One of the most gorgeous sounding and looking games of 1993. The sprite work here is incredible and it's no surprise that they would end up being copy/pasted into Symphony of the Night. It takes full advantage of the CD audio to deliver some really memorable music.
The gameplay feels like closer to Bloodlines than IV with its faster pace, but there are a few refinements. Castlevania finally does away with respawning enemies so no more taking two steps back and having to deal with that damn skeleton again. The bosses are all pretty memorable and fun to fight. The difficulty is somewhere between IV and Bloodlines - not quite as hard as Bloodlines but definitely harder than IV.
There's some branching paths and a few extras. Maria mode is a ton of fun making some really tricky parts of the game extremely trivial with her slide and double jump. Her super attacks can make humorously short work of the bosses as well.
This is a game that certainly deserves its reputation. This is the finest 2D Castlevania from this era.
The gameplay feels like closer to Bloodlines than IV with its faster pace, but there are a few refinements. Castlevania finally does away with respawning enemies so no more taking two steps back and having to deal with that damn skeleton again. The bosses are all pretty memorable and fun to fight. The difficulty is somewhere between IV and Bloodlines - not quite as hard as Bloodlines but definitely harder than IV.
There's some branching paths and a few extras. Maria mode is a ton of fun making some really tricky parts of the game extremely trivial with her slide and double jump. Her super attacks can make humorously short work of the bosses as well.
This is a game that certainly deserves its reputation. This is the finest 2D Castlevania from this era.