TheChez.net

by Hydro033

Clockwise from the top: Shanoa, Albus, Lord Dracula, & Barlowe (leader of Ecclesia).

Castlevania, Castlevania, another one we get for the Nintendo DS, the third on the system. Well this time Dracula comes around, it turns out a chick gets to fight him. Her name is Shanoa and she kicks ass. This Castlevania game tried things a little differently. It introduced a female protagonist, brought back the glyph system from Dawn of Sorrow, and used a not-so-cool select a level design. It had good and and it had bad… So let me tear it apart and dissect it.

Dracula is coming… once again, man doesn’t this guy ever stop? This like the 764th Castlevania game and the 764th time I have to kill him. Anywho, this time there is the Order of Ecclesia, a secret organization that is sought to destroy Dracula and suppress his evil forever. It turns out that Dracula is making a comeback and Shanoa, a young apprentice is the only one to stop him. A jealous boy, Albus, is angry that Shanoa is chosen to stop Dracula instead of himself and steals the all-powerful “Dominus” glyphs from Ecclesia. These glyphs are the only things strong enough to destroy Dracula. Well, needless to say this plot has many twists and turns. I don’t want to ruin anything, but I loved this plot. I loved Shanoa and Albus. The characters were fantastic and were by far this game’s strongest asset.

In terms of gameplay, it’s a Castlevania game, need I say more? No, but I will since it’s a review. The gameplay is straight-up old-school 2D platforming action. It’s the best around on par with Metroid, Contra, and other fantastic side-scrollers. The action is quick, the boss battles are challenging, the secrets are abound, the save points are distant, and the enemies are endless. It’s classic fun when it comes to Castlevania. Nothing beats a good run to the save statue when your health is running low in Castlevania. It plays just like all the others except that it brings back Dawn of Sorrow’s glyphs system, which I loved. You absorb special abilities from enemies and use their powers against them. It’s a great system, but I played the whole game without knowing you can absorb their powers without killing them. It never told me!

The game featured many cool modes rather than just the main adventure. There is a Boss Rush mode, a Wi-Fi mode, and you can even unlock Albus’ adventure. I don’t usually play all these extra modes, but Albus’ mode is tempting, he is a great character. Like all Castlevania games, this one also featured spectacular music along with stunning hand-drawn visuals and very beautiful anime intros and artwork. The best part of the game was the second half which featured Dracula’s castle, which brings me to the bad…

In order to get to Dracula’s castle, you need to rescue all these people. They’re hidden in the most ridiculous places and it even took a guide to help me find them all. One character was hidden behind a wall on a cliff that you need to break open. The wall is just like any other wall and gives you no hint that it can be smashed. Weird… Anyway, if you don’t save these people you never even get to Dracula’s castle. You get the “bad” ending and the game just ends. You honestly miss 40& of the game. It’s absurd to have that much of the game hidden away. If you do save them all, the game continues, Dracula gets loose, and it’s time to go get his ass. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t that good up until Dracula broke loose anyway. It kind of sucked. The levels were small and broken up into … well levels. Most Castlevania games are just HUGE castles (hence “Castle”vania, usually Dracula’s) that you have to scour. This game had levels… and it wasn’t very good until… dun dun dunnnnn Dracula’s Castle appeared! Yes, you could beat the game without even seeing it, dumb. Once that unlocks, it’s like a whole ‘nuther game. The castle is humongous, just like old-school Castlevania game. I was going to give it a really bad review up until then, that castle saved the game.

A few other quick complaints. The game felt rushed. it felt as if they just rushed out another game to make a quick buck. The quests were poor attempts to lengthen they game and they blew. I didn’t even want to do them. The “levels” were repetitious and rather boring. Even some of the castle was repetitious with many rooms looking the same. Other than that, nostalgia, gameplay, and good ole’ vampire hunting saved this game – not to mention the two great characters, Shanoa and Albus. It’s still not as good as the others in the series despite what critics say.

1.5/5 Chezwicks