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0 Chronicles Of The Wolf is a metroidvania so fiercely loyal to its source material that it could have fooled me into believing it was made in the early 90s. As cliché and overused as it may sound, the game is a true love letter to the roots of the genre. Whilst the game is available now on Steam this is a preview article of the demo only.
A Nostalgic Throwback, For Better And For Worse
As soon as you open the game, your senses teleport you back to a time when the internet made strange noises, phones had long curly cords, and televisions were as heavy as modern fridges. The menu options, the eerie retro music, and the 32-pixel resolution all work together in harmony to deliver an incredibly immersive experience. Let’s check it out.
Gameplay
You play as Mateo Lombardo, an initiate of the Rose Cross Order. You and your brethren are tasked with slaying a beast that has been haunting the people of the French region of Gevaudan. Upon your arrival, you and your fellow knights are ambushed by the beast. You are, of course, the sole survivor. You now must finish the job and slay the werewolf. I’m assuming that the plot is simplistic on purpose to further add to the vintage throwback immersion.
As mentioned above, Chronicles of the Wolf stays true to its roots, not only in visuals and sound but in gameplay as well. Just like the games of yore, this forces you to time your jumps, sword-swings, and dodges like it’s 1994. Rigid jump arcs, back-tracking, and pattern-based enemies are all part of the menu. Combat design deliberately ignores combo-style attacks from contemporary roguelites. Instead, it leans heavily into its old-school mechanics. Does it feel clunky and, at times, even frustrating? Yes, but that is part of its arcade-era charm. This game is telling you to take it for what it is or leave it.
The Enemies
Classic gothic monstrosities like slimy zombies, armoured skeletons, or evil trees will come at you from all sides. All 2-D sides that is. I found the Chronicles of the Wolf gameplay rather easy in difficulty, considering I played the demo without dying too many times. The game only really tests you during boss fights when every missed swing of your sword or a badly timed dodge will punish you by shortening your life bar considerably.
Outside of actual combat gameplay, I feel morally obligated to mention that the inventory menu is a disaster. User-friendly and intuitive were words not yet used in the nineteen-hundreds. In its attempt to stay 100% faithful to the Castlevania games from that era, Chronicles of the Wolf has a cumbersome inventory menu at best. At its worst, the inventory menu can slowly drive you insane. The most basic functions, such as equipping items or looking up your stats when you level up, can feel like a chore. This is a perfect example of how game developers, Migami Games, could have cleaned up and streamlined the process just a little bit for the sake of players’ sanity.
Graphics & Audio
Every detail of this game is designed to create the illusion of playing an early 90s SNES game. From the colour palette to the 16-bit style, everything is meticulously crafted to bring that retro feel to life. The environment is full of crumbling gothic castles, spooky forests, sticky sewers, and haunted mansions. All rendered in detailed pixel art.
The boss fights swell with more dramatic synth music, while exploration tracks slow things down with moody, minor-key melodies and eerie ambiance. You won’t find any orchestral bombast or modern production, and that’s the point. The soundtrack’s commitment to sounding era-accurate is part of what sells the game’s whole illusion. In addition to the music, the distorted, retro sound effects, like the swoosh of the sword or the crunchy growl of the undead, feel like they are coming out of the old speakers of a family computer. Yes, family computers used to be a thing in the 90s, look it up, Gen Z.
Personally, my favourite parts of the game were the narrative cutscenes. The narrator’s deep voice and over-the-top intensity turned these cutscenes into melodramatic parody. If the storybook-style scenes were truly meant to be dark and scary, I’m sorry to say they achieved quite the opposite.
Longevity
The demo of Chronicles of the Wolf takes approximately two hours to complete. If you make it through those, I think it’s safe to assume this type of retro gaming is your cup of tea. The full game’s longevity will depend on player-based factors rather than game-based. If you have played a few Metroidvania or roguelite games before and know what you’re getting yourself into, you might finish this game rather quickly. If, on the other hand, you’re new to this genre and you’ve only ever played AAA games, the game might take significantly longer, and its clunky mechanics might test your patience.
Final Thoughts
If you’re feeling nostalgic over the times when your mom would tell you to get off the internet so she could make a phone call, and fighting with your siblings over whose turn it is to play, then this game is for you. Chronicles of the Wolf successfully replicates the vibe, feel, gameplay, and aesthetic of the 1980s / 90s video game era like few modern titles have. The game’s bold commitment to aesthetic purity is what gives it its vintage charm, as well as its occasional frustration.
While the dedication to authenticity is admirable, it ultimately holds the game back. The frustratingly stiff controls, the dreadful inventory system, the predictable enemy movements, and the sense of deja vu in every level bog the game down. What could have been a beautiful homage feels more like something stuck in the past. I can’t help but feel that Chronicles of the Wolf should have borrowed at least some elements from its contemporaries, such as Blasphemous or Dead Cells.
My final thought is really to just state the obvious. Besides switching out Dracula for a werewolf called The Beast, the game frankly doesn’t contribute anything new to the genre. If I were truly feeling this nostalgic, why not just play the OG? Why not just play Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, or Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, or Castlevania: Bloodlines?
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