Some games wear their inspiration on their sleeve. For other games, not only is their whole sleeve made of inspiration, but so is the rest of their outfit. Chronicles of the Wolf, developed by Migami Games, is definitely in the latter category, very strongly evoking the 1990s Castlevania games but never quite establishing an identity of its own or taking note of how the metroidvania subgenre has evolved over the past 25 years. As a nostalgia trip for fans of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Chronicles of the Wolf is effective enough; however, for those seeking something which feels a bit more modern, you may be left wanting.

Set in France in 1767, you play as Mateo Lombardo, the last apprentice of the Rose Cross Order, an organisation dedicated to combat evil forces which lurk in the shadows. Tasked with hunting the mystical Beast of Gévaudan, his quest lands Mateo in the crosshairs of a mysterious cult surrounding the Beast. As he hunts the Beast’s apostles to learn how to rid it from this world for good, Mateo steadily unlocks new abilities to defeat foes and access new areas.

Chronicles of the Wolf shows its fidelity to the Castlevania series from the get-go, with narration from Robert Belgrade (who voiced protagonist Alucard in Symphony of the Night) as well as an appropriately energetic and spooky soundtrack composed by Jeffrey Montoya (who composed the music for the fan-made game Castlevania: The Lecarde Chronicles) and Óscar Araujo (who composed the soundtrack for the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games). Much of the dialogue is voiced, with the voice acting nailing that hammy, slightly-stilted-but-still-endearing performance common in a lot of localised games from the 1990s and early 2000s. Mateo, oddly, is completely mute pretty much the whole way through, which feels like a missed opportunity to inject a bit of personality into the player character when everyone around him is so expressive.

If you’ve played a 2D Castlevania game, Chronicles of the Wolf will feel instantly familiar to you. Mateo can attack with his primary weapon or use a variety of sub-weapons by attacking while holding up on the d-pad. While the initial area you have access to is rather small, as you unlock the abilities to double jump, air dash, walk across tightropes, and more, the area that you can explore expands. Of course, you have plenty of backtracking to do whenever you unlock a new ability.

The main unique gameplay feature is a handful of equippable ghost allies you recruit throughout your journey. These ghosts work sort of like magic spells, and use your magic meter to heal you, increase your attack power, grant temporary invincibility and more. I found the ghosts a bit too resource-intensive to use too often, but it was a nice way of putting a bit of a spin on a familiar magic system.

It also doesn’t note when you encounter an obstacle that you cannot bypass yet, or even allow you to put down markers on your map yourself, like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (another modern game with a clear Castlevania influence) allowed. I know that Symphony of the Night also had a pretty barebones map, but that game came out back in 1997. It would be nice for a game released in 2025 to have half as much detail and customisation in its maps as, say, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown from last year.

This lack of clear signposting on where to go next, combined with often frustratingly vague NPC dialogue, resulted in a lot of meaningless wandering around and backtracking looking for something, anything to do to unlock a new area. Said backtracking became a bit more annoying due to enemies which respawn when you re-enter an area, combined with Mateo’s habit of throwing himself back dramatically like an amateur stuntman whenever a foe so much as coughs in his general direction, potentially being knocked past the area barrier and reviving all the enemies he had previously defeated. Backtracking and exploration is part and parcel in the metroidvania subgenre, I understand, but I feel it should have a purpose of going to a specific location to interact with something you previously couldn’t, rather than combing over the entire map looking for a specific NPC who might indicate the next place I can go.

At least the exploration aspect mostly nails that compelling sense of discovery whenever you gain access to a new area. Whenever I unlocked a new movement ability, my mind would flash through all the new places I can now access with my double jump or air dash. That said, I wish the game would not punish said exploration with a surplus of irritating instant-death traps that you would need clairvoyance to predict. Particularly in the final area, but also in some of the early locations, there are hallways you can walk down which will instantly give you a game over without warning unless you have satisfied some prior condition that it doesn’t tell you about. Some of these traps are close to save points, but many aren’t, resulting in a frustrating return trip.