...every good review on my reviews inspire me to work faster on the next one. LOD review is somewhere in near completion stage.
Sumac, I decided to take the time sooner rather than later, and ended up going the
extra mile.
Sumac, as I said, I think the format you chose worked very well for reviewing
CV64. It’s inspired me to do a little something different with my written reaction.
CV64 PART 1 REACTION:Castlevania 64. When you stop and really think about it, rather than taking the game’s pros and cons for granted, there hasn’t particularly been a game quite like it. (What 3D game plays with such a mixture of vertical and horizontal openness and direction without almost always forcing camera angles, all while containing consequential platforming, melee-and-ranged weapon combat, puzzles ranging from time to reason, survival horror elements featuring multiple playable and non-playable characters, and an overall internal structural logic with so much attention to atmosphere that things as simple as doors actually tend to open into adjacent rooms rather than always transitioning into a black load screen? When I think about wanting to play a game like
CV64, outside of
LoD, I suddenly realize that there isn’t an alternative to readily fill its place for a gaming experience).
On this same train of thought, if you think about all of the things that could go wrong in translating Castlevania into 3D, especially with a team that had never done 3D—and we have almost a decade-and-a-half of evidence now!—this entry was, all things considered, a small miracle. I think the frame of mind coming from its creators had a hand in this result. Game Designer Takeo Yakushiji once told IGN: “
The Castlevania series has always had a theme of horror behind it. This does not mean bloody scenes or chilling torture, but a mood of darkness and absence of light, [which] still has cool beauty and elegance to it. Retaining this theme has been what I have been careful with while designing the game. In regards to the character design, I have tried to bring the former enemies to life in 3D and retaining their atmosphere, while keeping them appropriate and looking cool for this generation of game system.”
In a GamePro interview, the CV64 creators acknowledged a familiarity with the series even earlier than this, specifically citing
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse as a favorite, and noting
Dracula X and
SotN in terms of what those entries did with the timeline and gameplay versus what the goals were for
CV64’s design. Unlike more recent attempts for Castlevania in 3D, whether by Japan or Spain, this familiarity isn’t simply utilized for broad shout-outs or nostalgia winks, but key and core design choices. As a result,
CV64, consciously or subconsciously, is a concentrated effort to pull from the
whole of Castlevania’s history up to that point in time. Some of this was noted in Sumac’s review, and some I wanted to elaborate on or address below:
*The game is rooted in that tense blend of action and platforming that was present since the original Castlevania, which the first two stages highlight even as they warm you up for the intricate exploration and puzzles that will follow in Stage 3.
*Environmental hazards and traps, along with enemy placement, play a key role in platforming, making it strategic, rhythmic, and consequential all at once. Many examples could be given, but Stage 2 is a textbook Castlevania level with its flipping, floating, and crumbling platforms; falling guillotines; medusa heads; bone pillar snipers; bats; and fatal heights. (No Castlevania game in 3D post-N64 has come remotely close to replicating this definitive experience, which speaks to something I will bring up later about modern 3D games).
*Level designs are vertical as well as horizontal. It seems like a given, but rarely do designers use vertical and horizontal gameplay in a cohesive or compelling manner these days. The opposite was true in the going up and going down inside Grant’s Clocktower of
Castlevania III, and, again, it’s true of the up and down flow in
CV64’s Level 2.
*Exploration and puzzle elements go back to
Vampire Killer,
Simon’s Quest, and even
Rondo of Blood, to say nothing of
SotN.
*Visual tricks of optional invisible platforming for special item pickups appeared in
SCVIV’s last stage, and I seem to recall that this element may have appeared in
Simon’s Quest somewhere. (To name three places,
CV64 has this before the marathon fight with the Cerberuses, as well as near the end of the Tower of Science, and at the end of the Tower of Sorcery).
*Non-playable characters, signs, and other text-based objects are present to provide clues (and atmosphere/story), even if they are cryptic, such as in
Simon’s Quest.
*There is a night-and-day mechanic that affects gameplay like in
Simon’s Quest.
*Multiple playable characters with varying styles of gameplay and different endings have a history that starts with
Castlevania III, but continues with
Rondo of Blood and
Bloodlines. (In reply to a specific point made by Sumac, I see Carrie as a clever acknowledgment and logical continuation of female magic-users Sypha and Maria in the franchise, and forerunner to Yoko, Charlotte, and Shanoa. In that context, as an option next to a whip-wielder, her presence fits like a glove. Moreover, I wonder if Carrie’s biological mother wasn’t a “Belnades.” The scene where she acknowledges her stepmother’s love for her to Actrise is pretty powerful, and sets up the fact that her birth name was not necessarily Fernandez).
*The game does not use Hearts as ammunition, but instead uses Red Crystals, which connects to the ammunition system seen in
Bloodlines. (Interestingly, this allegedly wasn’t in the earliest builds, which instead used a new meter system).
*Meat and other items are hidden inside candles as well as solid, sometimes even breakable, structures—a feature of Castlevania from day one on the NES. (Interestingly, this allegedly wasn’t in the earliest builds, which instead had items lying around randomly).
*Money bags can be found and are used, logically enough, as a currency here. The money bags have been around since Castlevania on the NES, and the idea of "currency" for shopping goes back to
Vampire Killer and
Simon’s Quest.
*You have an inventory where you can store up items.
Simon’s Quest had this, and
SotN brought it back with more items. (This strikes a balance between the two).
*A system of doors and keys is used for progression. The visual idea of door-based progression was big in
Castlevania NES,
Vampire Killer, and
Castlevania III, to say nothing of its inclusion in
SotN. The lock-and-key item mechanic has been around since
Vampire Killer, and was a feature of
Rondo of Blood and
Dracula X.
*Enemies drop items when defeated. The earliest Castlevanias had random sub-weapon drops, and
SotN took what a defeated enemy might drop to new levels.
*While levers themselves are very rare in Castlevania to this point, similar devices are seen in
Rondo of Blood and
Symphony of the Night that create stage-altering events.
*The whip (or weapon of choice) can be upgraded three times by power-ups. (The weapon power-up effects are very visible, so I’m not sure what you meant in your review, Sumac. Reinhardt’s whip and Carrie’s magic ball both change colors and/or animations, and get better range, as one might expect from series standards).
*Status ailments, seen in
Rondo of Blood,
Dracula X, and
SotN are present.
*Many of the classic sub-weapons are present, and work in tandem with the attack limitations of the character—a key to their importance since
Castlevania on NES.
*Dropped somewhere in the Beta stages were, as noted, whip-swinging over gaps from
SCVIV and
Bloodlines; but also dumped were a stated whip-wiggle move from
SCVIV (where you hold down attack and move the control stick), and perhaps even Item Crash-style supers or special moves like in latter games of the 16-bit and 32-bit eras.
*A crouching/crawling mechanic to navigate precarious places is present, like in
SCVIV.
*An attention to a gritty yet haunting atmosphere, perhaps seen most strikingly before in
Simon’s Quest and
SCVIV, is used well with surprising survival-horror supporting elements.
*Speaking of those survival-horror elements, they fit the legacy of Castlevania. (They were present before to an extent in past Castlevanias, whether it’s the painting grabbing you in
SCVIV's library, the tree spawning a monster in
Haunted Castle, the changing color of water to blood in
Bloodlines and
SotN, the zombies coming out at night in villages and the graveyard salesperson in
Simon’s Quest, or the ghost in
SotN’s chapel. The list could go on).
*The modern and the medieval are mixed together in creative and bizarre ways, which was a main feature of
Bloodlines.
*There are optional bosses and stages depending on the character you play as, which goes back to
Castlevania III and
Rondo of Blood.
*Enemies can be positional in placement, but also spawn and chase you, allowing you to choose to fight or dodge, which was a balanced element of enemy usage since Castlevania on the NES. (It's rarely arena focused).
There’s probably more I could note, like locations or things I’m not even thinking about, but the above is enough to make my point. (I could go even further if we talked about
LoD, with its sub-weapon power-ups, swinging chandeliers, flooding levels, rescuing prisoners, etc). In any event, the creators had an acute awareness for the Castlevania franchise in all of its previous variations on one level or another, and weren’t afraid to
USE this awareness in fundamental ways while realizing their own vision, ensuring multiple and distinct connection points for those versed in Castlevania to feel at home even while being acquainted to 3D gaming. From the moment it was first revealed in rough form as
Dracula 3D, it had already captured my attention with the likes of the more popular and successful
Zelda 64 (AKA
Ocarina of Time). Bare bones as it was, it struck me as Castlevania in 3D without much reservation, and I looked forward to it, not even considering the challenges the team might face. Back then, its early screens were often compared to and confused with
Zelda 64, and when it came out, I still remember some people around me saying its look rivaled
Zelda: OoT, which I wasn’t so sure about; though, it depends on how you look at things. As for today, some say it looks very ugly, but I find a certain impressionistic charm to
CV64 still, which connects to several art direction choices.
With all of that said, by its creators’ own admission,
CV64 uses templates of 3D platforming from the time, such as
Mario 64 and
Tomb Raider II. It also mixes modern strokes of survival-horror-esque elements ala
Resident Evil. As was noted in the above bullet points, neither of these elements in theory is particularly foreign to Castlevania, though. Also, Francis Ford Coppola's
Bram Stoker's Dracula and Neil Jordan's
Interview with a Vampire were stated as additional visual references, but both of these were Gothic in nature and not too far removed from Castlevania’s origins of Hollywood horror. When trying for a sense of authenticity with the Dracula legend in all of its incarnations, the team went to some strange and extreme lengths, actually. Takeo Yakushiji told IGN: “
We wanted to get information on Dracula, so we went to an event that was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Bram Stoker's Dracula. What ended up happening was that we were put into a small theatre with no bathroom, and got stuck watching eight hours of minor Dracula movies that were not even sub-titled. Suffice to say, we didn't learn a whole lot from that process.” Ill-fated or not, that’s commitment to detail and atmosphere exemplified. Through all of this, it was a transition from 2D to 3D and an evolution all at once for Castlevania.
END OF PART 1...