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« Last post by crisis on June 18, 2025, 02:43:05 PM »
I just thought I’d share my opinion on this game, y’all don’t have to respond but I wanted to get this off my chest.
When I first played it back in 2008 I was really impressed, moreso because of how they amped up the difficulty compared to Portrait of Ruin & Dawn. And I also thought it was really unique in its presentation, they didn’t reuse a lot of previous enemies unlike PoR which is filled with Rondo of Blood sprites. I also bought the special edition package from the now defunct Konamistyle website, Japan exclusive items like the transparent poster, notepad with the Dominus seals, among other random items like the phone cards.
Replaying it on the Dominus collection, my opinion slightly shifted. I still enjoy the game, but now I sense there is still a lot of laziness & cut corners hidden throughout the game that I didn’t notice before. The map & different locations seem cool at first glance but they leave a lot to be desired, there’s only minor exploration in what’s supposed to be mansions & large caves. The enemies themselves, most of them look cool but they’re missing an important detail: death animations. It’s one of the many details that immersed me into SotN, every enemy has their own unique death. In OoE, you kill a lizardman and he just falls over. Same with some of the walking armors, once defeated they just hunch over on their knees & fade in color. While replaying I was wondering, why didn’t the programmers make them explode or disintegrate like in the other games?
There are some areas where the music repeats itself, even in the castle itself, from the entry hall to the library it’s the same song playing on loop. What the fuck? But then as you traverse some of the backgrounds are gorgeous & creepy, like the sky constantly changing from day to night near the outer wall. I love how that was designed & they showed great creativity.
Then there’s Ecclesia itself. Apparently there’s only 3 members in the entire organization? Why have a headquarters with literally nobody else to be found inside. And Barlowe’s motivation is just way too predictable, they gave his betrayal no backstory other than “surprise surprise I’m actually a Dracula disciple & this whole thing has been a ruse all along” blah blah… come on guys, Disney villains from the 90’s had more going on for them than this. Shanoa has no personality either. Maybe it would’ve been better if she sacrificed herself using Dracula’s power giving us a tragic but satisfying ending, cementing the fact that only a true Belmont can withstand Dracula’s might. But Albus’ ghost saves the day, how convenient.
I still feel it’s a better put-together experience than Portrait, but… I don’t know. There’s still not enough meat on the bones.
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