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Castlevania: Curse of Darkness Review
Dec. 6th, 2018 04:04 pmA little while back I finally purchased Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. I had been wanting it for some time since it was another castlevania game on the PS2, and because I was very interested in the different playstle (various weapons, the innocent devils you summon and evolve to help you fight, the diverse landscapes), and I must say I wasn't disappointed! So let's go through and analyze it section by section.
PLOT/CHARACTERS
While the castlevania series tends to have simplistic plots, and in certain ways curse of darkness does as well, I found myself really enjoying the cutscenes for this one. The subplot with Saint Germaine and Zed gave an interesting air of mystery, and the main plot had characters that were charismatic enough to keep you invested despite the fact they don't really bother to explain much of anything in regards to backstory or lore. Plus, even with the lacking explanations it still felt like it had more going on than in LoI, which I appreciated.
For those unfamiliar with the plot of the game, it follows a man named Hector who used to be one of Dracula's generals before betraying him once Dracula started killing humans indiscriminately. Hector was one of two 'Devil Forgemasters' in the world, humans who could summon creatures known as Innocent Devils to do their bidding. We're told they are also more easily swayed by Dracula's curse, and that it is considered dark magic, but that's all we ever learn about them. The other devil forgemaster, Isaac, remained loyal to Dracula and had Hector's wife killed in return for Hector betraying him. So the game starts out with Hector charging into an abandoned castle and demanding to fight Isaac to the death, even though at this point it is unclear if Hector has any weapons on hand and has not returned to devil forging.
I gotta say, I really loved Hector as a protagonist. He was bold but courteous and had a righteous fury and determination that was a ton of fun. He also just had a very cool design, and I liked that he could use so many weapons (I think in nearly all the cutscenes he only fights hand to hand though, and I really love the mental image of him taking down Isaac with his beam sword and devils, Dracula, and Death with his bare fists xD)and he overall just worked as a lead character for this type of game.
Isaac was a wonderfully over the top villain, and while none of it was elaborated on there was enough hinted at backstory/depth that he still felt interesting even if the main appeal was how deranged and sort of flamboyant he was. Isaac also apparently had a younger sister who looked exactly the same as Hector's dead wife, named Julia. Both of these facts are never explained (how did Hector never learn Isaac had a sister before? Why do the two totally unrelated women look identical? Who knows), but I really liked her as a character anyways. She was the shopkeeper of the game and the support character and she did all that with a lot of grace I thought.
Oh right Trevor Blemont was there too. I'm sure he's great in Castlevania 3 when you play him, and I did enjoy his character in this game, but he was also very much a walking plot device. He was against you when the game wanted tension and supported you when the game needed you to use his Belmont magic, but then he sends you off to fight all the final bosses alone despite his entire reason for being there was to fight the final bosses and spent most of the game insisting he would beat them first. He was like a weird rival character who dropped out of the rivaling business for no apparent reason. I mean the reason was Gameplay, but a better in-story reason would have been appreciated.
The end of the game was pretty decent, it wrapped everything up more or less, though I thought Hector deciding to move in with Julia in the middle of the mountains was a little weird. I love them as a brotp but I did not appreciate the romantic nod they were trying to include, she looks just like his dead wife for crying out loud!
Overall though I thought the plot and characters for the game were Good and got the job done, so good job game.
GAMEPLAY
I LOVED the gameplay for Curse of Darkness. I liked getting to run around and fight the monsters, I liked leveling up my Innocent Devils and watching them learn new moves to help me destroy stuff, and the Chair Side Quest was the greatest thing the game gave to me. Honestly, it only added to my love of Hector, because you could interpret the whole thing as him having some kind of mind-room thingie where he collects chairs/benches/other things you can sit on (I laughed more than I should at some of them I'm not gonna lie). Like he just poses dramatically on all these chairs and its amazing. And the weapon crafting and combos were a lot of fun (he can apparently use the electric guitar very enthusiastically lol). The only downside to the gameplay was there was no sprinting feature (you do a lot of backtracking through confusingly designed areas, it got a little headache inducing at times), and I wished there was some kind of projectile weapon or something to make the fighting more varied than just the combos (which I admittedly took forever to discover) since you do so much excess fighting to level up in this game. But overall I really enjoyed the gameplay even with its flaws.
The levels, I might add, while confusing and a bit ridiculous in layout at times, looked fantastic and all felt pleasantly different from each other, even the ones that were thematically similar. So if the maps had just been designed better the levels/areas would have been perfect.
MUSIC/AESTHETIC
The music was absolutely fantastic in this game! Castlevania usually has great soundtracks and this one is no exception. It was all very energetic and catchy and fit the mood of the game really well. Could have maybe had more stylistic variety, but that's a very minor complaint given how well composed all of it was. And i really liked how all of the levels looked! The graphics were pretty good, maybe not as shiny as LoI? But it captured the vibe of the game perfectly and still had some great visuals so it worked out.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, I really only have a few critiques of this game. Mostly it was an awesome experience to play, I had fun watching the cutscenes in both languages and seeing where the plot was going, and the chair side quest, as mentioned, gave me unparalleled joy. It was appropriately paced and about as long as it needed to be (unless it wanted to explain more, which would have been nice, but also would have made it a much bigger game potentially). The maps were fun to go through when you hadn't explored much of it yet but eventually became a nightmare to maneuver, but the jamming music sort of made up for that. The characters really spoke to me despite all the unanswered questions about them. Actually its prime fanfic material, I may have to get on that sometime. But basically I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes popcorn gothic vampire slaying games (which is pretty much the Castlevania series in a nutshell, there's a reason I want to buy all games released during or before the PS2 era). 8.5/10
PLOT/CHARACTERS
While the castlevania series tends to have simplistic plots, and in certain ways curse of darkness does as well, I found myself really enjoying the cutscenes for this one. The subplot with Saint Germaine and Zed gave an interesting air of mystery, and the main plot had characters that were charismatic enough to keep you invested despite the fact they don't really bother to explain much of anything in regards to backstory or lore. Plus, even with the lacking explanations it still felt like it had more going on than in LoI, which I appreciated.
For those unfamiliar with the plot of the game, it follows a man named Hector who used to be one of Dracula's generals before betraying him once Dracula started killing humans indiscriminately. Hector was one of two 'Devil Forgemasters' in the world, humans who could summon creatures known as Innocent Devils to do their bidding. We're told they are also more easily swayed by Dracula's curse, and that it is considered dark magic, but that's all we ever learn about them. The other devil forgemaster, Isaac, remained loyal to Dracula and had Hector's wife killed in return for Hector betraying him. So the game starts out with Hector charging into an abandoned castle and demanding to fight Isaac to the death, even though at this point it is unclear if Hector has any weapons on hand and has not returned to devil forging.
I gotta say, I really loved Hector as a protagonist. He was bold but courteous and had a righteous fury and determination that was a ton of fun. He also just had a very cool design, and I liked that he could use so many weapons (I think in nearly all the cutscenes he only fights hand to hand though, and I really love the mental image of him taking down Isaac with his beam sword and devils, Dracula, and Death with his bare fists xD)and he overall just worked as a lead character for this type of game.
Isaac was a wonderfully over the top villain, and while none of it was elaborated on there was enough hinted at backstory/depth that he still felt interesting even if the main appeal was how deranged and sort of flamboyant he was. Isaac also apparently had a younger sister who looked exactly the same as Hector's dead wife, named Julia. Both of these facts are never explained (how did Hector never learn Isaac had a sister before? Why do the two totally unrelated women look identical? Who knows), but I really liked her as a character anyways. She was the shopkeeper of the game and the support character and she did all that with a lot of grace I thought.
Oh right Trevor Blemont was there too. I'm sure he's great in Castlevania 3 when you play him, and I did enjoy his character in this game, but he was also very much a walking plot device. He was against you when the game wanted tension and supported you when the game needed you to use his Belmont magic, but then he sends you off to fight all the final bosses alone despite his entire reason for being there was to fight the final bosses and spent most of the game insisting he would beat them first. He was like a weird rival character who dropped out of the rivaling business for no apparent reason. I mean the reason was Gameplay, but a better in-story reason would have been appreciated.
The end of the game was pretty decent, it wrapped everything up more or less, though I thought Hector deciding to move in with Julia in the middle of the mountains was a little weird. I love them as a brotp but I did not appreciate the romantic nod they were trying to include, she looks just like his dead wife for crying out loud!
Overall though I thought the plot and characters for the game were Good and got the job done, so good job game.
GAMEPLAY
I LOVED the gameplay for Curse of Darkness. I liked getting to run around and fight the monsters, I liked leveling up my Innocent Devils and watching them learn new moves to help me destroy stuff, and the Chair Side Quest was the greatest thing the game gave to me. Honestly, it only added to my love of Hector, because you could interpret the whole thing as him having some kind of mind-room thingie where he collects chairs/benches/other things you can sit on (I laughed more than I should at some of them I'm not gonna lie). Like he just poses dramatically on all these chairs and its amazing. And the weapon crafting and combos were a lot of fun (he can apparently use the electric guitar very enthusiastically lol). The only downside to the gameplay was there was no sprinting feature (you do a lot of backtracking through confusingly designed areas, it got a little headache inducing at times), and I wished there was some kind of projectile weapon or something to make the fighting more varied than just the combos (which I admittedly took forever to discover) since you do so much excess fighting to level up in this game. But overall I really enjoyed the gameplay even with its flaws.
The levels, I might add, while confusing and a bit ridiculous in layout at times, looked fantastic and all felt pleasantly different from each other, even the ones that were thematically similar. So if the maps had just been designed better the levels/areas would have been perfect.
MUSIC/AESTHETIC
The music was absolutely fantastic in this game! Castlevania usually has great soundtracks and this one is no exception. It was all very energetic and catchy and fit the mood of the game really well. Could have maybe had more stylistic variety, but that's a very minor complaint given how well composed all of it was. And i really liked how all of the levels looked! The graphics were pretty good, maybe not as shiny as LoI? But it captured the vibe of the game perfectly and still had some great visuals so it worked out.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, I really only have a few critiques of this game. Mostly it was an awesome experience to play, I had fun watching the cutscenes in both languages and seeing where the plot was going, and the chair side quest, as mentioned, gave me unparalleled joy. It was appropriately paced and about as long as it needed to be (unless it wanted to explain more, which would have been nice, but also would have made it a much bigger game potentially). The maps were fun to go through when you hadn't explored much of it yet but eventually became a nightmare to maneuver, but the jamming music sort of made up for that. The characters really spoke to me despite all the unanswered questions about them. Actually its prime fanfic material, I may have to get on that sometime. But basically I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes popcorn gothic vampire slaying games (which is pretty much the Castlevania series in a nutshell, there's a reason I want to buy all games released during or before the PS2 era). 8.5/10
