Note. I'm going to write this review with the other three games in mind, as I've played all three of them too and I feel for this game it's suited better to do that.

Alright I recently was able to play through the entire game and now I want to write a review detailing all my thoughts on it. Let's get straight into it!

Story

The story main plot follows the same pattern as the two previous games by a different developer called Kelarly. Luiishu did a really good job at keeping the same themes in this new adventure while making it overall a bit more light-hearted. Though it still has some darker moments, which you see with deaths of certain characters.

Without spoiling too much it's about exploring and being trapped within a supernatural castle that has many secrets to it. Each "floor" of the castle is a dream world of it's own. In Castle Oblivion 3, this take of it, the people that are trapped within the castle are not part of the dreams but real people and victims of the castle. This is pointed out on floor 1. I like the fact Luiishu did this. In the original two, I think some were victims and some were dreams but could be wrong there. I know the foundation one they were all victims.

Luiishu also decided to go further than Kelarly did in the first two by giving the castle a final area with a boss that created it. In a way this seems to contrast with the prequel, Castle Oblivion Foundation, that Kelarly created, but that's ok. It's by a different developer and that takes things in a different direction and personally I like both Luiishu and Kelarly take on the creation of the castle. They both had good ideas here and both seem good to me.

The story leaves a sense of mystery from the start, and when the new villain is introduced you can find yourself asking questions what's his motive and what's going on here this time. I think it's quite original that he looks like that RTP butler sprite! Haha.

As the story continues there are some surprises. I'd say if you've played the first two games and liked them you'll enjoy the story in this one as well, but you will find differences from the first two.

At the start it does progress slowly, with the first few floors focused on Evan solely, and then new party members start to come along with the last one added a lot later. This is also unique to this game alone. As the other two games you'd have all the party members near the beginning. Two to three floors in most.

Once the plot has all been introduced most of the focus in on the characters themselves and mini subplot events they go through.

Characters

All the party members are likeable, and Evan is more cheerful and explored-focused than other main characters in the previous games. I really felt he felt real, like he really was a explorer and he was presented that way well, not just told he was an explorer without the actual belief of it. Pros to Luiishu for pulling that off!

When Rebecka is first introduced it had me laughing because of the way it played out. It's unexpected and different in a good comical way, at the same time it's a little odd she has that reaction then and soon later a completely different reaction, but yes that could just be what Rebecka is like.

The fourth party member also has a bit of a surprise when they join too. This adds nice surprises to the game.

The main party members also interact with one another a lot more than they did in the previous two games, something I think could also improve the other two games. But like the other two games, they do have motives and goals that are explained very well and they work well together as a team. For the fourth party member, who starts off as a villain, you can feel quite sorry for her after a certain tragic event happens. You also end up fighting all three of these party members that join your team before they join you! I thought that also was a nice touch by Luiishu.

The main villain for a large part of the game has some background to him that is explained well later in the game, it's a bit of a sad tale.

Gilgamesh though, I found a bit odd. It makes sense if he was bound and controlled by the castle, but in and of himself he wasn't originally a character I'd label as purposely bad in anyway. I would say slight changes with the character arcs from the previous three games would not bother me too much, except with Gilgamesh it sort of would do for anyone that knows the character well, I think.

Lastly I have to comment on the dialogue. At times it can get a bit confusing and hard to follow, and at other times a bit out of place, but for the most part you can still follow what is going on and understand the concepts well. It could be polished and improved upon but with some effort you should be able to understand everything that happens. The scenes themselves are good and fit well with the plot.

Gameplay

The gameplay is stronger than the first game with it's mechanics, but I feel it could still be better. Most skills are basic and simple custom ones with VX default database, but at the same time what is good is that the skills chosen for each party member split up nicely and are different from what the database would assign them with. This still adds nice variety to the battles.

Castle Oblivion 2 skillsets themselves were better, but I'd say I enjoyed the damage output with these skills the best so far out of all three games.

The chosen battle sprites for all enemies are also all beautiful and Luiishu created a spectacular looking custom maps for every battle background that fit nicely. While this all fits in the graphic section I'm going to leave it in the gameplay as I saw it as something that enchanted the gameplay experience more. Seeing these visual while picking skills made it all the more fun to me.

You can also find some skills like skill book items, where once you discover the item you get a skill that you don't get from leveling up, although most skills are gained through certain level. This is a nice touch, and I'm not against it in anyway but for some players I can see how it could be frustrating if you miss the skill and don't ever know it's there, as bosses and even default enemies are a lot harder without them. I'm thinking more about the first water skill.

So, to improve with the skillsets it would've been nice to see more state skills that the party members could get. I also felt the last two party members lacked a bit in there abilities compared to the first two. First two were well designed to deal damage, but the last two could've done with a couple more skills. Still, I enjoyed the combat battles and bosses overall.

Dungeons are good from a gameplay point of view but I wish there were even more like the shrine from floor 1. That was a really well-done dungeon. As quite a few of the dungeons navigation are narrow paths, sometime even being only 1 tile to walk in front and behind and I feel sometimes it'd be nice to have more space and more secret areas to explore with better treasure in those secret areas. Even then though, there are still multiple narrow paths to explore so they're sometime narrow but not a single line only. I think that was a good move on Luiishu part and it's great having to explore the area more.

They each also DO feel unique and different, they vary from one to another. It's not just different tilesets and objects, they actually feel they are different dungeons structurally, and that's great.

That's one of the few points I have on how the gameplay experience could've been improved upon.

All the dungeons are still quite fun, sometime it can be tricky and difficult to find certain items to unlock the doors in them, but you can always look at a let's play walk-through on only those parts if you get stuck.

You do have some puzzles and other mechanic ideas in the game too. For instance, in a swamp dungeon you have to find a certain number of enemies and beat them all to proceed. Some people will enjoy the hunt while others may wish to just continue, depending on the type of player you are, but Luiishu still nicely added in these features that give a little from the generic move onwards themes.

Another great thing are the towns designs. You can really enjoy exploring them and talking to NPCs. All towns worth exploring have at least two separate maps connecting them, and for this type of game I really like that and thought it was great idea in adding to the exploring of them. So towns can last quite a while to look through. You also can get new equipment in them, and I feel that has also improved from the previous two games.

Gold coins and treasure chests are all over the place in this game, similar to the previous two games with combat battles Luiishu has taken Kelarly's approach with how you gain them.

I would say there are still less treasure chests than those two games, but they all are rewarding to open and useful.

So for those who don't understand what I'm saying, treasure chests are scattered everywhere on the maps and when you open them you don't know in advance what you're getting. Usually some good items that help a lot out in battles.

Back to my point I said above about secret areas in dungeons above, I'd prefer having those in the game as well with more rarer items and equipment found in single treasure chests through them, but I understand that'd go against the mechanical style Kelarly used as well, and what Luiishu has done here is still very nice!

One other game mechanic I have to quickly go over is a new feature by Luiishu, that is red crystals. You can heal from them and you can break. If you break them you can no longer use them to heal, but you get some stat boost items from them. I think this is a really nice mechanic and I really enjoyed it myself. After gaining a certain amount of exp through battles you can go back to them to get some bonuses in your stats. Though, I think it could've been even better if it had given more stats than they do and powered up the game slightly more. I know that would've required more balancing and work though so at the same time I understand why Luiishu didn't do that.

Mapping & Graphics

This game mostly sticks to the RTP, but it's beautifully used. You may be amazed and surprised at how nice things look. I believe Luiishu did use some scripts to enchant them more, such as fog effects and lighting, and it's all very well done and very well used.

Since the game story focuses on having different themes with every location, it wonderful to just see how Luiishu maps different situations. I was also very impressed by the "space" world and how he mapped it. Lots of creativity in all the mapping.

The other graphics are good too. If you played the first game by Kelarly and remember seeing some glitches and clashing of tiles, you'll find just the opposite in this game here! Nothing is out of place or clashes like in the first game, and while the second game mapping was excellent, here it's superb compared to it.

Very stunning visuals.

Audio/Music

In the first two games, almost all the music was from kingdom hearts, here, while Luiishu still uses some kingdom hearts music, for the most party he took a different approach and I like that a lot. It's nice to have variance in my opinion.

All the music fitted the game well, in certain cutscenes the music added to the experience, music on different maps and locations added to the atmosphere. It's all really well used, but still stuff from other video games.

Originality

I would say there is a lot of creative uses in the game. With the mapping, the feature of the red crystals, the twist with the last party member joining you, and a few other bits. You also don't expect Gilgamesh to be the way he is, but that last point can be positive or negative for different players depending if they played the first two games and thought a bit like I did or not.

Conclusion

Luiishu clearly put a lot of work into this game and it shows.

Very talented when it comes to mapping, mini character subplot, and relationships and interaction between characters overall very well done. It could have been presented better with the dialogue, but I was able to use my own imagination and look past the flaws. I had a great time playing it and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind fighting a load of battles in a game and exploring a lot of maps and areas.

It Definitely gets 4.5 stars from me.

I'll just quickly summarize below in a list what I think could've been done to improve the game further.
1. Change the skills further from the default ones. Add a twist to some of them.
2. Add a few more, "customized more" skills to the party. As well as some with more state effects skills for the party to use too.
3. Given more skills to the third and fourth party members. They felt weaker overall.
4. Added more secret areas in dungeons and a few rarer treasure chests both in them and maybe one or two in normal areas too.
5. More dungeons with similar mapping styles as the shrine.
5. Given more boosts with the red crystals.
6. Dialogue at certain points could've been better written and better polished.
7. Maybe keep Gilgamesh role similar to the first two games, where he was more good than bad on purpose. Or make him controlled against his choice instead. If he actually was that all along, then just made that clearer. Just because it doesn't follow with the other two games as well.

There's really not that much else that could have been done to improve it after those points, as otherwise it's a really good game.

Definitely try this game if you've played the first two as it's a nice addition. You may like it, you may put it down, but there's no harm trying.

Definitely play this also if you love lovely looking maps and don't mind a load of battles to navigate through them all. And of course, if you love lots of battles I'd also recommend giving it a go.

If you haven't played the first two and wondering if you should play this, I believe you can definitely still enjoy this game, but I recommend you play the original Castle Oblivion 1 and Castle Oblivion 2 by Kelarly first, both found on this site, just because the story continues from those to.

That's it. Hope you enjoyed this review and it helped you.