelganger magic and ability to carry 2 weapons or more, you can tell the shadow image to use different weapon once you switch your weapon after making the mirror image. That way, i can have 3-way attack with bow and any of the straight weapons. Sniper_sf13_influx_big02.wav
His 2nd phase he begins to reveal his lower face that blows flame. On the third and final phase, the floor reveals magma pool and Astaroth can float! Demoman_sf12_badmagic11.wav
He can conjure fire tornade and his usual fireball can burst into fire bats that difficult to dodge! You can't do that, you gigantic schmuck! Oh, you're already dead while i'm only down to my boxer short. Demoman_dominationpyro04.wav
To my dismay, i immediately
confront Loki Lucifer without going back to map! He has the usual
routine of firing laser from his fingers. But like Astaroth, his hands can
block any projectile directed to his head. Later he summon stone dragons to
bring further misery upon ye. But you can use them to get on his knee or hand
so you aim his head easier. Unlike harmless platform provided by Sardius in Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, the stone dragons can hurt you unless you ride on
them correctly.
Lucifer get new trick! He can conjure array of lightning bolt much like that jester can do. There's enough gap for you to dodge them but when rock dragons come into play. It will be much trickier for you to dodge them, surely.
It takes less try for me to defeat Lucifer than Astaroth because he doesn't do much more than his original. The stone dragons come down and Princess Prin Prin is revealed. I don't know the deal about them. They're enemy but once Lucifer is defeated they're helpful to bring Prin Prin back to Arthur's embrace. Maybe they acknowledge Arthur's might by defeating the giant devil. Dragon's honor and such, man. It's beyond our understanding.
Then credits roll. So happy end, already? Anyway, the princess is called The Princess because they know that Prin Prin is dumb name. Also they give up to give you her 3 measurements. :P
Oh, i should know. The shadow doesn't vanish yet and instead envelops all over the levels. Let's check the graveyard, just to be sure.
Now the arduous lighting mechanism is here! Also tentacle, skeleton murderers, and the jester. ARRRGH! HELP!
To be fair, i think this second loop feels more like New Game + to me because of that credit roll. You dare this new game + mode to catch all remaining Umbral Bee (because you can't unlock all skill/magic with all umbral bees on first loop) and potential for true ending, maybe? I also happen to unlock magic metronome that change the game speed to be either slower or faster. I'm not sure how's that beneficial for me. It feels like "Do you want to die faster or slower?" option. I finish first loop so i call it a day for now.
Capcom's Ghost 'n Goblin Resurrection (2021) sure feels like Ghost 'n Goblin game. That's natural because it's directed by Professor F who's also producer of Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts. The jumping mechanic is as simple as you get like in Ghost 'n Goblin. You can't alter the height and trajectory of Arthur's jump at all. If you get used to any game with better jump mechanic like Super Mario Bros or Castlevania, you're most likely have hard time to play this game or even any of Ghost 'n Goblin. If only they bring back the double jump, Arthur can deal with that platforming better. I really miss the double jump. The arsenal is supposed to be balance. Not the sensible kind of balance that can be depicted as symmetrical balance with same weight on both of its end. No. The "balance" is chaotic, like a stable condition of a goat doing handstand on your head while you crouch on rocking chair and juggles 5 balls at the time. The problem with weapon that flies in straight line is you only restricted to 4 basic directions while the enemy's aim has flexible degree that usually follow your position. I feel like that plant monster in Graveyard level can read my input as his eyeball projectile flies to my position before i jump! Thus i strongly recommend that you keep that bow weapon. If you encounter enemies in close range, use Hammer. It's very powerful. It goes without saying that the game more than happy to gives you misery after misery. The game is very difficult, yes. But it's also short. I finish this game with less hour gameplay than Cuphead. Not only because the main content is shorter but also thanks to those Banners of Rebirth. You die a ton but they quite generous with the checkpoint or at least in "Knight" difficult. They also ditch the live system and gives you unlimited try instead. As long as you reach Banners of Rebirth, you make good amount of progress. I also like to say that the boss section is noticeably shorter than Cuphead's. Either you defeat the boss faster or you die to the boss faster. :p
The word "Resurrection"
on the title seems reasonable. Not only it brings back Ghosts 'n Goblins that on hiatus quite long time (the last Ghost 'n Goblin is Ultimate Ghosts 'N Goblins
came out in 2006), but also it's the compilation of 2 Ghosts 'n Goblins game and
give them enhancement in gameplay and graphic. Do you see what they do with
Lucifer's face? He looks even more sinister now. They also remake some of the
music like the iconic Makaimura theme and the music from 2nd level of Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I have no doubt about
the quality of the OST. I love the boss battle theme that really shows the
players how epic the battle they got into or the festive nuance of music in
Crystalline City. One of thing that
really make game friendlier to play is: there's always Progress Pennon
right before the boss fight. While in
most Ghosts 'n Goblins, the nearest
checkpoint from boss fight is at the middle level! The skill tree (with literal
tree) is great new feature. You are allowed to relocate the umbral bees to any
branch skill you like. The magic pool can be customized as you want. You can
remove some of the magic or you can change the order. The magic system is kind
of tedious because it's activated by holding the attack button which leaves you
vulnerable and there's cooldown before you can cast another magic. But you
don't need golden armor to cast magic. Even when you're armorless, you can
still cast magic. Speaking of golden armor, there's one that will power up your
weapon but i couldn't find it because i believe the difficulty setting
determines the likeliness of the golden armor to appear. The auto revive skill
is very useful especially in boss fight where there's no checkpoint in the
middle of it. The ability to carry 2 weapons at once also useful because many
of them is situational to use. But it's more tedious than in Cuphead where the the mazer brothers can
carry 2 weapons from get go. The thing is in Cuphead, you can set the weapon set before the level starts. But in
this game, you have to search for weapon you want. After that, your arsenal can
be ruined by unintentionally picking new weapon on your way! Astoundingly, there's 2 Player Mode! 2 Players Co-op mode in Ghosts 'N Goblins game! Crazy! The 2nd player act as ghost that somehow help Arthur in some way. I can't test it because i don't have friend that willing to play this game. Probably.
Ghost 'n Goblin Resurrection (2021) is for those who grew up with Cuphead. That may not true. What i mean is if you play Cuphead and feel it's too hard or unfair. Then GnG Resurrection is certainly not for you. It's way harsher than Cuphead. But i bought it anyway. Not because i'm hardcore fans of GnG series or master at it. No. I only understand a bit about it and grow some tolerance to its usual high frustration-inducing difficulty. The reason is the Makaimura theme obviously! In this game there's 2 of version of it so the fun is double! I also bought the soundtracks too, by the way. The reason behind the enormous difficulty curve is not because the game is janky. It's polished well. It's just solely design to give player hard time but once you defeat it. You feel very satisfied as if you achieve something grand in your lifetime.
In conclusion: i can't recommend you to play this game. Do it at your own risk.
NB: I will make review about Ultimate Ghost 'n Goblin in future.
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