Castlevania Judgment

"A decent fighter...if you're a Castlevania fan"

2008-2009 seems to be shaping up as the age of the fighting game, and the release of Castlevania: Judgment is just further proof of this matter, and though I'm not a fighter person, I enjoyed this game…well…for the most part. There were still things that irked me, and I do have my complaints, but the game did it's job and made for an enjoyable experience along the lines of the arcade fighters I played years ago (though my experience with it might have been biased by my favor for the Castlevania series.

Introduction:
Another fighting game? There must be a rift in time and space or something for me to be picking up another new fighter so quickly, but fighters seem to be the genre of the year so I take what I can get. Now Castlevania as a fighter was another one of those new-fangled concepts that I was a skeptic of, but the game managed to deliver to me an enjoyable experience, though it would've been better for sure if it hadn't been bogged down by so many little problems that they sorta amassed into an off-putting problem to all those who aren't absorbed in the series of Castlevania, but in the end, it made for a good fighter, though still not the best.

Story: 4/10
Fighter's typically don't have a great storyline, and though I don't like to weigh games by genre in preference of judging them on the experience as a whole, this game can't really be held against full fledged action games, and yet it does better than some fighters I've played. The story revolves around Aeon, a time traveler who's rounded up Castlevania characters for reasons unknown until the end of the game, ok, you've managed to get all the characters together, but why would they all fight each other when most were all on the same side? Copouts my friends, copouts… why does Simon want to fight? To prove himself a true Belmont, you know, even after whipping Dracula into next week before Judgment even started! (He's pulled after Castlevania, but before Simon's Quest). Why does Carmilla want to fight? To resurrect Dracula again even though he's already alive! Oh, but the worst hasn't even happened yet, by far the worst ones were Maria and Golem, Maria's driving force is pretty much unknown, except for her comments on the breast sizes of the other female characters she encounters…leaving us to believe that her reason for fighting is…to get bigger boobs? I don't even know, and Golem, the time rift just kind of handed him sentience for no reason, so now that he has it, he fights to know why he's alive…but it's never explained why he's given intelligence by being ripped out of his time, just that he is, and he's given a soul and we all learn a valuable lesson in friendship or something like that. All in all, it felt kind of forced, it would've been better if they had made it more along the lines of an arcade fighter, no explanation, no reasons, just that they're there and want to fight.

Characters: 8/10
A very diverse cast of classic and new characters of the Castlevania series, with favorites such as Simon Belmont and Dracula getting their smack-on with newbies like Shanoa and Aeon. The only complaint I have is that with such a diverse cast of characters that could be included, they left a lot out, but I can understand why since the Belmont's would all be using whips and most others would be stuck with similar abilities as each other, so they did a good job making due with what they had, though I still wish Ryu, er, I mean… Richter had been in it. Well maybe “only” complaint was a lie, there is one more even if it is a bit nitpicky of me. One thing that I've always appreciated about the Castlevania series is how all the characters seemed to fit the era they came from, Soma Cruz vs. Simon Belmont being examples, but in Judgment, they all look like they're from the same time, and hardly any speak as if they're from their respective times, with Grant Danasty saying things like “Ain't nobody quick as me” when he's from around 1476.

Gameplay: 7/10
Like I said in my review of DISSIDIA: Final Fantasy, as fighting games go there's not a whole lot of diversity in their gameplay, a neat little gimmick here, an easy-to-learn hard-to-master control scheme, there's going to be similarities with all of them. Judgment doesn't do much to change this fact, arenas are pretty and unique but at times, feel a little cramped, and with some of them having hazards that get to be nothing more than a pain and take away from the stage, things can get a little ugly. (though hazards can be turned off so I won't be bumping down the score any because people can play without them if they so choose, which I do) the controls and very easy to learn, but what's the point when most if not all of the moves are spammable, this is remedied by the fact that all of the moves are blockable, but that in itself is a problem because literally ALL OF THE MOVES ARE BLOCKABLE! Even the “unblockable” move each character gets can be countered with a good punch in the face, and the window of opportunity to do so is exceptionally large, making it easy to bash the crap out of someone who spent the whole round building up for their hyper move. Or to block a person's attack, punch them, and then block again. Blocks can be broken, but if you continue to block, then run or respond, and then block again, this doesn't do much to disallow the block and respond method of fighting. This I found to be a proverbial kick in the games crotch, because it makes it difficult to restrain yourself from spamming, or getting online and expecting people not to spam the crap out of every move worth spamming. The one thing that kept the gameplay out of the grave for me, was the free-roaming. As with other action games, let's say Castlevania 64, the arenas are free roam and allow for some nice strategy for those who care enough to use it, and with the ability to jump over an opponent, or do aerial attacks, the possibilities for an interesting fight are definitely there, you just need to be playing with the right people.

Graphics: 4/10
Ok, now here's the part that really bit my neck and sunk it's teeth in ‘till I was woozy and ready to die. The character designs. Before anyone says anything, I like Takashi Obata's artwork, I liked Deathnote, I liked Hikaru no Go, I really did, but his artwork has a tendency to look the same when it comes to fantasy work, and so the character's of Judgment end up looking more like Deathnote characters in cosplay than actual Castlevania characters. Death looks more like some unfinished robotic mistake then the bringing of doom, Maria looks like someone threw her headfirst into a circus and then pulled her out and spray painted her gothic lolita pink and black, and Simon, oh poor Simon, I don't know what happened to the blonde Beowulf esq. vampire slayer we all know and love, even the Castlevania Chronicles version looked somewhat like a vampire hunter, but the version that was in Judgment looked like some escaped thug who happened to like wearing a cross on his back and carrying a whip, tattoos, leather, no shirt underneath his vest, yeah, I don't know who that is, but that's not Simon Belmont.(at least his neck isn't as thick as on the cover of the box). Thankfully the graphics themselves aren't all that bad, except for some characters having eyes that are placed rather oddly on the angle of their faces making them appear bugged out and confused at different camera angles. The backgrounds are beautiful, the attacks are well designed, and everything looks fantastic…except for the characters…

Sound: 7/10
The game's music is a rehash of classic Castlevania songs, so there's not a whole lot that can be said except for the few new songs that were added that blend perfectly with the rest of the soundtrack, and the voice actors all did their jobs well, I only have one complaint and it's only here because I didn't think it fit well in any other category, and that's the script. At the beginning of every character's story, right before Stage 1, Aeon greets them and says the same thing, with there being only about 5 of the 14 characters having anything different said to them during this part. This disappointed me, there wasn't a whole lot of unique speaking as it was, but they did even less by making most Aeon's script a copy/paste from one character to the next, the least they could have done was made more personalized scripts for each story mode. But once again they managed to bump themselves up a single point from a 6 to a 7, with Aeon's hyper attack, when he attacks, he makes a small 1 sentence long speech to each character, completely unique to who he's fighting, this was a pleasure to experience even though his move took so long to execute, but this little detail was particularly enjoyable and brought some favor to the fact that the rest of his script was bogged down by being the same every time.

Summary:
Story: 4/10
Characters: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 4/10
Sound: 7/10

Overall: 6/10

Final Thoughts:
Castlevania: Judgment has it flaws, but then again so does every game, the point is not whether it was perfect or how close it came, but whether it was enjoyable or not, and despite it's flaws, the game was enjoyable, especially with friends, so if you can find someone to play with who won't spam away like a madman, and you're a fan of Castlevania, then I think you'll enjoy Judgment, but on the other hand, if you don't fit that description and you're looking for a fighting game to play, pick up Soul Caliber or something, because this isn't the game for you.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/09

Game Release: Castlevania Judgment (US, 11/18/08)