Castlevania makes a debut on the PlayStation, and it delivers.
User Rating: 9 | Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (PSOne Books) PS
The legendary vampire hunger, Richter Belmont, finally succeeded in ending the menace of Count Dracula. Under the glare of the full moon, Richter vanished. Maria Renard set out to look for him, and the castle of Dracula materialized. Alucard, the man who teamed up with Trevor Belmont to battle his father, had submerged his vampiric powers and entered what was supposed to be an eternal slumber. Sensing the forces of Good and Evil starting their ancient battle once again, he is now awake and goes off to purge this evil. The protagonist of this story is Alucard. Alucard is the son of Dracula and a human woman, Lisa. He possesses inhuman strength, and dark magical powers, as the half-breed son. He is a shape shifter, preferring to change from bat, the traditional vampire animal, to the wolf, and to mist. He uses swords as his primary weapons, and relies on ancient relics and items to aid him in battle. Maria Renard, aforementioned, is a 17-year-old sister-in-law of the vampire slayer Richter Belmont, also mentioned. She aided Richter 5 years ago in defeating Dracula, and now she has set out on the quest to find Richter in Dracula’s castle. In this game, you play as Alucard, You are a combination of hunger and bloodlust from your vampiric father, and gentle compassion from your human mother. As you play on in the game, you will discover relics, monsters and dark forces that will bar your progress, until you defeat them. Each victory will give you experience, which yields you power and strength. This will allow Alucard to bury the demons both within the castle, and within his soul. The demons you will be fighting include Death, an evil ally of Dracula, and Dracula himself. Of course, there are other monsters, and they are all of Dracula’s lackeys. Not only is Death one of Dracula’s allies, but as is Shaft, the creature who revived Dracula. Starting off the game as Richter, you’re allowed to see how the final chapter of Dracula was played out. Dracula and Richter converse, and you’re now fighting Dracula. Maria comes out, and grants you invincibility. You see then that Dracula is dispelled, and sealed away. But not all is good, Alucard is now woken up. Roaming through the expansive castle as Alucard is no easy task. Between every doorway and portal are many monsters; each one of them needs to be slayed. Of course, you don’t have to slay them all, but for your benefit, you might as well. Each castle hallway is intricate in design, and contains power-ups keen to helping out Alucard’s quest. As you explore more and more, you’ll see the paths that need to be taken, how to get there, and the obstacles. There are also some save rooms, and rooms in general, if you’re in the heat of battle, and you need to get away. These rooms also may contain power-ups, but as all things are, you must fight to get what you desire. Fighting is also simple. The controls are simple to use, follow, the layout of the controls don’t need any fine-tuning. Pressing the Square Button to use his right hand attack, or shield, and the Circle as his left hand sword or shield. Sometimes having a sword and a shield attached will do the best, for your shield can block some attacks, or even reduce them. Some swords are dual-handed, so while they do offer an obscene amount of attack points, you may end up dying quicker then expected. As you explore the castle more, you’ll fight enemies that drop these weapons or swords, and some are worth using. Other times, after fighting a boss, you’ll get these weapons that are tremendously better then your current one, same for shields, and power-ups. And sometimes, you’ll even find relics. These relics allow you to perform—or gain some abilities—you normally would never have. For example, one relic allows you to defy gravity and perform a double jump. Another lyric allows you to shape shift into a bat, at the simple press of a button. These powerful relics are what gives you strength to continue your quest to destroy Dracula. The castle itself, as mentioned, is gigantic, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. When you’re in the castle, and you’re roaming around, check out the size of the rooms—just the overall castle size on your map, and think of another castle such as that one. That’s the reality of it, there is another castle that Alucard must visit—unlock, really—to defeat Dracula. The graphics of the castle are good enough to be noticed, but not in obsession. When you’re fighting, you may notice the backgrounds and paintings, but most likely, you’ll be focused in the heat of battle. The graphics, when you’re battling, are similar. Alucard leaves a trail when he jumps, it’s sometimes mystifying to watch—just wait ‘till you get double jump, it’s twice the pleasure. When he attacks, or uses magic, the effects are immediate, as well are the beautiful animation. For example, when Alucard uses his special weapon—Cross, Axe, Knife—you can see that Konami put some special efforts into this. Also, when you’re Richter and using the Cross, it’s apparent as well. Graphics in game as well as the backgrounds are fluent, but altogether the same. Monsters and Bosses are next, up for review. Monsters are cleverly designed, special versions of the normal, and overall original. There is the “Stone Snake” that attaches to the wall, and spits out stone at you, damaging you. The monsters in this game pop up sometimes in every level, but surprisingly, it doesn’t matter. From the time you whip out your sword, you can annihilate most of the enemies. When you power up, it just goes quicker. Sometimes, the enemies require some sort of magic spell, or strategy to defeat, but the rewards reaped—swords, money, relics—are all worth it. Bosses, on the other hand, deserve a paragraph of their own. Bosses are gigantic in size, usually have more then one form, and tend to have one devastating attack. They not only require strategy, but also some health and magic points, so be prepared. Bosses usually go one way, until they’re damaged, then they start going all out. If you use your Special Attacks, you can somewhat defeat them, but again, the strategy comes into play. The Bosses will sometimes switch patterns, or release that devastating attack, so come prepared with some items. Once you go through the doorway into a boss fight, you can’t go back, which makes it somewhat more challenging and harder…but not that you’d even think of leaving once you got in, of course. Symphony of the Night’s just an overall good game, one of the best PlayStation’s greatest hits. At 20$, or even less, you can’t afford not to go wrong. Mixed Action with RPG-ish tints, this game’s awesome.
