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I'm kind of borderline if to give this a yes or no recommendation.

Sprites overall aren't too bad. Zangetsu being the new Grant looks kind of awkward.

Jacking up all heart costs for subweapons dones't work. If it was only 2 or 3 per weapon it might be okay. Even in 1.3 where they lowered it's still not very good. Plus the Japanese version didn't get a 1.3 update sadly which was the version I played.

Weapon damage was adjusted, but only for the US version sadly.

For the most part levels aren't changed too much. A few candles are moved and or are different. They did Kaizo the last level though. If you died you have so little time to beat the final boss. Especially a problem for the Japanese version as you respawn just outside of Dracula's throne room.

I found this hack work after a long hiatus state and I immediately noticed the two reviews mentioned they encountered several problems within the hack. But I thought, "this is the version 1.3 and maybe those questionable spots had been fixed?" After I applied the patch and tried it... Well... this hack disappointed me just as it disappointed other people who wrote the previous reviews.

• The music could be custom-ported NSF music from the actual Curse of the Moon game.

• The motion that Zang grab on walls and floors is hilariously weird

• Though it says sub weapon ammo consumption is reduced in the version 1.3 update information the amount of sub weapon ammo consumption is STILL high for generic Castlevania standards.

• Some enemy placement spots are just flat ridiculous - The infinitely spawn pod balloons at forest stage for example, fells like if the difficulty of original International release is not enough.

• After player perished in the final stage part 2 or final battle, in the next life you did not have enough time to get through final stage part 2 (there're just 100 counts - half of the value which was 200 counts in the original game) which makes it extra painful to beat the final stage; and lead me to believe the hack triggers some unknown Anti-Piracy features in the original game of some sort. Or it could be just the author's negative method of towering up difficulty... (Though it's still possible it requires frame-perfect inputs, HEAVY luck manipulation and HEAVY abuse of save states to get through just one or two of those screens, which is a rather painful experience in my view.)

Overall, this hack has decent concept but the result is just questionable. To the point that I did not recommend it at all.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a fantastic 8-bit love letter to the Castlevania series, and playing as Zangetsu and the gang in true NES form is a great idea, if done correctly. Unfortunately, that can't be said for this hack, and the design choices that I've seen here make for a disappointing experience.

On the surface, this hack replaces the sprites for the existing characters and monsters of Castlevania III with ones from CotM, and while most of it looks okay, there is a lot of room for improvement. Miriam's jumping sprite lacks the graceful appearance of her original self, and looks oddly disproportionate, which is the result of attempting to squish her sprite into Trevor's frame. Squeezing Zangetsu into Grant's small frame makes for a clunky experience, since the game doesn't realize that you're playing with a normal-sized character, and this is obvious when trying to jump through tightly spaced platforms.

Another problem is that the deliberate pallet and graphical choices that were made tarnishes the overall presentation of the game. For example, Miriam's purple sprite blends into the purple sky in the first level, whereas Trevor's bright tan sprite pops against the dark blue sky. Granted this is a minor complaint that is only seen in a few spots, but her sprite camouflaging into the background is indicative of poor visual design. That and I noticed sloppy lightning effects that appear in a few screens. I also felt that the white outline on certain zombies seem odd, and bats are much harder to spot the background with their outlines removed.

The icing on the cake is the deliberate choice to change the clock tower pallet entirely to shades of gray, which leaves it looking dull and makes platforms and stairs much harder to see, and is further complicated by the addition of a vertical scroll effect in the first screen. I also can't understand why stairs were placed at the top of the first gate in 1-1, which are reachable with Zangetsu but can't be climbed. Granted, this could signify a warning to players to be aware of false stairs, but the fact that such false stairs aren't seen for the remainder of the level is an example of poor game design.

More needs to be done to make Miriam less of a mandatory character as well, which is happening only because Castlevania III keeps Trevor for the entirety of the game. Granted, passwords allow you to start the game with a partner, but there is no way for you to ditch her for any other character, which limits the possible combination of characters you can experiment with.

I also find that the higher cost of sub-weapons leaves them far too limited for what they are. Although I was seldom weapon-starved in the base game, the sub-weapons don't feel any stronger or have any greater utility, which makes the higher costs unjustifiable and devalue the sub-weapons, which consequently make the C+1 (II) and C+2 (III) power-ups pointless as well. If they were perhaps stronger, faster, or were more useful, I could stand by those higher costs, but not as is.

In some cases, this hack breaks the original game design: for example, the first section of the clock tower stage features a Stopwatch, which is immediately usable in the base game but not in this hack because of the higher cost, and isn't usable until you're well past the Red Trevors that block your ascension. The newly-added auto-scrolling in that same level is nonsense as well, as it causes certain monsters to appear at odd points, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, other than to make the game harder.

Overall, this is a 3/10 hack; it wants to be more than just a simple sprite swap, but it needs a lot more work in terms of game mechanics and design. While the effort is commendable, the poor pallet choices tarnish the visual presentation, the increased cost of sub-weapons aren't justifiable, and the auto-scrolling doesn't mesh well with the overall level designs. If anything, instead of trying to make a harder Castlevania III with CotM characters, it should strive to be more like The Holy Relics by taking the base game and building upon it with new levels that are designed around these changes. The potential is there, and with more work and some polish, this can be a stellar standalone hack.

Its just your basic, typical sprite and story switch-a-roo stuff going on. Not much else has changed except a few changes here and there however they are not significant changes, not even the levels.

• Get rid of the debug menu. That's annoying to have.
• Some modified code so that's a plus but not much.
• Miriam needs reworked on everything.
• Zangetsu isn't too bad but feels off when walking and moving especially the wall climbing. Feels like Grant reskinned while wall climbing. Why does Zangetsu have to wall climb? Should be a different character since you 'scooted' up the sprite to fit like everything else so you have some programming knowledge to change him up.
• Alfred is okay but feels stiff and odd especially when doing sub weapons.
• Gebel is not bad compared to the rest since he is an Alucard duplicate.
• Have to patch in a specific code for Gebel to attack on the stairs and has to be him only. Should be programmed in the base patch since you have someone that knows how to program.
• The shortcuts are just areas opened up for certain characters in each level. Doesn't mean much since the levels weren't touch greatly at all.
• The levels are barely touched with a few changes here and there (above statement.) Felt very dull.
• Enemy placements need work.
• The music is the absolute same.
• Game play is somewhat fair but has a few cheap shot areas like in the first Clocktower, the falling whip Trevor comes out of nowhere due to the auto scroll you guys placed in it.
• Backgrounds are not changed except for a few areas.
• Palette swaps felt absolutely dull with no proper blending.

I strongly recommend this team on going back to redo the character sprites especially Miriam. After that, redo everything else. You guys had some stuff switched around from the actual game but others are untouched and/or swapped with other stuff with only palette swaps.

Take your time and put more effort into a 2.0 version. This felt that it was hastily done.