Castle of Heart: Retold Review — A Heart of Stone

Castle of Heart: Retold, as the name suggests, is a refined version of the 2018 platformer. Based on Slavic mythology, players step into the shoes of a noble knight as he rushes to save his betrothed from a demon-worshipping evildoer, fighting against a deadly curse that turns him to stone along the way. While certainly refined from the original, there are still elements left unchanged that can leave you wanting, and I’m not sure every change made in this remaster was for the better.

For the utterly unfamiliar (like myself when I first started playing), Castle of Heart: Retold is a side-scrolling platformer presented in a 2.5D style, meaning it utilizes the camera of a 2D game but features 3D models. The game simultaneously plays as a classic sort of scroller, paying homage to older titles and trying to feel very familiar for fans of those games, while also presenting a very unique twist upon which the game’s difficulty is built.

This twist is built around the game’s story; our protagonist, cursed by the evil priest of Chernobog, has been turned into a statue. Only the tears of his beloved wife-to-be can free him from this curse, but it’s only a matter of time before the magic overwhelms him.

This plays as a sort of ticking clock that players race against through each level. The effects of the curse reverting our protagonist back to stone are portrayed through a constantly draining health bar, one which, of course, will kill our protagonist and send him back to the last checkpoint if allowed to run out. Said checkpoints refill your health bar, as do the occasional health pickups and defeating enemies.

While I never played the original, a bit of surface-level research shows a lot of complaints about an almost Dark Souls-level difficulty in Castle of Heart, one which was partially due to janky combat controls and the oppressive nature of combat in general.

While I don’t have the experience with the first game to do a direct comparison, I can say that I didn’t feel as though the combat in Castle of Heart: Retold was punishing, one of the elements the developers were open about wanting to fix in this title. If anything, I found the combat to be a slightly underwhelming experience; the attack system was simple to a fault and felt a little stiff and awkward to use. Enemy placement did create a challenge, but moving through enemies felt less like a feat of strength and more like obstacles to keep you busy as your timer ran out, or foes strategically placed to give you an opportunity to heal.

It is because of these elements of the game’s design that Castle of Heart: Retold feels less like your standard Metroidvania or side-scrolling platformer and more like a time-trial-type game, challenging you to go back and find the best routes to beat a level quickly and efficiently. The game doesn’t offer much in the way of rewarding exploration, nor would players really have the time to do so if it did, as the aforementioned ticking clock keeps you moving forward at all times. The times when the game is at its best are when it rewards that need for forward momentum with satisfying, fast-feeling sequences, such as sliding down slopes or running from an oncoming war machine.

The game has a fairly decent number of levels, especially considering the price, but your mileage with them will vary greatly based on your skill level. It never took me more than a few tries to clear a segment, and I found that finding the right platforms to travel was more of a time reward and less of a necessity to succeed. If the original version of the game was one that players found too difficult, returning players may find Castle of Heart: Retold to be comically easy, as you can hit most obstacles, traps, and time sinks and still easily make it through the levels.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that the game is so easy that you can reliably roll through enemies and hit hazards without worrying about making it to the next checkpoint. My only real consistent form of failure came in miscalculating the distance on a jump and plunging into the abyss.

The game’s sound and lighting are, in fact, improvements over the original, but I can’t say I feel the same about the new art direction. The original Castle of Heart had a kind of gritty, grungy look to it, perhaps unintentionally created due to the limitations of what the developers had on hand. This new version certainly uses crisper and higher-quality models, but everything just looks kind of generic, as though they were flipped from the UE asset store. While I love the new soundtrack, I have to say that visually the game appears to have lost a lot of charm and looks rather generic and uninteresting.

If I were to describe Castle of Heart: Retold in one word, it would be underwhelming. I personally did not find myself drawn to the simplistic, clunky-feeling combat; I was uninspired by the rather generic change in art direction, and I found the game’s unique mechanical hook to be interesting if unutilized. Perhaps, in their effort to make the game feel less crushingly difficult, they managed to make it all a bit too easy. It’s hard for me to say, but perhaps fans of the original will find this remake much more approachable, if not a total improvement over the original.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of Castle of Heart: Retold. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Castle of Heart: Retold is available on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.