I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
APPROACHINGGGGG
....This game is my personal DMC5, I hope you understand the gravity of this sentence. And I'm not even into DMC lol
Ah Curse of Darkness, I fucking love this game simply put, it goes so goddamn hard and all the notes just hit so well for me...the characters...the banter between Hector and Isaac, Julia just being Julia, Zead, Saint Germain being a whole enigma...huh now that I think about it...there isn't that many of em...but y'know what? It makes the game work so damn well with only a handful of characters and ain't that always so damn strong when it's done? (SH2 is a good example that comes to mind).
I really enjoy the story, even if most of the significant backstory was in a manga...which I intend to check. The idea to tie this into Dracula's Curse was really sweet with some pretty cool retcons and this whole concept of the titular curse being explored further. Tying the game into Castlevania III also meant an awesome apperance by Trevor Belmont himself! His boss battle (even the first "gotcha!" one) is pretty tough, I always love how they don't cut back on Belmont boss fights in these games, they keep the immersion intact, they never weak these legendary hunters for the sake of gameplay, a lot of respect. Wish we could've seen or atleast hear about what's Sypha and Grant are up to...also the scene Trevor got...y'know...was done a bit weird, like they had to wrap up some plot points and do some scenes pretty quickly near the end, wouldn't say the game feels rushed or anything there though. Tho Trevor's exit is really weird...I wish we atleast head one more ending scene to show him again but no? Could've been better there.
Gameplay is massively improved from Lament, you got an actual proper 3D camera for one, no more shitty platforming or whip grabbing (not being a Belmont and all). Actually using the items in the menu and not having to do it in real time. XP system is finally introduced and makes the game so much better...tho enemies don't drop money which makes it a bitch to keep high and use wisely in this game tbh. I feel they had a lot more cool twists to the bosses compared to Lament. Cutscenes are also a huge improvement, they were simply recorded in-game in Lament, here they seem to be dedicated CG animations...yet still resemble the in-game models, I imagine they used those or higher poly variants (not unlike how 3D GTA did it with its Cutscene models) in the CG enviroment and also dolled it up with effects, better lighting etc, they also look much better now than how Lament's FMVs aged. Less quality clash when you play in an emulator with enhanced graphics.
Now let's talk about a big thing, SOUL, this game has so much fucking soul, this is one of those games you can tell the people working on it had a lot of fun with, for one not only it's stacked up with content but you also have things like going around and sitting on all sorts of wacky chairs with all sorts of wacky poses...like...an office chair, a teacup theme park ride, a GODDAMN TOILET to give you a few examples and there's a side quest where every chair you sit on gets copied to a dedicated goofy room.
One of my besties made a realization the other day, did you notice all the masterpiece Castlevanias have the ability to sit?...think about it, some of the best / most beloved in these games allow you to sit (SOTN, Soma Cruz games etc). Well this game takes it to a whole another level with all these chairs, sooooo...!
Ah what else...combat is pretty fun as it is with the last game, I really like the introduction of weapon combining, it helps to be a Devil Forgemaster! I also really like the introduction of Innocent Devils, they basically took the concept of Familiars and evolved it more with these Pokémon ass evolution lines, using Devil Seeds to make new ones to try all the evolutions, leveling, unlocking powers, using some to progress. Very very awesome stuff.
I also like how they handled Map Completion. In Lament, it was a bit weird as every map counted as part of the overall 100% (a bit weird in a 3D setting like this)...where here every map has it's own percent (not unlike say...Portrait of Ruin)...BUT! It all adds to the overall Map completion percent rate...which itself is maximum 100% (for example, let's say you got 100% on one area, that would make about...say 10% of the overall game map completion). I wish Portait of Ruin handled it like that cuz 1000% sounds way too overwhelming...even if it's pretty much the same thing this game does but with a different label...go blame psychologhy ig lol. I also like the optional battle tower place does not count as part of that percent...why didn't Circle of the Moon and Portait do this?! I don't enjoy these and it's stopped me from getting 100%/1000% in those games! Where here it's no problem! Gah!
I also love the insane amount of weapons! (even stuff like the staff Isaac uses and fucking Death's Scythe!) And oh man the fucking joke weapons! The Frying Pan! The Air Guitar, complete with all the guitar playing moves and even sliding on the floor! That Bat you can do a homerun on everyone with! God, please PLEASE bring joke weapons back! Games nowadays seriously need to have fun sometimes and I'm talking about THIS kind of fun...now at most Spider-Man will get in his underwear, only for that to be taken away in the sequel. Gah! To hell with your perfect visuals! You can have both like this game!...anyway. I really like the Bomberman bomb lol.
Stealing system is really really cool, kind of a shame it didn't return for the other games, just bam. Time it right, use some skill and get some cool shit. I also like the inclusion of modern food as usual...I love the wine that was brewed to celebrate Dracula's Death in 1476 (Castlevania 3's setting year). It's the little things like that, man.
Legion is a really cool extra boss, let alone the second form they made for him!
Now...last but definitely not least...HOLY FUCK HECTOR, I fucking love this guy, he's a goddamn gigachad. Just a delight to play as and see on the screen, much like Lament, the voice acting is absolutely stellar and doesn't break the theatrics so that definitely helps. I love the whole "YOU SON OF A BITCH ILL KILL YOU" vibe he and Isaac has...I kinda expected that to be more extreme and on MGR levels before playing but thats okay, the game and these guys still go so goddamn hard. On Isaac real quick, I love how he's just this ruthless bad guy with that BDSM ass design, holy shit. We seriously need more designs like this man...also when's the last time you seen a guy with a design like this? Especially in a mainstream game? I understand his insanity came mostly from the curse but I love this insane ass evil for the sake of evil Isaac we have here hooo boy. Back to Hector...he doesn't have to be super complex now that I think about it...he's mostly on a revenge plot but they conveyed very well how he found himself despite the circumstances during both Dracula's Curse and here, he's a genuinely good person but he had a rough childhood and wasn't always given choice but in spite of this, in the presence of clear evil, he was able to wake up from it and make his own decisions, showcasing his strong will and royalty to his own principles. It also carries the message of "your origin doesn't define you, you have a choice" this is why it wouldn't excuse a bad person from doing bad things and it's why someone like Hector can be redeemed. I quite like these "not defined by their origin", movie version of Hellboy has the same thing where it seems like everyone has their (mostly evil) ideas of what he should be but he still chooses the path of the hero that he carved for himself, it's beautiful. They also did the "Revenge is bad" plot really really well..I didn't expect it but I was quite pleased with what I saw...so, only after he accomplishes his goal Hector realizes that this is not who is nor what he wants and here it's an effect of the curse..revenge can be compared to a curse so this is a great way to do this....THIS is how you do a revenge bad plot, Last of Us 2, and keeping it satisfying while you're at it!
Hector is...just his presence is a goddamn chad, visual wise, audio wise, movement wise...just a protagonist I quite enjoy playing as...if this series didn't die and was owned by someone normal maybe there'd be a game where he returns or we see an ancestor of him...but alas. Or he could be in an actually high effort crossover...but again, alas. Anyone else get reminded of Scanty and Kneesocks (from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt) when they look at Isaac? I definitely realized that after grinding with "I Want You" playing lol. And please games, media in general, give me more cool BDSM aesthetics...this game did it, Thrill Kill did it, PSG did it, and I love to see it. And I'd love even more to see more of it, so please, bondage on!
I was given a Moai bonus for having a Lament save, nice! Which either gives a lotta health or can be sold for good cash.
I went for 100% Map and completed the first tower, only decending to around 31F on the second tower, but that was to grind for Dracula mostly.
You can go even more 100% with every item...ID evolution...ID moves..I dunno...but I'm not insane so lol.
Oh yeah, and the Netflix "adaptation" can't even be the toenail of this game.
THIS GAME FUCKING RULES!!!
APPROACHINGGGGG
....This game is my personal DMC5, I hope you understand the gravity of this sentence. And I'm not even into DMC lol
Ah Curse of Darkness, I fucking love this game simply put, it goes so goddamn hard and all the notes just hit so well for me...the characters...the banter between Hector and Isaac, Julia just being Julia, Zead, Saint Germain being a whole enigma...huh now that I think about it...there isn't that many of em...but y'know what? It makes the game work so damn well with only a handful of characters and ain't that always so damn strong when it's done? (SH2 is a good example that comes to mind).
I really enjoy the story, even if most of the significant backstory was in a manga...which I intend to check. The idea to tie this into Dracula's Curse was really sweet with some pretty cool retcons and this whole concept of the titular curse being explored further. Tying the game into Castlevania III also meant an awesome apperance by Trevor Belmont himself! His boss battle (even the first "gotcha!" one) is pretty tough, I always love how they don't cut back on Belmont boss fights in these games, they keep the immersion intact, they never weak these legendary hunters for the sake of gameplay, a lot of respect. Wish we could've seen or atleast hear about what's Sypha and Grant are up to...also the scene Trevor got...y'know...was done a bit weird, like they had to wrap up some plot points and do some scenes pretty quickly near the end, wouldn't say the game feels rushed or anything there though. Tho Trevor's exit is really weird...I wish we atleast head one more ending scene to show him again but no? Could've been better there.
Gameplay is massively improved from Lament, you got an actual proper 3D camera for one, no more shitty platforming or whip grabbing (not being a Belmont and all). Actually using the items in the menu and not having to do it in real time. XP system is finally introduced and makes the game so much better...tho enemies don't drop money which makes it a bitch to keep high and use wisely in this game tbh. I feel they had a lot more cool twists to the bosses compared to Lament. Cutscenes are also a huge improvement, they were simply recorded in-game in Lament, here they seem to be dedicated CG animations...yet still resemble the in-game models, I imagine they used those or higher poly variants (not unlike how 3D GTA did it with its Cutscene models) in the CG enviroment and also dolled it up with effects, better lighting etc, they also look much better now than how Lament's FMVs aged. Less quality clash when you play in an emulator with enhanced graphics.
Now let's talk about a big thing, SOUL, this game has so much fucking soul, this is one of those games you can tell the people working on it had a lot of fun with, for one not only it's stacked up with content but you also have things like going around and sitting on all sorts of wacky chairs with all sorts of wacky poses...like...an office chair, a teacup theme park ride, a GODDAMN TOILET to give you a few examples and there's a side quest where every chair you sit on gets copied to a dedicated goofy room.
One of my besties made a realization the other day, did you notice all the masterpiece Castlevanias have the ability to sit?...think about it, some of the best / most beloved in these games allow you to sit (SOTN, Soma Cruz games etc). Well this game takes it to a whole another level with all these chairs, sooooo...!
Ah what else...combat is pretty fun as it is with the last game, I really like the introduction of weapon combining, it helps to be a Devil Forgemaster! I also really like the introduction of Innocent Devils, they basically took the concept of Familiars and evolved it more with these Pokémon ass evolution lines, using Devil Seeds to make new ones to try all the evolutions, leveling, unlocking powers, using some to progress. Very very awesome stuff.
I also like how they handled Map Completion. In Lament, it was a bit weird as every map counted as part of the overall 100% (a bit weird in a 3D setting like this)...where here every map has it's own percent (not unlike say...Portrait of Ruin)...BUT! It all adds to the overall Map completion percent rate...which itself is maximum 100% (for example, let's say you got 100% on one area, that would make about...say 10% of the overall game map completion). I wish Portait of Ruin handled it like that cuz 1000% sounds way too overwhelming...even if it's pretty much the same thing this game does but with a different label...go blame psychologhy ig lol. I also like the optional battle tower place does not count as part of that percent...why didn't Circle of the Moon and Portait do this?! I don't enjoy these and it's stopped me from getting 100%/1000% in those games! Where here it's no problem! Gah!
I also love the insane amount of weapons! (even stuff like the staff Isaac uses and fucking Death's Scythe!) And oh man the fucking joke weapons! The Frying Pan! The Air Guitar, complete with all the guitar playing moves and even sliding on the floor! That Bat you can do a homerun on everyone with! God, please PLEASE bring joke weapons back! Games nowadays seriously need to have fun sometimes and I'm talking about THIS kind of fun...now at most Spider-Man will get in his underwear, only for that to be taken away in the sequel. Gah! To hell with your perfect visuals! You can have both like this game!...anyway. I really like the Bomberman bomb lol.
Stealing system is really really cool, kind of a shame it didn't return for the other games, just bam. Time it right, use some skill and get some cool shit. I also like the inclusion of modern food as usual...I love the wine that was brewed to celebrate Dracula's Death in 1476 (Castlevania 3's setting year). It's the little things like that, man.
Legion is a really cool extra boss, let alone the second form they made for him!
Now...last but definitely not least...HOLY FUCK HECTOR, I fucking love this guy, he's a goddamn gigachad. Just a delight to play as and see on the screen, much like Lament, the voice acting is absolutely stellar and doesn't break the theatrics so that definitely helps. I love the whole "YOU SON OF A BITCH ILL KILL YOU" vibe he and Isaac has...I kinda expected that to be more extreme and on MGR levels before playing but thats okay, the game and these guys still go so goddamn hard. On Isaac real quick, I love how he's just this ruthless bad guy with that BDSM ass design, holy shit. We seriously need more designs like this man...also when's the last time you seen a guy with a design like this? Especially in a mainstream game? I understand his insanity came mostly from the curse but I love this insane ass evil for the sake of evil Isaac we have here hooo boy. Back to Hector...he doesn't have to be super complex now that I think about it...he's mostly on a revenge plot but they conveyed very well how he found himself despite the circumstances during both Dracula's Curse and here, he's a genuinely good person but he had a rough childhood and wasn't always given choice but in spite of this, in the presence of clear evil, he was able to wake up from it and make his own decisions, showcasing his strong will and royalty to his own principles. It also carries the message of "your origin doesn't define you, you have a choice" this is why it wouldn't excuse a bad person from doing bad things and it's why someone like Hector can be redeemed. I quite like these "not defined by their origin", movie version of Hellboy has the same thing where it seems like everyone has their (mostly evil) ideas of what he should be but he still chooses the path of the hero that he carved for himself, it's beautiful. They also did the "Revenge is bad" plot really really well..I didn't expect it but I was quite pleased with what I saw...so, only after he accomplishes his goal Hector realizes that this is not who is nor what he wants and here it's an effect of the curse..revenge can be compared to a curse so this is a great way to do this....THIS is how you do a revenge bad plot, Last of Us 2, and keeping it satisfying while you're at it!
Hector is...just his presence is a goddamn chad, visual wise, audio wise, movement wise...just a protagonist I quite enjoy playing as...if this series didn't die and was owned by someone normal maybe there'd be a game where he returns or we see an ancestor of him...but alas. Or he could be in an actually high effort crossover...but again, alas. Anyone else get reminded of Scanty and Kneesocks (from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt) when they look at Isaac? I definitely realized that after grinding with "I Want You" playing lol. And please games, media in general, give me more cool BDSM aesthetics...this game did it, Thrill Kill did it, PSG did it, and I love to see it. And I'd love even more to see more of it, so please, bondage on!
I was given a Moai bonus for having a Lament save, nice! Which either gives a lotta health or can be sold for good cash.
I went for 100% Map and completed the first tower, only decending to around 31F on the second tower, but that was to grind for Dracula mostly.
You can go even more 100% with every item...ID evolution...ID moves..I dunno...but I'm not insane so lol.
Oh yeah, and the Netflix "adaptation" can't even be the toenail of this game.
THIS GAME FUCKING RULES!!!