Gal Guardians: Demon Purge

Grim Guardians: Demon Purge on PS5 is worth your time if you're a fan of Castlevania, and enjoy Inti Creates' signature gameplay. It also supports 120hz and PS5 Activity Cards on the system with near instant load times.

In the end, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is an absolutely solid action platformer. Annoyances at needing to go through a second time aside, I genuinely enjoyed the stages, the characters were amusing, and each new sub-weapon altered my approach to combat in ways that kept things fresh. There’s a lot of heart and soul poured into the details, it’s one of those retro titles that truly remembers what made those classics fun in the first place. There’s a few small issues here and there that keep it from being truly amazing, but it’s certainly worth your time.

Despite being technically competent, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge fails by playing too safe in certain aspects, leaning too much on its inspirations, and also by not paying attention to simple and basic things expected from the genre. In the end, it delivers an average and unimpressive experience.

Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is flawed in a lot of the ways it sells itself on. As a Metroidvania, it’s a really weak attempt, but as an Arcade Action Platformer it’s astounding. It just didn’t lean into one or the other enough. If you’re not a fan of Gal*Gun, most of it will go over your head, but fans may love this. Though as an entire package it just does okay.

Those looking at Grim Guardians: Demon Purge expecting a metroidvania might be disappointed when they realise it’s more of a straightforward platformer, like the original Castlevania games. And while it is derivative of Konami’s classic series, it does just enough to give itself a character of its own. If only its revival mechanic didn’t cause issues in single-player, and it didn’t get a little weird in its later half, then it would be a pretty enjoyable jaunt.