Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

[Razumen]

Who else here has played this game?

For a 3D Castlevania, it wasn't all that bad. Don't get me wrong, it still has loads of flaws; such as the horrendous unrelenting use of 'copy & paste' level design, different locales which change nothing but the scenery, useless game mechanics (Do we really still need to be smashing light fixtures for coins and hearts anymore?) andsubpar graphics.

However, the different paths you can evolve your Innocent Devils is cool, and fighting alongside them in the many battles was fun. Although most of the game on the normal mode is really easy, (There is a harder, unlockable mod, but I haven't tried it yet) the combat felt solid and satisfying, which is good because that proved to be one of the few saving graces of the game.

They're just trying too hard to translate the 2D Castlevania experience into the 3D realm - which just won't work. The series has a lot of potential in 3D, perhaps more so than even the current 2D renditions, but Iga and his team are going to have to make a lot of changes to their design processes to get it right.

No "zOmg, 3D Castlevania? Lol" idiocy please.

[BlackDragonSoul]

i own the game. played it and beaten it. but i have not beaten that one boss. i dont remember the name.

[Jarvi]

Played it all the way to the final boss, and got owned in the secon d form, have't really tried again since then.

[Axel B.]

i own the game. played it and beaten it. but i have not beaten that one boss. i dont remember the name.

Legion and Legion Core? Don't worry your not missing much.

It's not a bad game really. To me it was a huge step up from Lament of Innocence which was also pretty good, but had slight minor flaws that sort of made it hard to play with (No freedom over the camera and you couldn't use Items while in the main menu and only by the quick menu). I wouldn't mind seeing another 3D Castlevania. Lots of room to improve and whatnot.

[The Coop]

Played it all the way to the final boss, and got owned in the secon d form, have't really tried again since then.

You and me both.

Though I've retried the second form of the final boss several times, I just can't beat the bastard.

[Calpis]

I played both of the Castlevanias on the PS2 but all the flaws grossly outweighed the highlights. It just got too repetitious and boring for my tastes. But on the other hand, the 3D Castlevanias on the N64 were both tons of fun for me, even despite the fact that most other people hate them. Sure, they definitely had a different atmosphere than the 2D games, but that's one of the reasons I liked them so much.

[Brim]

I got lost on Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, but it was a fun game.

I just don't know where to go because everything looks the same and using the map is sort of annoying.

[Raziellink]

Lament Of Innocence kicked ass. That was the main reason why i wanted to play this game aswell. But in every shop it was either missing, or i had to pay € 67 for it. NO game is worth that much...

[Brim]

That reminds me, I got Lament of Innocence for $12 (USD) I think, and it was just released for about 3-4 days!

[RealFolkBlues]

Don't get me wrong, it still has loads of flaws; such as the horrendous unrelenting use of 'copy & paste' level design, different locales which change nothing but the scenery, useless game mechanics (Do we really still need to be smashing light fixtures for coins and hearts anymore?)

Those design problems weren't half as bad as in Lament, or to a lesser extent, Castlevania 64. And as far as smashing candles goes, what kind of philistine are you? It's Castlevania for God's sake.

Other than that, loved this game. Might be my favorite CV, maybe next to Symphony. Could of used more of the exploration aspect, but that was still pretty decent, I thought.

[BlackDragonSoul]

Legion and Legion Core? Don't worry your not missing much.

It's not a bad game really. To me it was a huge step up from Lament of Innocence which was also pretty good, but had slight minor flaws that sort of made it hard to play with (No freedom over the camera and you couldn't use Items while in the main menu and only by the quick menu). I wouldn't mind seeing another 3D Castlevania. Lots of room to improve and whatnot.

yea thats the guy. i know i'm not missing much but it would be nice to kill the bloody core. darn thing keeps killing me lol

[Razumen]

Those design problems weren't half as bad as in Lament, or to a lesser extent, Castlevania 64. And as far as smashing candles goes, what kind of philistine are you? It's Castlevania for God's sake.

So what? Are you trying to say that smashing torches and braziers form the very core of the Castlevania experience?

Really, just because it's been done a lot in the past, doesn't mean it makes sense to continue doing it. If it's something that's extraneous and add very little to the gameplay then it should be ditched. When Ninja Gaiden jumped to 3D you didn't see Ryu still jumping up into the air hittin blue orbs for goodies did you? It's just a gameplay convention, which works well in 2D, but not so great in 3D.

[Dahlia]

I loves me some Castlevania. Lament of Innocence was a good game. Haven't tried Curse yet, but I sure would like to see a big-budget console CV in the future, with elaborate level designs fitting for a 3D environment. Imagine how great it would be to combine art direction by Ayami Kojima and enough money to get it as nice looking as possible. Castlevania is all about the atmosphere, after all.

Of course, the 2D games are still the best and always will be.

[RealFolkBlues]

So what? Are you trying to say that smashing torches and braziers form the very core of the Castlevania experience?

Really, just because it's been done a lot in the past, doesn't mean it makes sense to continue doing it. If it's something that's extraneous and add very little to the gameplay then it should be ditched. When Ninja Gaiden jumped to 3D you didn't see Ryu still jumping up into the air hittin blue orbs for goodies did you? It's just a gameplay convention, which works well in 2D, but not so great in 3D.

Not the core, but certainly a convention, yes. It's been done in literally every Castlevania. What's your alternative, I might ask? They made magic regenerate anyway, so it's not like it's absolutely necessary to destroy every candle like it was back in the day. Either way, this is kind of a small detail to be a back point of contention for either of us. What otherwise did you have against the game, besides the replication of level design?

[Gore Whore]

I love this game. Yes, the map was really confusing, yes, Demon Form Dracula was hard as hell to beat, but it's still a really good game. I really liked the character design. DAMN Isaac was hot! Even though I got ruthlessly pwn't most of the time. But that's nothing a good training-your-ass-off-spreee won't fix.

Did anyone play this in Trevor mode? The bosses were really really hard imo.

[Razumen]

Not the core, but certainly a convention, yes. It's been done in literally every Castlevania. What's your alternative, I might ask? They made magic regenerate anyway, so it's not like it's absolutely necessary to destroy every candle like it was back in the day. Either way, this is kind of a small detail to be a back point of contention for either of us. What otherwise did you have against the game, besides the replication of level design?

I don't have anything against the game, just the bad decisions they made with some parts of it. I actually did enjoy the game somewhat, despite its flaws, and I wouldn't be posting in a thread I made about it if I didn't like it.

Magic doesn't regenerate in CoD, even if it did, the torches don't give out hearts, except for a few certain areas, they just dropped coins (which should've been dropped by enemies along with the hearts). It may be a staple in the series, and not a really a big flaw in CoD, but it's still a pointless waste of time to bother smashing lights, when you could get so much more money by stealing from enemies.

As for the level design (if you can call it that), the problem wasn't just that they kept on using the same old corridors and rooms over and over, but also that these rooms were all exactly the same, regardless of locale; plain, flat and offering no variety or aspects of design that lent themselves in any way to the numerous battles you often fought in them.

There are a few more things that could have been better; more variety in weapons, attacks and combat, another more challenging mode other than normal available from the beginning, an easier way to select targets and a better camera when targeting an enemy, as well as better secrets and unlockable bonuses (collecting chairs for the 'Chair Room' is a joke, as was beating the pointless Legion boss).

They did a pretty good job with the cinematics though, sparse as they were, especially the fight between Isaac and Belmont.

[EdgeCrusher]

I bought this for like, 10 bucks and never enough put it in the ps2. LoI just bored me to death, and I needed this one to go in my collection.

[I-n-j-i-n]

Great game so far, though I won't quite say that the game is a total makeover of the genre as it was said to be by the director.

I totally missed the preorder deal.

As for the level design (if you can call it that), the problem wasn't just that they kept on using the same old corridors and rooms over and over, but also that these rooms were all exactly the same, regardless of locale; plain, flat and offering no variety or aspects of design that lent themselves in any way to the numerous battles you often fought in them.

Oh, I agree with all those points. Except they were staples of Castlevania games since the beginning. Except maybe for Castlevania 4, SoTN and Dracula X. And their respective spinoffs of SoTN and Dracula X.

[The Coop]

Not a bad game really. In some ways, it's a step above LoI by adding the innocent devils and taking moving away from the typical Castlevania storyline by adding interesting characters that are a lot more fleshed out. But in other ways, it's just as bad as LoI, with it's painfully simplistic 3D level design and less than impressive texture quality on the surroundings. They can't blame the hardware for this, because we've seen the PS2 and XBox do great things. I see it to be more of a "lack of balls" problem on the part of Iga who's been over-seeing the games. We all know Castlevania can be a great series in 3D. They just need to find someone who's willing to take more chances game design-wise.

I enjoyed playing through it though. The boss fights were tough (yes, I'm still stuck on the final boss' second form), and the various aspects of gameplay kept it from getting too stale. It was definitely a step in the right direction over LoI, but I think Castlevania's going to need bigger steps to be taken for it to really shine in 3D the way it's shined in 2D.

[Chapel]

I liked the combination system as it was a different approach to obtaining weapons & armor, although I wouldn't want to see it be reused as I think it would get old fast. The innocent devils were a nice touch, but I found that certain ones (especially the Battle-type Corpsey) were overpowered and made the bosses way to easy in return. It's very easy to run in and use Bone Storm over and over until the boss was dead. Of course the remedy to that would be to not do that, but even then it still felt like the bosses were a little on the easy side with the right weapons. I thought that the Trevor mode was pretty nice, and the boss rush mode with him was incredibly hard making it a good challenge. It was fun to collect all the different whips and actually make use of the elemental weakness system since there really wasn't much use in the main game unless you used an innocent devil which only ranged from fire to ice (to my knowledge anyways, I stayed away from some makes). I really liked the soundtrack, much more so than LoI. I can't think of too many songs that were duds, but that's just my tastes in music. The voice acting was surpisingly good for once. Crispin Freeman has always been a good voice actor in my book. As far as the translation for Castlevania from 2D to 3D, I've used to think that it was best left in 2D like the Mega Man series. However, with such successful 3D platforming titles such as Ninja Gaiden, God of War, and the PoP series, I’m starting to think that maybe Castlevania just isn't getting pushed in the right direction and needs a shake up in the development department. Also it seems that nothing is 2D anymore unless it's either a.) on a handheld or b.) a release of a compilation of old games like the Mega Man or Metal Slug collections but times change and a new generation calls for a new style of game.

[RoeTaKa]

I really liked LoI for some reason, it still felt like a Castlevania game to me. Crap levels but the music and gameplay had me hooked, like fighting the giant stone golem, to hearing Leon's theme the first time, to playing as the secret tiny pumpkin man..thing! I really want CoD but my PS2 is fucked. Though, hearing that it's better than LoI, how can I complain?