Customer Reviews

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It seems that Konami just can't bring the richness of the old 2D Castlevania games to life as a 3D game. First "Lament of Innocence" (LoI) presented us with a lackluster 3D rendering of the Castlevania series, and now "Curse of Darkness" (CoD) follows in its footsteps. For those who remember the old side-scroller Castlevania games, you'll remember that there were a lot of little details that made the game a visual feast. As you made your way through Dracula's castle, haunted paintings would come to life, the spirit of a watchman wept for his dog when you slew it, and ghostly dancers would spiral about in a macabre pirouette as you made your way through a ballroom.

With CoD, you get none of that. While the graphics themselves are respectable, the level designs are fairly bland and straightforward. In fact, it's pretty obvious where the collision boundaries lie, because there is absolutely no interaction with the environment - aside from smashing a singular kind of sconce for money, hearts, and other goodies. So in a cave there may appear to be an interesting alcove here and there, but your character can't even approach it because it's past the collision boundary set for the room. There are some visual effects, like rays of moonlight filtering through windows... but there are none of the spooky little details gamers have come to love from Castlevania games. Overall, the level designs are linear and boring, which often makes it a chore to have to backtrack through them once you get an "Innocent Devil" (ID) that allows you to access a new section of an area you previously fought through. Overall the animation on the characters in the game is good, but the CGI sequences are somewhat stiff looking, despite some decent rotoscoping used to convey the characters' body language.

In CoD, you'll be able to pick up raw materials left by enemies and forge them into new weapons and armor. While this sounds cool, the end result isn't much different than finding new weapons, and can sometimes lead you into trouble if you haven't saved your game recently. Occasionally you'll find some special materials that lead you to believe that you'll be able to use them to forge some dynammite weapons. Unfortunately, while this is sometimes true, at other times you wind up forging something silly like a frying pan, squeaky hammer, broomstick, or cowboy hat. The large diversity of weapons is basically an add-on, and not really of much use. For the most part, you'll probably find yourself working your way up the fairly decent ladder of swords. There are also axes, spears, "knuckle" weapons like claws, and special weapons which are sometimes useful, and other times more silly garbage. As a result, you'll get some good items as you progress, but also wind up carrying around a lot of extra, useless items that simply clutter up your inventory. Finding new weapons would have been a lot more straightforward, as the combining system seems forced , awkward, and ultimately pointless.

Likewise, you also forge your Innocent Devils. Most of them look fairly uninteresting, and a few of them look downright silly. Your nemesis, Issac, parades around with a fairly impressive looking devil in many of the CGI sequences, but you get stuck with throwbacks from The Wizard of Oz. At times these IDs prove handy. In fact, one of the IDs... the silliest looking of them all... can take out the first form of the final boss in almost 2 hits!! But, a lot of the time they just get in your way, blocking the view by flying in front of the camera and such. Also, there are moderately extensive evolution trees for your IDs.

Your IDs evolve by collecting "Evo Crystals" that are dropped by slain enemies. The kind of crystal dropped depends on the weapon you are using. Different crystals will make the IDs evolve in different ways. The problem is that while there are many combinations to evolving an ID, they require you to fight through levels over and over simply to gain enough crystals (generally between 40 and 90) to evolve your ID. This wouldn't be a problem if the levels weren't uninteresting and the battles weren't repetitive. But, as a result of the bland design and uninteresting combat, you probably won't care enough about the game to want to evolve your IDs in all of the ways possible.

Another problem comes from the fact that the leveling system is like an experience point-based RPG system. As you gain EXP, you level up and with your level increase comes raises in hit points, damage, defense, etc. You can get up to level 99, but by the time you're close to the end of the game, you'll only be around level 50 or 60 without any real "grinding" (fighting simply for EXP, not to progress the game).

This creates a problem in relation to the relative ease of the game. For the most part, the monsters and bosses are no real challenge regardless of what level you're at. You just dodge their attacks and hit back when you can and you beat them in no time. In later levels, you may get so sick of bashing the same monsters over and over that you'll just run past them and not worry about fighting them.

That is...... until the final boss. The final boss has two forms and deals a LOT of damage in the second. While there are a few useful odds and ends dropped here and there for healing items, the kinds of healing items you can actually purchase are almost worthless. You can only find one or two healing items that fully recharge your health. The ones you can buy will give you 200 to 50 HP back. The added problem is you can only carry 3 to 5 of these, so your healing ability is VERY limited if you've been using special healing items through the game instead of hoarding them for the very last boss.

So, the problem this creates is that the game is very easy until the very end. Then it is so hard that you'll almost have to level up to 99 just to have a fighting chance. By this time, however, you probably will be so sick of the game that you won't care about beating it and will just be glad to wash your hands of it.

Fortunately, you can find the ending CGI sequence on YouTube so that you're not forced to fight the final boss if you're just sick of it.

It's a pity. The Castlevania series was such a rich tapestry of gothic details in the 2D games, but seems to have become just a watered-down vaguely horror-based button masher in its 3D incarnations. Seriously, Nightmare Creatures was a better gothic game than any of the 3D Castlevania games to date.

Overall the game is better than I expected. I did like Lament much more because it really had the Castlevania feel we have come to expect. I was fearful this would be another Devil May Cry game but it is different enough to keep me interested.

The Innocent Devil concept is a nice try but not really what I want from this type of game. I want an action game and not an RPG and this game has too many RPG elements for my liking. I want to play the game instead of powering up Innocent Devils and creating new ones and getting them up to speed. Combining things to make new weapons confused the heck out of me at first. Again, I want an action game not a RPG. Stealing stuff from your enemies is fun. The need to sit in every chair to complete the game at 100% is moronic.

Gameplay goes ok but the Innocent Devils can be more of a hinderance sometimes than a help. Fighting certain bosses can be a pain with them as well. Having to guess what you are hacking at because the boss becomes transparent so you can still see you character is a pain. The camera angles are not always stellar either.

Still...it is more fun to play than I was expecting and stealing from your enemies can be fun. It still has the overall Castlevania feel but Castlevania without the whip just isn't right. I suggest renting it first or buying it used. I don't think it is worth a $40-$50 pricetag. $20 yes but not much more than that.

the game is taking a hell of a lot of flack when it really isn't that bad! the story is predictable, but it's been established that the game of the bad guys in castlevania is to steal a man's woman and watch him squirm. the music isn't bad, i think of it as being like symphony of the night but with a slight dracula's curse sound. two games in the series with the best music. as far as difficulty goes, it's hard until you realize you should concentrate more on dodging than the offensive. in the fight with trevor, i thought it was impossible to get his life down. i later realized i had to watch for his weak points and move in. so if anything, that's a better point in a game. in the process of that, i wasn't getting angry with it because of the real fact that you're fighting a belmont! so he was kicking the hell out of me, but i thought it was awesome. so yes it's not the best castlevania ever made, because we all know which one that was. but this game really is what castlevania is when thrown into the third dimension. love it or hate it, just give it a chance.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is a game that even the die-hard Castlevania fan might not much get into. Lament of Innocence wasn't a terrible game, but it wasn't great. And Curse of Darkness just goes to show that when a 3D Castlevania game marches forth, it has problems. Sometimes scary problems. Like Lament of Innocence, it had so much potential to be good--this title more so. But it doesn't deliver, and that's a sad revelation to admit to, especially after having so much enjoyment with the DS smash: Dawn of Sorrow.

Ever since the 1997 all time best, Symphony of the Night, so many main characters in the series have to be like Alucard in SOME way. Hector in Curse of Darkness is no exception. He looks a little like Alucard.

But we're not here to discuss that. Hector is a Devil Forgemaster, one who has given up his powers. Dracula is dead, but the land is overun with the curse of monsters on the world of Valachia. Hector, however, isn't concerned about what kind of shape the world is in. He's more concerned about an evil Devil Forgemaster by the name of Issac, who has killed his beloved. If you couldn't guess, it's time for revenge. And so Issac leads Hector into a place full of traps and obstacles he must overcome. And by doing so, Hector will slowly recover his Devil Forgemaster skills and whatnot. The story actually unfolds with excellent voice-acting, but there isn't much story.

Since Symphony of the Night we've been given this Metroid style exploration when it comes to Castlevania. This is marvelous, and once again, makes its way into the 3D world of Castlevania. You explore a large castle riddled with goodies. This includes weapons, subweapons, armor and much more.

Playing the game can be quite fun. Most of the game, as you might have guessed, is spent running through endless hallways of defeating monsters. That isn't as boring as you might think. You can perform some cool looking combos on enemies, but each one must be finished with the circle button. You can also lock onto enemies and perform combos. This makes the camera go crazy, though, but this is forgiveable. Battling without locking on is actually much better, and it isn't too hard to do without. Although, if you want to steal from your enemies, you'll have to lcok on to 'em. Speaking of stealing, it's nice that you can actually do that. Many a time a monster will leave himself open for stealing. This usually occurs while it recovers from taking damage. Again, you must be locked on for it to happen.

Likewise, unlike Lament of Innocence, they actually use the level up system. In other words, there's actually a point to battling through hordes of monsters this time.

You also have little helper monsters. You can compare them to the familiars found in other Castlevania games (like Symphony of the Night and Dawn of Sorror), but the better comparison would be Pokemon. They lend their assistance and gain experience from defeating enemies, just as you do. It's nice not to have to go at it alone, but we Castlevania veterans would prefer to go at it alone. Each enemy also drops evolution crystals. Collect enough of them and your monster will evolve. You won't grow to like them, though. That's the sad part, and they don't really enhance the gameplay. The monsters have special abilities, though. Golem like creatures can open heavy doors, imps let you bury underground. But you can't help but admit it would be nice if your little innocent devils were actually characters. Also, no evolution crystal is the same. You can take advantage of the system by collecting different types of crystals and seeing how your little buddies evolve.

One of the nice things about being a devil forger, you can make your own weapons! And Hector can do it at any time he wants! That's right, no running back to some stupid shop to do it! Monsters often drop raw materials, and you can use them to make new weapons or make your current weapons stronger. You can do this simply by opening the menu. I don't know about you, but that's pretty satisfying to me to be able to do that.

The weapons have their own little downside however. With the exception of the sword, none of them are highly helpful in combat. You start the game off with a short sword, and you'll grow accustomed to its fast speed and easy use. Other weapons just aren't fast enough, and enemies aren't weak to a certain weapon "type". This makes the weapon crafting system a little useless at some points. Unless you're a person who likes to use "cool" looking weapons as opposed to swift and powerful weapons, you won't have THAT much use for the weapon crafting system, except to power up your sword. Thus, experimenting with weapons garners no fun.

It is pretty cool, I must say, to be venturing somewhere that isn't Dracula's castle. Instead you actually venture through the world of Valachia. Meaning you'll trek through swamps, mountains, valleys and a lot more. So if you're tired of Dracula's castle, this is quite a change.

The problem with this "world" is that you don't see enough of it. There's not enough detail to it. You have to follow a beaten path (so it isn't really that different than Dracula's castle in Lament of Innocence), so you can't go off and just explore the places you're at. The game also suffers from what Lament of Innocence suffered from: the lack of detailed enviroments. You'll no doubt run down the same path/hall/corridor several times over. If it weren't for the map you'd find yourself lost, thinking you must be in one of those "looping" ares, or that you took a wrong turn and ended up running in a circle.

The monsters are also not so great. What I love about the 2D Castlevania games (especially in the new Dawn of Sorrow) is how much variety is thrown into the monsters. The attacks they use on you. Even if they're the same looking monster, they throw in some new attack that you don't expect. Curse of Darkness (like Lament of Innocence) has no variety. You'll run into the same batch of monsters constantly, and they'll never do something new. Later in the game you'll find yourself fighting nothing but reincarnates of different colored monsters that do nothing new. Likewise, all the monsters you'll ever see are encountered pretty early on. The moment you run into an Axe Armor, you've run into 'em all! They'll never change.

I sound like I'm being picky about the enemies thing, but I'm not. It takes away from the challenge of the game. The fact that reincarnates don't do anything new makes it more true. And that's not the worst part: the game overall just isn't a challenge. The bosses can be, at times, but if you've been playing 3D action games, I think you'll find even the more challenging bosses to be no challenge at all. The early boss battles in the game are fairly easy. Later on, however, they get start to get hard, and that's when battling them actually becomes fun. Again, though, if you're an action/adventure pro, you'll probably beat most of them on your first try.

I wish I could say the graphics are great. Hey, Hector looks great in combat. But the enviroments don't have enough detail. Too many of them are simple everyday enviroments we've been seeing for a long time now. Where's the detail? You know... like... maybe the leaves on a tree moving? We're at that point where there could be some kind of interation with the enviroment, instead of it seeming like we're running through a still-life painting. Visually, it doesn't look half bad. It's just that there could be so much more. The bosses look cool, and the framerate doesn't slow down at all, but there isn't enough variety, or detail.

However, I must say this: the music sounds AWESEOME! As usual, the Castlevania games have some of the best music there is to be heard in gaming! Is it better than Symphony of the Night? No, it's not. It isn't better than Lament of Innocence either (which also had steller music), but it is still among the best you'll ever hear in a video game. Likewise, the voice acting is actually really really GOOD! I just wish I could've heard more of it!

Curse of Darkness had the potential to be a good game. But there are a lot of things that keep it down. It's a fairly fun game to play, but it lacks innovation. You won't be able to separate it from the other action/adventure 3D games. It's got nothing that makes it stick out.

If you MUST have this game, however, I'd say wait for a price drop. If you're really looking for a good Castlevania game, I'd suggest getting a hold of "Dawn of Sorrow". It's a much better game.

The Good:
+Great Music! Some of the best in gaming!
+Good weapon system
+It's pretty fun to play
+You can steal from enemies!
+Great Voice acting!

The Bad
-Little innovation
-Lack of cutscenes to advance the story
-Too much of the game gets recycled too fast
-Too easy
-The game doesn't look bad, but there's little imagination in the environments
-Not a whole lot of different enemies
-It's too easy
-Boring level designs (not enough of them)
-You just can't help that the game has almost no innovation! It's no different than your average action/adventure 3D game

Get Dawn of Sorrow, or one of the other 2D versions of the game. They seem to fare so much better than this one does. Even the die-hard fan of Castlevania has to admit this one is rather bland.

This being my first foray into the world of Castlevania, I don't have much to offer in the way of comparison. I'm also only about six hours into the gameplay, but so far I have somewhat mixed feelings about this game.

First off, the pros. I'm having a lot of fun going through the various levels. Yes, they are somewhat repetitive, but it hasn't been an issue for me yet. The enemies are fairly easy, which I know for some people is a con, but for me it makes it an easy game to just sit down and play without getting terribly frustrated with and wanting to throw my controller. I enjoy that challenge, but I also like to just play for fun. The graphics are not bad for the era it was made in and the music is nice.

Now the cons. There isn't all that much of a storyline so far. Characters are popping out randomly and then they disappear. For me, that gives the game a bit of a disjointed feel, but maybe it will get better later...I hope. But for now it seems like you're just running into a bunch of random characters without it really adding anything. I run into Trevor Belmont, fight him, then he runs off without adding anything beyond a bit of a cameo appearance. The controls are a bit counter-intuitive. When I push the analog stick to the right, I tend to expect I will go right...not left. Its not a deal-breaker, but it takes a bit of getting used to. In addition, sometimes the enemies "disappear" due to some sort of glitch if the angle isn't just right which tends to be annoying because you have to look around to be able to see it and that can get frustrating. The Innocent Devils can be helpful. I like having a random fairy tag along with me to heal me, but I find the battle-type IDs annoying and they get in my way. I often find myself trying to kill them instead of the enemy because they tend to blend in and get in my way of killing the baddies. They also block my view often. I find them clumsy beasts I don't particularly want trailing around me and would prefer not to use them unless I REALLY need to. As far as the weapon system goes, I dislike combining items for something that may be completely useless. You may be able to see what you are about to create, but you're unable to see what the stats for it are. Why would I forge a bamboo sword if it is practically useless? I would rather use my materials to forge something useful instead and wait until I need to forge said bamboo sword for a better weapon.

All in all, this is a pretty fun game with some glitches included. I would give it a 3.5 star rating if I could. If you buy it, get it cheap. It isn't so terrible that I wouldn't want to try the other games in the series and in fact, has made me even more curious about them, so that counts as a win. I'm certainly not sorry I bought it and I look forward to progressing further in the game and having a fun experience with it.

I played Castlevania about 6 yrs ago and loved it. This is just as much fun. I have been glued to it. I will eventually get the next one.

I didn't love the transition from a 2D side scroller to 3D on the N64, and Castlevania has had trouble making that transition. This game is fun, but it has it's issues. Worth playing, though.

My friend brought this over to my house and I thought awesome another Castlevania not another challenge, but when i played it I thought again. Unlike other Castlevania games this gives more of a system rpg like the castlevania we all know and love "Symphony of the Night". The gameplay was absolutley fantastic and went great with the storyline. Curse of Darkness also went on with a great variety of places that you can go to instead of just staying confound in one castle. Curse of Darkness went beyond with its weapons and mass selection of swords maces even the whips that we can keep some originality in. The weapons also went beyond expectations instead of keeping your them stoed up in your inventory you actually can use your old weapons accquired with items you obtain to create a vast amount of stronger weapons. The weapons werent the only thing worth buying for the music is just to die for. The music provides an old time symphony like Bach but actually fuses it with a type of modern rock with it. I would truley recommend this game to any fan of the series. Also i wont tell you who the end boss is :]

This installment of Castlevania has been met with much criticism due to its linearity and constant repetition. However, it would do no justice to instantly label this game not enjoyable due to these fallbacks. There is much enjoyment to be had playing this game, only if you are able to look beyond the monotony of repeating rooms and enemies. For example, the weapon synthesis system is very rewarding, especially when you are able to finally wield THAT one weapon, THAT one that sticks out to you, and calls for you to drench its thirst in the blood of your adversaries. Another example would be the familiar system, which allows you to develop your companion based on the weapon type you use. The boss fights are engaging, the story's presented well for a Castlevania title, and the game dose have its completion rewards. So, even if you are slightly interested, give it a rent! Cant diss it til' you try it, right?

Ok, first off, I'm here to defend this game. Yes, it is basically the same formula as LOI, but also extremely different. Everyone keeps complaining that the plot (stolen girl) is repeated, well, yes, but what do you want from a vampire story? If it takes Konami a few tries to get 3D right, then let them. I bought this game the day it was released and I'm still enjoying it. It has great replay value when you find yourself with some downtime. All of you who keep saying that the game is too easy, well, I doubt you have 100% of the map completed. The only problem I have with this game is that you have to have the game guide to finish it properly. Konami made it almost impossible to figure out what to do without it. Yes, the combining system is tedious, but the guide tells you what to do and tells you how to use those hard to find materials. I'm not going to go on with this review forever because the game speaks for itself. It's not easy in the least and it is very reminiscent of SOTN. In conclusion, if you want to give this game justice, then buy the guide or don't play it at all.