Aug 132021
We were just talking about Apple Arcade because of Fantasian, and now it’s come up again already.
This time, the newest Apple Arcade exclusive is a Castlevania game. Not a port, but a new one… sort of.
Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls was first announced back in 2018 for iOS, then actually came out in 2019, but only in Canada. It had typical mobile game microtransactions and was shut down a year later in 2020.
But now it’s 2021 and Grimoire of Souls is coming back, still mobile but now exclusive to Apple Arcade. This is noteworthy because Apple Arcade games do not have microtransactions. Its official store page describes it as “a full-fledged side-scrolling action game” with 60 levels, although it also mentions daily and weekly missions.
That makes me think it’s still a mobile game at heart, instead of a regular game that happens to be on a mobile platform, but the lack of microtransactions is a definite plus.
Grimoire of Souls being revived like this sort of reminds me of the situation with World of Demons, which was initially planned as a mobile game with microtransactions but then rebuilt for Apple Arcade.
Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls isn’t out yet, but should be coming soon.
My history with the Castlevania series is still sadly small, so I’m not jumping for a chance to play this like I am with Fantasian. Still, it’s nice to see Konami is at least doing something with their franchises. Between this and GetsaFumaDen, maybe there’s hope after all.