Others - Completed - Castle in The Clouds DX [Final] [Pixelteishoku, Libra Heart]

Castle in the Clouds is a castlevania inspired game with great pixel art and an absolutely fantastic gameplay. You play as Lily (and post game more options) as you go around the land as an adventurer looking for treasures and the fabled Castle in the Clouds. The game plays as you pick the next stage, each one with its own map, metroid style and hidden treasures. You also have a city to return and buy items and rest. The gameplay is incredible, the combat is solid albeit simple and the platforming is top tier. The air control and navigation is improved vastly very quickly when you find equipment for better movement. The stages are very well designed with plenty of places to explore and practice your platforming, with different monsters that sadly do not change much from one another. The bosses are unique but nothing in the game is truly difficult. Considering that you level up very fast, combat stops being a challenge soon. There are many different stages to visit and many bosses to engage. It’s without a doubt a very good game on its own merit, but there is a significant problem with it. The content which makes this game different from other normal games is truly lacking. In total you get twenty nicely done tiny pixel animations that have three or four seconds, besides that a bit of enticing sprites and that is it. A very sad amount of content for a game so good, and we all know what is the main attractive of this game or others of this genre. That on itself reduce the quality of Castle in the Clouds by a vast amount, since it fails to present what we all expect from a game like this. Surprisingly good gameplay cannot correct this crass mistake. I recommend it only because I am a big fan of castlevania, but be aware that it has very mediocre special content.

Charming game. There's some sidequests to keep things interesting and a town of people to talk to, although there was barely any content in the town. Gameplay is about what you'd expect from a 2-D side-scroller and controls are easy.

It's more game than hentai, but the lewds are really good. This plays like a proper game, akin to Castlevania. Money really is not an issue, don't worry, and I never really struggled with EXP either. Controls are tight and smooth, difficulty is just right, and levels are pretty straightforward but reward exploration.

The only issue I had with this game is getting lost a few times, but it may have been me not paying attention or player fault. The game says check by the guild every now and then and I simply forgot.

Overall great game, good hgame.

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.

Wish there were more masterpieces like this--- nostalgia + beautiful artstyle, it's great! Don't listen to people here whining about minor things, give it a try.
Clearly there was love for both genres and you can feel it playing.

As others have said, it's basically an oldschool Castlevania game with some occasional lewd content thrown in. Dialogue or interactions with most of the NPCs *does not* change until literally you beat the game.

Only recommended if you don't mind a heavy focus on gameplay over lewd content.

This game is absolutely fantastic. Not simply for its lewd characters and even better animated scenes, but because the gameplay was actually very enjoyable. I came to this game thinking it would be a quick one-time play, but I actually found myself playing the game again for its gameplay alone-- not the porn! I cannot say any other lewd games have achieved this sense of fun!
Not to say the lewds are not enjoyable-- they very much are. Have fun playing this, highly recommended!

I'd call this an adequate Castlevania clone that's not particularly sexy but has impressive production quality.

If you want a challenge, play any one of the hundred other Castlevania clones out in the world; if you want to get off then play a game whose scenes aren't so short, or scattered so randomly around.

Not great, not terrible. It's a skip from me.

Nice Metroidvania, the gameplay is pleasant and the lewd scenes are ok.

Going the lewd route is pretty much the easy mode (more money, instakill in lots of areas) and there does not really seem to have an incentive for going "pure" but I did not try a new run to confirm this as I was afraid there would be too much grind that way.

Overall a great experience, slightly on the short side in my opinion.

A good introduction to your genre. Thoughtful varied gameplay. Запутанные корридоры подземелий. A large number of various products. Niese graphic. Simpotic H scenes. Supports gamepad . Everything is fell above.

Currently about halfway through. Have to agree with the others that this is a fantastic game, akin to Castlevania games. The controls are a little slow in terms of movement, but they're still tight and the animations are super fluid. Libra Hearts is one of my favorite game-makers because their pixel animations are just so incredibly well done.

An excellent Castlevania-esque game. Oh yeah, there's lewd stuff in here too.

Minor Spoilers Ahead (Items, Abilities, ETC.)

Gameplay, 5/5: Excellent, albeit, maybe clunky.
The jump height (single jump) is fixed, just like the old castlevania games, or the pixel Bloodstained games. A little bit weird but the maps are designed with it in mind, as most of the time you might not really notice that, plus there's a double jump unlock and other unlockables, so that jumping and stuff are not that annoying. Having a map to keep track of the area also helps a lot. Makes it easy to compare your map with others in case you want to 100% it. Honestly everything is fine...
Except the climbing and sometimes, breaking blocks. Sometimes you have to climb and break blocks, and as you try to jump or break blocks, if you have the wall climb ability or roof grab, it tends to just stick on, sort of like a magnet. Those who play it might understand what I mean, and it was really only a minor inconvenience, but it was rather frequent for me, especially in the giant tree map.

Music, 5/5: Good, for an H-Game.
No epic Soulsborne level music, but the music is actually pretty good. The giant tree's music made me think of Maplestory, back when you had to take a ferry to travel between continents... Now there's portals that are just a million times faster... That's besides the point; what I'm getting at is that music, while not epic bangers, are nice background music to listen to as you clear and explore maps.

Art, 5/5: For the Most Part, Great.
The sprites are great, and most of the H-scenes are excellent. But sometimes, like with the whoring blowjob scene, the face is just kind of weird. But the background, portraits, and everything else, is pretty good.

TLR, 5/5, It's Legit a Good Castlevania-esque Game.
It's a bit tough on Normal in the beginning, but once you start rolling and picking up all the heart items, it becomes substantially easier. It's still a bit hard to find every item and every heart but with the community, anything is possible. Or something.

Also, yes, DX has more H-Scenes and stuff. Overall, it plays exactly the same as the OG CitC, but has one extra character. Sadly, there's no unique H with the other characters.