I just finished this on the Castlevania Advance Collection. I think it’s better than Circle of the Moon in a lot of ways, but my god….why does the end of every one of these games have to have some stupid thing where you have to equip two items you’d never know to bring into the final battle in order to get the best ending? Furthermore, this game gives you absolutely no help when it comes to tracking down the last couple items. Feels like bad design all over the place here. The game’s twist did get me pretty good, but unfortunately it also just means you have to traverse the same castle twice. I know not everyone is a fan of the upside down castle in Symphony, but I think this game handled a similar idea worse. There’s really nothing even different about the second castle, aside from its intriguing contribution to Maxim’s story. By most measures, this game just feels like “worse Symphony of the Night.” Characters are worse, controls are way worse, graphics are worse (and basically just use assets from SotN), music is maybe the worst in the series. Level design feels way too much like Symphony, lacks areas that feel unique. Yet, I do admit I liked the twist and thought it kind of subverted my expectations in some ways. Unfortunately I just can’t ever see myself wanting to play this one again. I gave it a 6.9. It’s not a bad game but more things drive me crazy than in other Castlevania games. I’m curious to see if this game actually started as a port of SotN to the GBA. I feel like the GBA probably could’ve handled it in some capacity. Hey, the Game.com could. |