Topic: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

[Solomon]

About 18 hours into the game. The music is probably its weakest point (disappointing for a Castlevania,frankly) and the story its strongest.

Speaking of story, I have just two gripes:

1. Why don't

(click to show/hide)

Leon and Medusa recognize each other? You'd think they'd have remembered clashing back in 1094.

2. Instead of

(click to show/hide)

Brauner, could they not have used Olrox instead? I hear this Brauner's an identical ancestor who just so happened to be a vampire too but that's so roundabout and forced and it takes away from the OG Brauner's one-and-done uniqueness.

Otherwise I'm having quite the blast. Belmont's Curse isn't perfect by any means but it's absolutely above average and a worthy welcome back to our favorite franchise.

Now uh.... can we please make sure a Japanese studio does the next game?

[K.G. Morder]

  feels like an indie title.

Because it is an indie title. They just outsourced the game to a small studio to do.

What a sorry showing for the series 40th anniversary.

[DarkLavos]

Poor Grant gets left out again with no mention or easter egg.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Poor Grant gets left out again with no mention or easter egg.

Aside from Judgment (which warped and distorted most of the characterizations therein beyond recognition and into wholly new characters so I really don't feel it counts here), was the last time Grant was recognized by ANY Castlevania media was at least 20 years ago, depending on which Curse of Darkness manga had his fucking SILHOUETTE show up as one of the heroes who defeated Dracula (I think it was Prelude to Revenge but don't quote me on that), and Portrait of Ruin which reused the Fake Grant enemy and came out around the same time.

[Abnormal Freak]

Just a few of my own (premature) thoughts, having gotten through the catacombs and embarking on the castle proper:

I'm enjoying the game. There's stuff about it I don't care for, but it's pretty well made, and is fairly Castlevania-ish. Though it plays more like Ori meets Meat Boy than an IGAvania, but that's OK: it can be its own thing, as long as that diversion doesn't piss me off; and so far the devs have done a pretty good job of keeping me entertained.

I'll say one thing: I've had more fun with the 7 or so hours I've spent with it than I ever did in the same amount of time playing Bloodstained: ROTN. While ROTN feels more in line with the GBA and DS games in some ways, it's always felt so incomplete and unenjoyable. At least Belmont's Curse has some pretty good game mechanics, even if the area designs themselves are a little iffy and don't have any kind of logic of being a proper place of dwelling for beasties and Drac. That was something IGA usually got right: making the Demon Castle and its surroundings feel habitable and reasonable. Maybe I'll see more of that kind of logic further in, probably not: all the spoilery things I've seen just show more an abundance of spinny blade death traps and silliness like that. Somewhat fun from a gameplay perspective but doesn't make a whole lot of sense otherwise.

My biggest gripe with the game is the music. It's not offensive or bad necessarily, but it just exists—it doesn't evoke any kind of emotion, and there's certainly no discernible melody. It's the complete antithesis to Castlevania music and its legacy, more so than games with otherwise brilliant scores like the N64 games. Every area's music sounds the same and it's the weakest part of the whole experience. The art direction is also a bit iffy, and sometimes it's damn hard to discern what's happening in the background and foreground, and ends up looking like a bunch of vomit that I almost have to look beyond just to see what's happening on screen. As with the music, it's not terrible, but it's nothing that stands out either.

The most fun I've had in the game so far was sequence-breaking into a gauntlet room that shouldn't have been accessible until obtaining a double-jump ability, but I spent an hour or so luring a bat to the vertical gap that I could whip onto and swing from. The gauntlet took several tries against some powerful enemies, but I got mad XP for doing so and leveled up ten or so levels but actually need the double-jump to collect the prize chest, lol.

I should continue playing the game this weekend, but right now my CV focus is more on that massive(ly expensive) LP box set, and I'm enjoying a lot of the new recordings therein.

Maybe with more experience under their belt, the Bloodstained 2 devs will whip up something truly remarkable, or more reminiscent of the IGAvanias.