Warts and all, Circle of the moon was an experiment, most of its faults can be attributed to Konami having ZERO idea of how to handle their newly discovered formula in a Handheld, but what came it did to a (Nowadays) fondly remembered gameplay, The success lead to a sequel being released roughly one year later, While critically acclaimed by critics, audiences was more...mixed compared, not only comparing it to Circle of the Moon, but also to Symphony, due to the lots of similarities of Harmony has to it, granted, nowadays defenders has appeared and myself can tell the game has some good, but now we will see if the good outweigh the bad...
History:
50 years has happened after Simon Belmont revived Dracula just to kick his ass again, throwing in the bin the piece of lore that Castlevania resurfaced every century (Nowadays is more like the Franchise itself is the one that resurfaces every century) Castlevania resurfaces into a nearby forest, our hero this time is an actual Belmont, the Vampire Killer welder of this one is Juste Belmont, who went to investigate not only to kill Dracula, but to rescue his fiancée Lydia, with Lydia and Juste's third wheel Maxim, he also antagonizes Julious, but unlike Hugh and Nathan, who was jealously out of Hugh having more power, here it is actual jealously, the plot... I mean Maxim deciding to split to cover more terrain splits them, however Maxim's darkness seems to be the harbored of something far darker in the Castle...s
The plot is slightly more developed, Death once again has a personality, but unlike SOTN, where he takes your stuffs, refuses to elaborate, leaves, come back later and dies, here he is more proactive, Dracula remains dead for instance, requiring Death to gather a sucker to eat his "Evil energy" via his negativity, for bonus points the "Drac's body parts" plot is retaken from Simon's Quest
Also, the missing multiple endings are back (YAY)
Gameplay:
"I SWEAR LYDIA, IT'S THE FIRST TIME IT HAPPENS TO ME"
The player once again has the power of a Whip, but this time you can actually control it freely (Sadly not whipping downwards like in 4 yet), while also having a unique slot in the item menu for us to equip on the tip of the whip, also the backlash mechanic is upgraded allowing you to dash forward
The "gimmick" here is the Book System, unlike the cards you don't have to pray the Random Number God for the components to drop, you just all of the five, and use them as a update for your sub-weapon, they are five of them: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Wind and Summon, as mentioned while "equipping" a book if you use a weapon you will graze it with its element: E:G: If you use the Cross while having the book of Wind you will summon a ring of crosses to defend you, most of the possible 30 fusions are situational, but if you figure which ones you want, you will want to stick to a favorite fusion (Tip for those that want to play: Knuckle+Wind Book>>>>>>>>>>Everything else), if you want also a room that exists in both castles can be decorated with various furniture threwn all over the castle... that will surely be blown into smitereens at the game's ending... and that even if you complete the room you only get a single line in the best ending...oof
A missing mechanic in the previous game is back here, gentlemen, WELCOME BACK STORES
Merchant: While we are at it, have you seen a little girl? Just turned 7 last month... Short, black hair...?
Juste: Wrong game man
Sadly one of the few flaws of SoTN has is the fact you can't sell your obsolete loot, the only thing you can sell being gems, and if the gems in SoTN were rare, here I played ENTIRE PLAYTHOUGHS without a single gem dropping, forcing you to grind with the rare candles that constantly spawn a fixed money bag, another hinderance is that while most Metroidvania (Including Aria of Sorrow and the DS trilogy) has a single store that updates as you progress, this store has many iterations, finding which one has the stuff you wanted to buy when/if you gather enough dough to get it will be a chore, especially since some of them has REQUIREMENTS TO UNLOCK, some are plausible yet annoying like has a certain number of hearts, but some needs you to get AN SPECIFICL LEVEL, I will explain more in the Difficulty appendix, for now let's focus in another specific store that is hidden in whofuckingknowswherepolis that needs a random drop of an enemy, mercifully once you get it, it never leaves, so...yay?
Healing aside, most items are redundant, you are better upgrading only DEF while ignoring any armor that hinders unless you want a LUC build, I tell you here is placebo, also you get rings that upgrade your Sub-Weapons, but considering that they aren't great upgrades and that you are better with the books you get for free, pass
The body parts gathering isn't the only thing the game shares with SoTN, but also a certain event that triggers eventually, the usual Teleporting rooms starts...odd, first they send you to a wrong looking Castle, as if the art was taken by Giger, you need to go there so you don't question it, beside, this isn't new to the series, but eventually Death tells you that Maxim is a total Simp and said jealously for Lydia is creating a Second castle, that's right, we are back to the dual castle mechanics, but here they slightly improve it, they are a grand total of three puzzles that require breaking a wall in Castle A to be able to acees the "opposite" room in Castle B (I am not being lazy with the castle naming, that's how they are named in the map screen) but otherwise it's more paddy than anything else
Oh, you can also play as the “Rival” of the game, beat the game, name your save MAXIM and see the game be shed (Even further) to sheds
DIFFICULTY
They fixed CoTM's difficulty, but I warn you, they went TOO FAR, the Book system ensues you will always have a way to defend from attacks (Assuming you find enough mana restoring items) and you get rained with hearts, in a sense they also fixed the fake difficulty of CoTM by making Juste agile instead of the poor Osteoporotic Nathan
The overcorrection?
Most enemies barely pose a threat, even the few that does are more of “Have an annoying pattern of just make them hit like trucks” kind of hard enemies, bosses can be made short work by just spamming a book spell or simply stocking on relatively cheap healing potions, even Friggin DEATH, usually the franchise’s warning siren that the game stopped holding back is a pushover (In Circle he was also easy, but Juste remembering how to run makes the battle even simpler)
To make matters worse, the Leveling system seems too broken, eventually you will reach an artificial roof of EXP being so high and the EXP of enemies being so low you will be stuck in relatively low levels even if you grind, making even worse some of the stores, since they need your level to be either Even or Odd, and as soon as you get access to both castles, you will notice the game has difficulty peaks, I mean at least Circle was consistent (The game being against you is a constant, not?) in its difficulty curve, some enemies hit like if they got paid for it, armor gets expensive, maps get cumbersome, and to make it annoying in a fake wat, ¿Remember how annoying SoTN’s High Jump was with a finicky timing? Remember how comfortable it was to just press R while holding up? GUESS WHICH ONE THEY BROUHT BACK
Some side quests are also cheap in challenge, the Book of Thunder… oh Higher Beings, the Book of thunder, basically you have to race a ball before it blocks the only path into the room with the book, fair in the castle where you unlock it, but in the castle that has the Book… see the horror by yourself reader… if you dare
GRAPHICS
I…CAN…SEE…
Another thing over corrected was the graphics, CoTM’s graphics was panned for being dark in a hardware that lacked any sort of light, here they fixed said issue, but nowadays that light is a non-issue, they are way too saturated, fortunately patches exist that dims the graphics
Fortunately, as soon as you patch or simply ignore it, they are still good looking… but the creativity aspect went into sabbatical this time, regarding bosses, most of them are just bigger enemies, ESPECIALLY MAX SLIMER
We recommend to point and laugh at it before continuing the review’s reading
Fortunately, some of them returns from past Castlevania games and they are actually cool looking (Pazuzu is great looking and if you like Granfalloon/Legion, this game offers TWO OF THEM)
The castle…well, castles are still tense looking, just look at the mandatory Cathedral level, that sky reminds me of lots of SNES titles that squeezed every drop of Mode7
Just himself looks cool, but sadly the rest feels… off, the basic enemies look basic, the game abuses of recolored enemies and the menu HUD has “Diseño grafico es mi pasion” written all over it, looking like SoTN’s but failing to make it at least more interesting
Even The true final boss, Dracula Wraith, looks merely as an old man in slippers, at least the second form looks unique and cool
MUSIC
Castlevania is known for having burning pianos all over the franchise, especially the 8-bit ones, sadly here the hit and miss ratio falls squarely into miss, the game uses a Chiptune engine that sounds uncomfortable, just listen to the boss theme
CONCLUSION
The game feels like a SoTN Demake at times, the Book System feeling like a less free and/or interesting DDS, and the game holds your hand way too much, but that haven’t stopped the game of having fans, some arguing the game didn’t deserve its bad rap, some claiming the bad one of the trilogy is Circle, some claiming Circle is the superior, or people that declare that both games are good, by the end of the day this review is actually a mere opinion, and if you found the game was fun, I won’t stop, I don’t intend to overwrite opinions with my reviews, I just want to give mine, and mine is that while some good, the game is a definite case of Middle Child Syndrome, aside, while the Circle vs Harmony debate still goes on, one can’t deny that the final port of the GBA trilogy blows them both from the water, but that will need me to go back to the future, for now, see you in the Aria of Sorrow Review Retro Gang
*Hands a bag of Dorayaki to Doraemon* Take me to 2035
Doraemon: Sure, thing floating pillow *Revs the Time Machine* Pick this over having Nobita to almost start a second Krakatoa eruption somehow while all I gave him was an automatic Sock sorter
Bakuma out
Pros
- + Main character doesn't skip leg day, allowing to run by default
- + Dash forward is unique
- + Full control of the whip
- + Nice hidden easter eggs to the rest of the saga
- + Overly bright graphics aside, the designs are fire
- + Easly breakable with book experimentation
- + Easy difficulty if you just want to wreck crap
Cons
- - Music can hurt
- - Too hand holdy, until it says "Fuck you" and makes you get lost
- - Book system is not as cool as the DDS
- - Shops are confusing to find
7
Gameplay
Lack of challenge aside, game is a total refining over Circle of the Moon
8
Graphics
A total improvement, unique enemies are passable but returning enemies made the jump with grace
7
Story
Not exactly SoTN or Portrait, but still slightly improved
5
Sound
It's weakest spot, chiptune sounds like they threw a NES into a window and composed in the wrecked remain
7
Replayability
Maxim mode and Boss Rush means you have something to do after clearing the game (Use the Konami code after unlocking Boss Rush in the Konami logo while booting for a surprise)
7
out of 10
Overall
A Middle child in the trilogy, not exactly the worst Castlevania, but still has room for improvement, fortunately its fans can patch it into getting fixed
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