You know, maybe if Dracula just moved his castle to the moon, he'd be bothered a lot less by the Belmonts. It worked for Rita Repulsa, so why not?
Circle of the Moon is a deeply confused game that can't seem to figure out how it wants to play. By this point the original formula, having peaked with Rondo of Blood, seemed to have been replaced by the new Metroid-esque one set by Koji Igarashi's Symphony of the Night. Attempts to bring the series into 3D led to a decent attempt, but took two attempts to make a product that people even sort-of liked, so it was looking rough on that front. So with the series' GBA debut - as a launch title, no less - it's clear that KOBE (developers of the 64 titles) wanted to try and recapture SotN's magic, despite not being the same team that made it. And boy, does it really show.
The critical issue I take with the design of the game is how there's an immediate juxtaposition with the way it controls. Symphony of the Night had slow, deliberate movement mixed with a default sword attack that was fast and responsive, making you feel very in control, if restricted. Within the first 10 minutes of CotM, Nathan Graves will be able to dash around at a double-tap of the d-pad(argh) and jump long distances. A mobile protagonist is not at all an issue, but the primary whip attack completely counteracts this by being as slow and delayed as it was in the original NES entries. It's such a weird contradiction, how you can manoeuvre with unprecedented agility but have to manage the whip swings. Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this game's issues.
Dracula's castle is as different as ever, and boy, is it vertical or what this time around? The general design of the castle is just really, really tedious to traverse, and the different areas feel uninspired for the most part. I can't believe the sewer section was one of the more refreshing segments, and even that was dragged down by tedious switch puzzles. I understand they were limited by the GBA, especially with it being a launch title, but that isn't going to get sympathy points from me. While you eventually gain abilities that make it easier to traverse the castle, it doesn't make it any more fun to explore - simply less tedious. Some of the obstacles that lock your progression are pretty embarrassing, as well. Iron Maiden doors unlocked by hitting a specific switch? Sure, I can tolerate that, but - wooden boxes? Wooden fucking boxes as obstacles, are you kidding me? Nathan can whip Death himself to, well, not exactly death but - but you're telling me his whip can do that but not break a wooden fucking box?? I even tried using a fire ability on it - more on that part later - but no, you need a lategame ability that allows you to slowly push them out of the way. I'm not expecting Nate to turn into a wolf or a ball of fog or anything, but is this the best they could come up with?
Level design aside, what really, really hurt this game for me was the RNG. While SotN had a healthy mix of items you could discover through exploration as well as random drops, and also a shop if you have the cash handy, CotM puts everything - EVERYTHING - behind random drops from enemies. And these drops can be in the realm of 1%, if the devs felt particularly cruel. Every armor, item and card is locked behind this asinine grind.
Yeah, card. The big gimmick that sets CotM apart is the addition of a card system. There are two type of cards, and about 10 of each. You can then mix and match them in pairs, which trigger different ablities that drain your MP. These range from shields, stat boosts, whip upgrades or new weapons altogether. As a system, it's pretty nice, though switching between card configurations can be pace-breaking in the middle of a fight. Unfortunately, every card is a rare drop from specific enemies. The Advance Collection port, by default, adds two features that do aid this. For one, it gives a pop up every time you hit an enemy that can drop a card, and whether you own it yet or not. Secondly, you can rewind at any point during gameplay. While I refused to use it to undo mistakes, it makes grinding for the card drops just a little bit less tedious. Simply rewind to just before you kill the enemy, hit it on a different frame, and pray. Even with luck boosting gear and rewind, it took me 20 minutes to get a card once. The fact that your stats can fall behind due to getting unlucky with armor drops as well is another side effect at this that I deeply dislike.
There's story, by the way, but it's as whatever as Castlevania plots usually are. Dracula's back, your master's in trouble, go save him while you get bitched at by some other loser who blundered in with you. I can't knock it when it's no less hollow than the typical Castlevania story, though I do miss the hammed up voice acting. Not that I'd expect it on GBA, but ah well.
Speaking of GBA sound, while I've never been too fond of the soundchip of the console, CotM's soundtrack is by all means OK. Not exactly an instant set of classics - actually, on the contrary, almost the entire soundtrack is reused from older games. They're fine remixes, though I think I like those tracks a little less now that I've heard them looped so many times while losing my will to live.
Altogether, I really think the team at KOBE should've made a more traditional Castlevania game as their GBA launch title. I appreciate what they tried, but the asinine design decisions made here leave it as just an OK, mediocre title that feels like a lesser imitation of SotN. As far as I'm aware, there's a romhack that turns the cards into pickups instead of RNG drops. That alone would've bumped this up a whole star, just saying.
Circle of the Moon is a deeply confused game that can't seem to figure out how it wants to play. By this point the original formula, having peaked with Rondo of Blood, seemed to have been replaced by the new Metroid-esque one set by Koji Igarashi's Symphony of the Night. Attempts to bring the series into 3D led to a decent attempt, but took two attempts to make a product that people even sort-of liked, so it was looking rough on that front. So with the series' GBA debut - as a launch title, no less - it's clear that KOBE (developers of the 64 titles) wanted to try and recapture SotN's magic, despite not being the same team that made it. And boy, does it really show.
The critical issue I take with the design of the game is how there's an immediate juxtaposition with the way it controls. Symphony of the Night had slow, deliberate movement mixed with a default sword attack that was fast and responsive, making you feel very in control, if restricted. Within the first 10 minutes of CotM, Nathan Graves will be able to dash around at a double-tap of the d-pad(argh) and jump long distances. A mobile protagonist is not at all an issue, but the primary whip attack completely counteracts this by being as slow and delayed as it was in the original NES entries. It's such a weird contradiction, how you can manoeuvre with unprecedented agility but have to manage the whip swings. Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this game's issues.
Dracula's castle is as different as ever, and boy, is it vertical or what this time around? The general design of the castle is just really, really tedious to traverse, and the different areas feel uninspired for the most part. I can't believe the sewer section was one of the more refreshing segments, and even that was dragged down by tedious switch puzzles. I understand they were limited by the GBA, especially with it being a launch title, but that isn't going to get sympathy points from me. While you eventually gain abilities that make it easier to traverse the castle, it doesn't make it any more fun to explore - simply less tedious. Some of the obstacles that lock your progression are pretty embarrassing, as well. Iron Maiden doors unlocked by hitting a specific switch? Sure, I can tolerate that, but - wooden boxes? Wooden fucking boxes as obstacles, are you kidding me? Nathan can whip Death himself to, well, not exactly death but - but you're telling me his whip can do that but not break a wooden fucking box?? I even tried using a fire ability on it - more on that part later - but no, you need a lategame ability that allows you to slowly push them out of the way. I'm not expecting Nate to turn into a wolf or a ball of fog or anything, but is this the best they could come up with?
Level design aside, what really, really hurt this game for me was the RNG. While SotN had a healthy mix of items you could discover through exploration as well as random drops, and also a shop if you have the cash handy, CotM puts everything - EVERYTHING - behind random drops from enemies. And these drops can be in the realm of 1%, if the devs felt particularly cruel. Every armor, item and card is locked behind this asinine grind.
Yeah, card. The big gimmick that sets CotM apart is the addition of a card system. There are two type of cards, and about 10 of each. You can then mix and match them in pairs, which trigger different ablities that drain your MP. These range from shields, stat boosts, whip upgrades or new weapons altogether. As a system, it's pretty nice, though switching between card configurations can be pace-breaking in the middle of a fight. Unfortunately, every card is a rare drop from specific enemies. The Advance Collection port, by default, adds two features that do aid this. For one, it gives a pop up every time you hit an enemy that can drop a card, and whether you own it yet or not. Secondly, you can rewind at any point during gameplay. While I refused to use it to undo mistakes, it makes grinding for the card drops just a little bit less tedious. Simply rewind to just before you kill the enemy, hit it on a different frame, and pray. Even with luck boosting gear and rewind, it took me 20 minutes to get a card once. The fact that your stats can fall behind due to getting unlucky with armor drops as well is another side effect at this that I deeply dislike.
There's story, by the way, but it's as whatever as Castlevania plots usually are. Dracula's back, your master's in trouble, go save him while you get bitched at by some other loser who blundered in with you. I can't knock it when it's no less hollow than the typical Castlevania story, though I do miss the hammed up voice acting. Not that I'd expect it on GBA, but ah well.
Speaking of GBA sound, while I've never been too fond of the soundchip of the console, CotM's soundtrack is by all means OK. Not exactly an instant set of classics - actually, on the contrary, almost the entire soundtrack is reused from older games. They're fine remixes, though I think I like those tracks a little less now that I've heard them looped so many times while losing my will to live.
Altogether, I really think the team at KOBE should've made a more traditional Castlevania game as their GBA launch title. I appreciate what they tried, but the asinine design decisions made here leave it as just an OK, mediocre title that feels like a lesser imitation of SotN. As far as I'm aware, there's a romhack that turns the cards into pickups instead of RNG drops. That alone would've bumped this up a whole star, just saying.
conman
11 months ago