Chronicles of the Wolf Review – Awesome, Old-School Metroidvania

Chronicles of the Wolf Review

Chronicles of the Wolf is a brand new 2D dark fantasy Metroidvania from the same developers who made Wallachia: Reign of Dracula. Aesthetically, this game looks similar to Wallachia, but sets itself apart from other Metroidvanias much better. There are old school inspirations for Chronicles of the Wolf that aren’t often drawn upon in modern games. So read on to find out what those strange inspirations are, and if this game is for you.

Chronicles of the Wolf’s story is set during 18^th century France. Much like the excellent film Brotherhood of the Wolf, this game is a dark fantasy take on the real-life story of the Beast of Gevaudan. In real life, a large wolf was terrorizing the Gevaudan region of France. In Chronicles of the Wolf, that large wolf is a powerful werewolf. The game begins with the Rose Cross Order knights getting massacred by The Beast. You play as Mateo Lombardo, a member of The Order who survives the attack, and continues the hunt. Going any further with the story would spoil things, but I really like how simple the set up was to get me invested, then how much more was revealed as the game went on.

Castlevania Controls

The controls in Chronicles of the Wolf are very simple and Castlevania-inspired. The game is a 2D action adventure platformer. The player uses face buttons for melee attack and jump. Up and attack is a secondary (usually projectile) weapon that uses collected ammunition. There’s a button for a sub weapon specific special attack, which uses a mana meter, and a button for a magic attack, which changes depending on which ghost helper is equipped. Mana slowly recharges over time. The player also has a charge attack, used by holding down the attack button. Ammo and power ups can be collected by breaking torches and walls. The player gets abilities as the game goes on, which help with environmental traversal, and with opening up new areas to explore. It’s a tried-and-true formula at its core.

Chronicles of the Wolf has light RPG elements. Mateo gains experience from killing enemies. There are stats for health, mana, weapon ammo, attack, defense, luck, and critical. There are six equipment slots, which can be found or bought for gold, which can also be collected. The town of Gevaudan acts like a town in an NES adventure game, where the player can talk to the townsfolk to gather information about the region, and get tips for what to do/ where to go. There are also weapon and item shops. Just like Castlevania II, Chronicles of the Wolf has a day/ night cycle, where there are more threats at night. Parts of the town change too, like which buildings are open.

NES Difficulty

The game can be very difficult with enemies that break out of the environment unexpectedly, and enemies that spawn form behind the player. There’s an old school difficulty I appreciated that reminded me of NES Castlevania, and Ghosts ‘N Goblins. Boss fights are always a graphical and design highlight. They challenge the player to learn patterns, and exploit openings. There are also tons of secrets, including multiple endings to unlock. Although the gameplay base is simple, the world layout, design, and boss battles make the game feel unique.

Chronicles of the Wolf is a Metroidvania, but it plays more old-school than a lot of its contemporaries. Its adventure game qualities remind me more of NES and Sega Genesis games than post-Symphony of the Night Metroidvanias. Visually, Mateo’s sprite looks and moves very similarly to Simon Belmont in Super Castlevania IV. But the game is structured more like Castlevania II or Legend of Zelda II. The sprite work evoked memories of games like Alisia Dragoon, El Viento, X-Men, and Shinobi. The open-ended structure reminded me of the Wonder Boy/ Monster World series. Modern players should think that Chronicles of the Wolf is less like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and more like Infernax. It’s refreshing to play a game that draws on those rarer aesthetics. It really sets the game apart in a sea of Metroidvanias.

GOTY Soundtrack

Chronicle’s of the Wolf’s score is phenomenal! The composer was definitely going for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night vibes. It’s a classical score with strong melodies. There’s lots of guitar work mixed in, with elements of progressive rock and jazz. There were times I paused the game just to listen. There were even some songs that gave me Angelo Badalamenti vibes, like I was watching a creepy David Lynch film. I couldn’t be more impressed, and I hope voters take note come Game of the Year nomination time.

Although the music is incredible, the voiceover needs some work. I hate to critique this, because the developers sound super proud to get a cast of veteran voice actors like Robert Belgrade and Kira Buckland. But lot of the voice acting sounds muffled, like the source mic was awful. And the voices are way quieter than the music. Unfortunately, there are no audio options to fix the unbalanced music/ voice ratio. There is also no in-game options menu. To change the controls, I had to go to the main menu, where you start the game. The menu controls are also quite bad. The d-pad skips over menu selection items really easily. And changing the controls involved a very frustrating process. Luckily none of these problems affected the gameplay.

A Rarity in Modern Video Games

I loved Chronicles of the Wolf. It’s rare to find a game inspired by proto-Metroidvania NES adventure games. It’s also rare to find a game that looks like a Sega Genesis action platformer. These aspects set the game apart from other contemporary Metroidvanias. The little bit of needed menu polish will hopefully be patched soon, because Chronicles of the Wolf is one of my favorite games of 2025. It definitely has my favorite music from any game of 2025. If you’re at all curious, please don’t hesitate to pick it up.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher***