By Joshua Bender on November 2nd, 2003

Genre: Action
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Publisher: Konami
# of Players: 1
Memory: N/A
ERSB: Mature
Released On: October 22, 2003
Supports: Dolby 5.1 Surround
MSRP: $49.99
Also On: None
Website: http://www.konamityo.com/castlevania/cv21e/index.html

Few game series have a warmer place in the hearts of gamers than Konami’s Castlevania. Whenever a new Castlevania game is released, I think it goes without saying (though I’m going to say it anyway) that it’s held up to very strict standards. With titles such as PlayStation’s Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow for the Game Boy Advance, Castlevania is a series gamers have come to expect excellence from. Whether you view this as a good thing, or a bad thing, the fact is that once a standard of quality has been set, once the bar has been raised, it has an effect on your enjoyment of future games in the series (as well as games in general).

So, what’s my point in rambling on like this you ask? I’m trying to say that many of us expect a lot from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, the newest game in this illustrious series, especially since it takes a 3D approach once again, and since the last 3D Castlevania was less than spectacular (much less).

Now, before I get into detail between the good and the bad, let me first say that I like this game, and view it as a very good game in most respects, but for one major (and I do mean major) flaw.

Presentation

Without giving too much away, Leon’s (Leon is the main character, and who you will be playing as) main squeeze has been kidnapped by a vampire. This vampire it seems, enjoys kidnapping the loved one’s of others, so as to draw them into his forest of eternal night. Before entering the vampires abode, you’ll meet Rinaldo, a man whom has been helping warriors to battle the undead wretch, by equipping them with various weapons and such, as well as using alchemy. It seems that the vampire allows this, because “to him, this is a game”. After being equipped, you’ll slowly stroll up to the Castle gates, and while the castle itself doesn’t seem too imposing, (it just looks like a regular castle, nothing overtly evil about it. That is, if you lived back then I suppose.) the whole scene definitely sets the mood for what is to be an epic battle. This evil undead monster has the one you love most captive somewhere in his lair, and by God, you’re gonna hand him a double helping of whoop-ass ale for it. In comparison to the other more well known games in the series, this castle upon first glace of its insides, doesn’t seem too Castlevania-like. This is thankfully soon remedied upon starting the first level. Once you enter the first level, things start to take on a more familiar feel. Though the game never really gets scary or really spooky, there is one area in particular, that gave me the chills, but I’ll leave you to stumble upon that yourself.

The story is pretty well done for what it’s worth, but it’s not as good as the Game Boy Advance’s Aria of Sorrow in my opinion. While I do think it is a good story, I have to say I’m disappointed in where the legendary whip ends up coming from. Personally, I’ve thought up much better ideas than the one used in LoI, for the origin of the Vampire Slayer, and why it has its powers. But be that as it may, I still enjoyed the story overall. I thought the characters themselves worked very well, and though I should have seen it coming a mile away, I was actually a bit surprised at a few of the plot twists. Concerning the dialog, while some have complained about it, I thought it was more than up to par, and at no point did I find it cheesy, like Devil May Cry ends up being by the end (“I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with light…light…light!!” *tear rolls down Dante’s cheek*, ahhhh, cheesiness at it’s best). The emotion comes through nice and clear, and doesn’t sound forced. And thankfully, there’s no engrish (the master of unlocking).

While it’s no Metal Gear Solid, Soul Reaver, or Final Fantasy (some might say that’s a good thing), the story kept me interested. Whatever the case, no one really buys a CV game for the story, so ultimately, it’s more than adequate.

The menus are very well done. While you can press start and view your items and such in a very SotN style, you actually can’t use anything in this menu (like SotN). You see, Iga has taken it upon himself to design the usage of the various items in a manner that requires switching things on the fly.

While at first this might seem a bit confusing (as well as a nuisance), it’s actually very easy to get the hang of. I’m guessing that by designing the menus as such, Iga’s goal was to add a feel of realism to the game, since while in actual combat, you can’t simply pause everything to get your bearings now can you?

Here’s how it basically works; the right thumbstick acts as your Item, and Equipment selection window, with each having it’s own window. By pressing to either side, you can select the different windows, and by moving the stick either up or down, you can select from the various objects. The Orbs, as well as the relics can also be selected in this way, but there is another better way to select them. This leads to the L1 and L2 buttons. The first acts as your Orb select, by holding it down and moving the right thumbstick, you can select from the orbs that you have thus far collected. L2 functions in the same way, but is a menu that allows for the selection of Relics. The good thing about this is that it allows you to use the right thumbstick for Item selection and Equipment changes (Whip, Armor, and up to three Accessories), while not having to scroll through the other two menus once you get used to just going back and forth between the two. Also, selecting Orbs and Relics using the L1 and L2 buttons is much faster, and cuts down your chances of getting popped while making a selection during battle.

Gameplay
It’s pretty much known to everyone in the gaming community (and if you didn’t know, you would have once you played the game), that Iga (Koji Igarashi) had Capcom’s Devil May Cry (DMC) in mind when creating Lament of Innocence. In fact, he’s even been quoted as saying that DMC was a huge inspiration for the game. Seeing as DMC is a favorite amongst the gaming masses, I view that as a good thing. Once you get a handle on the controls you’ll see that, just like DMC, LoI’s gameplay is designed for you to be quick on your feet, and not just stand there mashing buttons while being smacked around. But, on top of DMC’s dodge and weave gameplay, LoI also allows you to block many attacks (but thankfully, not all, otherwise the gameplay would easily become stale). In fact, blocking is essential to using magic, for the only way to gain magic power is to block a magic based attack, or to hit the block button at the last possible moment or very close to it (which is known as a ‘perfect block’)

Lament of Innocence is very skill based. Meaning it’s really only as difficult as much as you suck. If DMC was a game you had a lot of difficulty playing through, or if you weren’t even able to beat it at all, LoI may end up being a bit too much. Though, DMC veterans will realize that the skills mastered in that game easily carry over to LoI.

The moves you have in the game are learned by meeting certain requirements (usually beating a certain enemy), and though it’s an odd way to learn new skills, it does work for the game. The only problem is that the requirements are never made known; you just have to stumble upon them accidentally. While this does “work” for the game, it seems like something added in at the last second; as if originally you were going to start off with all the skills, figuring them out over the course of the game, but instead it was decided to make them earnable, adding to the gameplay by giving you something to look forward to achieving.

The moves you earn are one of two things, either a new whip combo, or an addition to your dodge move. Case in point, one of the first combos you’ll receive is called ‘Vertical High’ (Square, Square, Square, Triangle). Eventually, you’ll learn an addition to that called ‘Rising Shot’ (Square after you’ve pressed Triangle). And finally after that you’ll learn ‘Energy Blast’ (Triangle once again) which completes the combo (Square, Square, Square, Triangle, Square, Triangle). There are others as well, and at any time in the middle of a combo you can press a different button to finish it off with a regular whip attack. While the timing for doing the combos is tricky at first, it won’t be long before you’re pulling them off with ease.

Your Sub-Weapons play a big part in this Castlevania. From every boss, you’ll collect one Orb, and these Orbs each have a unique effect on the various Sub-Weapons. Learning which Sub-Weapons are most useful in conjunction with the various Orbs, is essential to beating the game, and can save you many a time from almost certain death. My two favorite are Purple Orb mixed with the Cross, and the Black Orb mixed with the Knife.

The platforming elements, while sparse, are fairly well done for a 3D game, but unfortunately DMC, and even the Nintendo 64 Castlevania’s did a better job at them. That’s not to say what’s there isn’t enjoyable, but since you can’t change the camera angle at all other than moving around, some of the jumps are annoying. For the most part though, I didn’t have too much trouble, and it must be taken into account that almost all 3D games suffer from camera/platforming problems. The main problem lies in the fact that the platforming aspects are very few and far between, and that is something that is very un-Castlevania like. While change is sometimes good, this is one of the times when it certainly is not.

As for the game’s boss fights…They’re enjoyable, but a bit too easy. This is for two reasons. ONE - once you get a handle on the controls/moves, avoiding hits is very simple, and TWO - you have the option to abuse the potions (you can hold up to 9 of one type of potion, and there are two types of health potion to buy at the shop, which equals a nice cushy pillow for those who suck at dodging). While DMC played the same way in the sense of dodging bosses attacks, the bosses we’re more difficult, since their attacks were generally more varied and you had less of a window of opportunity to attack (plus you could only hold one health replenish at a time). Now, that’s not to say that the boss battles aren’t enjoyable. No matter how many potions you have, for the majority of the bosses, you’ll have to learn their attack patterns and when to dodge or block accordingly to be able to stand a chance. However, skilled gamers may be able to get these patterns down in just a few tries. Thankfully, there IS a Hard mode (and believe me, it IS quite difficult)

Up to this point, you may be thinking that my complaints may be a bit too harsh, but I haven’t gotten to the worst of them until now…

The game’s level design (layout, structure, or whatever you want to call it) pretty much sucks hot monkey butt. This is the one area of the game that severely drops the overall enjoyment, and it sucks because the level design for the rest of Iga’s Castlevania’s are very well done. While it’s not terrible in the sense of it being overly difficult or annoying, it’s actually worse than that; it’s extremely boring and repetitive. Of course some are going to say, “See, I told you Castlevania should only be in 2D!!!” which I think is bunk. While I love 2D games, I’m all for a series making the jump to 3D, if it can be done well. Games like Metroid Prime, Super Mario 64, and Devil May Cry, show that platforming/action games can not only be done in 3D, but also extremely well.

Platforming in and of itself is not even the worst of it, because as I said, the problem is boredom, not frustration. For some odd reason, Iga decided (or allowed, which is just as bad), that using the same room over and over again would be okay. Let me explain:

On the first level, you’ll very shortly run into a room that looks like a church. It’s a fairly nice looking room, and while the artistic design isn’t overly amazing, it is pretty. You’ll notice some over turned pews, cobwebs covering different sections here and there, some stained glass windows (which if you can get a good look at, have some pleasingly authentic looking designs), some candles strewn about, and an alter at the front. You’ll probably think to yourself “hmmmm…nice looking Castlevania-like church. Pat yourself on the back Iga”. Well, you won’t be thinking that for long, because soon after (very soon after), you’ll run into another church, and another, and another, and another, so on and so forth. And you know what you’re eventually going to notice about these churches (other than it’s odd that this castle has 20 churches in it)? Unless you’re blind, you’ll notice that they are pretty much the exact same room. Sometimes the only difference between a majority of the rooms is the placement of the doors, and in many cases the only difference there is that the doors are placed on the opposite sides (mirrored). This leads to you having very little baring on where you are, and makes you have to constantly check and recheck the map in almost every room you’re in. On average, each level is made up of about four or five different rooms, with three different hallways (different only in that some are strait, others are curved, and a few are T shaped). Considering the level design in games like DMC and Metroid Prime, and how each area and room had a unique structure and design to it, makes this aspect of LoI taste all the more sour. Not only that. But when you consider how many completely and totally unique rooms and structures SotN had, it makes it seem all the more as if Iga just wasn’t trying.

What’s worse is that if you’re a huge Castlevania fan it messes with your head. Part of you can overlook this failure, simply because there’s a guy wielding a whip with the last name Belmont on your screen, while the other part of your brain is just livid that your beloved series has been so besmirched. Especially considering that so many other parts of this game work so well. And although artistically the rooms do look nice, ironically DMC still looks more like a Castlevania game, than LoI does.

Hopefully, this game will sell enough to warrant a sequel, and if so, hopefully Iga will use the same gameplay mechanics, giving him more than enough time to create level structure above the level of a visual sedative.

Appeal
This is a tough one to call, because while the level design practically kills your desire to go through the game again (unlike SotN, where sometimes I felt like replaying the game just to witness the hand drawn beauty of some sections), the two bonus characters and modes do add a lot to the games replayability. The best I can say is that, while I beat the game in roughly two days, I couldn’t help but pick up the controller again and play through with the other characters the day after. Problem is though, there are very few sections that hold a fond memory like some of the earlier Castlevania titles. But, the bonus characters are extremely fun to play as (I absolutely love Pumpkin), and if you can look past the boring level design, you’ll have a blast playing as them if only for the fact that they require you to mix up your strategy in some cases.

To be honest, the replay value is going to be affected by how much of a Castlevania fan you are, but no matter how much of a fan you are (even one as big as me), the level design really puts a nail in this coffin, instead of exhuming it.

Graphics
While the graphics of Lament of Innocence certainly won’t win any awards, they aren’t bad in any way, and in many ways very pleasing to the eye. The Sub-Weapon effects look very cool, and enjoyable to use just on a visual level. You’ll probably find yourself doing some of them (particularly the Cross based ones) every once in awhile simply for the sake of eye candy enjoyment. The textures are standard fare for a PS2 game, they’re good, but I’ve seen better (like in Devil May Cry). Even so, they don’t take away from the experience, and if anything, add to it.

Artistically, some of the textures are actually quite detailed, and it’s a shame you can’t move the camera around at will so as to get a better look at them, because some of them hold some fairly ornate images. While you’re playing, make sure to take a look around the various rooms as much as the camera allows, you might be surprised at what you find. When fighting the second boss (the huge Rock Golem), check out the floor, and you’ll notice a very intricate Dragon design. Little details like this are what we’ve all come to expect from a Castlevania title, and LoI doesn’t disappoint in this area for the most part.

The character models are surprisingly detailed, and a joy to behold (when you can get a good up close look at them), and are right up there with Metal Gear Solid 2. Even the hands are well done, which is something that usually looks odd in most character models in the majority of games out there. I think it needs mentioning that Ayami Kojima’s designs is one of the things I most look forward to with each Castlevania, and in my opinion, were it not for her the series as a whole wouldn’t be doing as well. The enemy models are equally well done as enemy models go. They don’t look out of place, or cheesy in any way, and definitely have that Castlevania feel to them (Ayami’s design for Death this time around is particularly well done)

The bosses have a very nice appearance to them, and certainly fit into the Castlevania mold while also being very well adapted for 3D. As I said before, Ayami’s character designs are a marvel to look at, and add a lot to the overall experience, and the bosses are certainly no exception.

The various atmospheric effects (water, fog, shadows) are nothing to write home about, but they’re not poorly done either. If anything, they’re just there. I’ve seen better on the PS2, but for what they are they work just fine. There is a very nicely done reflection effect in the last level (that doesn’t work when you’re playing as the bonus vampire character, which annoyed me at first until I realized that it’s not supposed to work, because you know, he’s a vampire), but again it’s nothing I haven’t seen before, though it is nice.

Overall, the graphics are good.

Sound
What would a Castlevania game be without great music?

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, is yet another example of why I love this series. While not every tune is something I’d listen to while writing a review (I’m listening to the game’s bonus CD as I write this), some of them are certainly going to become ingrained and remixed into the series, as past loveable tunes have. The most noteworthy tracks are ‘Ghostly Theatre’, ‘House of Sacred Remains’, and ‘Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab’. My only problem with the music is that there are absolutely no remixes of classic tunes, and considering that this game is supposed to be the beginning of the series, that just doesn’t seem right. However, the music featured is, in general, very good.

The sound effects are equally as well done. The whip sounds very, well, whip-ish, and the clang of Joachim’s swords when they hit a wall, resonate very nicely. I particularly like Leon’s voice clips you’ll hear when whipping about, particularly with the elemental whips (“BURN!!!”). As for the more atmospheric sounds, water sounds very much like water, be it under your boot, or coming from a fountain or a raging waterfall; wind, when you hear it, sounds like wind; and a huge troll stomping towards you in a hallway is very imposing. Other than that, there’s really not much else I can say about the sound effects themselves other than I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Final Thoughts

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is a good game. As Castlevania titles go, this one makes the grade in all areas but one, the level designs. Unfortunately it is this drawback keeps Lament of Innocence from being a great game, and instead only a good game. Other than that though, Castlevania fans, as well as action fans in general, should enjoy this game as long as they can focus on the overall positive aspects more than the negative.