That was it? That's Castlevania Legends? That was just boring design and rubbish hitboxes!
Honestly, I expected much worse, I expected a game that would shit on my bed and kick me in the dick. Instead it's just a deeply mediocre platformer that is definitely not good, but not offensively terrible in the same way that Castlevania: The Adventure was. I'd be more forgiving...if it wasn't such a downgrade in every way from the OTHER Castlevania game on Game Boy, Belmont's Revenge.
Platforming is standard Castlevania affair - you move pretty slow, you have to time your whip swings and jumps carefully, and you get knocked back upon taking a hit. However, things have been simplified. Stairs are basically non-existent, instead there being platforms you can jump through more akin to most other platformers. Knockback is minimal and I was only ever sent into a pit from it once. It's honestly fine, but my praise stops there.
Level design is abysmal. Usually just stretches of corridors with the most deeply unimaginative, and dare I say borderline docile enemies. There's this one enemy who hides in the floor and then pokes out a big claw to inflict damage...but chooses to do this not when under you, but just in front of you. Embarrassing.
One big selling point is the non-linearity of the levels. While it's true you can take multiple paths, most of them are literally just dead ends with a healing item to say "sorry mate, here's some of the health back you lost while getting here." A few of these alternate routes house the collectables you need to unlock the true ending(meaningless as it is since the entire game was retconned) but you still have to make it all the way back yourself, with no map in sight in case you do get lost. My issue here doesn't just lie with the unnecessary non-linear design, but the fact that, horror of horrors; the time limit is back. Why?! Rondo of Blood did away with it and was all the better for it, and that game was almost entirely linear! Legends asks you to explore, then literally murders you for doing so.
One thing that makes the entire first half of the game embarrassingly easy is the ability you get to shoot fireballs when your whip is fully upgraded. It makes every boss in the game way easier, and unlike Adventure you can't lose the whip levels from getting hit. I almost choose to believe it's this easy to imply that, with this being intended as the first game in the timeline, Dracula still didn't have this whole Castlevania thing figured out, and hired some lousy henchmen to guard everything.
By the way, remember how Adventure had no subweapons, and Belmont's Revenge at least thought to give you a couple of options? Well, Legends thought screw that, because they're gone again! In its place are Soul Weapons, essentially magic that you get from killing bosses that replaces subweapons. They can stop time, do a full screen attack, shoot projectiles (which you should already be doing by default) and...fully heal you at any time for 20 hearts. Really weird choices of abilities, and you only get a new one every stage. The subweapons can be picked up in the game, but they can't be used - their only purpose is for the true ending. Was it meant to be some kind of clever reference to the other games? How about referencing the parts where I get to actually use them instead?
How about that story eh? It's the one thing from the game that is probably shit on the most, and not even because they put women in Castlevania - people actually seem to like Sonia Belmont a fair bit. What they don't like is the bit where she and Alucard have a thing for one another. Sure, there's an age gap - hard to avoid when you're Alucard - but Sonia was a minor in this game. Makes her feats impressive...but this writing decision nasty. Other than that it's Castlevania business as usual. It's meant to be an origin story, with Sonia being the first of the Belmonts to bear the curse of having to fight Dracula, but Iga decided he didn't like it and made his own origin story later on, retconning Legends as non-canon. The cutscenes are a bit distracting and take forever to scroll through, but mercifully, they are skippable.
Musically, this game has nothing worth mentioning. None of the boring tracks from the game stuck with me at all other than the...interesting remixes of Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer. Graphically, I can't be too harsh given that this is for Game Boy, but the monster designs are generic even by Classicvania standards.
All in all, it is at least a playable platformer, it doesn't screw up too much in what it presents other than the really bad hitboxes on projectiles, which are either too big or too small in either extreme. But the things it does set out to do are all mundane and unexciting, and without a killer soundtrack to trick you into thinking you're doing something badass when you aren't, it falls flat. I think this game is perhaps a little overhated and Adventure is still the worse game...but I'm not about to take a bullet for this one. Especially not following Belmont's Revenge...
Honestly, I expected much worse, I expected a game that would shit on my bed and kick me in the dick. Instead it's just a deeply mediocre platformer that is definitely not good, but not offensively terrible in the same way that Castlevania: The Adventure was. I'd be more forgiving...if it wasn't such a downgrade in every way from the OTHER Castlevania game on Game Boy, Belmont's Revenge.
Platforming is standard Castlevania affair - you move pretty slow, you have to time your whip swings and jumps carefully, and you get knocked back upon taking a hit. However, things have been simplified. Stairs are basically non-existent, instead there being platforms you can jump through more akin to most other platformers. Knockback is minimal and I was only ever sent into a pit from it once. It's honestly fine, but my praise stops there.
Level design is abysmal. Usually just stretches of corridors with the most deeply unimaginative, and dare I say borderline docile enemies. There's this one enemy who hides in the floor and then pokes out a big claw to inflict damage...but chooses to do this not when under you, but just in front of you. Embarrassing.
One big selling point is the non-linearity of the levels. While it's true you can take multiple paths, most of them are literally just dead ends with a healing item to say "sorry mate, here's some of the health back you lost while getting here." A few of these alternate routes house the collectables you need to unlock the true ending(meaningless as it is since the entire game was retconned) but you still have to make it all the way back yourself, with no map in sight in case you do get lost. My issue here doesn't just lie with the unnecessary non-linear design, but the fact that, horror of horrors; the time limit is back. Why?! Rondo of Blood did away with it and was all the better for it, and that game was almost entirely linear! Legends asks you to explore, then literally murders you for doing so.
One thing that makes the entire first half of the game embarrassingly easy is the ability you get to shoot fireballs when your whip is fully upgraded. It makes every boss in the game way easier, and unlike Adventure you can't lose the whip levels from getting hit. I almost choose to believe it's this easy to imply that, with this being intended as the first game in the timeline, Dracula still didn't have this whole Castlevania thing figured out, and hired some lousy henchmen to guard everything.
By the way, remember how Adventure had no subweapons, and Belmont's Revenge at least thought to give you a couple of options? Well, Legends thought screw that, because they're gone again! In its place are Soul Weapons, essentially magic that you get from killing bosses that replaces subweapons. They can stop time, do a full screen attack, shoot projectiles (which you should already be doing by default) and...fully heal you at any time for 20 hearts. Really weird choices of abilities, and you only get a new one every stage. The subweapons can be picked up in the game, but they can't be used - their only purpose is for the true ending. Was it meant to be some kind of clever reference to the other games? How about referencing the parts where I get to actually use them instead?
How about that story eh? It's the one thing from the game that is probably shit on the most, and not even because they put women in Castlevania - people actually seem to like Sonia Belmont a fair bit. What they don't like is the bit where she and Alucard have a thing for one another. Sure, there's an age gap - hard to avoid when you're Alucard - but Sonia was a minor in this game. Makes her feats impressive...but this writing decision nasty. Other than that it's Castlevania business as usual. It's meant to be an origin story, with Sonia being the first of the Belmonts to bear the curse of having to fight Dracula, but Iga decided he didn't like it and made his own origin story later on, retconning Legends as non-canon. The cutscenes are a bit distracting and take forever to scroll through, but mercifully, they are skippable.
Musically, this game has nothing worth mentioning. None of the boring tracks from the game stuck with me at all other than the...interesting remixes of Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer. Graphically, I can't be too harsh given that this is for Game Boy, but the monster designs are generic even by Classicvania standards.
All in all, it is at least a playable platformer, it doesn't screw up too much in what it presents other than the really bad hitboxes on projectiles, which are either too big or too small in either extreme. But the things it does set out to do are all mundane and unexciting, and without a killer soundtrack to trick you into thinking you're doing something badass when you aren't, it falls flat. I think this game is perhaps a little overhated and Adventure is still the worse game...but I'm not about to take a bullet for this one. Especially not following Belmont's Revenge...