Anyone check out that anime metroidvania? Record of Lodoss War or something like that. Graphics looked good.
It's a love letter to Symphony of the Night, but smaller/shorter. Has a neat ramp-up system where you store energy with each hit, improving your attacks. If you get hit yourself, the stored energy is drained to heal you instead. You have two stocks that you can switch between at any time (which also changes which spells you can cast), which makes it pretty forgiving. So long as you don't take too many hits in a row you can recover without having to limp back to a save point or drink one of your three potions.
The only annoying mechanic are the arrow 'puzzles', where you have to bounce them off the walls to hit switches.
Oh, and the afterimages of the protag's sprite were way too distracting for my liking, but they let you turn those off, thankfully.
Story-wise it's not important to know any of the prior material, as it doesn't continue or elaborate on anything, all you see is just a series of cameos. Knowing who all the people are and how they relate to each other isn't going to make you appreciate this 'plot' any more thank you would otherwise.