Circle of the Moon brings the word HARDCORE to Metroidvania!
Now, Circle of the Moon was one of the launch games for the GBA, waaaay back in 2001. It was often considered to be the best GBA launch title of the lot and garnered a lot of Critical Praise in the process. So is the game as good as people say it is? That really depends on your perspective.
The Story takes place in 1830, in an old and dusty Austrian Castle. Wait! Austrian Castle? I thought Dracula's Castle was all the way in Romania( that was until it was stolen by the Solar Eclipse according to Aria of Sorrow. Check out my review of Aria in my homepage). A loyal minion named Carmilla resurrects Count Dracula back to his full form. Before he can fully get his power, a trio of Vampire Hunters named, Morris Baldwin (father and one who slew Dracula before according to the game), Hugh Baldwin (son of Morris) and Nathan Graves (apprentice of Morris) attempt to stop Dracula's plan to "taint" the world. So Dracula, captures Morris, blows the floor under Nathan and Hugh and sends them to rot in his catacombs. Unfortunately for the Count, Nathan and Hugh survive the fall and the two go on a journey to rescue their master!
The Controls work, if a little clunky. You move using the control pad(double tap to dash, like how you would do in a fighting game), press A to Jump, B to Whip enemies, L to activate the DSS system and R to use your abilities. So overall, easy controls to get into grips with, but be warned, the controls will be a bit stiff!
The Graphics look nice and for a GBA launch title, Konami did put a lot of effort into the Character sprites and backgrounds. However, if you do have an original GBA, it can be hard to see at times because the game uses a high usage of Dark Colors and pillars. Also the animation looks a bit awkward. Nathan's running and pushing animations looks like they are running at 2 or 3 frames per second. But overall, simple but effective graphics.
The gameplay is very good but the difficulty kinda ruins it big time! You play as Nathan Graves, a apprentice of famed Vampire slayer Morris Balwin. As you start the game, it starts off in a very slow pace but once you get the dash boots, then the pace becomes much more quicker. This is the 2nd game in the Castlevania franchise to use the MetroidVania format (the 1st being "Symphony of the Night" on the Play Station) which means it's a free roam 2d sidescroller with RPG elements. Unlike Alucard though, Nathan uses the Hunters whip (which is the same as the Vampire Killer obviously, just in leather form) and some sub weapons like the Axe, Cross, Dagger etc. One issue I have with the sub weapons is the stopwatch! It only freezes regular enemies and it takes up tooo much hearts! LAME! New to the game is the DSS (Dual set up System). Basically when you kill certain types of enemies, they drop special cards (depending if your luck is high.). There card vary in two types: Action and Attribute. For Example, the Mars Card specializes in a change of weapons and the Salamander Card is associated with fire, so if you combine these cards together I have a fire sword! It's a nice feature to replace the complicated Magic system from "Symphony of the Night". There are a number of collectible items like armors and potions and such but the magical relics help keep the game's pace faster, particularly the dash boots (also mention the fact that you have a slide move right from the start. SWEET!). What I've also noticed is that Circle of the Moon is more platform heavy than the other two, particularly when you jump on moving platforms or on crumbly ledges. Because of the platforming segments, the Castle exploration never feels too tedious like "Harmony of Dissonance" or too limited in "Aria of Sorrow"! All in all, really good gameplay that is impressive for a GBA launch title!
In terms of Music, Circle of the Moon ends up the winner. The tunes are gorgeous ranging from classic tunes like "Vampire Killer" to new ones like "Awake" and the "Underground Warehouse". All of the tunes are upbeat and suit the Castlevania universe very nicely! Even the Main Menu music surprised me! Before you touch a button, the haunting chorus push the GBA's sound capabilities to the max! I even said to myself, am I playing the Game Boy Advance or the PS1! To sum it all off, fantastic music and great SFX to boot!
The Downsides I found were these: out of all the 3 games, Circle of the Moon is tough, real tough. Since the controls are a bit clumsy, you feel as though you are hopelessly damaged by enemies that knock you about and drain your Vitality away! Many people say that Order of Ecclesia for the DS is the hardest of the RPG Castlevanias but at least that game had smooth control! Here the the controls are very clumsy. The Whip in particular is very lousy. It cannot Rear attack and it has very slow recovery time! On top of that there is no shops! This means you have to grind for a LOT for items particularly potions and meat (and also be prepared to get pointless equipment like leather armors and wrist bands). In fact I gave "Harmony of Dissonance" a 9/10 because it improved on this game in terms of the formula and made the game a LOT less cheap! I don't mind a hard game as long as you are flexible enough to dodge what's coming! Soooo, now that's outta the way, onto the verdict now.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is definitely the weakest game out of the 3 games of the Castlevania GBA trilogy but it's still great fun and I wholeheartedly recommend it to action adventure fans like me! Let's overview the facts shall we?
The Good: Great Metroidvania gameplay, relics are satisfying to find, detailed graphics, superb music, challenging game from start to finish, pretty lengthy quest, DSS is fun new feature, decent plot, battle arena is nice, menu music is AMAZING, Boss fights are pretty challenging!
The Bad: Challenge will mostly revolve upon frustration, controls are stiff, there are no shops whatsoever, crappy equipment is all over the place, pretty slow at the beginning.
The Ugly: No ugly points here!
Title: Awesome!