Castle in The Darkness is an RPG platformer with a very vast world. Sadly, it is truly unforgiving.

I'll start this review right away by mentioning that the game is filled with insta-death spikes, traps and cheap mechanics. There are many instances in which you will kill a boss or complete a very hard platforming session only to be welcomed by a death-trap. There are even a few rooms in the game where you die as you enter the room/press a switch...

Now, if you're still here after this, well congratulations, you might have just found your new game! Onto the good aspects of this game... First of all, the awesome, awesome soundtrack! It's a huge chiptune OST with very memorable songs and it is easy to see that the composer has spent a lot of time spent composing those! The graphics are very nicely done in a pixelart style.

There's a bunch of items and weapons and armors to collect, most of them have special abilities and there's tons of secret rooms with game references and/or very powerful rewards. No one's playthrough will be the same for their first times. Speaking of this, one small piece of advice, without spoiling anything at all... When you get the double-jump powerup, please, be aware that you are able to reach a lot of new places in the old/new zones you will discover! I have personally almost reached the final boss with minimal gear as I was not finding new upgrades because I did not go back after getting the double-jump powerup!

What more to say... well the game is very hard for once. There are many checkpoints, but rarely are they after boss-rooms! You can and will die a few times after beating bosses by going through difficult zones in order to find a checkpoint. They are quite sparce in the later parts of the game.

Now, back to a bit of... displeasing things about the game. There are no mini-maps. Some secrets (which are required in order to 100% the game) are very, very hard to get as they require very specific methods. You need a lot of wit and puzzle-solving abilities and a good sense of observation and being good at deciphering text in order to get some of the best items.

So overall, it is a very good game, albeit being rage-inducing due to cheap death mechanics... I would recommend this game to platformer adepts and people who enjoy a good retro challenge.

As for the game length, obviously very dependant on skills, it takes a good 5 hours to complete the game. Around 10 hours if you want to complete the game with 100% achievements/items. More if you want to replay NG+ or the secrets levels that you unlock during the game.