Topic: Castlevania Game Review Cycle

[Intersection]

Welcome to the thread for Intersection's Castlevania Game Review Cycle.

Here, I will be posting reviews and critical appreciations for every mainstream, Konami-produced Castlevania game. They will be reviewed in reverse chronological order.

My reviews here will eventually be part of a "Complete Castlevania Guide", which will document most Castlevania-related media. Here's the project announcement thread:
http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php/topic,6443.0.html

If I’m submitting my reviews on this forum, it’s because I need your feedback. Although it inevitably represents my point of view, I still would like the completed guide to be somewhat of a reference, something I cannot achieve without hearing from a wider audience. So after every review, you’re welcome, and expected, to react. If I make any mistakes, correct me. If I write anything about a title that you feel is excessive, I need to know it. If you fundamentally disagree with the review, however, you're invited to say so, but don’t expect me to change anything.

I will continuously update this first post with links to my subsequent reviews. At the end of the cycle, all games not marked with an asterisk will be ranked, at my discretion.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (3DS)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3, X360)
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (XBLA, PSN)
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (Wii)
Castlevania Judgment (Wii)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (NDS)
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (NDS)
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (NDS)
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2)
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
Castlevania Legacy of Darkness (N64)
Castlevania 64 (N64)
Castlevania: Legends
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX)
Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES)
Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine)
Castlevania Chronicles (PSX)
Super Castlevania 4 (SNES)
Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB)
Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (NES)
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES)
Castlevania (NES)

Haunted Castle (Arcade)*
Vampire Killer (MSX2)*
Ports: Commodore Amiga*, Commodore 64*, DOS*
Boku Dracula-kun (Famicom)*
Kid Dracula (GB)*
Castlevania: Order of Shadows (Mobile)*
Castlevania: The Arcade (Arcade)*
Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night (Mobile)*
Castlevania Pachislot I, II, and III (Pachislot)*

* Will be reviewed separately

[Intersection]

Fresh from its first success, and all the more emboldened, MercurySteam had nevertheless conceived Mirror of Fate partly as a means to reconcile Lords of Shadow with its own deep-reaching roots, from which it had mostly alienated itself with its new but considerably foreign design. For its 2D successor, David Cox and his team had promised a greater emphasis on the core mechanics and feel that had let the franchise thrive for more than two decades, while keeping it in the bold new direction that had led to Lords of Shadow’s success in the first place. Mirror of Fate was intended to stand as a perfect, uncompromised blend between the old and the new, between Castlevania’s legendary heritage and MercurySteam’s bold new foray into untrodden territory; it was to finally unify a fractured community of impassioned gamers hopelessly divided over whether Lords of Shadow was truly worthy of carrying the Castlevania name. As such, the fledgling developer dove into its first two-dimensional game, carrying with it the hopes of many estranged Castlevania fans for a return to the true essence of the series they had known and loved. Did these hopes finally come to fruition? Read on to find out...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate begins shortly after the events of the first Lords of Shadow.

(click to show/hide)

In the sub-series’ canon, we learn of Gabriel Belmont’s tragic transformation into the powerful yet soulless demon we now know as Lord Dracula. In Mirror of Fate, we incarnate several infamous members of Gabriel’s unfortunate lineage -- Simon, Trevor, and Alucard -- as they struggle to accept the disastrous truth of their ancestry. The game opens with an intimidating cinematic showing the erstwhile Gabriel advancing, unaware, towards the castle which will soon be his.

After playing a brief tutorial combat sequence as Gabriel, you see the pure-hearted warrior throw his blood at a demon lord before departing into the shadows of the castle, never to be seen (nor played) again... And this is when the true story begins: after a short cutscene showing Simon’s mother’s tragic death, our new hero wakes from his tormented slumber and resumes his difficult quest to slay Dracula and learn the truth of his father’s murder.

Quite a movemented and mesmerizing presentation, isn’t it? Don’t be fooled. This is as interesting as the story will ever get. For if you haven’t yet been turned off by Sypha’s melodramatic cries and young Simon’s ludicrously horrified face, you’ll soon discover that the whole rest of the story is, at its best, overdramatic and convoluted, if not plainly imbecilic at its worst. While the original Lords of Shadow’s plot was immersive and well-acted, if a bit overdone, fans expecting a similar experience in its handheld successor will quickly be disappointed. Mirror of Fate’s story fancies itself a three-act tragedy, in which each act weaves the story of a different hero, all of which are fatally interconnected in the end. Yet all it succeeds in doing is to mix three iconic Castlevania characters into a strange and confusing fiasco of disconnected episodes, all of which seem completely unnecessary and repetitive. Most of the story the game offers is poorly presented; the cutscenes are perpetually exaggerated, and their cel-shaded design, while esthetically appealing, contrasts without good reason with the game's actual design. The voice acting is uneven at best, while the dialogue sometimes struggles to make sense. But most aberrant is the fact that Mirror of Fate was essentially designed to introduce a single, major plot twist to the Lords of Shadow storyline; yet this twist is so often telegraphed that it can easily be guessed as early as the end of Act I. The actual structure of each episode is also completely identical: Simon journeys through the caste and confronts Dracula in Act I; Alucard does the same in Act II; and Trevor does the same in act III. This makes playing through each episode feel repetitive and utterly useless, as every act hints at the same, infuriatingly simple plot point. As such, the game's ending is so anticlimactic it figures among the worst I've seen in recent video game history. In part because of this arrangement, Mirror of Fate does very little to make you care about its heroes; they are all similarly presented and even play the same way, while story-wise there is very little actual character development.

But enough about the plot - the Castlevania series isn’t exactly known for its extraordinary storylines. Let us pose our critical eye upon Mirror of Fate’s actual gameplay.

Unfortunately, that’s where it really begins to fall apart. With Castlevania’s first forays into the 3D genre, IGA learned that hard way that what works in 2D doesn’t always work in 3D. MercurySteam, however, completely failed to realize that the opposite is true: what works in 3D doesn’t always work in 2D. Instead, Cox and his developers felt perfectly content to steamroll the previous Lords of Shadow title into two dimensions. As a result, what could have been a new, genre-defining game was relegated to the status of a poor 2D port of the original Lords of Shadow.

Despite Cox’s promises, Mirror of Fate’s core combat borrows little from previous Castlevania games. Each of the game’s characters uses a whip, and like in the original Lords of Shadow, players can choose between direct attacks and area attacks to better dispatch Dracula’s demonic legions. Attack combinations, however, soon become the core of the game, allowing you to dispel your enemies with ever-increasing elegance and ease. Most are performed by alternating direct and area attacks in a specific sequence, allowing for more powerful finishers or a more effective impact. The game will give you a few basic moves from the start, but as you progress you'll unlock more useful and more powerful combos for your whip: some combos will replace older ones, while others will be entirely new. Throughout the game, you'll learn a good variety of moves, leaving room for some decent strategizing. You can block certain attacks, temporarily stunning your enemy so that you can strike back while it is off guard. The game also reintroduces its predecessor's dual magic system: each of the game's playable heroes will use different variants of the offensive-defensive dichotomy, with Simon exploiting spirit magic while Alucard uses his classic wolf and mist forms. You'll also be granted a few subweapons, ranging from Simon's axe to Trevor's boomerang. So when functioning correctly, these mechanics combine nicely for a smooth, solid (albeit unfamiliar) combat system, the best of which we've already seen in Lords of Shadow.

Unfortunately, Mirror of Fate's battles are rarely at their best, and the game's originally snappy combat soon degenerates into mindless button-mashing as you find yourself repeating the same combat sequences again and again while struggling to defeat demons gifted with frustratingly long life. Here's why: MercurySteam failed to understand that the considerable spatial change warranted by the transition from 3D to 2D should also imply a considerable change in the battle mechanics themselves. Mirror of Fate instead flattens Lords of Shadow's combat system into 2D with no amenities whatsoever. Lords of Shadow's combat system was built to integrate two core aspects of its gameplay: on one hand, players dealt with the stress of multiple, weaker enemies swarming at them from all directions; on the other hand, they fought tough, powerful single enemies which took a more focused assault to kill. Thus, the direct-area attack duality: area attacks could deal effective radial damage for efficient crowd control, while direct attacks could deal heavier damage to single targets. But in 2D the very idea of direct and area attacks is absurd: why use weaker area attacks in a game where by definition you have no such "area" to cover? Similarly, the varied whip system in Lords of Shadow was designed to accommodate threats from all dimensions of combat; much of it feels superfluous in 2D. In 3D you could always dodge out of way of swarming enemies; in 2D you only need two enemies on either side and you're stuck -- hence the complaints of many reviewers who found themselves "cornered" by infuriatingly resistant monsters. Here's another one of Mirror of Fate's mistakes: enemies take far too long to kill. If these prodigious quantities of health played in Lords of Shadow's favor back in 2010, that was because the latter was a 3D game -- where large swarms of resistant enemies posed a real threat, dealt with through some skillful sideways dodging and controlled area attacks. Yet in Mirror of Fate enemies can only actually attack you from two directions, and sideways dodging is never a possibility. So instead of the exhilaration of fighting dozens of tough enemies around you, you'll feel the gritty frustration of endlessly hitting the few enemies right in front of you that simply won't die.

Even the non-whip abilities the game gives you are rather poorly handled, and this time seriously lack variety. Each playable character is given his own dual magic system, but the bottom line is always the same: blue = better defense, red = more power. Whether you're using Simon's offensive spirit, Alucard's wolf form, or Trevor's shadow magic, you'll just be hitting harder. Whether you use Simon's defensive spirit, Alucard's mist form, or Trevor's light magic, you'll just be blocking better or healing. This is incredibly disappointing for anyone expecting unique abilities from each character. In fact, the only thing unique about each hero is their subweapons, and even those are poorly handled. There are six subweapons in the game, but you're forced to use only two each chapter. And the incredibly small amount of subweapons you can carry prevents you from ever using them consistently.

Here we're approaching another one of Mirror of Fate's glaring faults: it seriously lacks variety. The only marginally diverse part of the game is its whip system, but it is already less extensive than Lords of Shadow's and can deliver far less gameplay opportunities. There are no items, no statistics, and there isn't even semblance of progression other than the greater power ratings of your combos. There only are eighteen levels in the game, and the only thing leveling up does is give you more combos. And there are only thirty-six monsters across all three acts, bosses included. In a modern Castlevania game, that's enough to make any fan cry.

But that's not all: the game's description promises you'll play as four different characters, but instead you'll be essentially playing the same character four different times. Every playable character uses a whip, even Alucard (calling his whip "Dark Pain" doesn't make it any more credible), and everything from whip combos to platforming abilities passes on from character to character. Their magic is incredibly similar. They all run, jump and fight the same way. They're even presented the same way. Only their story and their sprites actually tell them apart, save maybe for their subweapons, which is nowhere near enough to make them feel different.

The checkpointing in Mirror of Fate is probably the worst I've seen in any Castlevania game. Instead of introducing save points like previous installments in the series, or setting well-defined levels to cross, Mirror of Fate chooses to constantly place checkpoints after every three seconds of play, essentially telling the player that it really doesn't matter if he dies. Did you fall into a spike pit? Your only punishment will be a loading screen before you reappear immediately before you fell. So why bother jumping at all? Why not just haphazardly ram through all obstacles, since dying gives you no penalty whatsoever? But as if this wasn't enough, the game tops it off by placing checkpoints during boss battles, effectively making bosses feel easier to defeat than mundane enemies. Thanks to MercurySteam's extraordinary logic, Mirror of Fate now stands as the first Castlevania game in which I've beaten Dracula from the first try.

But now let's look at the game's platforming. Did you hope for the great 2D platforming we've come to expect from Castlevania? Well, don't. Every jump, climb, or swing in the game is completely scripted, much like in the original Lords of Shadow. In 2D, however, it'll feel even more of a waste of time as you clamber through so many artificial obstacle courses that seem to be there just to pad the game length. You'll be crossing impressive chasms on small wagons, dodging flame bursts from wall exhausts, and even swimming with limited air supply, but you're given so little freedom that your journey soon sinks into tedium. The SCIV whip swing was also supposed to be revived; but all you get is a useless "push button, swing automatically, push button, jump off" feature rather than the player-controlled swinging of old.

In Mirror of Fate, Dracula's castle feels empty and desolate, instead of teeming with dark creatures as it had always felt in previous games. And in fact, this is more related to the platforming issue than you might think. Indeed, instead of mixing platforming and combat into an integrated experience like the Castlevania series has always done, Mirror of Fate copies its 3D predecessor by creating flat, open areas solely for combat and complementing them with separate, dedicated areas for platforming. This means you'll trek through long and weirdly silent castle areas without as much as a single creature in sight, before finding your way into a large hall and being assaulted by three or four monsters seemingly jumping out of nowhere. Even the music responds to these cues; it begins soft and lulling before pounding its drums as soon as an enemy appears. The game is in fact so intent on isolating its battle sequences that it will even create artificial barriers around you, preventing you from leaving an area before you clear all the enemies within it. Mostly because of this the castle feels sparse and only artificially populated. And gone is the thrill of desperately jumping platforms to avoid enemy fire; Mirror of Fate instead forces you to jump on the spot as you mindlessly mash your attack buttons away.

Yet combat isn't the only way you'll be mashing buttons. Mirror of Fate also acts as a showcase of what are easily the worst and most ridiculous quick-time events you'll ever see in a game. Want to finish off a boss? Hurry up and mash B or you'll be the one finished off. Want to open a door or a chest? Mash X with all of your might or you'll be forced to try again. It's a miracle if you don't break you 3DS buttons by the time you're finished. Granted, there are games where QTE's are useful or even essential (think Heavy Rain). But they should be illegal in games like Mirror of Fate, where they don't accomplish anything except for damaging your finger muscles and frustrating you to the point of explosion. Even the most mundane storyline events require to idiotically mash buttons (such as wrenching an orb from a hunchback in the kitchen). There is even an entire boss battle where you do nothing but mash different buttons to hold on to a moving wurm.

Cox promised us to focus on exploration. But I don't call "jump up into the barely-hidden passageway to find a health/magic/subweapon upgrade" exploration. I don't call "come back later when you have more abilities to get a health/magic/subweapon upgrade" exploration. I especially don't call "massively backtrack in a linear castle for no particular reason" exploration. And while Mirror of Fate supposedly revives the traditional map feature, but only uses the map for small, separated areas instead of shaping the game into a single, unified castle in the way previous Castlevania games. Well, that defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Graphically is the only aspect in which I can praise the game. I love the 2.5D look and feel, and in that respect Mirror of Fate might be a good template for future 2D games. Yet even this picture isn't perfect: while the areas are technically beautiful, they do nothing to suggest any kind of progression within the castle; in each act I arrived into the throne room without even realizing it.

Now you'll ask me about the music. What music? Did you notice the oppressive silence that reigns during the entire game? The music is practically inaudible most of the time, and the rest of the time sounds like generic, pounding video game battle music. Some pieces are even copied and pasted from Lords of Shadow. So as for the music, I refuse to offer any comment.

THE VERDICT

Ah, so we've finally arrived to the end of this review. Quite an exhausting read, wasn't it? Yet I still don't quite know how to qualify this game. Nothing within it is absolutely, fundamentally broken, yet nothing about it is any good, either. I'll stay for now with the word "mediocre", which I think best describes it. Are you one of those new fans attracted by the excellent romp that was Lords of Shadow? Mirror of Fate will most definitely disappoint you. Are you part of that loyal fanbase alienated by the all too foreign Lords of Shadow, and hoping, with the next 2D Castlevania, for a return to the series' roots? Don't even consider Mirror of Fate. Standing alone, Mirror of Fate isn't much good. But as a 2D Castlevania game, it is unacceptable. By releasing this game, MercurySteam has put an end to all of the rumors surrounding its controversial predecessor -- it has shown, aside from the fact that it is utterly incapable of creating a decent 2D game, that it understands nothing of Castlevania's essence. For this, this young developer needs to leave Castlevania's glorious landscape as promptly and completely as it can, as it has already promised in the past. Cox, I will hold you to your word: finish Lords of Shadow 2, which has all the potential to become a great game -- but then go, and don't come back. I'll end this review with the greatest irony of all: Mirror of Fate saved MercurySteam from bankruptcy. They should have gone bankrupt because of it.

INTERSECTION'S VERDICT: CONDEMNED

[Pfil]

Great review and I agree with pretty much everything it says.
I posted my review when I compared it to LoS some months ago, when I played it.

[Intersection]

I'm glad some of you appreciate my review. I expected it to be more polemic, but it's nice to know my opinion is not a singular one.

Writing it actually took far longer than I expected, so I don't think I'll be reviewing more often than once a week. In fact, this first review should probably be shortened before I include it into my guide, but I'll worry about that once I'll have finished with this thread.

Thanks for posting, and I'll always be open to more critical appreciations.

[Pfil]

A Lords of Shadow review will bring upon some polemic to this thread, for sure, no matter what you say.
But with Mirror of Fate, I'm pretty sure most of fans (of previous games, of the new games, or of both) agree with your opinion. As far as I can recall, so far no one said MoF is terrible, but no one said it's great either.