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Trainsylvania's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #3 | 4.053 | 4.053 |
| Execution | #5 | 3.947 | 3.947 |
| Metroidvania | #6 | 4.263 | 4.263 |
| Overall | #8 | 3.926 | 3.926 |
| Sensory | #9 | 3.684 | 3.684 |
| Relevance to the theme picked | #14 | 3.684 | 3.684 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme chosen
Classic! We interpreted classic as in classic/retro video games, so the game is based on what is debateably the most classic of all metroidvanias, Castlevania Symphony of the Night.
Team/Developer
Käselord & Piellow
Engine
Godot (4.2.1)
External assets
Listed on game page, 3 sound samples
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Comments
Enjoyment: 3.5/5. Enjoyed this one mostly. Except for that one room with the falling exploding things.
Execution: 4/5: Not perfect but pretty well-executed. I know there was a map planned, but I'm not inclined to be super-weird about its not being there, as I wouldn't have known otherwise. I always struggle a bit with large characters and having to dodge things, so maybe that goes to taste.
Sensory: 3.5/5. The characters are well-animated; the backgrounds and some tiles left more to be desired. Enemies were somewhat fitting. Music worked well and sound choice was good. (As this is the second category reaching 3.5, Enjoyment is getting bumped to 4.)
Metroidvania: 5/5. Does what the genre does on the tin. Even had some secrets.
Relevance to theme: 4/5. Leans well into classically Igavania convention.
Finally got to playing this, and, yeah, it's really cool! I was briefly concerned after you took away the slide at the start, but luckily, you get it back really quickly, because moving around without it feels really bad with how slow you are. But the slide feels really good to make up for it, so that's all fine. I only wish there were more opportunities to show it off. Zooming through the bomb section felt good (although their AoE was a little unclear, so I did die once standing somewhere I thought I was safe) and I would've liked to see more areas where you could zoom through super fast. But alas, that's jam constraints for you. I also quite enjoyed the final boss. Great job overall!
So after a 2nd complete and total play through, I believe I discovered everything this game has to offer. Very well put together. The use of sound effects/music is very fitting for the overall game. The enemies and attacks and mechanics are fun and introduced well with the metroid style. I think I even discovered all the hidden areas, including the one back at the original entrance after you got the other two powerups. The Warrior Emblem? I think it was...
While the attack style of the final boss was fun and harder to beat, I found that if you stand right in the middle and not move what so ever just change direction when he changes directions, I was able to avoid 95% of his attacks and just wipe him down to death. Not sure if this was intention or not, but overall the game was fantastic as whole. I loved the sound effects and animations on things, and variations of styles of enemies and sizes difference and all that. I don't really have more to say, I did comment and review already earlier, trying to go back to the few games I really loved and give a full play through and see what I could find or see if there was breaking/bugs I didn't find before. Overall great job!
Thank you!
Short but fun game!
Great game, everything looked and felt great.
My only issues with it would be the move speed (especially compared to the dash speed) and how the camera follows your every move, it made going up stairs dizzying.
Very well done. It was short but sweet. The movement felt very good (slide jumping was particularly satisfying) and the power-ups all had their uses. There was a fair amount of enemy variety and the two bosses I fought were well made. The writing was pretty good too, a lot of call-backs to classic games that are always fun to see. And those enemy death screams, I smiled every time I heard one.
Some feedback:
- The first boss's implementation was very impressive with the legs, but I initially felt a little frustrated by the lack of counter play. I felt like I couldn't really get close to him because both of his attacks were close range and had very big hit boxes. I eventually figured out I could dash through him to get a few quick hits in, but this would end up putting me in a corner which also wasn't ideal. Maybe I'm missing the intended strat, but I strugged much more on this boss than on Death himself.
- There seems to be a bug with oneof your map connections, two rooms (big central room and lower right room) are physically linked bu the map shows a romo in-between them. There also seems to be an exit to a room that I aws never able to access no matter how much I explored. Is it a bug or is there some trick to getting down there? OH YEAH, and what was the deal with the room with the nuclear bombs?! I made it through but... what?
I got the hero emblem but it didn't actually seem to have an effect, enemies still took the same amount of hits to kill. Is it used elsewhere？
Anyways, other than those things, I enjoyed my time with the game. I did a lot of back tracking and exploring, but because the movement was so quick and smooth, it still felt good, and the Death fight was very fun. Nice variety of patterns that felt like you could get a real sense of mastery over them. Great job!
Fantastic play! Controls were good and felt very polished. Not much else to say other than great job and it was clear you put a lot of effort into this title.
Had a great time playing. I spent most of my time dashing around it felt great! Controls felt very responsive and feedback was wonderful. Had a great time exploring the map and tried to find everything. no real notes, but I did find something however, and I'm not sure how I did either lol.
peak kaselord content, sad there was no hell ;((((
Hey, i saw your progress on the Discord server! It's amazing what you made. Congratulations!
I'll admit, i haven't played Castlevania Symphony of the Night, so i can't say how faithful this game is to the classic, but judging by the rest of the comments, you nailed it.
Regardless, the movement, the levels, the power ups, all of those are well done, it's clear you put a lot of passion on this game.
If i had to give some suggestions, maybe a couple more adjustments, like more collectables (like health, which could help with the bosses, especially with death), and the nukes area could use some nerfs, since it tends to be a bit unfair at times (at least their damage is not area based).
Definitely one of the best of this jam.
Side note: that death sound effect caught me off guard, not gonna lie.
This game feels SO good to play, the controls and feedback are really nice and snappy. I do wish the bosses were a bit more difficult though because these controls are just too fun for bosses that can be brute forced with relative ease. Balancing a jam game's difficulty is a very tough tight rope though so I definitely get why this was on the easier side, and enjoyed my time all the way through nonetheless!
Very obviously CSofN inspired! liked showing off what the game had to offer in terms of powers before taking it all away (Though in my opinion that cutscene goes way too quickly and you would benefit from spelling it out a bit more for the player).
Levels and gameplay worked, though didn't feel like there was much of a creative twist (maybe I didn't get that far?) Dashing felt good (Though felt bad to lose). The boss felt a tiny bit hard but was doable in a few goes. I couldn't work out where to go after getting the fancy whip upgrade - there wasn't anything that seemed to need it in particular to progress.
Ah you missed the final boss - it's a little out of the way, in the top left corner of the map. Don't feel the need to revisit it, the save system doesn't work in the browser I believe. Thanks for playing and rating nonetheless!
LOL ! I Loved this game on 2nd play through, 100% one to check out! I'll give a 4.8/5 as of now.... At first I read this as Trainsylvania and then I thought for some reason this was Transylvania with the character design? Was this a thing? The effects and enemies and variations and "fear" factor of everything jumping in and out was really impressive with the effects and SFX.... and the art style defiantly got better and better the more I played. I think I started with that dash ability, lost it, then regained it? I don't know, maybe I missed "Death" say something to me. overall great game here will try to play again later to beat "Death"
"Trainsylvania" is a pun we came up with, based on "Transylvania"(the vampire place) and trains, though the final game unfortunately did not end up having that many trains lol. "Death" stole all your powerups at the beginning, so you'd need to go through the castle and get them back. Thanks for playing!!
Yup yup I got all that then. Very cool. Really loved the game
Would love to do a more detailed play-though and/or comment/review of this game playing it more in detail and trying to get to the very end of it.... please if you could also rate/comment on my own submission...I'd be happy to provide more details and play-throughs of this one.... On my top list of games in the jam
one of the best games in the jam in my opinion....Going back to see if I can completely finish the game... I think I was probably really close the 1st time I went through! I would appreciate any review/comment on our submission if you have the time this week! please and thanks!
You nailed SoTN vibes. I'm slowly inching my framework to meet that, but you really hit the nail on the head on this one. Music and art meshed completely. I mean this is definitely a 5 star across the board entry for me. Its almost hard to offer some critical feedback, but I think I found at least a couple points I wanted to address.
Overall, definitely well polished and since SoTN is my favorite Castlevania, I really appreciated the influences from that such as Alucard's movement trail, Death taking all your stuff in the beginning, the Fight with death essentially being the exact same mechanics, and even death animations were so similar.
Super congrats!
Hi!! First, thanks for playing the game all the way through and offering such kind criticism :)
All your points are totally valid and some of them I plan on adressing, noteably the map and lack of trains. I wasn't really aware that the game was as difficult as it is, might adjust that sometime. Thanks!
No problem. As for difficulty, I think thats such an incredibly easy mistake to make. This MVM, I decided to think about that more and found that if it feels slightly overpower, it's closer to being balanced to others. There are some exceptions, especially in my game and how you choose to play, but overall that's just been my personal experience. I did decide to give my boss 5 more points of health after all the playtesting, and I'm hoping its just enough feel just right.
I know this guy, and The creator of Trainsylvania too, I am blessed to have these talented friends
This seems really unique and interesting has those Daniel Mullen vibes so far... I am so sorry and tired to continue tonight....I will pick off here as soon as I can... I rated a 3.8/5 at first glance....love the controller support this seems to have some potential can't wait to play through it deeper this week