Now THIS is an improvement! Adventure was hot garbage, Belmont's Revenge was smoldering garbage, but Legends manages to close the Gameboy trilogy with moderate success.
The ropes are still around, walking is still slow, and it doesn't look particularly great thanks to the hardware. But this time around, I actually had fun!
The jump got upgraded to Castlevania IV levels of control, meaning you don't need to propose to your jump arc anymore; after a jump, you can move back and forth as necessary. Instead of subweapons, you have spells that you obtain after each boss à la Megaman and they're all useful, just poorly ordered. (Why is the 1-Heart dagger-esque spell the fourth one you acquire instead of being the first? Hmm.)
Alternate paths are now a thing but not in the Castlevania III sense. There's still only one correct path to the Stage boss, but in order to obtain the best ending, you need to collect 5 relics located in these alternate paths. Exploring was nice, but if you ended up taking the correct path and crossed a door, you wouldn't be able to backtrack to get the relic. That's pretty dumb, but I can appreciate the attempt.
The music is MUCH better compared to its Gameboy siblings. Battle with Alucard, Clock Tower and this very snazzy Vampire Killer arrange are my favorite examples. It's a shame the Gameboy soundfont really doesn't do it justice.
... Thankfully, there's a VRC6 version of the OST available! Man, do some of these compositions really shine here.
Honestly, if Simon's Quest was structured like this back in the NES, I think its reputation wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is, as Legends' real problems (at least to me) come from the hardware it was released on. The slow movement, the sound quality, the simple visuals... If this was a late NES game instead, we would've had a pretty sick game.
As it is, Castlevania Legends is a good game, sadly hindered by the Gameboy's lack of power.
The ropes are still around, walking is still slow, and it doesn't look particularly great thanks to the hardware. But this time around, I actually had fun!
The jump got upgraded to Castlevania IV levels of control, meaning you don't need to propose to your jump arc anymore; after a jump, you can move back and forth as necessary. Instead of subweapons, you have spells that you obtain after each boss à la Megaman and they're all useful, just poorly ordered. (Why is the 1-Heart dagger-esque spell the fourth one you acquire instead of being the first? Hmm.)
Alternate paths are now a thing but not in the Castlevania III sense. There's still only one correct path to the Stage boss, but in order to obtain the best ending, you need to collect 5 relics located in these alternate paths. Exploring was nice, but if you ended up taking the correct path and crossed a door, you wouldn't be able to backtrack to get the relic. That's pretty dumb, but I can appreciate the attempt.
The music is MUCH better compared to its Gameboy siblings. Battle with Alucard, Clock Tower and this very snazzy Vampire Killer arrange are my favorite examples. It's a shame the Gameboy soundfont really doesn't do it justice.
... Thankfully, there's a VRC6 version of the OST available! Man, do some of these compositions really shine here.
Honestly, if Simon's Quest was structured like this back in the NES, I think its reputation wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is, as Legends' real problems (at least to me) come from the hardware it was released on. The slow movement, the sound quality, the simple visuals... If this was a late NES game instead, we would've had a pretty sick game.
As it is, Castlevania Legends is a good game, sadly hindered by the Gameboy's lack of power.