Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-

Team Ladybug over the course of four games has developed a distinct style which, if you’re familiar with it, is easy to identify. That style has an “arcade” quality to it; your characters are slightly overpowered from the start, and only get stronger as the game progresses. It’s a style I thoroughly enjoy, where the focus is on frenetic action above anything else. When Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth- was announced and entered early access, a lot of people looked at the game and got strong Castlevania Symphony of the Night vibes from it. Deedlit somewhat resembles the Symphony of the Night protagonist Alucard in the way she carries herself, and the way afterimages appear as she walks. Both characters have a melee attacks that swing almost instantly and can be jump canceled. These kind of comparisons understandably set the expectation that Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth would provide a similar experience to that Metroidvania magnum opus. However, Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is instead another Team Ladybug game, and also a “low fit” on the Metroidvania spectrum. I don’t consider this a bad thing, but if you go into this game expecting anything else, you’re probably going to be disappointed. Even among the Team Ladybug games, this game is a bit short on content and is even missing some of that soul that made the team’s previous games so charming. Nevertheless if you like fast paced action and interesting game gimmicks there’s still a good time to be had with Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.

Progression-wise, while Deedlit has flavors of Metroidvania exploration, it’s designed in such a way that it never gets in the way of the pacing of the action. You will be forced to backtrack to previous areas to use new abilities you’ve acquired, but that journey is always short, and where you need to go is mostly obvious. The reason being is that the game is divided in to six sections literally referred to as “Stages.” Each stage will contain exactly one ability upgrade and one button that unlocks colored doors similar to how a key might work. It’s especially straight forward, so you’ll likely never get the feeling of being lost – which for critics of the Metroidvania genre, this may be a good thing. It also almost entirely removes the epic scope you might expect to experience. Wonder labyrinth is nothing like Dracula’s castle, and thus Castlevania this game is not. Saying this game is “linear” might not be entirely accurate since there is still a “search action” element to the game, but compared to other Metroidvania titles, Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is relatively linear. You’re never required to go back into any of the earlier Stages, although most of them have at least one secret that will reward you for doing so anyways. You can find health and damage upgrades, which are often behind cracked walls or beyond ability gates you wouldn’t have had the keys for on your first way through. Whether or not that backtracking is worth it to you is depends on how much trouble you’re having.

In terms of actual difficulty, Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is basically a power fantasy. The main gimmick is your ability to switch between fire and wind elements, which provides some fairly extreme benefits. If you’re hit by an attack with a matching element – aka wind if you’re currently set to wind – you’re not only completely immune to the damage, but you also replenish your main resource for casting spells. While there are attacks that you can’t absorb, a lot of combat is about rapidly switching between the two elements to just tank the hits rather than repositioning your titular elf – especially since spells are so powerful. Besides the strong defense benefits, each element has other unique properties. The fire element gives you invincibility when you use the slide command, and the wind element lets you hover above the ground with excellent vertical control, and you can do this indefinitely. When you do actually have to avoid attacks, these techniques give you a lot of leeway for doing so, although there is some finesse with being in the right element to execute the appropriate dodge. These mechanics on their own would give Deedlit enough depth to create engaging encounters, but it’s taken a step further with how healing works.

If you’re playing well enough, you always have access to infinite healing. Killing enemies or hitting a boss with one element gives you energy for your other element, which translates into element levels, adding up to a max of level 3. Once you’ve hit level 3, switching to that element and remaining in that state will cause your health to regenerate rapidly. Focus on avoiding risk and you can get your health back up to max in no time. You can’t take advantage of your fire element’s invincible dodge if your wind element is the only one at level 3, but you can adapt to that limitation with a little practice. What this means for the game is that combat must about fast and hard hitting attacks, since the only way anything can be a threat is by killing you before you can replenish your element levels. Taking damage levels down the currently active element, so to keep up that health regeneration you have to switch elements and avoid getting hit until you can level back up. If you get hit while trying to do this then you lose your access to healing, and if you don’t straighten up you’re going to die quickly. Harder bosses will obliterate you in seconds while you’re still learning their patterns.

It’s a little weird that bosses and regular enemies follow different rules when it comes to charging element levels. By necessity bosses need to give you energy as you fight them since killing them is the end goal – after taking one hit you’d be eternally at a disadvantage if this wasn’t the case. For regular enemies though, you must kill them to get energy, so getting hit in the wild makes traversing other rooms especially dangerous. Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth follows the death rule that if you die you lose everything since the last time you saved, so if you want to keep all your map progress, then keeping your health topped off is is a given. One poorly played room is all it takes to entice you to start grinding before you move forward, and if there’s anything in this game that breaks the pace, it would be grinding. The Elf does gain experience and levels up as you play though so any grinding is just going to make the game even easier in the long run, which is somewhat incongruous with the game’s arcade style action focus. Thankfully there are convenient literal slabs of meat that you can find, usually near boss rooms. Slapping that meat with your sword will let you replenish your element levels to max in no time, so you never have to face a boss without max levels.

The bosses are very well designed around the element switching mechanics, and are the highlight of the game. The fact that you have infinite healing is basically a mitigating factor to how fast the bosses move. It’s fast enough that pattern memorization is generally more useful than adapting to the systems and trying to react on the fly. Keeping your distance and watching what the enemy is capable of lets you log their patterns away for later use. Playing keep away is also encouraged, since the moment you’ve been hit you’re going to want to let your health regenerate until you can find another opening. I think for veterans of these kind of action games, the first impression is that Deedlit is a little too overpowered and that this game is a little too easy. Later bosses however make the obvious strategies more difficult to pull off, and thus provide a more tense challenge for you to enjoy. If you’re playing the game using only Deedlit’s melee/thrown weapons there are many hilariously fun dances between life and death to enjoy – assuming you haven’t just overleveled.

If access to infinite healing wasn’t enough though, what you can do with Deedlit’s mana pool practically breaks the game. Playing keep away to regenerate your health is easy enough, but you’re also given a bow with which you can deal damage at the same time – at the cost of some of your mana per shot. Chipping away at the boss’ health from that distance can be a less interesting – but effective – way to take them down. Even stronger are the spells Deedlit gains access to. Casting them freezes the game while their effects enter the screen, so they even give your brain a nice pause to catch up to what’s happening. More powerful spells of course cost more mana to use, but I found it effective to spam even the weaker spells. If a boss is foolish enough to create a static zone of either wind or fire, I spent most of my time in that combat trying to bathe in the free mana provided by my element absorption, just so I could spam more rocks or magic missiles until the boss’ health was depleted. The spells also don’t just add damage. The best ones hit multiple times, and each hit provides elemental energy. A few good hits with any spell could max out your element level in no time – replenishing that sweet infinite healing in a much faster way. Boss patterns are still fun to figure out, but on the only difficulty setting available they’re pretty easy to exploit with the tools you’re given.

Besides the combat, I think I’ve already established that the exploration in Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is relatively shallow, but there are also some shallow puzzles to enjoy as well. Rather than Wonder Labyrinth being just hallways there are the occasional traps to subvert in order to move forward. Usually this is done by aiming your bow at a rope or spinning gear and shooting arrows into their mechanics to remove them. There aren’t any major consequences for messing up, so most of the time you can just spam attacks until you find that perfect angle. The more clever puzzles involve flying around with the wind element and figuring out how to switch between the non-flying fire to avoid damage while keeping your vertical positioning. Most of the hardest puzzles are basically optional, but they guard useful weapons or permanent upgrades. These kind of designs help keep the castle more engaging than just being a gauntlet of enemies to trash with overpowered tools, but there’s plenty of that as well. The general feel of Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is like you’re playing an arcade beat-em-up game, complete with a deep announcer style voice shouting that you’ve leveled up an element whenever that happens. Nothing in the game takes away from that pacing, even the puzzles, and I think many players may find that aspect very engaging.

Not even the story gets in the way of the pacing, which not being a previous consumer of Record of Lodoss War media, I’m not sure if that’s a disappointing aspect or not. The game seems to introduce a lot of characters that I expect Lodoss War fans to recognize, but very little is done with them other than just using their names and likenesses. It’s a lot like playing a 90s licensed game where every character is invited to the party, but you’re not meant to think about what reasons they might have for being there. The plot isn’t explained in any way that makes sense until the final stage, although if you’re familiar with story telling tropes it’s pretty easy to predict what’s happening fairly early on. Conceptually I really like what they attempted to do, however any analysis of meaning beyond the surface level would require manufactured interpretation to come up with anything significant. I did think the ending was fairly well done regardless of the nonsense leading up to it. For Record of Lodoss War fans, I think you can expect to play as Deedlit beating up many of the Lodoss War characters, but if you’re looking for a strong Lodoss War fan story, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

I think many players will be disappointed with Record of Lodoss War – Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth – depending on what expectations they bring into it. If you’re expecting a game like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, you’re not going to find it. If you’re a Record of Lodoss War fan and want an extension to that story, what you’ll get might be a little too shallow. If you enjoy frenetic action and rare 2D platformer mechanics, Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a very fun game you might enjoy – even if it might be a little too easy. This game could benefit from a higher difficulty or at least a little more content – preferably content that makes it a little more “Metroidvania” – but for what it is I had a lot of fun with it. It’s short and sweet and action packed, and if you go into it expecting nothing else, I think there’s a good chance you’ll have a fun time with it as well.