Castlevania is a game series full of history, spanning over different systems dating way back to the original 8 bit Nintendo Entertainment System. This is what I believe to be the seventh installment of the Castlevania series; however it is the second to be considered an RPG. The previous Castlevania to be declared an RPG is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night out for Playstation. If I had the opportunity, I would get my hands on that. Anyway, the reason why it is a RPG now is because of the elements that they added to make it look like an RPG. One editorial I discussed before was the element of leveling up. That is what Castlevania included to fit the genre of RPGs. Not only that, but they also created a non linear game where people can roam anywhere to level up, get cards for magic, and to find secret things. A lot of your time will be traveling to places possibly from one corner of the castle to another. This Castlevania was my first game in the series and has intrigued me to play other games in the series.

            Castlevania is the story of Dracula, and the fight to vanquish the dark lord. Many characters have gone before to defeat him, and all of them succeeded; however, Dracula just won’t dies as he rises from the dead every time. Resurrected by one of his followers, Camilla, Morris Baldwin and his trainees, Hugh Baldwin and Nathan Graves, the protagonist, goes back to the castle to destroy Dracula again. Upon arriving, Dracula captures Hugh’s father, Morris Baldwin who defeated Dracula ten years earlier, and cast Hugh and Nathan below the castle in the pits. Here your adventure starts as Hugh goes out to save his father while you do the same.

Nathan, having the Hunter’s whip, has to defeat Dracula and his minions using his trusty whip, sub weapons, and DSS combos. You can’t really change weapons. You will grow stronger as you level up. Sub weapons are an important part in the game series. There are times when you will want to use sub weapons to defeat enemies and even bosses. Types of sub weapons include Dagger, Axe, Holy water, Stop watch, and Crucifix. Crucifix is the best sub weapon, and they come very rarely, so if you lose the crucifix to another weapon. You might have to scourge the dungeon for that weapon. Using Sub weapons require hearts which can be acquired by destroying candles, killing enemies, or by finding a level up heart. All sub weapons are found in candles. 

Earlier, I mention the DSS combos. When you travel throughout the game, you will encounter monsters. Once in a while, if you are lucky, the monster might drop a card. It can be one of the two types: Action or Attribute. Using the DSS, you can select one action card and one attribute. The action card will be defined as the action and what kind of attribute the action should have is defined in the attribute card. IE: Mercury is an action card that allows the whip to have an elemental attribute; Salamander is an attribute card of fire. So when you pair these up and activate the DSS, you will attack with a fire whip. This is just beginning. There are 10 cards each type so allows for 100 combos to happen. There are ten different summons that Nathan can call. I have to inform you that getting cards are rare unless you know which enemy to keep killing until you get that card. I alone maybe got 4 action cards and 7 attributes cards. Then later, I looked in the FAQ for more information where the cards are.

Well that is basically what you fight with, but what are you dealing with? Well you will face skeletons of different kinds such as bombers, athlete, electric, and etc. You will face 7 or 8 different bosses before you are allowed to face Dracula. Leveling up is essential as for searching for hidden places so that you can get extra HP, MP, or hearts. Bosses are fairly tough, but none tougher than the Dracula and most require a strategy rather than hack and slash, I meant whip. The enemies are not that hard. Some areas are pretty tough and are hard to make through without dying and getting to a save spot. I think the monsters are really fairly put in order so that the difficulty is equal to your skill. In some areas after you beat a specific boss, they put harder enemies in that area instead of bats which used to be there. Using different DSS combos, many things can happen such as an increase in attack, defense, and speed. Also summoning is possible, your whip might be flamed, there might be stuff hovering around you, and there might be the possibility that you can become a skeleton! I tend to use two fireballs that revolve around me as defense as well as offense.

The game’s battle system is action based, and it is quite fun really. The graphics are not bad. One of the negative aspects of the graphics is that it is dark that some creatures or things can be hard to see if you don’t have sufficient lighting. That adds to the mood but it is hard on the eyes. I am told that the next Castlevania game Harmony of Dissonance will be brighter, and I have seen the pictures. The music is pleasing, but since I don’t listen to the music all the time, it is nice to me. I have heard that some didn’t like the music because it was repetitive in many places. I didn’t notice because I didn’t listen all the time. The sounds are appropriate. The replay value is high because after you defeat the game, they will give you another mode to play in such as I am now a magician where I have all the cards but I have low hp and attack so your strategy changes as to face enemies and bosses. There are several more of those. Will I do all of them? That remains to be seen as time allotting. The game is quite short, 10 hours, and I explored 94% of the dungeon. I got at least 92% without help. Some of the secret areas were discovered on my own, and I could have gotten more if I gone through the battle arena, but that’s another thing. As for the dungeon, there are warp places that save a lot of time, but they are not really the most direct, you still have to go ways to places. One thing that really bothers me the most is that the lack of flexibility in saving. There are save spots all over the dungeon, but if you are going through a place unfamiliar and you have to leave, then you have to go all the way back, only to fight out that the save spot was one floor on your left. That is one of the bad parts. There is a map screen to help you locate the nearest one, but that is only if you explored the area before so charting unknown territories when you know you might have to go soon is very risky.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon’s moon should be bright, but the four stars that I am giving it should shine brighter. My review gives it four stars out of five.

Hobbes Lionheart