365//365: Day 069 – Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

As some of you may have noticed, I enjoy Castlevania games. I enjoy the good (Castlevnia: Bloodlines) and loathe the bad (The Castlevania Adventure). I wouldn’t say I’m a die hard fan or anything, but I do enjoy the setting, the weapons and the enemies that await me. A majority of every major console have released a Castlevania title in their life cycle. The Game Boy Advance released three such titles. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was the first one released onto the handheld, and although there’s a few rough patches here and there, it does maintain that Castlevania feel to it.

Dracula is back, looking more decrepit than ever!

Now I’ve said time and time again that difficulty and soundtracks were the two constants in the Castlevania series (well, minus Castlevania 64, which by all means was brain damage on a cartridge). While CotM does sound good, its repeated all too often. The Castlevania Adventure was understandable with this, as the stages were straight forward, shorter and the song changes at the beginning of every stages. I reached the point where listening to the first song throughout the sections I traveled through really annoyed me. Once I moved to a new section, I am serenaded by a new song, which sounded like a midi rendition of a Symphony of the Night song. It sounds well done, but a little bit more creativity would have been nice, especially with an initial installment on a new system. Hell, mostly everything here sounds like a remix of another Castlevania title. While it sound good, it’s almost a cop out to me.

CotM looks pretty good for a GBA title. While animations woefully lack, as so the enemies, backgrounds do look good, with some clear detail in them. Oddly enough, a lot of the earlier portions with the windows and whatnot, feel recycled somewhat. As a whole, CotM’s looks do receive a passing grade, but fails at a lot of trivial aspects.

While it looks good for a Game Boy Advance title, a lot more could have been done to spruce things up.

The big gameplay boost CotM receives is in the form of the Dual Set-up System, or DSS for short. You’ll encounter twenty different cards throughout the game – ten Action cards and ten Attribute cards. You can mix and match one of each classification to receive a different power or skill. They can range from a fire whip, to having  familiar follow you around and do random things. It does spice up the gameplay nicely, especially with what seems like a lack of sub weapons found throughout the game. Nevertheless, it’s pretty cool to be able to mix and match cards and find different skills for different situations. Its a layer of depth that’s more than appreciated.

Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of annoyance when it comes to playing CotM. There’s considerable slowdown when too many enemies are on screen. It’s at its worst in the early parts of the game, or any part that features two of those ceiling brain creatures that drop those worm like underlings with a skeleton or two. The annoying knockback when getting hit is back in full force, with what seems like a farther leap back than even the first Castlevania title. It’s especially annoying when you jump from one screen below, up to the next screen, only to be hit by some electric skeleton that heaves you back ten yards and down into the same area you jumped out of. Whip attacks feel so slow, and it feels even more delayed when trying to whip once again. I haven’t even mentioned the omission of the Belmont name and legacy, replaced by….Nathan Graves? Studying under Morris Baldwin?

Finally, in what’s my biggest gripe, is how similar to Symphony of the Night it feels. Some of the musical bits remind me of some tunes I heard in SotN, the useless armor upgrade system, the somewhat meaningless level up system, and even how dialog boxes come up. It feels like Symphony of the Night Lite. While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and while SotN would be the best Castlevania game to imitate, none of the good stuff was replicated. Not the fantastic visuals, good controls or even the hook.

Circle of the Moon features some of the more violent knockbacks in the Castlevania series.

While Circle of the Moon has its moments, and the DSS portion of the gameplay is fresh and full of experimentation, the rest of the package is passable at best. There’s more of a “been there, done that” feeling here than in any previous Castlevania title. Worth giving a chance, but be weary of the annoyances and the deja vu.

Rating: 6.3