Customer Reviews

Castlevania Curse of Darkness

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As someone who enjoyed previous Castleavania games going back to the early Nintendo systems, I did find this new incarnation to be somewhat different than the 2D games of old. But I still liked it a lot. Basically this game has been my main preoccupation for the last 2 weeks or so. I'd rank it as one of the top 5 Xbox games I've ever played (out of 50 or so) in terms of sheer fun level. Primarily I liked the fact that as you gain new items & skills, you can go back to previously explored areas and new areas will open up. This "expanding universe" aspect makes it similar to the Super Metroid games and a little like some of the Zelda titles for Gamecube. I also found the "Combine" system (of seeking out materials to create new weapons and armor) to be very engrossing, and I liked the various ways to obtain those materials - steal from monsters, seek out hidden rooms, etc.

The graphics and sound FX are well below the "all-time great" level of games like Halo 1 or 2, but they're perfectly servicable, ranging from very good to excellent. I thought the spooky ambiance of the various castle hallways, dungeons, etc., was actually captured rather well.

Although I did completely get into the process of exploring the various worlds of this game (especially with the help of some online FAQ references!), I will concede a few drawbacks. The currency's uses are fairly limited. There's only one shop, and the things you most want or need cannot be bought there. And in the later stages of the game, you accumulate a lot of excess cash that can't be used for anything. Also, the process of levelling-up your character and his "I.D." (innocent devil) companions definitely got rather repetitive and a little boring after awhile. Those are minor drawbacks, however. Overall, this is a great game!

Castlevania as a whole started with one thing in mind. . . kill the vampire plaquing the land. The same can be said about Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. You play as Hector, a devilforge master. What's a Devil Forge master you ask? A person with the ablity to create monsters/and or weapons. Devil forge masters in this game have the same amount of power as Dracula's right hand man, Death. Huge 3D like invorments(like from LOI), wild monsters, gorgeous graphics, and a suporior sound track help Hector along the way to get revenge for the love of his life Rosaly. As far as story line time, this happens a little after Castlevania 3: Dracula's curse. So in other words, you old school guys(like me) will enjoy seeing what happeded after Castlevania 3. Pick it up today, you will NOT BE SORRY. Oh yea did I mention, that you get to play as Trevor Belmont? Oh I didn't, good luck, and make Dracula pay!!!

This game's combat system makes the Castlevania series worth playing again. Since Symphony of the Night I've been yearning for something and this game was my answer. It is simply incredible. A must have for all Castlevania fans!

I'll admit that on my first play through of the game, I couldn't even finish it. It took everything I had to defeat the first final boss fight, let alone the 3 that followed. I knew something was wrong. Why was my character weak, where was all my upgraded weapons, armor, and abilities? I did a little research and found that I was missing out on a crucial element to the game: stealing.

Yes stealing is possible from every enemy in the game. In fact, it's required to get the materials you need to upgrade your armor and weapons. Once I played through this game again and started stealing from all the enemies, wow what a difference that made. The game wasn't that hard since I had every upgrade available in the game. It was fun trying to figure out how to steal from every enemy and boss. I did have to use some help from game faqs to figure out how to steal from some enemies and it can be very difficult on some enemies.

Another element to the game was the side-kicks called innocent devils. There are several types, including fairy, battle, mage, and bird. Each one has an evolution chart that you can evolve them to different forms with new abilities. Each of them fight alongside you or aid you on health and status (like poison). This is another huge aspect to the game. Once an innocent devil evolves to a final stage, it will start dropping new shards you can use to make another innocent devil of the same type. This allows you to evolve the same innocent devil type down a different evolution path. You evolve the innocent devils by what weapon you have equipped. Each weapon type produces different evolution crystals (called Evo crystals). You can see the chart on each one and see what evo crystals evolve it to each path. The evo crystals will be as follows: Red= sword, Blue= Axe, Green= Spear, White= special weapon. Different colors will take the innocent devil down different Evolution paths. Also, to get the ultimate innocent devil, you will need a special weapon to use to evolve the bird to an alternate final form. You will see this form and the weapon when you first fight the other forge master.

This game plays out like a world map with warps to each area so you don't have to go back through an entire area. You have a central hub area that lets you access the item shop and warp to any un-locked warp zone. As you un-lock new abilities in your innocent devils, it will allow you to access other areas that you couldn't get to before.

There is a tower near the last area that lets you fight a set of enemies on every level of the tower. Once you reach the top, if you have the long glide ability, you can fly to the next tower and fight much harder enemies. Trying to conquer the towers and trying to upgrade all your items by stealing from different enemies, really adds a lot of replay-ability to the game. There is also a chair side quests that wants you to sit in every chair in the game, but I can't remember what that accomplishes.

Lots of bosses to face and Richter Belmont is in the game helping you for the most part (but you have to fight him at a few points).

The game is loads of fun and at the time, had the most expansive environment in any Castlevania game. If you missed playing this game during the Xbox or PS2 era, I would highly recommend you pick this up. This game will stay in my collection.

This didn't work my game console, but it worked on my friends though. That's okay I just keep it anyway.

Castlevania Curse of Darkness is a true gem, among xbox games. I think, it was more designed to be a bridge for a game that's coming out in the future, that be two player (Probably xbox360 or Play station 3). So they have get you (the gamers) used to someone other Trevor Belmont. One Dracula Is NOT DEAD. He get's reborn, he needs one of the devil forger masters to get reborn. So its either Hector or Isaac who has to die to bring forth Dracula. So since your Hector and that leaves only Isaac who becomes Dracula. (Dracula is mad at Hector for running off during the big battle, thus blaming him for his down fall to Trevor Belmont.) But here only point in the whole game that gets me Hector is way up in the army of evil and he has a change of heart just because Dracula wants to kill every human who wants them destroyed. That part brothers me but who cares its fun game anyway hacking and slashing all the creatures of the dark. So its like a complexed stories line. But along the way you don't know what's what's. It come to you in the movies and not all what you see is what is. Like in the beginning you meet Zead and Saint Germain. Now Zead wants to help you on your quest and Saint Germain wants to try and stop you. They both hate each other, Zead seems so nice and Germain like a total pain. Why not any help that helps you average the death of your wife to the town people who bur her as a witch sounds good. You have to fight Saint Germain latter, and to tell you the truth he is hard, he pulls out a gun try's to shoot you, when he near death. Latter you find out Zead is Death "the Grimm Reaper"., after you fight Isaac and Zead takes Isaac and turns him into Lord Dracula, for the final fight. When you beat Dracula you seen the ending. Now everyone says this game is to short. When actual its two games you can play as Trevor Belmont and its totally different then playing as Hector, as game play is concern more classical Castlevania from the NES and SNES days. So if you don't like the devils and want a more classical game try beating it once and play as Trevor. But you also find out in the ending from Saint Germain there will be another finial battle (hint another game of Castlevania in the works). So honestly the game play is cool, the battles are fun and if you play long enough you can truly enjoy this game and its plot twists. It took me 30 hours to beat it, with hector and I'm finish play it with Trevor Belmont, but can say its good. I cant campare this to the play station games my last Castlevania was Castlevania X for SNES. It reminds me a lot of that game the stages do, but these are more in detail and more fun 3d. One more then there is a love stories at the end, yes I know not what you where expecting, between Hector and Julia Laforeze. Doesn't it melt your heart. Yes Isaac sister and the hero. How ironic. There hidden stages more bosses after you beat it and its truly a gem among xbox games. Some will be mad cause I wrote this but the cheesy plot line about Dracula being death and fighting for so long to beat this game figure ill just go ahead and tell it. Its great game.

This game is great fun but why has one of the moronic reviewers decided to tell everyone the plot of the game.
IDIOT!!!!!!