A whimsical, lightly gothic action-platformer sends a priestess through spirit-haunted levels: a drowned capital, a bell-tower garden, and a grave that bridges the living world and Hell. The tone is brighter than the series’ later gothic register but still carries the exorcist framing, and the grave scene nods to a white-clad figure from the series’ past. This is the bridge entry of the series, the last stage-based game before the metroidvania return, and it bridges the two protagonists’ eras too: both playable characters from previous entries coexist here, and the library intern returns alongside the foul-mouthed Dora.
The shop and item system supplies the depth that the linear structure forgoes. A helper ghost summon trivialises several fights and is openly overpowered, the speed ring trades damage for velocity in a classic speed-demon bargain, a poison-trail statuette reworks hazard design in the player’s favour, and a money bomb converts currency into ordnance. Charge-attack emblems expand the melee kit rather than gating abilities, and the New Game+ adds extra item slots that make repeat runs sillier rather than harder. Bought everything, experimented freely, and the experimentation is the point.
Level-based platforming replaces the metroidvania interconnection of the previous entry, and the genre shift takes some adjusting. Levels connect through shortcuts and save-point warping that keeps the hour-long structure tight, and the map-completion counter rewards full exploration even though the design is linear at heart. An optional time-distortion side area built around Kahō’s quest provides the highlight, its visual effect looking properly badass, and the Koaho-priestess lore at the grave rewards series veterans. The transition from open structure to stage design works better than the surprise suggests.
Instant-kill bomb enemies are the game’s worst idea. Their lethality is inconsistent, the cause of death ambiguous (explosion or contact), and the punishment wildly out of proportion for a game this compact; even on Easy’s five-health setting the spikes around them feel brutal. The fish god and the Archers-like bunny sisters boss deliver the campaign’s hardest duels, and contact damage on boss and mini-boss models adds a personal-but-principled grievance to every close exchange. The difficulty teeth are real; the bomb enemies just undercut the fairness that makes difficulty fun.
The input setup is awkward out of the box. The inventory button demands remapping, controller-to-keyboard binding drops jump-after-attack inputs at critical moments, and the floaty knockback compounds the precision problems. These are configuration-era issues rather than design ones, but on keyboard-and-controller setups they are the difference between clean play and a fight lost to a dropped input. The underlying movement is responsive once configured; getting there costs patience.
The two-ending structure resolves cleanly within the hour. A bad ending and a good ending branch on the completion push, and both are achievable in a single dedicated sitting alongside every item and the credits, roughly seventy-one minutes for the full 100% clearance. The hour-long, fully-completable shape makes it a perfect palate cleanser, and the completeness is honest: nothing is locked behind arbitrary difficulty, and the New Game+ rewards are cosmetic-at-heart. As a bridge entry it does its job, connecting two eras and two protagonists while standing alone as a complete, tight package.
Overall, this is a tightly-scoped, fully-completable action-platformer whose item depth, series continuity and one-sitting 100% structure outweigh its inconsistent bomb enemies and configuration friction. The time-distortion side area, the overpowered ghost summon and the clean two-ending finale give it a distinct identity within the series. Judge it as the bridge entry it is, and the hour it asks for repays itself twice over.
