Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

Metroidvania Score 79/100

Gameplay - Movement 9
Gameplay - Combat 9
Leveling & Skills 7
Exploration 6
Enemies & Bosses 9
Level Design 8
Visual 9
Sound 7
Overall Reward 8
Replay Drive 7

Mildly amusing anecdote: About two years ago I played Team Ladybug’s previous game, Touhou Luna Nights, and gave it a 4.0 on this very site. The thing of it is, I remember nearly nothing about the game. Maybe I’m getting old or maybe there’s too much chloride in the tap water or maybe I’ve played too many metroidvanias over the past few years, but my recollection of this supposedly 4-out-of-5 game was so fuzzy that for a while I was 100% conflating it with Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight in my head. With the help of YouTube I managed to jog my memory, but even after that refresher I struggled to recall exactly why I’d been so enthusiastic about it. (Too bad I wasn’t writing reviews back then!)

Having finished Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, though, I absolutely understand both why I savored Touhou Luna Nights as well as why it didn’t stick in my memory. Because Team Ladybug have struck once again, delivering a beautiful, perfectly paced Metroidvania – one that manages to hang just a tier below the best in its genre despite a haphazard story and a lack of real standout elements.

There’s a map to fill. Enemies to kill. Experience points to gain. Items to collect. Bosses to conquer. Team Ladybug have borrowed many elements from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night [悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲], fusing them together with detailed animations, lovely parallax-scrolling effects, and silky smooth combat – which isn’t to say that it’s a mere clone. One notable difference lays in the level design. The layout of the labyrinth, though not particularly inspired, always kept pushing me moving forward. Yet on the other hand, when I wanted to return to a previous area for a second look, a fast-travel point was never far away. Team Ladybug have even made key improvements to the UI since their previous game, adding features like a minimap in the corner of the screen.

I wonder if the game’s greatest sin is that it doesn’t provide enough friction for the player. Rushing around the map and bumping into new bosses every 20 to 30 minutes keeps the game feeling fresh, but it also makes every new encounter less memorable than the last. The game has a few impressive setpieces, like a pair of battles with dragons, but both of these appear in the first half of the game. The tension level flattens out early, when ideally it should build and build and build instead.

There is at least one innovative feature here, however, that as far as I know hasn’t been used in a Metroidvania before. That feature is elemental switching. The game’s namesake and protagonist, Deedlit, can switch between Fire and Wind at will. Certain obstacles can only be overcome by switching between the two, and many enemies are more vulnerable to one element than the other.

Complicating matters further is that both elements have power levels. When an element is charged up to level three, it confers attack bonuses and also allows you to slowly regain health while you have it equipped – a trick that comes in handy during boss fights. How do you charge up to level three, you ask? You do it by attacking with the other element, so attacking with Wind charges Fire and vice versa. In practice, this means you’ll find yourself frequently bouncing between the two, trying to keep both topped up in order to maximize your damage output and health regeneration. Personally, I found this system extremely engaging, and by the end of the game my finger was constantly clicking the right bumper, ever seeking a little boost.

Will this game stick more firmly in my memory than Team Ladybug’s previous offering? Only time will tell, though I certainly hope it will. It honestly has even made me interested in checking out the manga that it’s based on. High fantasy, Japan-style? Sign me up.

DmC: Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth: R3vengeance is the latest pile by Team Ladybug, better known for the incredible Touhou: Luna Nights. Like its predecessor, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a m*troidv*nia with lovely 2D sprite work and a killer soundtrack. Yet there's something missing from Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth that made Luna Nights so great.

Whereas Luna Nights had several gimmicks like bullet hell boss patterns, freeze time (that can be used to build up projectiles) and grazing bullets for MP, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth has an Ikaruga-like polarity mechanic. And a bow I guess. The polarity gimmick is implemented well enough - wind spirit takes no damage from blue projectiles and fire spirit takes no damage from red projectiles - but they made a really odd choice. Your cape is blue with the wind spirit equipped, which is fair enough, but when you equip the fire spirit your cape turns... green? I have no idea what they were going for there. During the more chaotic boss fights it's confusing to read visually, and while I got used to it eventually, it's just a really insane and counterintuitive design choice. Oh well. The polarity mechanic is fine but Luna Nights got a surprising amount of mileage out of its bullet time gimmick, while Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth feels slightly... predictable. It does everything you expect from its polarity gimmick, but not much else.

I should mention there's also a sublevel system that reminded me of Cave Story. If you kill an enemy with wind spirit equipped you get red cubes, and vice versa. Each spirit can be leveled up to three with these cubes. Instead of powering you up, they slowly heal your health at level 3. To that effect Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth feels easier than Luna Nights. I don't necessarily mind this, but it does cause a certain lack of urgency in boss battles. I wouldn't get rid of the mechanic entirely as I do think it's interesting, but it would probably benefit from a nerf. Namely, every single time you hit a boss you get points for your sublevel. Maybe dial that back a little.

You get a bow as a secondary projectile weapon, but it's also used in some light puzzle solving. This is actually one of my favorite parts of Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. At first you're shooting arrows at gears to lift gate doors, but it slowly gets more complex as the game progresses, requiring some additional platforming and planning. There was one puzzle in particular I thought was really clever, but I won't spoil it if you do end up playing Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. There are also multiple spells to acquire throughout the game, but I always stuck to the default homing missile spell, so whatever.

As mentioned before, the difficulty leans a bit on the easy side. You'll probably die a dozen or so times to boss fights, but on the whole you can manage to take them down if you spam magic and arrows enough while occasionally getting close enough to sneak in some proper attacks. Regardless, the boss fights are usually quite enjoyable. They don't throw anything particularly unique at you but learning their patterns and deftly switching polarities is a fun time overall. The penultimate encounter is just a boss rush, which is annoying because the first five or so phases are easy enough to just tank out their attacks and spam them. The final boss fight felt like something I've fought in a thousand other games, so that's a bit anti-climactic. Still, fun times overall.

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is fairly short - I beat the game with 97% of the map uncovered just shy of seven hours. I had a mostly fun time with it but couldn't help but feel it was a bit lacking in inspiration. As such it's a solid m*tro*dv*nia but falls short of the higher echelons. Still, definitely recommended if you're into this sort of game.