Castlevania ReVamped (PC) - 12% Minimalist Run (15% Items or Less Challenge)

Game: Castlevania ReVamped Author: LV.4 GAMES Platform: PC Completed: March 16, 2024 Rules: Complete the “15% items or less“ challenge but go beyond that by beating the game while collecting as few items as possible (12%) with 100% map exploration and full bestiary completed. A “minimalist“ run. The developer’s official trailer for the game can be found here, with a link to the download in the description of his video: This is a fan-made Castlevania game in the Metroidvania style that focuses heavily on the events of the first Castlevania for the NES, but in a much more expanded and modern manner. The game has four different rewards depending on how you complete the is awarded upon beating the game, one is awarded if you beat the game with 100% completion, one is awarded if you beat the game in under two hours, and one is awarded if you beat the game with 15% item collection or less. After completing the first three I decided to go for the fourth. There are 100 items in this game consisting of 12 mandatory main items, 20 health upgrades, 50 heart upgrades, and 18 cards. Each one of those adds 1% to your completion total which reaches 100% if you collect them all. Map exploration and filling out the bestiary do not count towards your completion rate at all, only the items collected. To meet the goal you’re supposed to complete the game with 15% or less of a completion rate, meaning that after collecting the mandatory 12 items you have three more that you can choose from, whether it’s health upgrades, heart upgrades, and/or cards. But why do that? Might as well do a minimalist run and keep it at the bare minimum of 12%, only collecting the 12 mandatory items and nothing more. Oh and fill out the entire map and bestiary for good measure while you’re at it. Highlights: 14 minutes, 45 seconds - If you tap the direction quickly then Simon will do this lovely slow walk. This changes nothing. 1 hour, 5 minutes, 25 seconds - Cthulhu is many magnitudes more difficult than any other part of this challenge. I actually completed this challenge the other day but my time was about two hours longer and those two hours were all spent fighting Cthulhu over and over again. I wasn’t happy that my video was over four hours long and about half of it was losing at Cthulhu a million times so I decided to restart and try again. Then OBS (my video recording software) crashed part of the way through my next run, and then the game itself crashed part of the way through the next run, and in the next run shortly before Cthulhu I accidentally grabbed a heart upgrade and had to restart again. Anyways, this boss is really difficult in a 12% run. If anyone knows a better strategy than what I was doing then please let me know. 1 hour, 34 minutes, 20 seconds - The spiked boots are the final mandatory item so I decided to explore all of the remaining parts of the map at this point to fill it all out. 1 hour, 54 minutes - This room is amazing. Bask in its glory. 1 hour, 55 minutes, 35 seconds - This mirror is a lot of fun as it reflects everything, even your menus. 2 hours, 9 minutes, 5 seconds - One final % item collection, no health or heart upgrades, no cards, and the full bestiary is completed (except Dracula but that will be shown a bit later in the video once I’ve fought him). Timestamps: Phantom Bat - 1:40 Golem - 8:50 Medusa - 15:05 Mummy Man - 21:30 The Creature - 36:15 Mirror Monster - 48:05 Granfalloon - 55:45 Cthulhu - 1:05:25 The Grim Reaper - 1:56:15 Dark Lord Dracula - 2:10:10 Final thoughts: Generally I only try these sorts of difficult challenges on games that I really enjoy and this was no exception. LV.4 GAMES did a fantastic job here and I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the Metroidvania styled Castlevania games, or even the original NES game. Actually, even if you dislike the original or haven’t played it, play this game! There’s also a boss rush to go for! “Castlevania ReVamped - 12% (Low Percent) 031624 (YouTube).mp4“