Topic: Soul of Darkness (Dsi, 'vania lookalike!!!)

[Ahasverus]

Now this is Castlevania! Sad to see LOS being named CV and this not..oh, the irony!

Better that be irony, or it would be the dumbest post. Ever.

[Gunlord]

I've said this on other places, but I agree with Abnormal Freak, even if the game is pretty much a ripoff it's a *good* ripoff. The level design seems excellent, better even than some of the 'official' CV gaems.

[angevil]

IGN review
http://ds.ign.com/articles/110/1104989p1.html

[X]

You need to see what IGA has to say about this game.

-X

[Gunlord]

Maybe he'll be flattered? After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ^^;;

I think he could take a few pointers from this game though, if that review is accurate.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Now I kinda sorta wanna have a DSi...
....NOH! I MUST HOLD OUT FOR 3DS DAMMITALL!
**sigh** It's gonna be a long while 'til 2011...

[Notreve Belmont]

I've played this game on your phone and is very good! May be an imitation of Castlevania but this is what I found good in it! Cool that he'll have to dsi but hopefully have some castlevania game yourself!

[Amduscias]

That's how u improve in the metroidvania system, i would like to give a chance to this game now on a real console

[shelverton.]

The IGN review wasn't very good at all, they didn't really explain how the game plays. They take for granted that everyone knows what Castlevania is, which is bad game journalism right there. I would like to know about level design, control, difficulty, music, bosses and so on. They don't even say if it's like a Metroidvania or a classicvania. I mean, I can see from the screens that it's a metroidvania, but not everyone would. Lazy.

[crisis]

Earlier I called this game an honorary Castlevania, since it borrows about 95% from the series. I beat it already, so I'll divide my review into the different aspects of the game:

Level Design: Not bad, the platforming is pretty good. Breakable walls reveal magic/health orbs. You can go back to any level you've beaten to find "secrets", which in this case is nothing more then treasure boxes that contain orbs. The level designs themselves are nothing spectacular, but certainly better than what we've seen in the DS games. Not by much, but Konami can certainly learn a thing or 2.

Gameplay: The main character, Kale, doesn't control as tightly as you'd expect. He can't double jump, dash, slide or any of that fancy stuff. He handles just like he does in the cellphone version, which is a bad thing IMO. The jumping definately could've been tweeked better than it is. Kale can transform at certain points, which adds a little more depth, but these segments are just too short. Combos are easy to perform, and the quicktime events are ok. Never seen a QTE performed in a 2D game like this, but it wasn't really necessary. Kudos for them giving it a try, though. I liked the boss battle against the Werewolf. You can't adjust the button layout to your preference.

Graphics: Pretty good, almost identical to the DS games, would've been nice if they had added some parallax to some of the backgrounds. Kale's sprite animates smoothly, he even has a different stance when he's on a ledge (sound familiar?) The weapons give the sprite an added animation (sword makes flames appear around him, spear makes ice). The enemies could be ported to any other CV title, & vice-versa. But all in all the spritework is very good.

Difficulty: At first, the game seems pretty challenging but that quickly fades as you realize there's infinite continues. But the enemies come at you fast, so Kale can get ganged up on & before you know it you have no life left. There's some fun parts that I thought would be excellent for a real CV game, which makes me wonder why Konami never thought of it.

Music: Sadly, the music does not live up to CV standards at all. It's generic cellphone music, you'd think since everything else is an homage, the music should be, too.

Story: I thought the story would be generic as well, but to my surprise, it has a few twists (Highlight for spoilers) It starts off with a prologue detailing Kale's life & why he became a vampire hunter. His girlfriend, Lydia, is kidnapped by a vampire named Ritter (seriously, Ritter?!), which sends Kale on a mission to rescue her. Along the way there's a few scenes that fleshes out Kale & Lydia's relationship. At the end it's revealed that Ritter has a special bond with Lydia, when he claims that they're siblings & she was born a vampire as well. She lost her memory prior to meeting Kale. Ritter also reveals that Kale is no ordinary human, he's a "soul vampire" that can absorb the energies of monsters (sound familiar??). So in a way Ritter is protecting Lydia from Kale. Kale confronts Ritter in his castle, & after a duel defeats him, but at the same time killing Lydia, since they're spiritually linked. The ending shows Kale reminiscing about his first meeting with Lydia, & her ghost returns to comfort him before sying goodbye.

Closing Comments: As a knockoff this game succeeds in retaining the essence of CV, while at the same time addining other elements to make it seem different. Useless features such as taking pictures to gain orbs aren't bad, but aren't memorable either. Also, why is there loading screens?? I can understand for the cellphone version, but they could have easily did away with that here. All in all the game can very well fit as a "side-story" Castlevania, much like how Order of Shadows is. In fact, this game is probably more of a CV than OoS is. If I have any other comments I'll update this post.

[Aridale]

I hear ya about the loadin screens. The new Dragon Quest on DS has a loadin screen too! I was like wtf?!

[Gunlord]

Thanks for the review Crisis, that was helpful Sad to hear about the sub-par muzak, tho. O well.

[X]

I hear ya about the loadin screens. The new Dragon Quest on DS has a loadin screen too! I was like wtf?!

Yeah this type of thing will never make sense to me either. The 'civilization' game on the SNES also had a load screen. A load screen for a video cart!?!? WTF!!! Loadscreens, or just plain loading are never nesissary for a game cart. CD's? Yes. Loadtime for downloads? Yes. But for a cart? UNEXCEPTABLE!!!   some people out there obviously don't think with their head screwed on right before making a cridical decision like this.   :

-X

[Kale]

Wow... the story doesn't seem half bad... short but not half bad.