With new content just revealed at Tokyo Game Show recently, developer Konami has already soft-launched Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls in Canada a couple of days back. If you did not know, soft-launch phase for mobile games is a test period where developers make sure gamers in the selected area are happily playing (and paying) for the game before having a wider official launch. We are not really fond of Castlevania’s reputation of thrashing new players, but nevertheless we decided to hop in for a quick look. Read on!
Similar to Rockman X DiVE, there isn’t automatic gameplay found anywhere, which is likely a huge relief to many fans of the Castlevania series. Folks were saying that Grimoire of Souls is basically a mobile port of another title in the series, Harmony of Despair, but we are not really sure being Castlevania virgins… Ok stop throwing eggs our way! The biggest difference might be the loot box (or gacha) system, where players draw for main weapons, sub weapons, and armor pieces. As usual these days, there is a free 10x for new players.
The gacha system might turn players off, but there is actually a silver lining. All equipment are shared between characters, so you do not have to craft multiple pieces (except for weapons). Since this is just the soft-launch, there aren’t bundles spotted so far. Each character also has costumes which do not affect stats, and they can be unlocked via in-game currency, which is a rarity in mobile games these days. There is currently no word on when Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls launch globally, so stay tuned for more information!