Topic: My Legacy of Darkness review

[DrLight66]

Edit: this is my old version of the review.  My updated, final review that goes into way more detail and has a lot more thoughts and stuff about the game but also contains spoilers is here: http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php/topic,5110.0.html

So i posted this on the message boards of gamefaqs a few years ago but it never made it into the actual reviews section despite my repeated submissions, so i thought i'd just post this here for anyone interested in reading. 

OVERVIEW) 
In today's era of special editions, re-releases, expansion packs etc. etc., Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness sits right up there with the best of them.  It was rare back in 1999 for a console game to get re-released as a "special edition", similar to how today we have Ninja Gaiden Black and Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition.   Back in 1999, Konami decided to take a huge risk and re-release Castlevania 64 on the Nintendo 64 as Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness.  The game was a monumental failure in terms of reviews and sales, but it took what was a mediocre 3D Castlevania debut and turned it into dare I say a masterpiece?   

GAME DEVELOPMENT HISTORY) 
Ten years ago, this game, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, was released for the Nintendo 64 and was immediately criticized, scoffed at and subsequently kicked into obscurity.  Yet, it's one of the finest games to ever grace the Nintendo 64 and still to this day my favorite 3D Castlevania.   That'll probably change when Castlevania: Lords of Shadows is released for the Xbox 360, but we'll see. (EDIT: Yeah, this review is old, and no LoS wasn't the game i was hoping it would be.)

So, why was this game stomped on and left forgotten?   Well, here's the quick history lesson.  When Konami first released Castlevania 64, they intended it to have a lot more levels, bosses, playable characters, etc. etc than what ended up being in the final product.  Due to time constraints and a release date that came way too fast, Konami released Castlevania 64 with several characters, bosses, levels, music, etc. cut out.  But on top of that, the camera was godawful, the controls were slippery and clumsy, and the gameplay suffered tremendously because if this.  Did I mention that Castlevania 64 was the very first 3D Castlevania to ever be released so the hype and expectations for it were humongous? 

Take all of this into account, and Castlevania 64 ended up being a game that wasn't necessarily bad, in fact it was pretty fun to play, but it was a "Castlevania" game, a series that has put out awesome game after awesome game after awesome game.  Castlevania 64 was an above average game, but a very mediocre Castlevania game.  The reception for it was a mixed bag, and Symphony of the Night had only been released 2 years earlier so that was the type of game that fans wanted to see more of.  Plus, hardcore fans hated the idea of Castlevania being in 3D, and they pointed to Castlevania 64 as proof that 3D and Castlevania just didn't belong together.

Despite all this, Konami decided, and I cannot say just how thankful I am that they did this, to re-release Castlevania 64 in the form of a super ultra mega "Special Edition" version, which is what Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is.  But, they sold the game for $60.00, video game magazines ripped the game to shreds for being a special edition version of Castlevania 64 rather than an actual sequel, and people felt like Konami had ripped them off for not releasing this in the first place instead of the incomplete Castlevania 64.  As a result, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness was never given a chance (include me as one of those people who never gave it a chance and only realized the brilliance of it after playing it more thoroughly several years later) and the game was soon forgotten and fell into obscurity.  Yes, the game should've been released at a discounted price, yes the title is very misleading, and yes it is a special edition version of Castlevania 64 rather than a sequel, but the extra content and MASSIVE improvements more than make up for it.

WHAT ARE THESE EXTRAS AND IMPROVEMENTS THAT ARE IN LEGACY OF DARKNESS?)

- The only thing that LOD doesn't have that Castlevania 64 had is the opening violin song, voice acting (except LOD has voice acting during Cornell's opening narration), the opening stage skeleton scare scene, the blood skeletons in the tower of execution and some sparkly snowflakes floating in the air in the Tower of Sorcery stage.

Here's what LOD adds and improves:
 
MUCH IMPROVED CAMERA SYSTEM)
The camera in Castlevania 64 was bad.  BAD.  Half the time the camera would get stuck against a tree or a wall or veer off for no apparent reason or just start to freak out and you wouldn't be able to see anything.  It was also way too low in relation to the floor causing it to frequently spaz out.  In Legacy of Darkness, while the camera isn't perfect, it doesn't freak out as much, it's much more customizable, it doesn't get stuck as often and it gives you better angles.  By far the most important change to the camera in LOD is that you can toggle with the up/down directional pad buttons just how high off the ground/far away or how low to the floor/close to your character you want the camera to be.  This makes a HUGE difference and the high up off the ground/far away camera position is DARN NEAR PERFECT for most of the game.  You can also rotate the camera around your character with the left/right directional pad buttons.

I had no idea, none, that i could toggle the position of how close or how far back and high/low the camera would be with the directional pad when i first played the game back in 2000 or so.  The default camera position is too low and too close imo and is awful.  Even with toggling between the two modes, either battle mode or action mode, the position was lousy and it really made me give up on the game way too early.  It's so close it's almost like the over-the-shoulder view from gears of war and RE4/5, you can't see anything that's around you.  It wasn't until i picked up the game some years later that i opened up the game manual and saw that i could the camera further away and a little bit higher up by pressing down on the directional pad.  The difference in zooming the camera back and a bit higher off the ground is amazing cause now i could actually see more than just the back of my character's head.  And if the camera did act buggy, i could always just straighten it with the R button or peel it away from a wall with the left or right buttons on the directional pad.  Only during combat do i ever use the battle mode camera, otherwise it's action mode all the time (unless the camera goes to auto mode which 99% time gives me a perfect view of where my character is and what i need to see).  Anyway, Konami tweaked the camera, made it much more customizable and it is far better than it was in Castlevania 64.


NEW CHARACTERS)
- Two new playable characters.  The first, Cornell, is the character shown on the box cover and cartridge cover.  He has the ability to morph into a werewolf, he swipes a long projectile energy claw looking thing when he attacks, with the attack being very powerful but having limited distance, and it's kinda like having a mixture between Carrie's magic fireball attack and Reinhardt's whip attack.  When Cornell gets 10 or more red crystals, you can press the L button to morph him into a werewolf that's overpowered beyond belief, though you don't get any new attacks.  But, the werewolf is a bit faster, you can run and attack at the same time instead of having to stop for a moment when attacking, and you inflict twice the damage plus any damage you take is cut in half.  Also, the claw swipe projectile things travel further.  Cornell's wolf morph is kinda like when Dante goes into Devil Mode only you can't do any new skills and unlike Dante, Cornell cannot turn the werewolf ability off.  You slowly lose your red jewels until you get to 0, go into a new area or get a cut scene, at which point Cornell morphs back into his human form.  Cornell's default costume looks stupid, but he looks cool when he morphs into a werewolf and his unlockable alternative costume is pretty cool looking.

With Cornell, you get a whole intro cut scene and a whole new story which is supposed to take place some 8-10 years before the events in Castlevania 64, even though you go through most of the stages from Castlevania 64 in addition to new ones and fight many of the same bosses, but there's a lot of changes and stage redesigns.  Cornell's adopted sister was taken hostage by Dracula's army and Cornell's village was burned down, so he goes to Castlevania to save her and get revenge.  Along the way, you repeatedly encounter an old adversary of Cornell in various cut scenes.   Plus, you go through the Villa from the first game but you have to do different things to get through it and the new story and cutscenes in that stage explain how the place became the vampiric hellhouse that it is when you go through it in Castlevania 64, so i'm really happy they tied up the loose ends for that place.  There's also a lot of new cutscenes involving Death and Actrise.  At the end of Cornell's game, you fight a new final boss.  The new final boss is very, very awesome and terrifying looking.  There's also a neat twist to the ending that I won't spoil.  Also, with Cornell you get to skip the Castle Center which imo is a good thing.  Stupid nitro mission.... feh.  The Castle Center is ugly as hell, unchanged from Castlevania 64 and tedious to go through.  The boss fights on that level are very cool though, particularly the giant zombie bull.

After you beat the game as Cornell, you unlock a knight-looking character who I'm not going to identify due to spoilers in Cornell's story.  The knight's game takes place some 8-10+  years after Cornell's story, with the knight's story actually taking place during the same year of the timeline as Reinhardt and Cornell's story.  Six (or is it seven?  i forget) children have been kidnapped by the evil forces of darkness, and as the knight you must go through the first half of the game finding all six children before time runs out.  There's one child standing around somewhere in each stage.  For every child you save, you unlock something.  Carrie and Reinhardt's game's are unlocked this way, as are alternative costumes for Cornell, Carrie and Reinhardt, and HARD mode which is my preferred difficulty to play on is unlocked this way as well.  The knight uses a six-shooter for a weapon, which blasts and pwns everything.  Also, every time you rescue a child, you get the opening 10 seconds of "simon belmont's theme", it's the one that starts out real slow going duh nah nah duh nuh nah duh nuh nuh nah nah with the church piano.  You know the one i'm talking about right?

Anyway, in addition to those two new playable characters, you can also play as the two characters from Castlevania 64, Carrie and Reinhardt.  They have the same story as in Castlevania 64, which also means if you take a long time to get to the last stage you get the bad ending and don't fight the true boss.  Reinhardt's whip changes appearance when you upgrade, where it starts out as a bullwhip, then becomes a chainwhip, then becomes like a laser/flame/light whip which looks very cool.   Also, Carrie's fireball attack is no longer as overpowered as it was in Castlevania 64 which i think is a good change.


NEW STAGES)
So with the two new playable characters, you also get four new stages to play.  The Abandoned Ship, the Art Tower, the Outer Wall and the Tower of Ruins.  Every character except the knight plays on the abandoned ship, and only Cornell plays the Art Tower, Outer Wall and Tower of Ruins.  Carrie and Reinhardt both play the ship and their stage path from Castlevania 64.

The abandoned ship starts you out with a cutscene where you are being rowed towards the long chain of the anchor by the ferryman and his little boat, then the cut scene finishes with you climbing up the anchor and the level starts off with you on the boat.  It's a pretty cool level full of platforming, a cool cutscene and finishes with an excellent boss fight against a giant sea serpent.  I like this level a lot and it's a great way to kickoff the game.  From the ship, you end up at the forest of silence which is the first level from Castlevania 64. 

The Outer Wall is another excellent level.  You are skimming your way along the outer wall of Dracula's castle and having to jump from ledge to ledge without falling down to your death.  There's tons of platforming and you get to fight a new boss, the harpy.  In fact, i think the harpy is the only enemy on the level.  It's all platforming, all the time.  In fact, there's more platforming in this stage than in both Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness combined, which isn't a surprise since both of those games have practically zero platforming at all.  Curse of Darkness especially.

The Art Tower has a cool theme, if you've played Castlevania Bloodlines on the Genesis it's a remixed version of the Greek Isle theme.  The design is cool but it has a ton of day/night doors, doors that you can only go through if it's either day/night, so you have to go to the menu screen a ton and use the day/night cards.  The only nice thing about it is that you don't need to get to the end of the game with Cornell in a certain amount of time, whereas with Carrie and Reinhardt how long you take and how many sun/moon cards you use depends on if you get the good/bad ending and fight the actual final boss or not.

The Tower of Ruins i like.  It's nothing special but it has an Egyptian vibe to it that's pretty cool and overall it's fun to go through.  But, wouldn't it of been a perfect level to have some mummies?  Where are they?

Also, the Clock Tower has been doubled in length and now feels like an actual clock tower when you go through it, whereas in Castlevania 64 the level was super short.


REDESIGNED LEVELS)
Many of the stages in the game have been completely redesigned and are much more enjoyable to go through.  The forest of silence in Castlevania 64 was awful.  AWFUL!  Now, it's pretty fun to go through and that's the exact opposite of what the Castlevania 64 version was like.  The Tower of Science, Tower of Execution, Duel Tower (still has all the caged boss fights but is hugely different from before), Tower of Sorcery, and many other stages have been redesigned for imo the better.  Though, the Tower of Sorcery has been shortened too much and the sparkly snow crystals floating in the air have been taken out, though there was a masochistic disappearing platform section from Castlevania 64 that i am happy was removed in the Tower of Sorcery.

VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE, THAT CARRIE AND REINHARDT GO THROUGH THE SAME PATH AS IN CASTLEVANIA 64 (but start out at the abandoned ship), BUT MOST OF THEIR STAGES THAT THEY WENT THROUGH IN CASTLEVANIA 64 ARE NOW REDESIGNED FOR LOD.  So what i mean is, when you first play the game as Cornell, the Forest of Silence is different and much better than it was in Castlevania 64.  When Carrie or Reinhardt go through Forest of Silence, it's not the Castlevania 64 version, it's the redesigned LOD version of the stage.  That is an excellent improvement.

So not only are many levels redesigned and redesigned for the better, there's also a lot more save crystals about in the game.  Enemies are littered a lot more throughout the game too including some new enemies as well, lame as they might be, being )edit: snakes, zombies, frog people and fishmen).

[DrLight66]

NEW SUB-WEAPON AND POWER-UP SYSTEM)
In Castlevania 64, it didn't matter if you picked up the same sub-weapon over and over again.  In Legacy of Darkness, they changed it for the better.  Pick up an axe once, you get an axe.  Pick up another axe while already having the axe, you get a "2" next to the sub-weapon box and now when you throw the axe it creates a lightning bolt where it lands.  Pick up another axe for the third time and when you throw the axe it not only creates a lightning bolt when it lands but it also creates a devastating shockwave.  You don't use more red crystals when you use the powered-up axe either, it's the same whether it's level 1, 2 or 3.  If you die, you go back to 1.  If you pick up the knife (gah, awful awful horrible terrible sub-weapon), you lose whatever you had and go to level 1 knife.  Of course, if you pick up another knife you get knife level 2 but it's worthless.  Holy water gives you different color flames and a bigger explosion, not sure what the boomerang cross does and the knife gets a little flame wrapped around it that doesn't do anything.  So.... Konami deepened the sub-weapon system and made it a lot more fun and cool and gave the player more reason to smack torches and iron maidens in hard to reach places.  For Cornell, it's probably better to use your crystals to morph, except in the garden maze where holy water owns during that part.

Also, for the power-up system, you start out with your regular attack at level 1.  When you pick up a power-up, you get a neat yellow flash around your character for a second that's cool looking.  Also as already mentioned, Reinhart starts off with the bullwhip, then gets level 2 chainwhip, then level 3 laser/light/flame looking whip.  Die and you start off again at level 1.


NEW BOSSES)
Giant sea serpent dragon thing, Medusa, Harpy, a cooler ape skeleton with bad breath attack and shockwave stomp attack, new final boss, Chimera, new mid-bosses in the Duel Tower, Arachnid Queen, plus a surprise boss fight in the hedgemaze that wasn't in Castlevania 64 along with two other surprise boss fights in the Villa. That's at least.... what, 8 or 9 brand new bosses?  Boss fights are one of the best parts of the game and these new bosses are awesome, especially Medusa.


NEW MUSIC)
There's quite a few new tracks in LOD, all of which are excellent.  I think there's between 5 and 7 new songs in the game, with the best being the remixed version of the sinking old sanctuary (Greek Isle level of Bloodlines). 



MUCH TIGHTER CONTROLS)
As I mentioned earlier, the controls in Castlevania 64 were very slippery and clunky.  The controls in LOD feel tighter so you won't be sliding around as much and running off cliffs for no apparent reason.  Edit: climbing up onto ledges and grabbing ahold of ledges has been simplified now as well, where now if you hold the jump button while in the air, you automatically grab ahold of whatever ledge that is within reach, even if you aren't facing it directly, this fixes a lot of cheap and annoying deaths that happened in C64


GRAPHICS)
First of all, if you have the expansion pack in your N64, when you start up the game it asks if you want to play in high res or low res.  Pick low res, because the framerate skips like crazy under high res mode and is pretty much unplayable.  Anyway, i don't know if the expansion pack makes a difference or not if you play on low res, but the graphics in the game seem to be a bit sharper in LOD than they were in Castlevania 64 and not quite as muddy.  But they might be the same, it's hard to tell because if there is a difference it's minimal.

COMPLAINTS)

First of all, both enemies and most bosses are pathetically easy, even on the HARD difficulty setting.  They can be challenging with Carrie though since her primary attack has to be charged up and she can't do massive damage at a quick pace unlike Reinhardt and especially Cornell when he morphs. 

Secondly, if my memory serves me correctly, there really isn't any punishment for dying other than your primary attack is brought back from possibly level 3 down to level 1 again, since when you load your save i think you still retain the number of crystals that you had?  I'll have to check into this later. 

Thirdly, i'm very happy that for Cornell the developers switched the time that he had to be in the flower room of the Villa to 6AM, since a sun card brings you to 6AM, but why didn't they change the stupid time for Reinhardt and Carrie's event in the flower room to 6AM for their quests, instead of i think 4AM or 5AM for the cutscene to occur since there's no way of knowing that and if you use a suncard to get to morning thinking that's when you're supposed to be there, you're putting yourself at 6AM the furthest time away from when you have to be there???  It's just so stupid and annoying, gah.

But anyway... so let me summarize how LOD is such a much better, way more enjoyable game than Castlevania 64:

+ 2 new playable characters
+ New stories, new cutscenes/characters
+ 4 new stages, plus many of the original stages from C64 have been improved and redesigned
+ 8+ new bosses
+ new minor enemies
+ new music (sinking old sanctuary remix, oh yeah)
+ new sub-weapon system
+ slightly sharper graphics?
+ tighter controls and better jumping/platforming mechanics
+ more responsive, more customizable, more reliable, less buggy camera with better angles
+ Cooler title screen.  It's Castlevania!
+ Bugs/glitches fixed from the original?
+ Reinhardt's cool looking whip upgrades
+ Forgot to mention, the targeting system is a lot better in LoD than in C64, where in C64 the lockon would work sometimes, if it felt like it. 

Oh yeah, the alternate costumes are better in LOD too than the lame ones you could unlock in C64, and there doesn't seem to be as much slowdown in LOD as in C64 either.

- Malus' Violin song from the original is missing
- sparkling snow crystals removed from Tower of Sorcery
- No voice acting except for Cornell's intro narration.


Legacy of Darkness is what Castlevania 64 should've been and had Konami waited to finish and then release the much more polished, complete, improved and fun Legacy of Darkness and never released Castlevania 64 in the first place, who knows what Legacy's legacy would be today? (see what i did there?  hahaha ok sorry).  Overall, the game has tons of fun boss fights, lots of platforming, a wide variety of awesome stages, cool music, awesome atmosphere, a pretty good story/cut scenes for a Castlevania game, playable characters with different paths/offensive ability/cut scenes, and overall the game feels so much like an old school Castlevania game that's been successfully brought into the world of 3D.  This is by far my favorite 3D Castlevania game.  Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness are good games, but the dungeons are lamely designed, often times tedious to go through and there's virtually ZERO platforming in both of them.  Lament of Innocence has a little bit of platforming and COD has a teeny tiny amount with the bird's flight ability, but otherwise that's it.

[RichterB]

Hello. I've been talking about these N64 games a good deal lately, particularly post-Lords of Shadow. CV64/LoD was one of the last times the Castlevania series really pushed itself forward in a big way. The negative sentiment that seems to crop up around these games (most recently in Nintendo Power's latest June issue) have always seemed unfair. Despite their flaws, some of them caused by hardware or dev time limitations, I agree that they are the truest presentation of Castlevania in 3D to date. (I'd really like this style to be the base format of a new 3D Castlevania, but that seems unlikely). It's particularly amazing when you go back to old interviews and demo videos, and realize that even LoD didn't cover everything developer's had planned or thought about. (For instance, originally there was supposed to be Super Castlevania IV whip manipulation and grapple-swinging).

I have played Castlevania 64 a lot more than Legacy of Darkness, since I still have the former's cart. I need to track down the latter and play through it again. I remember it being improved, and yet a lot easier (I beat Cornell's quest in a single rental, IIRC). I still believe, though, that both games together represent the whole experience. While LoD has most of what CV64 has, there are enough differences and variations to make them both worth playing (sort of like Rondo of Blood and the SNES' CV: Dracula X). I actually recall missing some of the level design elements from CV64.

I wonder, though, if modern gamers can look at and play through these two N64 entries with an objective view. It gets even harder when perhaps one grew up simply with the latter entries that leaned toward Metroid in design. I think the N64 titles do a good job of respecting the entire history--action-platforming AND exploration--but people may want to lead toward the latter, and find the "stage structure" too limiting. And with today's emphasis on combo-driven, cinema-heavy, super-powered action games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, God of War, etc, today's game's may find the N64 games too slow, even though the pacing and limitation of abilities are more toward the core of Castlevania's strategic action-platforming design.

Anyway, good recap/review post. I have a question. You mentioned LoI and CoD, but now share your general impression on LoS. Why did it/did it not live up to the N64 era in your mind?

[davidwesterlund]

Very good review!

I actually love those games, played them a lot back in the day. Though they have some flaws I just love the atmosphere, it feels like classic horror. They are my favorite 3D Castlevanias.

[DrLight66]

Hello. I've been talking about these N64 games a good deal lately, particularly post-Lords of Shadow. CV64/LoD was one of the last times the Castlevania series really pushed itself forward in a big way. The negative sentiment that seems to crop up around these games (most recently in Nintendo Power's latest June issue) have always seemed unfair. Despite their flaws, some of them caused by hardware or dev time limitations, I agree that they are the truest presentation of Castlevania in 3D to date. (I'd really like this style to be the base format of a new 3D Castlevania, but that seems unlikely). It's particularly amazing when you go back to old interviews and demo videos, and realize that even LoD didn't cover everything developer's had planned or thought about. (For instance, originally there was supposed to be Super Castlevania IV whip manipulation and grapple-swinging).

I have played Castlevania 64 a lot more than Legacy of Darkness, since I still have the former's cart. I need to track down the latter and play through it again. I remember it being improved, and yet a lot easier (I beat Cornell's quest in a single rental, IIRC). I still believe, though, that both games together represent the whole experience. While LoD has most of what CV64 has, there are enough differences and variations to make them both worth playing (sort of like Rondo of Blood and the SNES' CV: Dracula X). I actually recall missing some of the level design elements from CV64.

I wonder, though, if modern gamers can look at and play through these two N64 entries with an objective view. It gets even harder when perhaps one grew up simply with the latter entries that leaned toward Metroid in design. I think the N64 titles do a good job of respecting the entire history--action-platforming AND exploration--but people may want to lead toward the latter, and find the "stage structure" too limiting. And with today's emphasis on combo-driven, cinema-heavy, super-powered action games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, God of War, etc, today's game's may find the N64 games too slow, even though the pacing and limitation of abilities are more toward the core of Castlevania's strategic action-platforming design.

Anyway, good recap/review post. I have a question. You mentioned LoI and CoD, but now share your general impression on LoS. Why did it/did it not live up to the N64 era in your mind?

Hi, sorry for taking so long to respond but i've been busy with work and a bunch of other junk.  Anyway, in regard to LOD being easier than C64, i agree that it is because Cornell is just a much more powerful character than Reinhardt and especially Carrie.  When he morphs he's pretty much broken, i.e. just ridiculously overpowered.

Also, there's other things too like i think the Tower of Sorcery is easier because it doesn't have nearly as many disappearing platforms as in C64, and the hedgemaze section is easier because while you have to actually protect Henry whereas in C64 you just had to follow the path that Malus took, when you protect Henry you only have to fend off Frankenstein, whereas in C64 you had to deal with those two dog statues who were super fast and hold you in place to give Frankenstein a good chance to hit you with his chainsaw.  Also, with Cornell you don't have to do the nitro mission which is probably the toughest part of Reinhardt and Carrie's games.  Jumping and grabbing onto ledges isn't as frustrating in LOD due to better controls, and the camera is way better in LOD too so that makes things easier as well.  Lastly, there's like twice as many save crystals in LOD as compared to C64 lol.  Oh and you get sub-weapon upgrades in LOD with holy water and the axe pwning everything when at level 3.  Boomerang cross is good too where it'll hit things over and over again when powered up but it uses too many crystals.

I'll respond shortly with why i was disappointed with LoS, it's a really good game don't get me wrong but from the trailers i thought it was going to be amazing which it turned out not being.

[Neobelmont]

It's bullspit how these games are treated LoD is one of the best 3d platform games of all time and the music, and oh gosh the music


The Sinking Old Sanctuary - Castlevania 64: Legacy of Darkness

I really wish I could be a youtube reviewer and makes all the others be quiet about this game sometimes it feels like it's superman 64 bad 

[DrLight66]

It's bullspit how these games are treated LoD is one of the best 3d platform games of all time and the music, and oh gosh the music

I really wish I could be a youtube reviewer and makes all the others be quiet about this game sometimes it feels like it's superman 64 bad 

Oddly enough, most reviews i've read on the internet for Legacy of Darkness praise the game and say that it's a fun, good Castlevania game and a big improvement over Castlevania 64 (when you release a beta version of a game and then later it's completed version, that should be expected).  Legacy of Darkness is rarely given a bad review or bashed on because casual fans of the series don't even know about the game and those who have played it know first-hand that it's a not bad.  Even the Angry Video Game Nerd didn't touch Legacy of Darkness because he couldn't of ripped on it over Cornell looking like a school girl or go no a rant about the nitro mission lawls.


Oh, as for the music, LoD also has a great rendition of Simon's Theme whenever Henry saves a child, too bad it's only 10 seconds long lol

Castlevania Legacy of Darkness Music:Simon's Theme

[Ratty]

Oddly enough, most reviews i've read on the internet for Legacy of Darkness praise the game and say that it's a fun, good Castlevania game and a big improvement over Castlevania 64 (when you release a beta version of a game and then later it's completed version, that should be expected).  Legacy of Darkness is rarely given a bad review or bashed on because casual fans of the series don't even know about the game and those who have played it know first-hand that it's a not bad.  Even the Angry Video Game Nerd didn't touch Legacy of Darkness because he couldn't of ripped on it over Cornell looking like a school girl or go no a rant about the nitro mission lawls.

Yeah as I recall he just said they were "basically the same". Which is inaccurate just like a lot of his assertions in that review and elsewhere.
Don't get me wrong I like the AVGN, his videos helped get me back into gaming/retrogaming, but a totally reliable source for accurate information he ain't. Like he even recommended cleaning out NES games with windex, that's terrible advice. Shame to know one of the few complete or nearly complete collections of NES games is getting damaged like that.

By the way nice review DrLight. Glad someone else sees this game as worthy of such in-depth analysis.

[DrLight66]

Yeah as I recall he just said they were "basically the same". Which is inaccurate just like a lot of his assertions in that review and elsewhere.
Don't get me wrong I like the AVGN, his videos helped get me back into gaming/retrogaming, but a totally reliable source for accurate information he ain't. Like he even recommended cleaning out NES games with windex, that's terrible advice. Shame to know one of the few complete or nearly complete collections of NES games is getting damaged like that.

By the way nice review DrLight. Glad someone else sees this game as worthy of such in-depth analysis.

He also made a video for Silver Surfer on NES and he couldn't even get to and beat any of the bosses in the game.  I played the game for the first time about a year ago and beat it within an hour lol, it wasn't very difficult at all imo.  But then again, i'm a Gradius and R-Type kind of guy so i'm used to having to dodge a buttload of projectiles on the screen at the same time.

[DrLight66]

To add one more thing real quick, first of all i own both a N64 and the LoD cartridge, case and manual.  But anyway, yesterday i started playing LoD again this time using Project64 and a Playstation2 controller lol, and holy crap the graphics via Project64's high resolution and very smooth framerate make the game look absolutely gorgeous.  I've noticed a lot of details in many of the enemy models and other things that i had never noticed before, like the tridents of the fishmen are stained with blood and the lighting/fog effects are incredible.  It looks like a PS2 or XBox game much moreso than a N64 game under Project64, it's too bad the game couldn't run at a smooth framerate under high res mode with the expansion pack on the N64 but under Project64 holy crap the graphics kick ass for a game made in 1999, especially the fountain area in front of the Villa. 

[DoctaMario]

Good stuff! The 64 games have been among my favorites in the series since they came out.

I actually much prefer the level design of CV64 over LoD in pretty much every case. The levels make more sense from a geographic standpoint. Forest Of Silence especially, which I thought was fantastic in CV64 because it starts out...well, SILENT! It gradually builds and builds until you get to the castle. It also gives you a good place to get the hang of some of the game's mechanics and it resembles and ACTUAL FOREST as opposed to the one in LoD which doesn't in a lot of places.