Lords of Exile [Review]
Lords of Exile is a love letter to Castlevania that feels great to play
Squidbit Works’ Lords of Exile, published by PID Games and Pixelheart, is an atmospheric 8-bit side-scrolling action platformer. Developer Carlos Azuaga made a killer homage to classic Castlevania games.
The game takes place in Exilia, a land with far eastern flavor. Gabirel, a cursed knight, is out for revenge against the demonic lord who murdered his fiancee. The story here is no-frills. The player must simply travel across Exilia, defeating monsters until he can face the final boss.
Lords of Exile features eight linear levels, each themed to a different biome. Levels are filled with monsters, obstacles, and heights to climb, with the level designs taking heavy cues from the 8-bit Castlevania games. Enemies take no more than a couple hits to defeat, and all the bosses have fixed patterns that you can learn to defeat them. The patterns become especially important because later bosses do more damage and may have multiple phases. As long as you learn the patterns, Lords of Exile isn’t very challenging; the game also features infinite lives and checkpoints at the beginning of every section of each level.
Gameplay is nearly identical to classic Castlevania. Gabriel’s sprite even resembles Simon Belmont. Gabriel has his sword available for melee combat and is able to equip a ranged attack with limited uses. The ranged throwing daggers, overhead sickles, and boomeranging scythes should be familiar to players of the series that inspired this game. Jumping physics are nearly identical to Castlevania as well; the jump feels heavy and only goes a short distance. Gabriel is also able to do a quick ground slide, similar to classic Mega Man. The game controls with precision, except some odd cases I ran into where the double jump didn’t work when I expected it to. Combat is satisfying.
The game differentiates itself with ability upgrades and a summon mechanic. Defeating each boss grants the player a new ability. These allow you to double jump, gain new attack types, attack over a greater range, and more. You’ll also earn some summon abilities over the course of the game, powered by a mana gauge. One summon grants a ranged attack than can break down certain walls, and the other functions as a grappling hook. The summoned creature floats behind the player and disappears when he drains the mana gauge by using the summon’s abilities.
The pixel-perfect 8-bit art is great. It fully immersed me in the era the game nostalgically references, the games of the late ‘80s and ‘90s. This extends to the sound effects and music too; the game uses 16-bit sounds from the Sega Genesis/Megadrive sound chip.
I finished the game in around three hours on my first playthrough. After you beat the final boss, a second playable character is unlocked. Lyria is a ninja: she uses ranged kunai daggers, moves faster, and starts with the ability to double jump. Despite her lacking most of the other upgrades or the ability to slide, she makes the game considerably easier. I finished my second playthrough in under an hour.
If you’re like me and love classic Castlevania, you owe it to yourself to check out Lords of Exile. Squidbit Works totally succeeded in making a fourth NES Castlevania game that we never got.
Lords of Exile is available now for PC on Steam, Xbox One / Series X|S, PS4 / PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 9/10
Played on: PS5
