Reviews from

in the past


Mejor que Lament of Innocence.
Desde el comienzo se nota que pusieron empeño en mejorar ciertos aspectos, convirtiéndolo en juego muy disfrutable las primeras horas, pero decae mucho conforme pasa el tiempo. Las últimas horas estaba hasta la polla, y fui rusheando las zonas porque sigue la fórmula de hacer pasillos con mil enemigos hasta llegar a un boss.
Es un juego okay si eres fan de la saga, pero dura demasiado para lo que ofrece.

The last boss felt like a kick in the nads after what was a relatively painless overall experience.

Jogo ele uma vez por ano. É um Metroidvania 3D Hack`n Slash maravilhoso, combate legal, cenários lindos, trilha sonora marcante... mas aquele maldito level design... Corredorvania Curse of Darkness

Tem a melhor OST da série.


O melhor castlevania 3D disparado, um sistema incrível de innocent devil, e bom chefes, só tem corredor pra um caralho

Loved this game too much... The castle, fighting with enemies, the battling system. It might not deserve such a high rating but it mostly has to do with my personal taste.

Peak action-adventure on ps2, the combat is amazing, the devil and equipment system make a great combination to the overall gameplay.

Embora todos não gostam da falta de plataforma, me diverti bastante farmando e criando armas melhores, enquanto evoluía meu demônio para se tornar um samurai maneiro, o farm chato recompensa com armas esteticamente bonitas (ou engraçadas) e parceiros fortes e úteis.

Lutar nesse jogo é bem satisfatório, mas com o tempo, andar em corredores retos fica perceptível. A ost do jogo não falha, e tem bastante banger aqui, ela é a que menos citam em castlevania, e vale muito a pena dar uma olhada.

E a invenção de uma sala de cadeiras é a coisa mais idiota e engraçada que já vi.

Cuenta pendiente desde crío, pasillero como todo Castlevania en 3D, pero este, al tener una banda sonora de tantísima calidad, de las mejores de la saga (palabras mayores), se me ha hecho super ameno jugarlo en ratos sueltos. El tramo final ha sido durillo y me ha encantado.

Top tier track: Abandoned Castle ~ Curse of Darkness ~

Much better than Lament of Innocence. Various weapons, the devil IDs (minions) that have a ton of branching evolution paths, warp rooms, actual interconnected areas, etc.

Only thing I'd say I really didn't like was Dracula's Castle, it was way too long and in general rooms get really repetitive imo. I guess the weapon upgrade system got annoying because you constantly ran out of materials, but that's it

Pretty great bosses, fun game. Wasn't really expecting an improvement from the previous 3D Castlevania game

its like lament of innocence but worse bosses, and they did away with the platforming. People complained about the platforming in lament but i liked it. It broke up the standard gameplay of just walking through boring empty hallways. So this game is just more boring hallways with even less things to do. The bosses are also ass, they have like 2 moves and most of them never hit you. Hector also has this weird jerky movement that leon never had, it feels like some of his animations are sped up more than they should be. The thing about 2d castlevanias is that exploring is inherently fun because you are constantly platforming. I just can't be bothered to do the same exact thing for more than 30 minutes with less things to do. With worse bosses and a lock on that functions like ass cheeks. The lock on doesnt do anything besides keep you camera on them, Hectors attacks still depend on where you are going. The camera is also moveable now but i think its worse. It ends up getting stuck on geometry a lot or just flipping all over the place. Game also have little enemy diversity, most of the game consisted of me fighting like the same 3 enemys. Just not a game i feel like playing through, lament just had more going on in terms of gameplay.

I picked out this game in a random whim and i never imagined i would come out considering it one of my favorite castlevania games, as well as perhaps the best one in the 3D category. Even if that might not be an amazing feat when the N64 games are the series' black sheep, Lament of Innocence people are mixed on, and the Lords of Shadow games have come to be seen as casualised 7th gen slop.
The starting impressions for this game can be pretty weak. A crafting system in a castlevania game? Beasts that help you fight and can evolve? What is this? Digimon? It all sounds like a bunch of bells & whistles, but give the game some time and you'll see how well everything works out.

Innocent Devils were a pretty cool addition. There's six types of IDs which evolve accordingly to which weapon types you use to defeat enemies. Fairies with healing and supportive spells that can come in very handy, Battle-types that can ragdoll enemies around, Mage-types with a great range of powerful offensive spells as well as the ability, Bird IDs with long-range attacks that are also useful for gliding into previously unreachable areas, and Devil-type IDs which are far more limited evolution-wise than the others but are pretty balanced and not bad for combat. Plenty of badass ones like Rasetz and The End, and plenty of adorable ones like the Fairies or Brow. There's like 51 IDs, all of which have their own unique spells which are just fun to use in combat. And you're not even forced to use IDs at all, you can just send them back and take fights into your own hands if they feel too much like cheating.

The combat is simple, with combos definitely on the simplified "Square Square Square, Circle" side mostly as a way to standardize attacks for all the different weapon types. You don't get anywhere as broken as in SOTN and capable of spam-melting away Lv. 100 bosses in 3 seconds, but you are faster than most of the enemies you'll meet movement-wise and have a lot of freedom to maneuver around and dodge enemy attacks, specially when compared to Lament of Innocence. But what really makes the combat in this title shine, in my opinion, is Perfect Guard. It just fucking rocks. It is almost as mechanically important as Innocent Devils. Nearly every single attack in the game, including beams and energy blasts, can be immaculately parried away from any direction, even while mid-air, and sometimes even during some attack animations. The game will reward you for doing this with an opening for an attack or steal from an enemy, and a small amount of hearts every time you do it. This can be vital for long endurance test fights where you could burn out your hearts for your spells quickly.
It might be no Ninja Gaiden Black combat, but it's just so satisfying to juggle an enemy with aerial sword attacks while split-second parrying oncoming enemy projectiles in the air, all while your ID fights other enemies in the background. And i hold that any game that lets you do a Daigo and parry 99% of the attacks in the game (including lasers and explosions) has the authenticity seal of excellent vidya combat.

The only boss fights i really hated were the Skeleton Diver which loves to waste your time, and the final Dracula one which is basically the world's most intense game of Punch-Out. The rest are excellent. The Isaac ones basically put you on the shoes of the poor enemies you obliterated with your ID spells minutes ago, the Trevor ones force you to adapt and git gud, Saint Germain is a nice change of pace with an interesting time manipulation gimmick (he poisons you and then accelerates time to make it hurt faster, but you can use this at your advantage with Serum + Time Heal) and Nuculais is a certified "oh shit" moment and so nerve wrecking to fight it's no wonder why it's an optional boss. I even found myself keeping around old saves just to replay the Legion/Nuculais and Trevor boss fights until i beat the game and unlocked Boss Rush.

The crafting system is also neat. I admit i hadn't really done much with it until like halfway through the game since i had been fighting without lock-on, but finding out about Stealing from enemies and how it allows you to obtain certain unique materials which i thought you'd only get once made me enjoy the crafting a bit more by turning it into a bit of a treasure hunt, figuring out tactics to squeeze out rare materials from enemies. If you're so lacking in time-draining adult responsibilities that you feel you have the time to craft everything in this game, then i recommend you look through this website which contains a handy stealing guide for getting certain rare materials for crafting, and how to get them, although in most cases i recommend just using lock-on on certain enemies and figuring out yourself to make it more fun and so it doesn't feel too much like a grocery checklist.
This is also the most collectathon Castlevania out there. There's a big treasure trove of stuff to get or craft. Many weapons which while mostly just offering stat upgrades, some have their own special combo finishers, secret ID spells, two enemy endurance test towers which reward you with rare items, and of course, no IGA castlevania game is complete without some wacky anachronistic easter egg stuff, including special weapons like Gatling Guns and Bomberman Bombs, chairs and thrones in levels that get added to a collection, a lot of rare healing food items like burgers and tomato juice stolen from bosses, joke Innocent Devil evolutions that can actually be some of the most useful, like Iytei, a battle-type yeti doll thing, and even a whole secret ID type of cute pumpkin characters, which boost up your Luck stat and help you find rare items easily. Oh, after beating the game you also unlock the aforementioned Boss Rush mode, 'Crazy Mode' which is basically the main game but with enemy XP levels amped up, with a more souls-like weight to combat where you can't afford to get hit too much, and being able to play as Trevor Belmont, who has a different, although much simpler playstyle.

Exploration is definitely the weak point of the game, it's very "you hate it or you tolerate it". They were clearly attempting to get some of that "metroidvania" feel from SOTN with the massive halls, seemingly not understanding that it's important for these types of games to have interesting and fun ways to traverse such giant levels. Pretty much every room in the game is a corridor or a huge box/cylinder and you never get any significant speed boosts or any other sort of other movement upgrade to get through them faster. Just the warp thrones on every area and the Memorial/Magical Tickets, and i guess maybe the Shoulder Ride with the Iytei ID, but only if you can maneuver it right. I haven't played Lament of Innocence long enough to make more comparisons, but people seem to agree that it is the clear winner out of the two games in that department with it's platforming and obstacles that make it feel more faithful as a 3D conversion of a classicvania, whereas here it feels more like some weird flat 3D JRPG level design where you can just ignore and run past enemies. And it can all be pretty cryptic due to the fact that many important tips are only shown in the form of hieroglyphs in walls that can only be read with a Decipher spell learned by like, one specific Fairy ID branch, so once again, i really recommend just using a guide when playing this game if you're going completionist with the maps.
Though i'll admit none this didn't do much to water down my enjoyment of this game until i sought out 100%ing this game. Any other game with level design this non-existant would take two stars out of my review for me, but i think this game manages to pull that weight really well with it's combat and the encouragement to explore maps completely and find all sorts of secrets.

definitely an PS2 classic but damn is this game tiring, the gameplay is well realized, the combat is really fun with a lot of variety considering the different weapon classes. the "Innocent Devil" system is incredibly cool, it's engaging to try out each helper and see their evolutions and abilities.

the soundtrack slaps as usual for the series, the story is surprisingly good for an Castlevania game, I liked the characters and even the dialogue, PS2 era games have that cheesy and exaggerated acting that I really enjoy and this game does it perfectly, the cutscene direction and mocap are really good too.

unfortunely the rest is marred down by a lot of slogness and repetition, there are some Castlevania games that are known for their piss poor map designs, the GBA titles such as Circle of the Moon or Harmony of Dissonance are the top contenders but Curse of Darkness might be the worst when it comes to this, each area is designed the same way, roads leading to doors with more roads that are filled with the same copy pasted enemies, different pathways that are there just to slow down the player, lots of time there is nothing in the end to properly reward the player for exploring these massive and repetitive areas, the incredibly slow movement speed that Hector has doesn't help either.

play Curse of Darkness in short bursts otherwise most players will probably bounce off on this in an hour or two, Igarashi and his team probably felt that the variety of helpers and weapons would compensate for the overall simplistic and boring exploration elements but this is not how I felt during my nearly 10 hour playtime, going for an more linear approach would have been better choice in terms of structure.

Curse foi uma surpresa e tanto. Um dos jogos na qual eu menos sabia sobre e que mais apreciei também.
Música absolutamente sensacional, combate engajante, sistema de familiares ABSURDO e uma ótima história também.

Apesar disso, o jogo tem sim seus tropeços, o level design infelizmente é extremamente repetitivo e os CORREDORES, os MALDITOS CORREDORES infestam esse jogo inteiro, além do Hector não se mover lá muito rápido pra começo de conversa. Jogue em pequenas doses porque andar e matar inimigos pode ficar bem cansativo.

De resto, realmente um ótimo jogo. E vtnc Netflix

This game was actually great, a nice translation of the igavania games to 3D, and the story was even captivating as well. However there’s a VERY sharp difficulty spike and ok level design. Overall, great game though!

Mi Castlevania favorito en general, me encanta el combate, el tema de los IDs y la exploracion y el crafteo de armas, tengo unas quejitas, pero bien dice que no todo es perfecto, y yo adoro a este juego tal como es.

PD: IGA por fa saca un Bloodstained en 3D que tome como base a este juego porfa te lo suplico IGA.

Underrated PS2 gem. Wish they could remaster the PS2 games.

monster raising mechanics were novel. easily the best 3d castlevania. amazing soundtrack

tenho que voltar a jogar pra zerar. É um otimo jogo, mas fica meio repetitivo em alguns cenários quando se joga nas dificuldades mais dificeis

The story, the characters, the combat, the cutscenes, the animations -- AAAAAAA. The perfect Castlevania in my most humble and naive opinion.

What a great and fun game. Got mostly good things to say about it so i'll start with the elephant in the long hallway: yes the game has a bunch of unnecessarily long hallways and while personally they were a mild annoyance, i can't blame others who dislike these. That being said, rest assured that the game offers interconnected areas, shortcuts and places you'll come back to since one of the main mechanics (ID) also act as "keys" to other new areas, and lastly the story is kinda meh but it has its moments and something about Hector's heroic attitude and language that i simply can't get enough of. Now what does it do well? Well for starters, the melee combat with summons is such a delight, every summon has a different purpose inside and outside the battle, you got heal summons, sword summon, magic summon. Bosses are incredibly fun and they're consistently fair, now if you're afraid of them being easy do not fret as you can add a new layer of challenge in the form of stealing. Stealing is a mechanic that will net you some rare material which brings me to crafting which to be frank can be a bit convoluted at first but at the same time its so vast that you can create some unique weapons/armor with the right materials. Music is just splendid, magnificent, and other words i can think of to praise it. Overall, it was such a fun experience that i wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much.

Esta bueno aunque se me hace algo repetitivo y muy largo los escenarios pero por lo demás un curioso juego


muito bom porém o Grind e repetição me fez desejar terminar o jogo logo

It's Lament of Innocence but better! It still has the same issues weighing it down though. Less in depth combat, but still combat arenas forced on you so often exploration can just feel like an annoying slog.

Puedo perdonar que un Castlevania no sea muy divertido o que se juegue como si manejaras a Arbeloa borracho, pero no puedo perdonar que encima sea feo.

Tener a una Michiru Yamane totalmente desatada en la banda sonora y malgastarlo en esto tiene delito

I know I played this game, but it wasn't great or bad.