Castlevania

"Castlevania Enters The Three-Dimensional World Kicking And Screaming."

When the Nintendo 64 was released, the unique opportunity to bring all of the classic Nintendo games into a three-dimensional world arose. Keeping with what was quickly becoming tradition, Konami released a Castlevania game early in the Nintendo 64's life, and although many fans of the series wanted to keep their beloved Castlevania two-dimensional, Konami announced that Castlevania 64 would be fully three-dimensional; a large stepping stone that would bring about new experiences that could compete with their Playstation masterpiece, Castlevania: Symphony of The Night. While this did seem like the next step, there were a lot of things going against the game before it even released; not only did fans want to keep the series true to it's roots, but the past few games: games like Castlevania: Dracula X, Castlevania: Bloodlines, and Castlevania Legends, had tarnished the series' otherwise superior lineup, and attempting something completely new wasn't the best idea. Also, during production, news of problems and cuts were constantly springing up, which only added to the negative karma surrounding the whole project.

The game actually has two stories, as there are two different characters to play as: Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez. Reinhardt is your classic Castlevania hero, a descendant of the legendary Belmont family, who must follow in his ancestors footsteps by taking up the Vampire Killer to defeat Dracula. Carrie's story, on the other hand, deals with Carrie being drawn to Castle Dracula by one of Dracula's minions, who's been in a conflict with the Fernandez family. I'm really not sure if that's accurate or not, it never actually finished the game with Carrie; I never felt up to the task after finishing the game with Reinhardt. And although the game does boast two different paths through the game, that isn't entirely true. Between completing Reinhardt's quest and playing through some of Carrie's, I can tell you that the game has most of the same levels, with only two or three instances that they diverge.

The first two things you're bound to notice in this game, and most games for that matter, are the graphics and sounds, which are fairly competent. While it's become harder and harder for me to visually judge Nintendo 64 game, I can say that Castlevania 64 is about average. The scenery, which is compiled of myriads of different areas, looks pretty good, although there are points where you can see that everything wasn't cleaned up before being finished. This is usually during the open areas: forests, graveyards, caverns, et cetera, while enclosed levels like the Villa look fantastic, with more detail put into each room instead of the blandness in other levels. The only odd part is that since the system couldn't handle large areas, views a hundred or so yards ahead are enveloped in a kind of fog, which, while probably looking ridiculous in any other game, gives most of the levels, the hedge maze in particular, a creepy feeling to it. The character designs are above average, a few that stick in my mind are the Vampires, Dracula, and Reinhardt himself, and I'm sure no one can forget Charles Vincent, the Van Helsing (As described in Bram Stoker's novel, NOT the movie with Hugh Jackman.) style character who wanders around Castle Dracula with an assortment of odd weapons, including a huge cross on his back.

As for the soundtrack, Castlevania 64 manages to create a number of interesting tunes; even if there are a few too many boring songs, there are enough to keep me from complaining. Although I never mind a Vampire Killer thrown in a Castlevania game, I still enjoyed listening to the games many songs. At one point, as Reinhardt approaches a coffin, the opening to Bloody Tears began playing, but stopped after a few seconds, seemingly to taunt me. Also, near the end, Castlevania 64 borrows a few tunes from Dracula X, including the boss theme and Dance of Illusions, which has become the permanent theme for any new Castlevania game to use when battling Dracula.

The game does have a nostalgic feel to it, everything you expect in a Castlevania game is here; Reinhardt has his upgradeable Vampire Killer, a slide attack, a short sword as a secondary weapon; along with a third weapon category that is made up of your classic sub-weapons: the axe, knife, holy water, and cross. The only real problem I had was with the whip, or I should probably say the upgrades to it. Remember in the older games, as soon as you gained enough hearts you would pick up an upgrade? Not here, while you can find a few upgrades in the very beginning, they become scarce as the level progresses, which can create the problem of fighting barrages of enemies and bosses with your wimpy leather whip. Carrie, on the other hand, doesn't have the use of a whip; instead she fires energy balls at enemies, which is great unless you get too close to an enemy, when you're forced to beat enemies with rings that almost remind me of brass knuckles. Besides weapons, there are a number of different items that you can use, including a cure-poison potion, a potion that reverses you back to normal when a vampire bites you, and meat, which comes in the two forms of chicken and the larger pot roast. All of these items can be stored in an inventory with up to ten items in each category being able to be stored. These items can be found in the open or bought at shops in the form of a contract that's scattered throughout the game, with a shopkeeper named Renon, a demon he needs some money to spend in Hell; just don't spend too much or you'll end up fighting Renon at the end of the game.

While the items and weapons can be described as classic Castlevania, the rest of the gameplay is a combination of Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In fact, imagine Mario 64 with Ocarina of Time's combat and puzzle systems, and that's what Castlevania 64 ends up being. The only problem is that none of the concepts are as well executed as in the other two games, which creates a bit of a mess while playing. The puzzles are for the most part amateur, but there are one or two that really stand out; unfortunately, the rest can be completed by hitting a switch and/or jumping from platforms to reach an exit. The worst part is that sometimes the camera angle will be fixed in an odd spot, which makes for blind jumps; and the fact that sometimes your character won't grab on to a ledge even when you should have made it with plenty of room for error doesn't help.

There's also a time factor instilled in Castlevania 64, but it's not as well done as other games; in fact, it's about as useless as the night and day concept in Ocarina of Time, and often it'll keep you waiting for time to pass so you can proceed with the game, just like in Ocarina of Time. While I'm not sure if you or enemies become stronger or weaker during the night or day, I do know that how long you take will determine which ending you get, similar to Castlevania 64's ancestor, Simon's Quest. I think you have about ten to twelve days to expend before you get the worse ending, but you won't know if you get the bad ending until you get the better one, odd isn't it? Although it's harder than it seems to waste that much time, however, and it seems that the developers knew this, because there are sun and moon barriers that can blockade a path or door, meaning that you have use one of your sun or moon card to fast-forward time, spending twelve hours in the process. Unless you're lucky and come upon each barrier at the right time or can find another way around, you either have to waste a card or wait around for time to pass; sometimes the latter is the only way to go because you have to wait for a certain time to arrive so you can meet someone, which ends up being one or two hours early, meaning that you'll overlap it if you time-travel.

Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good things about Castlevania 64 too, it has one of the coolest lineups of enemies and level designs I've seen in awhile. The games levels are set up similar to games like Harmony of Dissonance, where not every level has a boss, which, while I personally liked to setup, can be irritating to others, because if you're not out to kill the boss, what exactly is your objective? Some of the levels have special ways to complete them, ideas besides, “Get from point A to point B and kill everything in between.” At one point in the game, you have to carry some explosives to a crack in a wall; the only twist is that if you're hurt by an enemy or jump/fall, your luggage will explode, instantly killing you. And of course there are myriads of narrow platforms to navigate, those developers are sadistic I tell you.

Back on topic, the enemies are fairly varied and new; some additions include exploding skeletons, stain-glass knights, and vampires. The last enemy mentioned is definitely one of my favorite parts of Castlevania 64; up until then, there hadn't been a Castlevania game with vampires as lesser enemies, there was only Dracula and maybe a boss that were. Here, you'll be fighting vampires by the dozen, and in one particularly creepy moment, you meet the owner of a mansion and begin to talk to him, only to realize he doesn't have a reflection in the mirror next to you.

Besides vampires, another familiar face to make a cameo is Frankenstein, but when you meet up with the creature, it isn't much of a fight. After exiting the Villa, you find yourself in a hedge maze, and after wandering for a while, you find a small boy named Malus. After speaking with him, a chainsaw wielding Frankenstein crashes the party, along with two dogs; now you have to lead Malus out of the hedge maze while fending off Frankenstein and his mutts. Oh yeah, and did I mention, all three of them are invincible, you can only stun them. While it can be annoying if you get lost, it can be a lot of fun if you don't mind the confusion.

As for the challenge factor Castlevania 64 offers a fairly balanced game, while some ideas are ridiculously easy, there will plenty of times where you need to buckle down and concentrate to complete the boss or puzzle. In truth, the only times you'll have trouble completing a puzzle is when it's a jumping puzzle or if the camera creates trouble. On the other hand, the bosses will actually challenge you to think out strategies instead of running around whipping until the creature is dead; the best example of this is the demon bull, which, when not trying to set you on fire, will constantly charge at you, testing Reinhardt's maneuverability and wit. But there's nothing to worry about, because white jewels, which act as save points, are scattered throughout the levels, and there's always one near a boss or particularly annoying puzzle.

And if that weren't enough, the final level, the Clock Tower, is literally loaded with bosses; you get to fight up to five of them, which include three forms of Dracula. The other two depend on how long you take to beat the game and whether or not you overspent at Renon's shop. And this is just an opinion, but having three Dracula's was one of my favorite parts of the game, not only was it a nice challenge, but it was reminiscent of the classics like the original Castlevania and Dracula's Curse. The one problem I had with Dracula, and this applies to all of the bosses but mostly Dracula, was that you were sometimes forced to fight bosses with nothing but your leather whip, which can become a hassle. Normally you can run around the area searching for a whip upgrade before tackling a boss, but not at the end, where the last save point completely cuts you off from the rest of the level, and the only way to go is forward; unfortunately, there aren't any candelabras there, and it's a rare occasion that one of Dracula's projectiles with drop anything, much less a whip enhancement.

On an almost-final note, it's obvious that Castlevania 64 wasn't finished on time, and that's the only real problem I have with the game. Not only is the Castlevania series known for almost flawless games, but even if they delayed the release to finish everything, I would be more willing to accept it. When the plans began, there were supposed to be four characters instead of two, the others were going to be Cornell and a guy with a chainsaw and a shotgun, I forgot his name. They were cut, along with myriads of bosses and stages, which gives Castlevania 64 a cheap, rushed feeling to it. Perhaps the developers shouldn't have rushed to present a release date, like what the team who made Max Payne did. I remember reading an interview with one of the developers, and after being asked when the game would be out, he responded with, “When it's finished.” And notice that Max Payne is an amazing game, I don't quite think it was a coincidence. If more games weren't rushed and thrown together, Enter The Matrix and Vice City come to mind, maybe there wouldn't be an overload of shoddy games on the market.

Years after Castlevania 64 was released, I realized that the game should've been scraped, which is a sad thing to say about any game. As with it's brother Castlevania: Resurrection, there were too many problems in the beginning, and Konami should've known better and started over and released a finished game. But no, Konami never let the axe fall, and Castlevania 64 was released anyway. And if that weren't enough, we get a kick in the face in the form of Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, released less than a year later, almost as an apology to anyone who bought the first one. Legacy of Darkness was what we were supposed to have gotten at the beginning, but everyone who was still faithful to the series would still have to pay to own it.

Ok, I promise that this is going to be the last conclusion paragraph, it's just that I have so many mixed feelings about the game; I really do want to like this game more than I do. And yes, I do know that about half of the people who look at this review will be people who want to make it look like they're reading something in case one of their parents walk in while they're watching porn, but if you read any part of this, read this final paragraph.

If Konami had delayed the release date, fixed some of the problems, and kept all of the extras they had planned, Castlevania 64 would be one hell of a game. Instead we get this, and anyone who bought this new would have to pay more to play Legacy of Darkness, the real Nintendo 64 Castlevania game. Castlevania 64 does have it's moments in the sun, the Villa and the Clock Tower, including the final battles with Dracula, were pretty fun, but if you want to play a decent game that brought Castlevania into the three-dimensional world, buy Legacy of Darkness. If you're obsessive and have to own every game like I do, six dollars for Castlevania 64 isn't such a bad deal, but don't be surprised if you feel disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/04