Customer Reviews

Castlevania(R): Curse of Darkness(TM) Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))

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

 

 

Lord, I hope these authors were fired.

When I purchased Brady Games' official "Castlevania: Curse of Darkness" strategy guide a couple of years back, I mistakenly thought I was buying a guide. To help me...strategize. I didn't realize I'd be getting an abridged art collection with big sections missing.

I'll be the first to admit this was probably my fault. I didn't take the time to read through the whole thing before setting money down on the counter, and it had words like "guide," "strategy" and "official" right there on the cover. Positive experiences with similar-looking pamphlets in the past must have lulled me into a false sense of security.

So, yeah, it served me right. But maybe I can keep it from happening to you.

No joke: This guide devotes more time to reproducing non-player character profiles straight from the game's instruction manual than it does to boss-fighting tips. The Innocent Devil evolution charts are ridiculously primitive-looking and tricky to navigate, and the type is so small that you may need seeing-eye insects to read it for you. (You are familiar with seeing-eye insects, don't you? I understand they're a fad in Japan.)

Here's the biggie: There's no stealing guide. None. At all. You'll get the occasional blurry screenshot of a purple bulls-eye in some of the one-page boss fight sections. But as for advice on when to block, when to jump and when to mash the circle button? I'm sorry, you must be thinking of GameFAQs.

You people who've played this game, you know what a crushing failure this is. Ten straight minutes of trying to find a boss's opening, then another thirty trying to pull off the actual grab, is enough to make you want to headbutt Mr. Rogers' corpse. And if I hadn't seen someone steal from Death on YouTube, I'd have sworn it couldn't be done.

I suspect they cheated somehow. They went back in time and worked some Game Shark wizardry before the codes had come out yet, and that's how they were able to print what monsters give you which items. It's the only reason I can think of why they wouldn't tell you how to do it all yourself.

It would've been a much better deal if Brady had stapled together some cocktail napkins and sold them for $2.50. They could've rendered the official Konami artwork with crayons and sparkle glitter, and the strategy section would just say "avoid taking damage." After you beat the game, you could go out to Tony Roma's for ribs and use the napkins to clean up, which is way more useful than anything the $12 version does.

This guide gets two stars from me simply because it points out some breakable walls on the area maps. Also, as bad as it is, it didn't infect me with smallpox.

You, of course, may not be so lucky.

I have purchased this guide because i love the CASTLEVANIA series. But i hoped more for a guide like this. For me, this guide is incomplete. It don't show us the exact time to steal from enemies.That was the main reason for my average evaluation. However, CASTLEVANIA games, are so good!

This is a great action game. The storyline is pretty nice and is revealed only a smidgen at a time but if you want it faster you can ignore your ID's and move straight along in a brisk manner. If however you are like me and when you played FF8 etc. you had to get all of the possible Aeons to their maximum levels...Good luck in Castelvania. This is impossible since the ID's (like aeons) are right there with you and after using one for about 20 min straight they plop out an egg. Guess what the egg does...Gives you a new ID of the same type. Not only that but it inherits 10% of the previous ID's attributes in addition to its normal base. Thus you can make MEGA devils and your initial ones become kinda outdated. I highly reccomend for these people getting the broach of bonding (all xp goes straighe to the ID) and hanging out in the aquaducts with a whoop a** wepon. There are 5 types of wepons and the one you use is the big factor in what your ID evolves into. Yes they not only lay eggs but they evolve too. (btw if you want your birds to be useful at all make a goldfinch and keep him at that stage while leveling the heck out of him this is the only way to get enough hearts for yout future ID's to be useful.)

Overall this is a great game and when you do finally beat it you can play again as Trevor...with an assortment of Whips at your disposal.

Good luck and happy gaming.

Jim

Wonderfully done, Perfect Monsters that still give me problems ever time I play the game

It came on time with no delays or hassels. Was very happy with my order.

Wow I love the devil forging in this game. Since you start out as Hector, a former devil forgemaster for dracula, you create all of your weapons and armor from materials that your enemies drop. They do also drop certain items eventually but you have to be about level 70 for that to start happening. Supposively you can steal from all of your enemies but I have never succeeded in doing so. As you play you get 6 different types of Innocent Devils a.k.a I.D. Types. First you get a fairy type which is good for healing, opening chests and certain passages, and making you invincible depending on how you evolve it. It also has 2 modes, auto and command. Battle types have 3 modes auto which lets it attack as it wishes, command lets you tell it what skill to use, it gets more as you level it up, and guard mode which allows it to defend itself and you so long as you stand behind it and in the highlighted circle are but certain creatures still can get you. The Iyaeti is a must so you can get into a certain area. Bird types help you reach areas that you can't jump to with their glide ability. Some can get the long glide ability if you evolve it properly which is needed to get to the tower of evermore I believe, it's in the distance when you reach the top of the tower of eternity. Very difficult I recommend you do some leveling up before you go there. Devil type is useful to get under small spaces. Don't ask me why it merges with you to make a glowing circle thing but at least your invincible. Although to fully evolve him you need a certain weapon I haven't found it yet but it tells you what the name is in Cordova Town. Mage types use a lot of magic spells which is great in order to reach other areas as well. Thank god they brought back the warp gates. The memorial tickets don't work in this game fyi for what reason I don't know. The pumpkin type is totally optional and the only thing he does is give stat bonuses. Other than that he is practically useless. Other than the pumpkin type being useless and that one pointless area in the game that explains what a savepoint is etc. this game rules. oh also all along the game they have relatively modern items in some of the oddest of places. It gives the game a bit of humor to it but I seriously wonder which person working on this game came up with such a goofy idea. It's kinda funny finding a chair out in the middle of nowhere, BUT COME ON PEOPLE I CAN THINK OF FUNNIER THINGS TO PUT IN A VIDEO GAME IF YOU WANT TO GIVE A GAME A HUMOR ASPECT.