It’s the silly season, so time to catch up on vaning some castles.
Circle of the Moon (stupidly called simply “Castlevania” in PAL territories) is the first game in the series to take after the gameplay style of Symphony of the Night. To get in the mood, I played the SotN Saturn port’s Maria mode for the first time, but it’s not worth doing a full review for that as it didn’t change my opinion of the game. It helped contextualise this one though, which is a different team trying to replicate the success of the first game in the series to strike into a more exploratory mode.
As such it’s a successful if basic take on the formula. It’s kind of refreshing not to be overloaded with gimmicks like SotN or other successors are. There’s just one garden-variety castle, no shop, no alternate character modes, and one major gameplay system: the DSS (more on that in a bit). It can feel too basic at times though, with recoloured enemies and castle environments that lack variety. There’s slightly more of a focus on platforming, so it’s good that dash and double jump abilities are frontloaded, and the late game superjump feels great and lets you clear out all the collectible health/MP/heart boosts. Otherwise getting stronger is a matter of grinding for experience points.
Now, the DSS involves collecting two sets of cards as rare drops from specific monsters, then combining one of each set to give an effect, such as increased damage or a familiar companion. It’s a fine idea that encourages experimentation, but it can feel limiting to only have one effect active at a time from such a big range of potential spells, and it’s fiddly to change. Plus getting new cards basically requires a guide, as there’s no way to know where you’ll get the next one from.
Another factor I appreciated about this game that possibly stems from it being from a new team is that they don’t simply reuse monster sprites from SotN/Rondo of Blood, which can get tiring in later games. Graphically, everything here is original and while the animations are perhaps less detailed (again, basic is the watchword) it still fits the Castlevania look, particularly those lovely faceless human characters.
Speaking of them, the plot… there’s not much there. Camilla the vampiress has abruptly revived Dracula, and equally abruptly they’re confronted by some Belmont-style vampire hunter expies. You are Nathan Graves, prodigal whipper-guy and apprentice to an old bloke. His son is your hot-blooded shonen rival and you find your relationship strained over the game’s events. It’s an adequate story and nothing more, with a “gaiden” feel due to its evasion of established lore and characters.
I’m glad this one exists as a stepping stone to establishing the exploration and RPG mechanics of SotN as a viable new avenue of growth for the franchise, but it is somewhat unremarkable in other ways (and the characters are boring). I enjoyed playing it, and found it satisfying. I hit a difficulty wall at a certain point, and it was fun to try and force through it before eventually finding a way around it. That’s what these game are all about! That and whipping a bunch of skellingtons.
