In a trend this year of giving second chances to games I gave up on previously, I picked up CotM on the Japanese Wii U eShop. I ended up liking Paper Mario: Sticker Star a decent amount playing through it earlier this year. The second chance was worth it for me. This game however, the second chance was not really worth it for anything other than being able to say that I've now beaten all the Metroid-style Casltevanias. It's easily the worst of the Metroid-y Casltevanias in almost every way. I did everything but the hella difficult battle arena, and it took me around 7 or 8 hours.
So where to begin with this game. It's the only Metroid-style Castlevania game not to have production involvement from Koji Igarashi, and it was a very early title for the GBA. A problem back then that I did not have was that the backgrounds for the stages were nearly impossible to see on the OG GBA's super dark screen, and being that I played it on a Wii U with a Pro Controller, I also had a much bigger screen and different control method than one attached to the screen. It has a number of strange design decisions and steps backwards from Symphony of the Night that make it feel overall like a simplified version of SotN but with worse controls and less variety. It's almost like someone took Casltevania 3 on the NES and morphed it into a Metroid-style game.
The first really baffling design decision is that the main character Nathan has no default run ability. You start off only being able to walk, and you walk SO slowly. The first power-up you get is the ability to run, but you run by double-tapping left or right. All that constant double-tapping really starts to hurt your thumb after a while. The combination of the removal of SotN's back-dash means your only fast movement for dodging is either this double-tap running or doing a Mega Man-style floor slide. This makes the game's movement really clunky and not terribly fun to do, as the need to double-tap means you're constantly reminded of how pointlessly awkward they are. The whip attack that Nathan uses is also quite slow and methodical, and he absolutely FLIES backwards when he gets hit, which when combined with the awkward walking really makes it feel like a weird Metroid-ification of a classic Castlevania game (and I never found that to be a positive comparison).
The castle itself isn't super interesting or memorable. Almost all of it is either long hallways or vertical S- or U-shaped corridors in a way that makes the castle simultaneously vast and boring to traverse. In another strange step backwards from SotN, there is also a very strange utter lack of warp points in most of the castle for no good reason, meaning that you'll be doing a ton of backtracking on foot if you wanna use your new movement powers to get all the health, mana, and heart-count (for sub-weapons) upgrades littered around the castle. A lot of the movement powers also aren't that interesting or are entirely for opening up content gates. Outside of the double-jump and vertical leap, almost all of them are useless outside of the traversal sections that outright require their use. No bat-form, panther-speed, or special dodges to unlock here.
The most fun I had with the castle was just going from place to place ticking boxes off a list getting more upgrades for my base stats, as the enemies are almost never really threatening (and when they are they kill you FAST), but the very rote feeling of reward of "I completed a task" is a fairly low bar for a game to provide enjoyment with. Speaking of the enemies, they're nothing really special either. The game has pretty low enemy variety even for a Metroidvania. It's not laughably paltry or anything, but it feels noticeably lesser than the other games that had the luxury of ripping sprites from older Castlevanias (a place where age has been unkind to early games in the series like CotM). The bosses aren't very good either. Most of them range somewhere between very strangely easy or super duper hard due to attacks that require outright luck to dodge and/or do more than half of your healthbar in damage. The final boss is particularly guilty in that regard. There are a couple fun fights (I liked the big green Ram thing and the fight with the guy with powers like yours), but most of the fights are forgettable even for a Metroid-y Casltevania game.
Where the special stuff does lie is in the DSS card system the game has, and it messes that up too in a way that feels really unnecessary. The DSS card system is a system where you can find base and modifier cards (a dozen different kinds of each, iirc), and by equipping one of each and pressing the L button, you'll activate a special power. You don't know what they do until you activate them the right way, and the game won't even tell you what they do or how much MP they cost until you've activated them. There were a couple I couldn't even figure out how to properly activate, so they were left as "???" for the entire game. This lets you get stuff like a kinda crap mid-run shield (it's not active as you jump, so it's useless around 60% of the time, and some enemies phase right through it because of how they spawn), more powerful elemental whips, damaging shields, longer invincibility time, or even new weapons like turning your whip into a giant elemental sword. Of course, I didn't get to try out most of the DSS system because of the main flaw in it: The cards for it are far too hard to find. Certain enemies drop cards, and you have no idea which. Many of them are quite rare drops as well, so unless you know where to look and deliberately farm them, you very likely won't find many or even most (as was the case with me) of the cards in the game. The DSS feature is by far the best thing the game has going for it, so other than an adherence to genre conventions, I can't really imagine why they'd hide their best content this way.
Graphically I have seen the game described as an enhanced GBC game, and that just about fits. The animations are very limited (especially compared to other Castlevania games), with most enemies only having a couple frames of animation, and the sprites aren't super detailed either. Some of the backgrounds are quite nice, although as said previously they would've been quite hard to see on an original GBA screen most of the time. Despite the limited graphics, the game still has problems with slowdown. It often isn't much of a problem, and is only present when certain enemies or several of a certain type are on-screen at once. However, it's an AWFUL problem on the final Dracula fight. There were many times on failed attempts at Dracula that button presses not registering how I wanted them to (particularly for the upwards high jump) had me falling into a powerful attack that got me killed.
The other elements of the presentation are a mixed bag. The story is unobtrusive, sure, but it's also very uninspired and honestly might as well not even be there. The context it provides to certain fights is nice, but it's definitely the least ambitious story out of any of the Metroid-y Castlevanias. The music is largely remixes of older Castlevania music, so it's usually really good. The music is probably the #1 thing this game easily has over its GBA Castlevania counterparts.
Verdict: Not Recommended. This is a trudging, sub-par Metroidvania affair the whole way through. Frustratingly difficult far more often than enjoyably challenging, clunky controls, boring presentation. Especially with the inundation of fantastic Metroidvanias coming on the market these days, your money can go towards much better than Circle of the Moon as can your time. I know this game has its defenders, especially on this site, but I can't enjoy this game the way they can. Before I started this playthrough I held the opinion that this was probably the worst of the Metroid-y Castlevanias, and the only thing this playthrough has changed is that now I know its definitely the worst.
So where to begin with this game. It's the only Metroid-style Castlevania game not to have production involvement from Koji Igarashi, and it was a very early title for the GBA. A problem back then that I did not have was that the backgrounds for the stages were nearly impossible to see on the OG GBA's super dark screen, and being that I played it on a Wii U with a Pro Controller, I also had a much bigger screen and different control method than one attached to the screen. It has a number of strange design decisions and steps backwards from Symphony of the Night that make it feel overall like a simplified version of SotN but with worse controls and less variety. It's almost like someone took Casltevania 3 on the NES and morphed it into a Metroid-style game.
The first really baffling design decision is that the main character Nathan has no default run ability. You start off only being able to walk, and you walk SO slowly. The first power-up you get is the ability to run, but you run by double-tapping left or right. All that constant double-tapping really starts to hurt your thumb after a while. The combination of the removal of SotN's back-dash means your only fast movement for dodging is either this double-tap running or doing a Mega Man-style floor slide. This makes the game's movement really clunky and not terribly fun to do, as the need to double-tap means you're constantly reminded of how pointlessly awkward they are. The whip attack that Nathan uses is also quite slow and methodical, and he absolutely FLIES backwards when he gets hit, which when combined with the awkward walking really makes it feel like a weird Metroid-ification of a classic Castlevania game (and I never found that to be a positive comparison).
The castle itself isn't super interesting or memorable. Almost all of it is either long hallways or vertical S- or U-shaped corridors in a way that makes the castle simultaneously vast and boring to traverse. In another strange step backwards from SotN, there is also a very strange utter lack of warp points in most of the castle for no good reason, meaning that you'll be doing a ton of backtracking on foot if you wanna use your new movement powers to get all the health, mana, and heart-count (for sub-weapons) upgrades littered around the castle. A lot of the movement powers also aren't that interesting or are entirely for opening up content gates. Outside of the double-jump and vertical leap, almost all of them are useless outside of the traversal sections that outright require their use. No bat-form, panther-speed, or special dodges to unlock here.
The most fun I had with the castle was just going from place to place ticking boxes off a list getting more upgrades for my base stats, as the enemies are almost never really threatening (and when they are they kill you FAST), but the very rote feeling of reward of "I completed a task" is a fairly low bar for a game to provide enjoyment with. Speaking of the enemies, they're nothing really special either. The game has pretty low enemy variety even for a Metroidvania. It's not laughably paltry or anything, but it feels noticeably lesser than the other games that had the luxury of ripping sprites from older Castlevanias (a place where age has been unkind to early games in the series like CotM). The bosses aren't very good either. Most of them range somewhere between very strangely easy or super duper hard due to attacks that require outright luck to dodge and/or do more than half of your healthbar in damage. The final boss is particularly guilty in that regard. There are a couple fun fights (I liked the big green Ram thing and the fight with the guy with powers like yours), but most of the fights are forgettable even for a Metroid-y Casltevania game.
Where the special stuff does lie is in the DSS card system the game has, and it messes that up too in a way that feels really unnecessary. The DSS card system is a system where you can find base and modifier cards (a dozen different kinds of each, iirc), and by equipping one of each and pressing the L button, you'll activate a special power. You don't know what they do until you activate them the right way, and the game won't even tell you what they do or how much MP they cost until you've activated them. There were a couple I couldn't even figure out how to properly activate, so they were left as "???" for the entire game. This lets you get stuff like a kinda crap mid-run shield (it's not active as you jump, so it's useless around 60% of the time, and some enemies phase right through it because of how they spawn), more powerful elemental whips, damaging shields, longer invincibility time, or even new weapons like turning your whip into a giant elemental sword. Of course, I didn't get to try out most of the DSS system because of the main flaw in it: The cards for it are far too hard to find. Certain enemies drop cards, and you have no idea which. Many of them are quite rare drops as well, so unless you know where to look and deliberately farm them, you very likely won't find many or even most (as was the case with me) of the cards in the game. The DSS feature is by far the best thing the game has going for it, so other than an adherence to genre conventions, I can't really imagine why they'd hide their best content this way.
Graphically I have seen the game described as an enhanced GBC game, and that just about fits. The animations are very limited (especially compared to other Castlevania games), with most enemies only having a couple frames of animation, and the sprites aren't super detailed either. Some of the backgrounds are quite nice, although as said previously they would've been quite hard to see on an original GBA screen most of the time. Despite the limited graphics, the game still has problems with slowdown. It often isn't much of a problem, and is only present when certain enemies or several of a certain type are on-screen at once. However, it's an AWFUL problem on the final Dracula fight. There were many times on failed attempts at Dracula that button presses not registering how I wanted them to (particularly for the upwards high jump) had me falling into a powerful attack that got me killed.
The other elements of the presentation are a mixed bag. The story is unobtrusive, sure, but it's also very uninspired and honestly might as well not even be there. The context it provides to certain fights is nice, but it's definitely the least ambitious story out of any of the Metroid-y Castlevanias. The music is largely remixes of older Castlevania music, so it's usually really good. The music is probably the #1 thing this game easily has over its GBA Castlevania counterparts.
Verdict: Not Recommended. This is a trudging, sub-par Metroidvania affair the whole way through. Frustratingly difficult far more often than enjoyably challenging, clunky controls, boring presentation. Especially with the inundation of fantastic Metroidvanias coming on the market these days, your money can go towards much better than Circle of the Moon as can your time. I know this game has its defenders, especially on this site, but I can't enjoy this game the way they can. Before I started this playthrough I held the opinion that this was probably the worst of the Metroid-y Castlevanias, and the only thing this playthrough has changed is that now I know its definitely the worst.