Castlevania: Curse of Darkness Review

There has been a question about Castlevania that has been answered? Since the gaming industry has transitioned to a 3D perspective, could this adapt well to it? The first attempt was a game that has been coined Castlevania 64 on the Nintendo 64. I have not played this nor have I played Legacy of Darkness so I cannot comment on whether those games are good or not from personal experience. What I am going to do however is look at a game called Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. This game was released for the PS2 and the Xbox. It was a 3D Castlevania game and an attempt to prove that it can be well done and really is fun. From the short list on it, I would say that mission accomplished on being well done and challenging. I’m going to look at each aspect that would be considered important.

Controls: Very responsive and doesn’t look to have any issues in regards to delay reactions. You can perform combo attacks and it can go up to five or six with heavy weapons and with some light ones, you got up to possibly seven hits in a row you can perform. I would say the controls are excellent and give that a plus for it.

Plot: The setting is three years after the events of Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse on the NES. Hector has left the dark side and decided to live in peace and renounce his devil forgemaster powers. Isaac had caused a problem with Hector’s love Rosaly to get accused of witchcraft. Of course Isaac is mad but his intentions are to revive Dracula from the dead once again. Instead of starting the game as Trevor Belmont, whom was the main hero in Dracula’s curse, you have Hector. Along the way you meet Trevor and of course Isaac’s sister Julia. You can see a relationship building with those two. To wrap it up, Hector and Trevor finally trust each other and Trevor got what served what seemed to be his death sentence. Dracula returns and wants to rule the world but you stop him. All is resolved in the end and that should do it.

Game Play: It is pretty simple and doesn’t take a whole lot to understand how it works. You can have your standard controls. There is also the attack system where you can get up to possibly seven at the most depending upon your weapon of choice.

Replay Value: You have a crazy mode, which is more difficult that can challenge you if you think the game was a bit easy. To be fair, it isn’t exactly an easy game and can be challenging to get every single item and weapon of course. There are times in the game you can’t complete a task until later on. The Boss Rush Mode is perhaps a challenging area and can be depending upon what level you are at of course. If you are in the high 60s in level, you might be able to stand a remote chance of lasting a while. Make sure to grab all the potions you can have and of course be sure to keep your Fairy Innocent Devil alive because it can heal you up.

Fun: It’s fun to play actually and really is the best part of it. It can be fun if you are into games where you can gain experience points and like the style of Symphony of the Night in a 3D perspective. It is more of an adventure game and the shop is not really required unless you are buying potions, magical tickets, memorial tickets, and of course doing performing the art of a Devil Forgemaster.

The only real disappointing battle of the whole game was with Death. I am not joking at all at this one. Seriously, he just stands there and throws weapons at you. Having played other Castlevania games, he has got to be the easiest battle personally. What you need is a good Innocent Devil character and has it do constant attacks on him and he just won’t move. I’m sorry but that’s something I just can’t get over.

My final conclusion without spoiling the entire game is that it is fun and would be worth recommending if you are a big Castlevania fan. If you have any fears of a 3D Castlevania game not being any good, you can put that to rest with this game.