Fans of portable gaming have had several series’ they’ve been able to rely on over the last few years to provide a worthwhile and engaging experience. Castlevania ranks among them. The series, which already proved its worth in the console arena as far back as the 8-bit era, has come all the way to the present to provide its trademark vampire slaying and exploration titles on the GBA. Like a vampire that just won’t stay dead, Konami is resurrecting the series again, but this time it’s on its way to the DS.
Anybody who’s played the GBA installments knows that Konami does a great job moving the series forward and fixing problems people had, while still retaining the classic feeling established in the 80’s. Each of the three GBA titles played light years better than its predecessor, and Konami showed they had a mastery of the GBA’s graphical capabilities. When looking at Castlevania for the DS, it’s not hard to get those same feelings all over again; Konami seems to be adding a huge amount of new content into this title. This is also surprising, since it’s one of the only direct sequels to ever appear in the series.
The game takes place in 2036; a full year after the events of Aria of Sorrow (GBA). Players will reprise the role of Soma Cruz, one of the most interesting characters in the entire series for reasons I will not give away. It’s important to note that one should not play this title without playing AoS first, since the story was not only one of the best in Castlevania history, but this game will definitely give it all away.
As the story begins, it seems that a religious cult is hell bent on resurrecting Dracula, since they believe that without the ultimate evil, the ultimate good (i.e. their God) can’t exist. Details are unclear, but it seems the cult builds a replica of the famous vampire’s castle, and it’s up to Soma to venture in and rescue his kidnapped friends (whom we met in AoS).
This cult is apparently well skilled in the construction business, because they’ve given Dracula’s manor a level of polish we haven’t seen since the PSOne days with the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which some regard as the best in the series. The environments are littered all kinds of awesome effects. Outside the castle snow falls from the sky, clock tower gears shine with a metallic glow (c’mon, you knew there’d be a clock tower stage), and the multiple scrolling backgrounds really add a level of depth to the visuals.
The animation is also top notch; everything from character sprites to special effects move smoothly. The sprites also have a level of crispness the GBA games couldn’t handle. It’s also worth noting that Konami is using some really cool lighting effects with bosses (maybe big enemies, too, I’m not sure) and the way their attacks look, likely made possible by the DS hardware.
The touch screen is surprisingly being used by Konami in some creative ways. When the player defeats a boss, a symbol draws itself on the screen, and the player needs to trace this symbol correctly to finalize the defeat of the enemy. If the player fails to trace this shape correctly, the boss gains some life back and the battle continues. As the game goes on, the shapes become increasingly complex.
Sometimes Soma will run into a wall of bluish bricks. When you find a certain power-up, the player will then be able to break these bricks using the touch screen. Sometimes they’ll just be in your way, but other times it’s up to the player to create a path for Soma to climb up. It’s likely Konami is going to include other ways to use this feature, and maybe even other ways to use the touch screen, though we know nothing yet. The top screen features the game map, but anyone who plays these games knows a map display will eliminate a lot of time spent on a separate screen looking at it, so this is a welcome addition.
Returning is the much applauded “Soul system,” in which players gain abilities for defeating enemies. Each enemy has a soul to find; though getting them all takes some work. Using the wireless LAN, players can trade their souls to each other. Konami mentioned they’d like to use the wireless capabilities further (possibly a time battle mode), but cited time constraints as a possible roadblock to any additional modes. Konami isn’t a company that usually wastes their work, so if it doesn’t make it into this installment, it’s likely we’ll see something of that nature in the next one.
It appears that Konami has their priorities straight concerning this title, since Castlevania looks to improve on it’s predecessors in almost every way. The game still doesn’t have an official title or release date, so stay tuned for the latest info regarding this title.
