Grim Guardians Demon Purge - Playthrough Part 1

Grim Guardians Demon Purge is a 2D action game featuring characters from the Gal Gun series. You play as the Kamizono sisters - Shinobuj and Maya, who have to deal with series' antagonist Kurona using a magic mirror to fuse their school with the demon realm. The result of this is that the students have turned into demons and in order to save them you have to defeat them. The game has a lot of Castlevania references, but so far I struggle to call it a Metroidvania. The way the gameplay works is that you swap between the two sisters - Shinobu uses guns and has more HP, while Maya hits with melee attacks and deals more damage. Each character has a separate life bar. If one of them dies you are returned to the checkpoint with the other and can resurrect them with a CPR mini game - not a fan of this since you could've just switched to the living hunter. You also have Weapon Points which are used for Sub Weapons - different methods of attack to deal with hard to reach enemies. There's also the Purge Gauge, which is filled as you play and collect Pride (energy). You can use it up to unleash a lethal shot, which will kill enemies in a single hit and create an explosion. Unfortunately I found it to be rather useless - the bullet you shoot is too slow and most enemies will simply avoid it. Defeating the bosses unlocks a new Sub Weapon, which on first glance may have platforming functions like Maya's paper crane serving as an extra platform, but it's incredibly impotent - you just throw it in front of you and it barely gives you any vertical advantage, rather than it being a floating platform. Now, I don't call this game a Metroidvania, because it doesn't have a map of the levels! After you defeat the boss you get the option to go back and explore the levels with the new abilities, but I haven't found any reason to do so - the only thing I've discovered is girls you can help and aside from them filling your health there's no reward in finding them. You can also find extra lives, but you may also lose them considering that falling into a pit is an instant death. So far the game is disappointing. At least the boss battles are pretty cool and seeing characters like Aoi and Akira is great for fans of the series.