I was going to wait until I finished the game to write a review for it as I've done with every other game in my profile so far, but I don't care anymore. Curse of Darkness is a game that had me smiling from cheek to cheek thanks to its soul.

It has issues, like areas that are very flat with long corridors since the team insisted on trying the 3D search action thing again, combat not being as polished or versatile compared to its contemporaries, or the story just being kinda there; but man, it does. not. matter.

This is a game where you can tell the whole team was having fun in the process. You can use your Giant familiar to play bowling with some statues and clear a secret path, you need to sit on every chair in the game in order to achieve 100% completion and there's an entire room dedicated to showcasing said chairs, you can craft a special weapon that QUITE LITERALLY lets you become Bomberman, dozens upon dozens of joke weapons that may not be very useful but BY GOD they're there! They're there. The world of modern gaming NEEDS more joke weapons, please.

The soundtrack is easily one of the best in the franchise, the voice acting and cutscene direction got a huge upgrade from Lament, the stealing system adds a nice layer of interaction with enemies that rewards you for approaching fights in different ways... There's so much soul here. So much love and ambition. Even if it's not the most carefully designed game ever, it has a burning passion that you'd be hard pressed to find in so many other titles, old or new.

And that ultimately decides how you'll feel about Curse of Darkness. If you're looking for a polished action-exploration game with deep, intricate mechanics and a compelling narrative, you won't find it here; but if you just wanna sit back, relax, button mash your way through hordes of demons with your pet buddies, checking off all sorts of silly shit from the crafting and chair lists, all while listening to some of Michiru Yamane's most underrated compositions? This is absolutely the game for you.

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go back to working my way to 100%, god damn is this game fun.

Little update (18/10): 100%'d it! All I'll say is: Pumpkin for life.

The blueprint for what 3D platforming would eventually become, aka the ‘Uncharted’ action adventure game. Back in 2003 this was a really big deal, at least for those who played it and for the industry at large. It was a very different kind of 3D traversal. Unlike Mario 64 or Tomb Raider, the skillset of the Prince was a lot more contextual. This is demonstrated super early on with a huge set piece of the Prince infiltrating a palace under siege. We now know this as the boring bombastic intro before the real game starts, but again, at the time this was genuinely revolutionary. Bridges crumble under you at the most opportune time as you leap across to the other side, the camera switching to a dramatic dutch angle. Truly filmic, no but really, this was the most successful attempt at ‘playing a movie’ since Metal Gear Solid. If you tried that same leap without a gap to jump over the Prince would simply roll on the floor. As a 10 year old I was dumbstruck by this, but now I can understand this was a game about authoring moments, the hand of the developer was being felt outside of cutscenes for the first time. Obviously the DNA of this idea is deeply ingrained in so many games today. Every protruding ledge, marked wall, collapsing bridge that you find in every third person action game came from Sands of Time.

It’s common knowledge that despite great reviews it underperformed in sales (which resulted in the Warrior Within tonal 180), but developers definitely took notice and it wasn’t long before everyone copied it, for example the Tomb Raider Legend reboot from Crystal Dynamics was a straight rip. But really it was Uncharted (2) that truly popularised this style, evolving the traversal into being almost completely automated and entirely in service of the spectacle.

But that’s not to say that this is one of formative-but-unplayable kind of games. Despite some scripted aspects the platforming is a lot more skill-based and fun than anything in Uncharted. The developers had a big legacy to live up to after all, so you get a lot timed puzzles and deadly traps and the like. The storytelling is also extremely elegant with just two main characters, Prince and his love interest/companion Farah. This again is very Naughty Dog, with exposition and character moments being delivered organically during gameplay rather than constant cutscenes. The Prince also acts as a narrator too, telling his story from some point in the future. All of this made for a very dynamic, fresh and gripping experience. There’s a restraint and sophistication to everything. As a kid I was enthralled, as an adult it still holds up, both as a game and as an inspiring example of a team firing on all cylinders. The only real negative is the combat, which is too frequent and too repetitive. That said it’s worth persevering. A true classic in my opinion! ⭐️

Champions these days, they always want to rush into the spooky castle and rid the land forever of dark wizards and evil behemoths raised up from the nether realms, and I always ask them, how is your torch management? What are you going to do when you face down your foe, ready to plunge the arcane steel of the staff of ages into his black knotted heart, and then your torch burns out? He’s not going to clap the lights back on for you, buddy!

Heroes, you gotta learn how to keep track of your torches, and not just how long your torches burn. What should you pack in your hero sack, knowing you probably need to carry some torches in there? Should you leave a little room in there, knowing you’re probably going to snag extra torches around the castle itself? Can you trust the quality of the torches in that castle? Do you count on the fact that they have been illuminating that darkened godforsaken hovel for centuries, or do you err on the side of caution that they’re going to run out soon precisely because they’re been illuminating it for centuries? Can you fight with a torch in one hand? Can you hold a shield and a torch at the same time? Maybe you have a two-handed barbarian sword, can you also hold a torch? How many wraiths do you expect you will encounter in the spooky castle, knowing you will need to use up one entire torch to dispatch it? And if not that, oh, maybe a mummy inside an ornate sarcophagus or two? Oh sure, every one thinks they’re only going to use torches to light the way, and no one ever expects in their wildest dreams that they may need to partially melt a frozen lake to pick up a door-opening artifact or something, are you going to be one of those too? Do you have the courage, the sheer fortitude, to traverse those cursed corridors and defeat its dark castellan once and for all, trusting yourself not to apply your own torch to yourself up to three times and give yourself fatal third degree burns?