I remember my first experience with a Metroidvania some 20 years (!!!) ago now, which was Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I was young, still ignorant of the many genres of video games out there, and thoroughly carried away with my own perceived skill as a gamer. That game was probably my first (very painful) lesson that I am really not half as good as I like to think I am sometimes. Considering the hell that game put me through, it’s a wonder I like this genre half as much as I do.

But I keep coming back for more. So, here’s Grimvalor, another one.

I’m…not really sure what to say. Grimvalor is almost (but not quite) painfully average. It has a very “eh, good enough” vibe to it that kept me playing, but stopped me from really enjoying it. The narrative is just kind of there, so there’s nothing there to speak of. The skill system is good, but I’ve seen its like in so many games that it isn’t really a point in the game’s favour, especially when it’s this basic. It controls fine, but it would need to when the primary gameplay mechanic seems to be dodging. It’s…fine. But “fine” doesn’t really cut it with me any more.

But the bosses in this game were surprisingly well-designed, all things considered! Repeatedly breaking the stamina bar was a bit tiresome, but as you do damage at the same time it didn’t feel like a complete slog, and it was challenging, but fair. They hit hard, but their attacks had very obvious tells and the timing for dodges was *mostly* adequate so there was a good learning curve there I could appreciate. I died a few times, but I wasn’t actively discouraged by this – I didn’t need to go back and grind (which would have been a horrendous chore) and I also didn’t have to trek an excessively long distance through the level to get back to where the boss was. I just needed to get better at reading the boss’ movements and not get greedy with my attacks when there was an opening. Checkpoints were frequent, and this avoided the infuriating Soulslike “if you die you lose your stuff unless you get it back again by touching the spot where you died before” thing, which would have made the whole thing MUCH worse. There are tougher games out there than this by far, but there aren’t many that are as fair.

…but oh, did I get fed up with fighting miniature versions of bosses as normal enemies once I’d beaten the bosses themselves. This game doesn’t have much in the way of variety of enemy design, and a lot of the enemies are not as fairly designed as the bosses are – one shade-type enemy in particular hits like a truck, hits repeatedly at a rapid pace, and seems to be all-but immune to stun. After a while I just started to run away from those, because they really stood out against the rest as being a bit out of place. This made bosses feel like a reward for getting through an area, which is good, but getting through areas was a chore, which was bad.

But this seems to be what the game lacks, at least to me – variety. Locations were bland and samey, enemies were bland and samey, music was mediocre, and the entire package reminds me of nothing as much as it does Dark Souls II – acceptable, but inferior to other games of the same genre out there. I mean, why bother with this when you could play Hollow Knight, or Axiom Verge, or even one of the GBA Castlevania titles? This is a godo quality title, but there’s nothing about it that really makes it memorable.

From what I’ve read, NG+ adds more spice to the mix with better weapons and trinkets, but…well, why would I want to play through this game twice, when the first time was so uninspired? This is very much a “one and done” kind of game, because once you’ve learned the boss’ attack patterns it doesn’t even offer much of a challenge any more. There isn’t much to find in each of the areas – and not much of it is really worth finding either – and it feels as though it was designed more for speedrunning than it was for exploring…which is fine, but for me personally it’s not really all that appealing.

I didn’t really have any expectations for this game going in, and I was pleasantly surprised by the bosses, but quite let down by everything else. Overall, it could have been much, much worse. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel there’s a missed opportunity here – if the dev team could design some enjoyable boss battles, imagine what they could have done with the overworld map if they’d focused on that a little more, or the narrative. I can think of worse ways to spend 7 hours, though.