Welcome to our review of Grim Guardians, a Metroidvania that has a really good approach to the genre.
When a demon’s castle darkens the land, two sisters challenge its halls. Together they can break the curse.
In order to save their school after it turns into a massive demonic castle, two “Demon Hunter” sisters slash and shoot their way through this 2D action adventure. Players can swap between control of both characters on the fly, each with entirely different skillsets. Proceed through the castle while confronting the demonic bosses that await deep within.
Each boss yields new weapons to wield, allowing for more varied exploration and opening up new routes.
Swap out on the fly as you traverse through the demonic castle! Take control of both the tag-team Kamizono siblings. Make the most of long-distance focused Shinobu and close-range brawler Maya Kamizono as you make your way through the castle. Each sibling has a range of unique sub-weapons, giving you a wealth of options to switch your strategy up whenever the time calls for it. Don’t hesitate to make use of them so long as you have Weapon Points in stock!
In the event that one of the siblings falls in battle, they can be resuscitated freely with “Sister Rescue”—provided you can make it back to where they fell.
Defeat bosses to obtain new sub-weapons, opening up a whole new layer of exploration! Defeating bosses will yield new sub-weapons, providing the siblings with exciting new abilities. These sub-weapons also open up new routes and means of exploration in the castles. Enjoy the story your way with “Pure” or “Refined” voice tracks!
Grim Guardians’ story focuses on two main aspects: the mystery behind the school’s transformation, and the whereabouts of the other students. Enjoy the original experience in “Pure” mode with all of the original Japanese voices for story mode, or choose “Refined” for English voice acting focused on the action, tailored for fans of the genre.
Adjust the difficulty to your playing needs with the unique Style system! A total of 3 different styles—”Casual”, “Veteran” and “Legend”—are available for selection, allowing players to adjust the difficulty to their needs. This can be changed at any time after beginning the game with no drawbacks.
What is really fun about Grim Guardians, is that it has several layers to the game, not just the basic Metroidvania, but also has the double character feature that, honestly, was hilarious the first time I saw it in action. Basically, you just switch instantaneously between both, but after one falls, you can go and perform CPR on your fallen sister. Literally CPR.
It opens the door to a lot of options but also introduces the added stress of being on your “final” sister. But with each having its own attack patterns and advantages, that should come to no surprise. One is smaller, so she can still attack while crouching, but her crouch is “lower” in stance, so she is able to hit on a different horizontal line. Not just that, she had a blade, that is short in range.
The sister though, she is armed with an actual gun. Shooting tons of bullets in a straight line, reloading is quick and easy. The whole game actually has a lot of small signs along the way to help you with how to play. No actual tutorial, but that is really not needed. The entire game just works.
As a Metroidvania, the genre has been done and done all over again many times, Grim Guardians does not stand out, but it does stand strong. I consider it a very strong contender for the top tier of Metroidvania games, but sadly not the absolute top.
In conclusion, Grim Guardians is basically a must-buy if you like the genre, from gorgeous still animation to smooth combat and hilarious CPR, I loved it a lot.