Tedious and frustrating. Good graphics and excellent sound, ruined by horrible combat, and repetitive gameplay.

Mirror of Fate mashing together Consolevanias with DSvanias seems like a best of both worlds, but both elements end up weakening the whole.

A DSvania excels in having a labyrinthian map or series of maps to roam, explore, and backtrack, and Mirror of Fate certainly provides this. Except it comes with Consolevania combat and exploration, which thrives on set-piece fights and clearing out a room of enemies at the start to explore in silence from then on. So instead of an expansive Consolevania world where you explore gorgeous environments, fight a setpiece, explore to the next puzzle, or a DSvania where you're slaughtering enemies room by room across a sidescrolling maze, you end up with a hollow sidescrolling maze that alternates between disengagingly empty or just another chore to mop so you can get back to the game. The puzzles and traversal that also fit well in the expansive world of a Consolevania also end up clunky here, with the extra time to execute actions or focus on elements making what would be routine DSvania actions take sluggishly longer.

Ultimately, a game of two identities struggles to really make either shine. If you like the castle exploration of DSvanias, you can certainly fill out a map or three. If you like the combat of Consolevanias, it's passable. As a whole it's too bland to really recommend, unless you want a secrets checklist to complete or just want to chuckle at the thick Scottish accents.

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