4/5 ★ – mjoshua's review of Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.

Wonder Labyrinth is pure comfort food. I finished last night and adored it. Probably the best modern game like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I should probably say the full name of the game. It’s called Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. So please forgive me for reducing it just to Wonder Labyrinth. The best part is the core combat system. When you get your combat meter to a 3x multiplier, it starts to heal you. The catch is that you have two meters: a wind one and a fire one. And most elements in the game shift between the two. When you’re the fire element, fire can’t hurt you. Same for wind. So you’re constantly swapping elements — like Guacamelee, but a little less gimmicky. The structure is great: typical 6-hour metroidvania. The problem is that the story isn’t a typical metroidvania story. It’s a mindbendy narrative loop. It’s far more suited to a narrative roguelike such as Returnal, Mooncrash, Astalon, or even Dead Cells. There’s lots of mind-bendy trauma to resolve. That doesn’t fit well with the clear cut bespoke level design. I get how hard it is to make a metroidvania, let alone one with mind-bendy progression elements. But when you make a game with a purely tragic character experience, it’s better to confront that with impermanence and mechanical fragmentation. I’ll probably post a video later from the game because it just looks so crazy good in motion. It’s not gonna set the world on fire but it’s a delightful game. I think I finished it in about four days. It’s short. Only like six hours or so. Recommended!