As I said in my Judgment review, I react negatively to someone ostensibly in charge of a series being exclusive for dumb reasons; it just made me want to play Legends more. Having a female Belmont as protagonist and being the last of three Game Boy games and so presumably more polished also attracted me (although yeah, it’s in the same engine but it was actually made by a different team).
So in this game that is totally in canon and fits in the series perfectly no matter what people might say, you play as Sonia Belmont, who kicks ass before any Belmont men ever did (except Leon 400 years before, but he’s a wuss). She has a relationship with Alucard as well, who as we all know is pretty much the coolest dude to ever wear a cape and a moody expression. SPOILERS! He’s also the father of her child Trevor, at least I think so.
Unlike the first two GB Castlevanias, this wasn’t rereleased for GBC in Europe. But that just makes it more of an underdog! Of course, in these situations you have to examine all the options. To play in GBC mode or Super Game Boy mode? In this case, GBC mode has less garish colours and more distinction between sprites and background, which always helps. The SGB border is cool but who needs that taking up screen space?
So now the gameplay. This is my first “traditional” Castlevania game, the linear type with stages. I know this may not be the best example but it didn’t win me away from the RPG/exploration of the Metroidvania style. And it didn’t even have the infamous Castlevania stairs, about which I’ve heard more horror stories than about Dracula himself. There are some branches, leading either to dead ends or special items (which unlock the good ending). However the timer (why oh why did there have to be a timer) discourages dilly-dallying.
The graphics are mostly nice pixelly goodness—those tiny faceless heads are adorable—but then you get things like the awkward zombie seen above from time to time. The music is pleasantly chippy as well. It’s too bad the game suffers from stiff play control and slightly off hit detection.
From what I read, Legends seems to be slightly easier than its predecessors. There are concessions like the “Burning Mode” which give you brief invincibility, but only once per level; and sub-weapons are very powerful, but you do lose all hearts on death. But the game did well in transporting me into that retro mindset (didn’t prevent me from abusing savestates to get through though… I’m a bad, bad boy). Short, sweet, old-school goodness.
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