Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: beingthehero on March 03, 2012, 06:21:38 PM
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What do you all think of this game nowadays?
Frankly, it's a bad game. Yet for some reason, and I have no idea why, I always get the urge to play it from time to time. And just as well, I actually have a decent amount of mindless fun. Some places like the Mortvia Aqueduct and Cordova Town are hectic enough that it's actually quite entertaining to slash enemies and see the crazy amounts of blood fly all over the screen. And some places like the Garibaldi Temple and the Abandoned Castle still retain that definitive CV mood despite how obnoxiously repetitive they are.
On the other hand, that otherworldly place where you fight Dullahan and 98% of Dracula's castle are pure tedium. The game's greatest challenge is forcing yourself to slowly power-jog through every samey hallway. The game definitely has Takeda Takashi's hallmarks: cram much "stuff" into the game as possible regardless of the fun factor. He got away with it in Harmony of Dissonance, where flat, monotonous areas were confined to just the Aqueduct of Dragons and some parts of the Castle Keep (also degraded sound for quasi-32 bit graphics on a 16-bit system), but here...ughghgh. Curse is definitely a huge game, but it's huge, flat, and monotonous. The Clock Tower is also possibly the worst thing, even though the beginning parts are kind of fun.
On the other hand, the art and music are amazing. Both were definitely darker than Lament, and it's easy to see how the game injected a rather morbid feel back into the series, probably to counterbalance Dawn's pre-teen anime presentation. Issac is also one of the best of the 'other' Castlevania villains.
Even though he was rather flat, I actually like Hector as a character. ;_;
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I actually enjoyed play CoD and even today I still get that odd craving every now and then. I've never fully completed the game (as in getting/making everything possible) but I have finished it. What leaves me disappointed with it is that Hector is able to kill Dracula. Another attempt brought on by IGA to discount the Belmont's main role in the series. As almost everyone knows; Any person who lacks the Belmont blood cannot kill the count. This was established long ago in CV's early history (the only exception I'll ever allow is Alucard). IGA has conveniently thrown this out the window in favor of his own "personal" creativity. This opinion is also backed up by the fact that Issac had stabbed Trevor in order to remove him as a threat...more like IGA had him stabbed to remove him from being the hero once more. But this doesn't make any real sense since Trevor should sensed Issac was in the room with him and thus, dodged the near-fatal attack. It would have been much more acceptable to have the game end with fighting Death instead as Death is nowhere near to the level of power that Dracula is. The graphics were one of the unfortunate victims of this game as they don't have much of the clear detail that was present in LoI. The music is perhaps the highlight of the whole game itself and is perhaps one of, if not the only reason I still play it. I also found the lack of breakable walls and power-up items to be a disappointment too. LoI had these things coming out the wazoo, but in CoD they are scarce to the point of near none-existence. Another thing that kinda bothered me at first but not so much anymore was the steal ability. The enemies have to be manipulated in such a way as to allow you to steal from them. As if the game's other issues weren't annoying enough. I'd personally would rather just steal from them and be done with it or have the enemies just drop random items period. The final aspects of the game is both the overly long areas and the twin dual towers. The levels didn't need to be this long. They could've been shorter which would prevent the player from feeling bored after a time. The dual tower segments I feel have no real purpose what-so-ever. They don't contribute to the game as anything really important. It's just a fight fest that could've easily had it's own separate selection in the start menu. With the levels cropped down and the towers removed completely I think the game would've been much better and would allow for some more important implements in the game such as sharper graphics. The voice acting I felt was much better then in LoI. The CG characters, their movements and the scripts ran smooth and more natural. I also liked how they got one of the the voice actors from 'Ghost in the Shell: Standalone complex' to play as Hector. I felt he did a great job. The Character St. Germain I felt had no reason to be in the game either. In fact I'd rather not have time travelers in any CV game unless it was the very focus of the game itself. In short: I like this game but it has lots of flaws and is ultimately a failed sequel to one of the best NES CV games of all time. It had potential, but IGA failed to let it shine.
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I much prefer Lament of innocence fixed camera as well because in COD sometimes the camera flies all over the place.
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This game always depresses me. The game's world is so gray and dull, it can suck away your excitement for the Castlevania series for a while if your not careful. :-X Perhaps they were kind of going for a depressing feel because of Dracula's curse and all that, but I prefer the victorian gothic type of atmosphere I felt Lament pulled off very well. The game is also very ugly compared to Lament, and it barely focuses on decorations and little details in the background. Garibaldi Temple was ok in that regard I suppose, but the rest of the stages are certainly not. I do dig the combat, though. It's the reason why I think this game can still be mindless fun.
This might be a bit off-topic, but the plot of this game was also a bit random sometimes. What was the deal with St. Germain exactly? I don't think the game explained that very well. It might be a result of IGA's contrived way of storytelling, but I don't know. What he deliberately meant to be an enigma? If somebody could tell why exactly he was involved in the plot, I would be very interested in hearing that.
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Wasn't too keen on this game. The weapon forging and ID leveling were pretty fun to mess with though.
I would love either a 2D Metroidvania to use those two systems, or for some crazy fuck to somehow "romhack" the original to have fun levels.
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I think X described perfectly why I didn't like this game. I tried to get into it, even playing through twice and getting everything the second time (I aimed to do this on the first playthrough, but I ended up wanting to get Dracula's Castle over with as soon as possible after being in there for 10 minutes).
There was so much in this game that just seemed unnecessary or incomplete, almost like they threw their hands up at some point and said "screw this shit" in disgust and just called it a day.
I know this is the only game in the series that I can safely say I'll never play again. This probably isn't the worst game in the series, but I didn't really have fun with it at all.
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As much as I love the game, it's impossible to ignore every fault, and hoo boy, the game has plenty of them.
The plot feels rather like Iga and his team took every unused Castlevania plot device since Symphony, slathered some glue on them, and flung them from a bucket onto a storyboard.
The Dynasty Warriors combat was DREADFUL. It's easily the worst attempt at 3D combat in the series.
"PRESS THESE TWO BUTTONS OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO WIN."
Real smooth, Konami.
"Oh, and there may be some blocking and dodging involved."
Thanks for the brilliant gameplay.
That said, the game has some pretty tight boss battles, with Isaac, Trevor, and surprisingly Dracula all offering amazing boss entries in the series, but that doesn't stop Hector/Trevor's very limited movesets from growing endlessly stale.
The stages are dull, tedious, and invariably boring, though there is room for some occasional pretty; as often as Garibaldi Cathedral is talked about, the Abandoned Castle at the beginning left a very strong impression on me.
The music is all around great, with the sole exception of the Infinite Corridor, where the music is more tedious than the stage. But that dud aside, it's my top Castlevania soundtrack of all time. I wish I could use it for Lords of Shadow; it would have made it a much better game.
The voice acting also tends towards the strong side, with Hector, Isaac, Zead, Saint Germaine, and Dracula all having top notch performances. I wish Julia and Trevor's voices packed a bit more dramatic OOMPH, especially Julia's.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that this game's strength lies more or less entirely in its presentation, rather than the gameplay itself. The music, voices, and art all amaze all these years later, but the game itself is sadly beneath the other 3D titles, especially Lords, which is basically Curse's opposite: while Curse looks the part but flops in the gameplay department, Lords plays great, but doesn't look at all like a Castlevania should.
Curse got half the formula right, but getting half the recipe right still results in a crappy cake.
That said, I still love the game for the half it gets right. So, woohoo!
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CoD is my worst Igavania.
Dracula
[excuse]Since Dracula's soul possessed Isaac's body, Dracula was not perfect power.[/excuse]
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The only big problem I encountered with CoD is the fact that Hector is very, very slow. Some environments are also a bit empty.
Otherwise, CoD is nice game IMO. I love the combat system, the forging stuff and ID evolution. And the music is by far my favorite CV soundtrack.
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Yeah X-sama, that wasn't really Dracula. It was just his weakened soul possessing Issac's body. Castlevania itself was really just the product of Issac and Hector's forgerin'.
That's also why Alucard, Hector, LeCarde, John and Jonathan Morris were able to kill him as well, because he was just resurrected outside the 100 year timeframe. Jonathan even mentions that he's relieved because Dracula isn't at his full power yet, because then it would've been impossible for him to kill him. As this goes all the way back to Bloodlines in '94, this is hardly IGA's doing or without precedent. Nobody is invincible in this series, after all; even Alucard, IGA's favorite character, is defeated by Dmitri before Soma gets there.
Incapacitating Trevor (but pointedly not killing him) was meant as a way to make the player feel overwhelmed, really. Right before you go inside Dracula's castle, Hector tells Julia that they need Trevor and his whip, since he killed Dracula last time (before 'alas he is recovering having his weak point hit with massive damage also go alone pls').
It's when Dracula resurrects at his 100-year-power that only a Belmont can destroy him (Simon, Christopher, Julius, Richter, etc). Also the whole 'IGA hates all the old heroes, ruuuuu!' is as old and dumb as saying Nathan Graves was the manifestation of KO-G's hate for all the Belmonts and past CVs in favor of his own 'personal' creativity.
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Though on the other hand, Trevor is now condemned to being the star of the Pachislot games, so I guess he did get a bum deal after all.
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That depends on how you look at it, Hero-kun. According to the producer of the pachislots, Pachislot I and II take place in an alternate timeline where Trevor gets to be the hero of CoD instead of Hector.
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The only big problem I encountered with CoD is the fact that Hector is very, very slow.
I knew I'd forgotten something >:(
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That depends on how you look at it, Hero-kun. According to the producer of the pachislots, Pachislot I and II take place in an alternate timeline where Trevor gets to be the hero of CoD instead of Hector.
You can play as Trevor in COD when you beat the game..."@TREVOR"
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For me personally i will say both Lament and CoD were both very well done i enjoyed both of them. CoD was a better game all around for me and for various reason. IT almost had the appeal of a sotn 3d type game. Which is cool, but the story line was also cool imo. The fact dracula hand a right and left hand lackey's was a cool concept. Also the story has a pretty positive ending. I prefer those like many. Unfortuenly for the first of the cv game on ps2 Lament's ending was not bad but it did not impress me, for the fact that everyone in the game ends up losing something without gaining a thing. No happy,fairytale ending, same can be said their of with LoS. But i do feel like they left room for more in LoS, if they make a sequel i wouldnt' be suprised. You almost get the feeling something got left out in that game. I almost woulda like to see them cut the ending of right at the credits. That,even though sad, would have been a perfect ending for that game. Overall with lament and curse of darkness i kinda wish they put in more baddies and more bosses for certain areas and not have to many regurgated enemies in the same areas like fishmen for example or puking zombie ghouls. But the level design,gameplay, characters are all stellar as hell and at the time gave players differnt options to choose from a couple whip weilders, a demon summoner who's weaponarey is off the charts, and yeah the option to float around as a vampire. I have almost no complaints at all about the ps2 games they were awesome all around the board. Like i said with LoS the ending sorta got to me. I like the gameplay, the zelda ish type feel, new enemies,bosses all, and some of the storyline(although at times it became a bit wierd). The level design in LoS and graphics,was beyond what i would have expected for even a ps3 game. Awesome on that part! So yeah i enjoyed them all. Probably goes CoD,Lament and LoS. Did anyone catch Christopher lee narrating Lament and Hayden Christensen(anakin skywalker) as leon belmont, or was that just me? Sure as hell sounds like them anyways? Obviously Patrick Stewart narrates LoS, that was a dead give away from Star Trek series.
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Way too much wall text in this thread so I'm gonna spare myself the wasted time reading everyone's word-salads & just agree with everything that was said.
Last time I played this game was a year ago & I was stuck trying to get the Pumpkin I.D. I'll resume one of these days.
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I think you have use the devil id and go under a wall in dracula's castle to find a secret hallway. He's in their if i'm not mistaken.
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At the time it was not bad.
It's unplayable now.
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I think you have use the devil id and go under a wall in dracula's castle to find a secret hallway. He's in their if i'm not mistaken.
This is correct. And for me it's the easy part. The tough part I've yet to figure out how to activate the little pumpkin dude.
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I actually liked the game.
I loved how the it featured many weapons like symphony of the night which is what I originally wanted with Lament of innocence. And the music was pretty good and I really loved the Abadoned Castle and Cordova Town themes used in the game.
The Devil forging was also a cool feature that I liked alot.
But the game suffered from some major obvious flaws.
1.The complete lack of platforming. It was just so bad and ridiculous having to traverse through a huge flat terrain and having little to no platforming at all.
2.repetitive level design. The levels all looked the same and I was extremely disappointed with Dracula's caslte which is known for being very diverse and featuring alot of settings such as chapels,clocktowers,and deep caverns, none of these areas were featured and instead it just felt like a ordinary castle for the most part which sucked.
3.Hector's running speed. It is bad enough having to "jog" around the huge ass levels that COD produces. But having to "jog" through them with a extremely slow run makes it pretty frustrating and ridiculous at times. Even Leon's base speed from LOI was faster than Hectors and thats without the Wolf's foot. I felt that this game really could have benifited from a similar item to the Wolf's foot from LOI or they could have just had hector actually... RUN instead of doing a brisk jog lol.
But I must say that if Konami did another game similar to COD with all the issues I listed above addressed it would be the best 3D CV game in my honest opinion.
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Never finished the game. I got bored halfway through the Abandoned Castle.
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Shit sucks. Haven't been able to bring myself to beat it.
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You need the Pumpkin mask and the Pumpkin hammer to activate him.
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The weapon crafting, the music, the voice acting, and the atmosphere and architecture of the Abandoned Castle and Garibaldi Temple. Those were the only good points. The premise, story, script, flatness of the levels, and repetitive rooms are horrible. The game felt rushed and slapped together haphazardly. The innocent devil thing was just a gimmick.
The gameplay as Trevor was great aside from the flatness of the levels and lack of complex story (which is better considering how bad the story with Hector was).
Someone also mentioned how that don't like the idea that it seems that anyone can defeat Dracula now. I don't like that either. The only ones who should be able to kill him are the Belmonts and Alucard. The Belmonts have extremely potent "holy" power and possess the vampire killer whip that is meant to be especially effective against vampires. Alucard is Dracula's own son. Thus, he inherits some of Dracula's power meaning he should be able to hold his own against Dracula to a certain extent. Although, he should have a much harder time then the Belmonts. Just my opinion.
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In which case, the only non-Belmonts to defeat Dracula are...Hector and Nathan Graves. And as mentioned, Curse's ending was hand-waved with the following:
Dracula: The transformation... was it... not complete?
Hector : So it would seem.
So Dracula, at his zenith, has only ever been destroyed by Belmonts. John from Bloodlines and Jonathan from PoR are both part-Belmont, and Shanoa used Dominus, which was Dracula's own power, to destroy him. And of course, Soma is Dracula himself. So I guess the whole 'replacement Belmont' started with CotM and Nathan.
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Shanoa's another non-Belmont. She only beat Dracula because she could reflect his own power back at him, though, essentially rules-lawyering him to death. Now, you COULD argue that anybody who can take down Soma and isn't Julius counts as a non-Belmont, though Soma really isn't as impressive as Dracula was. At least he's better than the other candidates.
Heh, imagine if the games starred Dario instead.
I was always under the assumption that anybody COULD defeat Dracula, but the possibility was pretty low for a non-Belmont. The Belmonts are trained specifcally to take him down, but it's not like Eric LeCarde would have been completely incapable, even if Dracula just sat there and tried to take it. The non-belmonts can clearly do something, or you'd never get the chance to play as them. It's just a much bigger feat if somebody not from the Bloodline manages it - Nathan defeating Drac doesn't make Dracula look weak, it makes Nathan look stronger.
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Were the LeCarde's ever confirmed to be Alucard's in-laws? I dunno if that was ever cleared up. ;_;
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(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/Ridureyu/forumstuff/swordbats02.png)
Best siggy pic ever, BTW.
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Yay! I did a funny!
But I dunno, that is a good question. Are the LeCardes related? I dunno, I guess I haven't put enough thought into somne of the things in the series - I mean, I'm not offended when a non-Belmont wins a game, really. I kind of like that little detail where every time it happens it's supposed to be a huge deal, though.
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At the time it was not bad.
It's unplayable now.
Care to expand on that? I'm having difficulty thinking of how a one-gen difference could make something go from "not bad" to "unplayable."
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I can think of some games that were TEH AWESOME for me when they were new, but nowadays I wonder what I was on.
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Care to expand on that? I'm having difficulty thinking of how a one-gen difference could make something go from "not bad" to "unplayable."
When you've played games when silk-smooth movement (Assassins Creed) good animations (Uncharted) good Storytelling (Arkham Asylum) interesting traversable moody level design (Bioshock) non restrictive RPG elements (Oblivion/fallout/skyrim) an of course responsive combat system (Lords/Bayonetta) and ZAP! No loading times every door (EVERY OTHER GAME *sans DMC4*) COD becomes a SHORE. The greatest fault of them all is Hector's combat.. hey Trevor mode was WAY better because the whip had awesome combos and it has sense of recoil (that hector lacks).
And a platformer game without platforms? come on!
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I thought Curse was a shore before all that.
If you compared it to other games of its generation, it still had robotic animations and movement, and a slew of other action titles had much better level design. Plus there was Morrowind, which neither Skyrim or Oblivion really improved upon for freedom.
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Kind of like how, although a lot of the boss fights in Lament of Innocence are fun, it's too tiring to slog through identical rooms and hard-to-see jumping puzzles to get to them?
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Were the LeCarde's ever confirmed to be Alucard's in-laws? I dunno if that was ever cleared up. ;_;
Actually, I believe that they're actually off-shoots of the Belmont family like the Morris family. Or, at least that is the way it is in PoR. They have Belmont genes, but they're thin and thus not as powerful. This is why the member of the Morris family can use the whip's power with the help of the LeCarde family. The only problem that it drains away their life with every use. Only the members of the Belmont family can use the whip's power without any negative effects. The only reason the LeCarde family is associated with Alucard is because the weapon they wield is the Alucard Spear. This all comes from PoR I believe.
The thing about the spear comes from Judgment. In Eric's story, when he faces Alucard, he asks Alucard why his family was given the spear. Alucard says that it complements the whip. Implying that the Morris and LeCarde families were meant to work together as one. Of course, I could be mistaken.
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The thing about the spear comes from Judgment. In Eric's story, when he faces Alucard, he asks Alucard why his family was given the spear. Alucard says that it complements the whip. Implying that the Morris and LeCarde families were meant to work together as one. Of course, I could be mistaken.
Judgement's story may or may not be true since the game itself is somewhat stand-alone. I don't know myself however it sort of makes sense. In terms of Eric going after Dracula, that was not the case. Eric only went along with John in order to exact his revenge on Elizabeth for turning his love into a vampire (which he was forced to slay). John had no choice in the matter as it was his blood-calling (Destiny) to kill Dracula. In the Bloodlines game you play either character and go kill Dracula, but story-wise that does not happen.
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One of the LoI offical guides has a family tree and it states that Eric is a distant relative of Mathias. It seems that he is a descendant from a different branch of the Cronqvist family. This apperently conflicts with Judgment, but the opening of Eric's storyline says the spear "was given to the Belmont relatives of house Lecarde", so I'm not sure what that is supposed to imply. I don't know what the Japanese version says. Perhaps they are descendants of both?
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Here's something you may not know about eric, If you use a vertical attack (Up+Attack), you can press left or right mid animation to twirl is spear around.
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One of the LoI offical guides has a family tree and it states that Eric is a distant relative of Mathias. It seems that he is a descendant from a different branch of the Cronqvist family. This apperently conflicts with Judgment, but the opening of Eric's storyline says the spear "was given to the Belmont relatives of house Lecarde", so I'm not sure what that is supposed to imply. I don't know what the Japanese version says. Perhaps they are descendants of both?
From which company was the "official" guide published? Bradygames guide is the only English official guide which I know.
And, Although I have almost all Japanese guides, there is no such description.
EDIT: I found this. "Elizabeth Bartley (Count Dracula's niece)". Aren't Eric and Elizabeth misunderstood?
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You're right. I confused Eric and Elizabeth. Sorry. :-X
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Oh, I understood.
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I was thoroughly engrossed by the stages in Curse of Darkness - until I reached the Machine Tower. There's certain things you come to expect from a clock tower, and CoD certainly did not deliver. Dracula's Castle was also a dismal disappointment considering how much I was thrilled with the Abandoned Castle.
But I enjoyed the game for the most part.
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Nobody is invincible in this series, after all; even Alucard, IGA's favorite character, is defeated by Dmitri before Soma gets there.
Didn't Dmitri use some sort of magic to reverse Alucard's powers or something? They didn't actually fight per se.
Did anyone catch Christopher lee narrating Lament and Hayden Christensen(anakin skywalker) as leon belmont, or was that just me? Sure as hell sounds like them anyways?
You're very, very, VERY wrong.
Leon's VA is Kakashi from Naruto and Kefka in Dissidia. David Wittenberg.
The narrator was also Rinaldo. Can't remember his name... *looks up* Michael McConnohie
Were the LeCarde's ever confirmed to be Alucard's in-laws? I dunno if that was ever cleared up. ;_;
I'm going to hazard a guess and say that at the very least, they probably aren't related by blood. Now, this is a 50-50 chance but considering Alucard believes that his blood is cursed (which is sorta is) and that the world would be better off without it, I find it difficult to believe that someone like that would willingly breed. >_>
Now, to the topic at hand:
Yet for some reason, and I have no idea why, I always get the urge to play it from time to time. And just as well, I actually have a decent amount of mindless fun.
Same here. I don't think it's a 'bad' game, though. It's mediocre, but you can get a lot of fun out of it if you are into a certain style of gameplay (I'm a bit of a completionist/grinder, so...)
The game's greatest challenge is forcing yourself to slowly power-jog through every samey hallway.
Chaining cartwheels make you move a lot faster, but they really, REALLY should have put in some sort of 'Wolf's Foot' like they had in Lament of Innocence. The areas were too repetitive and needed platforming/puzzles to break that up. And just like Lament of Innocence, the areas needed more visual variety.
What leaves me disappointed with it is that Hector is able to kill Dracula.......
I agree. It would have been better if they had changed things so Hector fought Isaac, then Death used Isaac to revive Dracula, then Trevor showed up to fight Dracula while you fought Death or something like that. Then in Trevor Mode, he could have had his own cut-scenes and you could have fought Isaac in the ruins and instead of Death, Dracula would have been the final boss only for Trevor Mode. That would have been very cool, since many alternate modes in CV don't have changes like that.
I also found the lack of breakable walls and power-up items to be a disappointment too.
That's what the IDs were supposed to replace, but I agree that they should have at least had more accessories.
I'd personally would rather just steal from them and be done with it
Waiting for the AI to do what you needed it to do was so annoying at times.
The dual tower segments I feel have no real purpose what-so-ever. They don't contribute to the game as anything really important. It's just a fight fest that could've easily had it's own separate selection in the start menu.
I disagree here. The towers are nice for completionists who want a copy of every piece of equipment in the game. They can also be fun for various challenges the player imposes upon themselves, and if you don't like them you can get through them very easily with certain IDs.
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Personally, the boss fights were too easy (unless for some reason you feel the urge to steal from every single one of them, then it becomes tedious) since dodging gives you invincibility frames and there's no stopping you from spamming them.
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I thoroughly enjoyed Curse of Darkness.
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Ok, from top to bottom I will give good and bad on this game (IMO).
Graphics. Slightly better than LOI but terribly redundant. Some parts like walking up to the mountain top to fight the dragon are pretty cool but some are just blah. Character art is Jeckyll and Hyde. I.E. Slogra and Gaibon are very well done where as the ID's are lackluster and thrown together and the one eyed one horned Orge/Cyclops just isnt as impressive to me as the orges with the masks or the ones in LOI. I will say though for the most part the characters were more positive than negative. Music is once again 50/50. Abandoned Castle, Inifinite Corridor, Ghirabaldi Temple, Insane Aristocrat all good and with a some of them Castlevania precise. Other songs, Baljhet Mountain, Forest of Jigramunt and the Man Who Killed Dracula were ok but not really Castlevania esque. Story line. It directs itself away from Dracula and the Belmont conflict to Hector and Isaac which is not where the story and lineage strength of the series is found. Hector is a decent character, dark, angry a bit childish and other times soft spoken. The devil forgemaster device is interesting but the fact that a lot of the IDs are not that impressive and for that matter some are geared towards kids makes it a bit lame and immature. Gameplay, whoooaho!!! Big problems. I am a platform fan and the battle format with no pitfalls and slow battle sequences leave me a little bit pissed. Also it was well mentioned that walking through this expansive and non threatening game area is not endearing to players who want to get into the game a little bit quicker. If it weren't the fact that I am such a staunch fan of the series I would not tolerate the way I did.