After a hard day of knighting, you just want to get out of that stiff armour and lounge around in your boxers, hopefully while in the company of your dearest princess. But wouldnât you know it, evil doesnât care about your day off, or that princesses have better things to do than get abducted every second week. So off you go, grabbing that armour while, in the distance, your kingdom burns beneath a devilish assault.
So with armour clenched tight, lance in hand and a permanent scowl on his face, our hero Arthur prepares to face another manic Monday. . .
Well okay, itâs not really Monday. Iâm pretty sure what day it is doesnât matter when your kingdom is burning. But what it is, is the day we welcome the Ghosts ân Goblins series back with Ghosts ân Goblins Resurrection. Thatâs right, the original rock hard, make you cry Dark Souls of its day has a new game and itâs here to show you what hard really is all about.
Ghosts ân Goblins Resurrection originally launched earlier this year, February to be exact, on Nintendo Switch and now Capcom has finally brought it to PS4 with PS5 backwards compatibility, Xbox One and PC, letting the rest of the gaming community experience one of gamingâs toughest hard love franchises.
As both a reboot and a remake of the original Ghosts ân Goblins, Resurrection yet again places you in the armour of put upon knight Arthur as his princess is kidnapped while a demonic invasion turns the kingdom into an overrun, twisted hellscape. Youâre going to have to side-scroll and platform your way through one tough level after another in an attempt to beat the ever-loving snot out of the dastardly evil behind this plot while, hopefully, not breaking your controller in the process.
Once you get past the stunning visual style that Capcom has employed for this reboot which makes the game look like a fable drawn from a storybook, youâll find that Capcom has employed the old adage of âif it ainât broke, donât fix itâ. Arthur moves exactly as he did in the older games, just with better animation. He possesses the same level of speed, making timing a critical choice and can only jump over and onto objects if you jump while moving. Jumping while standing still will merely propel Arthur straight up, meaning you have to unlearn many of the moves that modern platformers have brought to the table since then. Arthur can also attack in three directions: in front of him, above him by aiming up and below him if you attack while jumping and pressing down on the D-pad or directional buttons.
The key to success in a level, beyond mastering the way Arthur controls and having twitch reflexes, is in memorising the level design and enemy attack patterns. Levels usually have moving parts to them, which adds a nice sense of dynamics to the environment. What weapon you wield is just as important as all of the above. Arthurâs arsenal has expanded since the first game though his trusty default lance is usually the best all-rounder. Picking the right tool for the job, as the saying goes, is tantamount to success. The hammer that unleashes a small arc of energy across distances requires you to get too close to enemies while the dual-shot crossbow requires a lot of jumping to hit an enemy because of the arrows diagonal shots. The holy water is still useless. Weapons can drop from chests or jar carrying enemies.
Two big additions to this game are Umbra bees and a local two-player co-op mode. Collecting the bees scattered across the levels will unlock magic abilities for Arthur. Magic does need to be charged up for use so you with a brief cool down so you canât just spam it, making its use more tactical than a Hail Mary when you suddenly find yourself surrounded. The two player co-op lets a second player use a ghostly ancestor of Arthurâs to help him through the levels. Controlling one of three spirits with their own abilities, player two can help Arthur through a level by carrying him around, for instance.
The games visuals are gorgeous, employing a multi-layered approach to screen elements that make the characters seem like a combination of paper art and puppets with elements placed on top of one another. The animation is also wonderful and each enemy has their own distinct visual style and movement. The visuals, which look straight out of a storybook, canât hide the games difficulty though.
Because Resurrection, as befitting a GnG title, is hard. But not unbeatably so. Capcom has chosen to incorporate four difficulty settings, aiming at embracing modern gaming conventions while still attracting the hard-core crowd.
Page lets you respawn at the exact spot you died at with no level time limit and a max of four hits you can take before crumbling to a skeleton. Squire gives you the same four hit limit, level checkpoint and mid-level rebirth checkpoints but throws back in the time limit. Knight takes you down to three hits, checkpoints, a time limit and an increase in enemy speed. Legend takes you back to the original GNG settings by dropping you down to a two hit maximum with no rebirth checkpoints and more enemies.
Ghosts ân Goblins Resurrection is the perfect platform to showcase Arthurâs return to his own series. Itâs both difficult enough to appeal to stalwart series veterans while making enough concessions that casual gamers too will be able to finish it. Itâs also a wonderful showcase for the versatility of the RE Engine with its gorgeous visuals and animation. Whether youâre a GNG neophyte or accomplished devil slayer, this game should not be missed.
Pros:
- Not as difficult as the original Ghosts ‘n Goblins
- Gorgeous storybook aesthetic
- Full of character
- Different difficulty levels
Cons:
- Magic takes a bit too long to activate
Score: 9/10
Ghosts ân Goblins Resurrection was reviewed using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher.
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