The Belmont’s Day Off: Temporally Disturbed Boys

Let’s do the time warp again…


Never a bad time to let your freak flag fly high

Doing two posts today, because I totally failed to get one up yesterday, hence the timey-wimeyness of this one. I’m still on the hook for writing a post everyday for March, and the whole point of a challenge is it’s possible to fail said challenge, or else there is no risk, no reward. However, strength of character can be found in picking oneself up after falling and soldiering on, hence the two posts. I second guessed myself yesterday, and changed my own mind three times about what I was briefly going to discuss, before falling asleep at my god damned keyboard…let it not be said analysis paralysis is often the bane of the creative existence. With that said, I’ve decided to land on some familiar territory after saying “fuck it”, “axing the idea of reason” and just going “full rock and roll” with it.


Which can have disastrous results, mind you

Which is where Vampire Survivors comes in (?!?), which is described by the community in a myriad of ways, and seems to be a source of tension in some circles. From a casual browsing on the subject, no one has yet to refer to it as an “auto-shooter”, which feels like a lexical gap I’m filling, which in my world, truly is as sexy as it sounds. It is an action game through and through, and some have landed on “idle” game due to certain tendencies the game has, others a roguelike for others….it is an action game with rpg elements at the very least, so hopefully you have gained some notion of the matter. In good ol’ ATE fashion, Vampire Survivors is no way, shape, or form topical, having come out years ago, but I write about what I play, and sometimes I don’t get to games very immediately. Vampire Suvivors has done well for itself, both critically and commercially speaking, and has had a stream of additional content come down it’s pipeline, including an “Ode to Castlevania” which debuted as recently as October 2024, so the game is still cash money by most accounts.


The Belmont’s failing to show up this time was
my bad: no pay, no play, after all.

I ironically downloaded the demo for the game on the Switch around the same time in excitement for the Castlevania DLC, which I still have not even downloaded yet, but I keep switching platforms in which to play Vampire Suvivors, having also nabbed the title for the PS4 and now playing it on the Series X, so I can’t seem to make up my mind involving how I want to enjoy the game. I suppose the silver lining for the experience given this evidence is that at least I do enjoy the game, perhaps for it’s ridiculous simplicity.
Being an “auto-shooter”, you really only have to move your character around the play screen: no buttons needed. You needn’t worry about controlling anything else aside from movement, as projectiles automatically get fired, based on level, items acquired etc. Any one playthrough is based on a time limit (30 minutes), and it will take the player awhile of basic canoodling through the levels before they’re even strong enough to last that long, as the game is fairly serious about killing you as quickly as possible.

You can’t outrun death.


[SIC] Nevermind

Vampire Survivors is kind of your ideal dopamine gaming, if you will, with a penchant for inspiring that “just one more run” mentality, as it always feels like you can do a little better, and it feels great when you’re in the middle of a good run where you’re just mowing down hordes of enemies. I feel as if the game works the best on touch screens, per my mention of its extraordinarily simplistic nature, but I’ve been more than happy with the game on every console. Considering how cheap the game normally is, even when it’s not on sale, ease of accessibility, and inherently engaging nature, I think most would do well to give a shot.


Or a stab…whirl…you’ll have a blast, if we are going by
weapon selection availability, anyways.

(Not the first time I’ve downloaded a game based on the promise of cameos from another series that I ended up not getting to initially, and I’m guessing it won’t be the last.)

~Pashford