There’s no question that this has been a generation full of titles revisiting games from the past. Whether in the form of remasters, remixes, homages, or whatever word people want to use to describe them… mining great games from earlier generations and bringing them forward is great for fans, but also in the interests of preservation. As you may have noticed, in this case of this particular title it uses the addendum of Retold, something you haven’t likely seen before, but considering the original Castle of Heart just hit the scene in the last generation, a redux for it already seems like an unusual choice.

I’ll give the developers credit for a reasonably original idea that drove the initial release as well as this mild re-tweaking. Your character has essentially been cursed, turning him to stone, but due to the love of his beau and a magical amulet he possesses he is able to just barely hold off death, allowing him to work to turn things back to normal. The problem is that this gives his journey a definite sense of urgency, and though you’ll be able to regain essence that will hold the magical ill effects at bay as you slay enemies, the damage you take will also accelerate those effects. Put it together with many sections that will give you a hearty challenge, and just like the original you can see potential in the elements that the developers assembled.

Unfortunately, many of the issues I remember having with the original incarnation of the game still remain. While the hook to try to keep yourself healthy by continuing to press forward and not dilly dally makes sense, in practice your moveset isn’t deep enough to keep you out of trouble by simply throwing yourself into the fray. You’re instead better off being cautious and picking off enemies more carefully, but that also ends up making combat less enjoyable. While secondary weapons are absolutely essential to your success, picking them up can be troublesome, especially when they can sometimes stack onto each other, which stinks if you’re hoping for a crossbow or spear and come up with something else. The fact that you lose your ability to even use such weapons entirely when your health gets low enough can also be aggravating, especially since that can pretty easily happen in the heat of things without you knowing until you’re trying to use them.

There are absolutely sections in the game that are interesting and work (even if they can be frustrating in spots), but they’re almost always the ones that aren’t focused on combat and instead change up the style of play a bit. For being so focused on fighting, the game could really use a bit of added oomph to help it shine more, bringing the experience more to match the level of the competition which has only gotten more refined and formidable since the original launched… but this still feels like it’s lagging behind. It is absolutely an improvement over the original, but it still struggles to firmly establish a place amongst its better peers.