Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Reviewed by Yardbird
The Castlevania series has been around for a while
now, needless to say. An installment of the series
has appeared on many of the gaming systems of the
last 15 years, starting with the Nintendo around 1986
or 1987. It also saw light on Nintendo's later
systems, but it is perhaps a Playstation version of
the game that is the most popular. Symphony of the
Night was released for the PSX back around 1997 and
it also the game that Circle of the Moon most resembles.
In the game you take on the role of Nathan Graves.
Let's pause for a moment to either laugh with the
game or at for this pun they have bestowed upon us.
Alright, moment over. Nathan is a vampire hunter, and
he is there to stop the revival of Dracua with his
master, Morris Baldwin, and Baldwin's son, Hugh. But,
something happens; Hugh and Nathan are sent down a
deep, dark abyss for about 400 feet. Hugh scurries
away set out to complete the mission, leaving Nathan
on his own as well.
As you command Nathan through the dark recesses of
the 1830 incarnation of Dracula's castle, you will
encounter many things. First off, if you are familiar
with the game play mechanics of SotN, then you are
probably aware of the backtracking element that game
used. This game uses that same approach. You are free
to search the castle for a while, but more often than
not you will find a dead end. Later on you will
obtain some sort of item, whether it be something for
jumping or something for moving heavy objects, but it
will strike you as "hey, now I can get to aoidsjfaojd!"
So, pretty much, Nathan begins with a whip and very
limited jumping abilities. Later on he will obtain a
dash, which allows him to get a decent run and go,
which improves his jumping skill quite a lot. Then a
double jump item can be found. This is great for
jumping once and then jumping again while in the air,
also allowing for new areas to be explored. There is
also an item that allows him to jump from wall to
wall and a wing that will let him jump considerably
higher, and if you hit this repeatedly then there's
no area in the game now out of your reach.
There is nowhere to buy items in this game, so you
must rely on either finding them in hidden areas, or
picking them up after killing enemies. There are
things to raise Nathan's hit points, heart totals,
and his mind power. Mind power is what he uses to use
forms of magic, and the hearts have been present
since the original Castlevania, as they allow you to
use the special items he can pick up. You know, break
a candle - get a heart. Some things never change. He
can also find meat or potions dropped by dead enemies
to refill his life, but his main form of replenishing
his life meter will be the save points. There are 20
of these rooms located around the castle and they
allow Nathan to save his progress and completely heal.
One other thing about the game is the attribute
system, known as DSS. Sometimes an enemy will drop a
card. These cards, when used in combination with
another card, will give Nathan some sort of special
ability. Some of them may change his whip into a
flame whip or a whip that can turn enemies into
stone. Some of the other abilities may increase his
attack power, his defense, or make him invincible
longer. This is a nice system, and a good thing to
experiment with. If you can find all the cards, then
the game will be a little easier, but good luck
finding them all on your own.
The game also has one optional thing. It is an area
in the castle known as the Battle Arena. This area
takes away all of your mind power, which means you
can't use the DSS attribute system. You're in there,
fighting your way through 10 rooms of enemies with
nothing but your whip and whatever special attack you
chose to take in there, whether it be holy water or an axe.
The game is about half the size of SotN, but don't
think its a short game. It will take a dozen or so
hours to complete, or at least that's how long it
took me. Getting all the cards and completing the
battle arena will bring the hour total up even
higher. To me SotN was too long anyway, because after
beating the first 100% of that game I lost total
interest in the other 100%. This game doesn't have
that problem. It kept me entertained all the way
through. There are also around five areas in the
castle that can be used as a warp area, which cuts
down on travel time quite a lot, but you don't have
to take these. If you like walking around, and
building up your levels, then take the long way.
If there is one large problem I have with this game,
it would be the leveling up. You do gain experience
points from enemies and you level up in this game as
in SotN. That's fine, but the later levels are
necessary and near impossible to reach. This can make
the game a few hours longer than it should be and
longer for the wrong reason. The other complaint is
the fact you do not save immediately after beating a
boss and there is nothing to help you rebuild your
energy. More often than I care to count I would beat
a boss, walk back many rooms toward a save point, but
die on the way. This was frustrating and sometimes it
took numerous times to actually beat the boss and
save before dying.
As for the aesthetics of the game, the music is very
melancholy, and it changes considering which area you
are in. There are around a dozen areas in the game.
Most of the music isn't outstanding, but it is
passable. The graphics receive a passing score as
well. Though this is a small game, there are some
really huge looking enemies in the game, and Nathan
is a fairly nice size as well. When he uses the wing
to make him jump a blue streak trails behind him,
possibly making the nicest graphical effect in the
game. But alas, it is a rather dark and plain game,
and due to the fact it's a portable, you will need to
be under some strong light to see much color and
detail in the items anyway.
In closing, I must say this game was more enjoyable
for me than Symphony of the Night. The portable
factor of the game adds quite a lot to the game, as
you can take on Dracula and his minions anywhere you
want. This is probably the best Gameboy Advance game
out so far, and definitely the best one I played. At
the very least it is the best of the nearly 20 launch
titles. If you have the system, then I wouldn't say
no to suggesting this game as your first GBA purchase.
Overall: 8 out of 10