Castle in The Clouds DX. Wow, even though this is the second time I've played this game, it still gave me a heck of a lot of fun. This right here is one of the best H-game out there. Of course it's far from perfect and might not be suitable for those who much prefer lots of H-content, but in terms of... everything else really, this game tops.
-Artstyle: I've never seen such an amazing rendition of the pixel artstyle. This game's pixel art is one of the best out there, not just because of how amazing it looks, but how it feels in the context of this game. This game's whole vibes truly feel retro, as if this game is an old-gen console game or an arcade game. Without the porn, if this game was shown to me, not knowing when it was released, I would have honestly said this is a game from the 90's. The pixel art isn't over the top highly detailed and full of modern effects and graphics like some you would see nowadays, e.g Celeste, or even it's not actually real pixel art like Dead Cells. Instead, Castle in The Clouds has a more traditional, grounded yet astonishingly well-drawn pixel art that looks impressive and amazing to look at without breaking the immersion of a retro-styled game. Heck, I'd say they nail it even down to the movements of multi-segment bosses, they all feel like classical yet immersive.
-Sounds and music: much like the art, the sound effects of this game are mostly compressed to feel like a retro game, it adds up a lot to the immersion. Castle in The Clouds DX also introduces a new OST that the original didn't had, and WOW is it an upgrade! This new OST is a banger and a half. It perfectly fits in what I said before, sounds really good and impressive but still stay true to that retro feeling. Each of the track is super duper good, really elevates whatever situation you're currently in and set the mood for the areas you're traversing a lot, epic is an understatement. Thank you g3ntlebreeze for the amazing soundtrack, this game wouldn't be as iconic as it is without you. Dare I say, this is one of the best H-game OST I've ever heard and I would unironically listen to it outside of the game, which is massively impressive in my book.
-Story: it might not be as deep and good as other H-game's story, but for a metroidvania at this level, the fact that there is a story and it is quite decent is already enough for me. I will say there is a lot of room to make the story a lot more than it is now like setting clearer stakes and dangers to create motivations for our main character, Lily, to defeat bosses rather than setting them up as quests or express more dialogues to make Lily's characteristic a bit more dynamic. Regardless, the fact that there is a linear story to go through and there is an order to go through each and every stage before reaching the castle is already enough for me at the very least.
-Gameplay: simple, yet surprisingly effective and fun.
You have an arrangement of weapons to choose from and most despite playing the same animation to swing them out, the differences between range, speed and damage, etc. is enough to make each stand out and viable for different playstyles without making one type as the universally best weapon to use.
Enemies are rather unique, creative and fun despite each functioning very similarly to each other. Just the different ways they are spawned in a room and the different synergies the devs made are enough to make each encounter threatening yet fun to go against.
Speaking of rooms, the map design is honestly really really good, you'd certainly never get bored of the map design no matter how much you've traversed in the same room. Moving around in those room are elevated further by just how masterfully crafted the movement in this game is.
Progression is honestly very well made. There are abilities you can pick up in areas of the map that unlock new attacks, movements, buffs etc. most of which are optional and isn't actually required to progress through certain parts of the game. This is to reward you for exploring, which is the game's main way of rewarding you. Although this can cause some problem like a few parts of the map might be super hard to pass without certain items, but luckily the mandatory ones are either very obvious or is hinted at as a way to make you obtain them. I really like this system as encouragement to explore and back tracking, but I can see how some people might dislike it.
The bosses are all amazing in their own way. Each is very very unique in the way you fight them, and it's surprising despite how they have a very obvious pattern you can follow, each battle is still fun and challenging. The only boss I really don't like a lot is probably the final boss, where you can use your giant health pool to cheese the boss using i-frames and also the deplorable fact that she's very RNG-based. Despite so I think she's far from being some of the worst boss I've ever fought against.
All in all, these elements not only make the gameplay extraordinary, but also is very fun to experience even after replays. The game also have NG+ and a boss rush, so it really wants you to have fun with the gameplay components.
-H-content: despite all of the awesomeness the gameplay provides, this game rather lacks in the adult content side. There is only short animations of sex scenes scattered around the game. There isn't a lot for you to enjoy during and even after finishing the game. The sex scenes in here at least isn't counter-intuitive, rather they serve as a pretty good mechanic, Lust. This stat increases the more sex scenes you encounter via enemies with the heart effect. Other than allowing you to get some money at the start of the game through prostitution, it strengthens the burst damage every time you encounter the sex enemies, which can come in handy when you're going through each rooms, which means the game actively recommends you to trigger H-scenes. Still, there is a lot of missed potentials in terms of H-content, there could be more enemies that trigger sex scenes, or maybe each boss have their own H-scenes after being defeated, etc. etc. It's a bit disappointing, but the gameplay makes up for it a lot I think.
--Conclusion: while there are much less H-scenes to enjoy in comparison to other H-games, the gameplay, the OST, the art, etc. all is very great. I'd recommend you this game if you like an amazing metroidvania with lots of replayability and well-crafted gameplay, but if you want a game with lots of H-scenes and other sexual contents to enjoy, I guess this one isn't really it. One of the best H-game ever. 9.5/10.