It is some breath-holding adrenaline as you try to manage that and discern the enemies attack pattern in the hopes of getting a hit in. Near all of them have death pits scattered around their arena, while others have hazards such as having to fight under a waterfall and resisting the currents rapid flow leading into the abyss. They offer a decent fight and considering you fight many in their own turf, playing on Normal and having the knockback effect activated can make any hit deadly.
None of the bosses are as difficult as Death from the original Castlevania, yet are no pushovers. All of them are pretty lengthy and feature a boss fight at the end of them. It will be quite a journey before we reach a castle of any sort, and after the initial stage, the difficulty finally starts kicking in. The setting we find ourselves in is akin to where we start in Castlevania 3, but instead of walking into a castle soon after, we journey through a deserted countryside. Everything you need to know is established to the player in the first several steps in an organic fashion before we set off to annihilate the undead. It is a decently designed intro that will quickly hand you a sub-weapon, have you recharge its meter with coins, and teach you to smack walls to reveal secrets. Starting off, your enemies will be lowly zombies and floating eyeballs that go down with one hit. Including the fact that you can only whip horizontally, meaning flying enemies will once again be the bane of your existence. Besides that, pretty much everything you’d expect from the old linear Castlevanias are all here and present. Another minor change is that whipping apart candles will drop coins instead of hearts to fill up your sub-weapon meter.
One of the most significant differences is that there is no longer a timer, so you are free to take as long in a level as you please. From the slightly remixed tunes of iconic songs to the very accurate graphic style that captures its vibe, all of it feels authentic. Once you are in the game itself proper, it will immediately hit you how much like Castlevania this feels. All Easy does is remove the knockback effect when being damaged, which seems minor, yet makes quite a difference. Before starting the game, you are given an option to pick either Easy or Normal. Trying to hunt a succubus with a whip seems similar to showing up to an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting hiding whiskey in your can of Pepsi, but it is as effective a weapon as ever. We play as the appropriately named Simone Belmont, our whip-wielding heroine on a quest to slay a succubus. In fact, it so closely follows the design of its inspiration that it ends up being Castlevania in all but name. Castle of Succubus is an adult-oriented 2D Action Platformer inspired by the original Castlevania.