A bead of sweat slowly trickles down wind-stung cheeks. A damp trail cuts through the layers of dirt coating your face, leaving a streaky trail in its wake. Moist earth compacts: pine needles, grass, and weeds, bits of bark pressed deep underfoot. Forging ahead, your lithe fingers wrap firmly around the hilt of your sword. Only a fool would sheathe their weapon now.
Not in this darkness.
Not in this forest.
Not on this journey.
In the darkness, the crimson smears across your blade glint in the moonlight-you’ve not had time to take proper care. No time to rest.
A snapping of twigs, a rustle of leaves, the squeltch of mud underfoot-a mere whisper in the distance.The moon crests above the treetops- a beautiful blinding light against the deep tyrian purple sky. Unnatural, unwavering. No stars shone in the night-only the silhouette of the Scarlet Tower.
“It can’t be much farther now,” Hope falsely swells in your chest as you allow yourself to momentarily dip your blade. Little do you know, your quest has just begun.
FOOL.
You’re too weary, too worn. The sounds of movement in the dense thicket now grow louder-  an obvious tell to the horrors drawing near. The groans, moans and snarls of creatures in the dark growing louder with each passing moment. With a resigned sigh, you raise your blade, fatigue coursing through your veins as your turn on your heel.
“...Let them come.”

Humble, and slow beginnings.

Scarlet Tower is a Vampire-Survivors style Action Roguelike by Pyxeralia LLC. While the inspiration from it’s predecessor is very apparent, the developers have taken a some what deeper approach to the genre. While Vampire Survivors currently boasts a massive 84 playable character in total, what Scarlet Tower lacks in character roster, larger item selection and Italian puns, it more than makes up for in other ways. One of the most notable ways being readily available access to a vampire who, fortunately enough for you, is NOT in another castle.

The vampire may not be in another castle, but surely some of the weapons you find MAY look quite familiar.

All joking aside, trying to compare the two really is apples and oranges-though if you enjoy one, you will likely enjoy the other equally-though possibly for other reasons. While your character selection may be much more limited, you do have access to a whole slew of character boosting passives, racial passive, pets, stats, runes and skill trees. Play your way, and to your preference- as nearly everything you could wish to customize in a run is at your fingertips. In what I would call an interesting marriage of Vampire Survivors meets Death Must Die, Scarlet Tower brings quite a bit to the table, in ways I haven’t seen done in other VS-like titles.

Tread carefully once you leave the forest. One poor judgement call can end your run prematurely.

If you are a fan of pixel graphics, like most other titles in this genre, Scarlet Tower will not disappoint. Core character design is very simple and straight forward, while the background showers you in some fun semi- 3d effects. Despite this, most of the landscape is quite desolate and barren, sans the repeating flora that will serve as constant barriers. There is not much to visually hold your attention in your quest to reach The Scarlet Tower besides pretty particle effects, unfortunately. Despite impressive effects, ultimately the background scrolls by, lacking any real POIs to encourage any exploration, besides the hopes of discovering shops and additional re-rolls and banishes. I would likely call this one of the weakest points of the game, and it ultimately is fairly minor at the end of the day. None-the-less, it really leaves something to be desired, especially when looking at other titles within the same genre that manage to make the most of procedural generation.

As you unlock more weapons, you can scale incredibly fast.

While the backgrounds may leave some to be desires, there are plenty of aspects that more than compensate. One that stands out to me as one of the greatest strengths, would be the musical score. While not as varied as Vampire Survivors that boasts unique tracks for almost every character, the tracks that are present are ASTOUNDING. Any seasoned gamer will immediately pick up on the Castlevania inspired tunes that accompany your onslaught, and I was far from disappointed. It became endlessly easy to simply fall into the groove of smiting everything that came with 10 feet, grooving to some really well composed tunes all the while. Overall sound design otherwise is pretty standard, but by far, the music composition stand out as a real gem.

The onslaught rages into the night.

When it comes to the games interface, some may initially be met with some confusion at the character select screen. Not only is this where you pick your character, but also modify them as you see fit. Choose between 2 passives for each character, each having 3 unique ways to modify them. Pick additional passive skills from a huge array, as well as pick a companion to keep you company in your journey and offer aid (once you've found them!). After you've found runes, equip and level them up, giving yourself some additional benefits, from attack speed, shop cost, armor, damage and more. There are a staggering amount of ways you can modify your experience- and while it may be initially overwhelming, it quickly becomes second nature. As an additional note, not only are you presented with a slew of ways to customize your play- but the ways the game has made itself ACCESSIBLE is something to note. Players who may have limited hand mobility have auto fire as well as auto target options that lend to near ENTIRELY single digit play. I found this to be a most welcome perk, as I imagine countless other players will as well. Both options are found in setting, and can be changed on the fly, depending on preferences.

The main lobby where you will make all of your run adjustments and selections.

 Generalized gameplay is what one would come to expect from any game within this vein. Slaughter anything that crosses your path, upgrade your weapons, and make wise choices so you can fuse stronger, more efficient weapons. Thankfully, Scarlet Tower has opted to have a scroll-over system so that you can see what weapons you may need at a glance. Select additional weapons and passives on level up, as well as shift what kind of skills you are offered. Each weapon has a designated class (and some are hybrid). Depending on what you pick, skills will start being offered to you. Choose wisely! They can absolutely make or break a run. Timed bosses are the usual suspects- and surviving a full run is your key to unlocking higher corruption levels that increase difficulty, as well as make way for unlocking new stages, gear, and characters. Not nearly as straight forward as some other titles, the forced repetition can feel sloggish, especially to players eager to unlock things as quickly as possible. You will have a fair share of runs to sit through, and it can start to be a bit repetitive.  The same can also be said of the in-game quests. While initially they may feel like a fun variant and engaging real-time, after multiple plays you will see how truly limited the quests currently are.

Just a taste of what awaits you in the Labyrinth.

Ultimately, Scarlet Tower is a solid entry to the Vampire-Survivors rogue-like genre. It is far from perfect, with some blatant weak points that could absolutely use some re-working. At the end of the day, if you're a fan of Vampire Survivors, Halls of Torment, Death Must Die, and others- this will absolutely be a title you will want to add to your library. At a meager asking prices of $4.99 USD, you simply cannot go wrong. Gorgeous pixel graphics, a wonderful soundtrack, accessibility options and customizations galore make this a no brainer, despite a few short comings. Overall, I think this is a title well worth it's asking price, as well as your time.

Scarlet Tower is available on the Steam Store Front.