This hack is a fantastic labor of love. The entire map was redone with Richter’s movement in mind, he has an entire arsenal of weapons and skills, on top of that Adult Maria (his partner) does too! Both characters play flawlessly and things down to the position of weapons in every frame were well taken care of. So many hacks struggle to even get their characters animated right so this alone is an accomplishment that sets it apart. There are combinations of sprites from the many different iterations of these characters too from snes to saturn to psx. It was all pooled together to great result.

The portraits are great to look at and the music is always banger after banger. It really keeps the energy going. You can tell it oozes attention to detail and was made by a fan of the series over a long period of time. Pay no attention to toxic reviewers who feel entitled to to have what they want. There isn’t alot of vania hacks worth the time to play but this one was 100% worth it, there just isn’t enough wrong with it for me to say “No don’t play it” in fact, just play it.

The game may be tough but there isn’t a single situation that you cant get past with some thought or just by switching weapons, a bit of common sense can go a long way (when actually applied) I enjoy that the hack made me think about my gear, something the vanilla games sorely lacked. I was reminded that resistance was a thing in these games which is great.

Few hacks go as far or do as much as this one, as a metroidvania fan, saying “No” to recommending this would just feel disingenuous. I managed to beat the entire game from beginning to end on Desmume with 0 crashes at all.

Go in with an open mind and you may even enjoy the story too! :)