Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is an action-RPG published and developed by Konami. It's dissimilar from its predecessors in nearly every way imaginable, but still manages to maintain a consistently dark atmosphere. New to the series from this entry is rather surrealistic humor and a crazy-weird storyline.

The game stars Hector, a Devil Summoner and former servant to Dracula. He betrayed his master and set out to live a normal life with his love, Rosaly. Unfortunately, even after Dracula's defeat, his dark curse is still held over the entire populace, spreading disease and violence. To make matters worse, Rosaly is indirectly murdered by Hector's former partner: Isaac.

This is where most Castlevania games would drop off and leave the plot to fly straight as an arrow, but a time-bending British gent named Saint Germain and a rather disturbing priest named Zead both vie for Hector's attention every step of the way.

They contrast rather well.

The game's control scheme and basic battle mechanics are a mimic of those found in Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors and the like, but with a bit more flavor. Even with a large variety of characters, attacks in other hack n' slash games tend to feel samey. The folks at Konami, perhaps because this game was more focused on its RPG elements, made every genre of weapon feel entirely different.

At any given time, you can equip Swords, Knuckles, Spears, Axes, or special items. Each of them plays wildly differently, and even then, there are several variations inside each genre of weapon. A claymore is vastly different from say, a rapier.

The move lists for these weapons are also pretty remarkable, with up to fifteen different attacks each, depending on the specific item. Pressing triangle after the fourth punch in a chain with knuckles would send a flurry of quick jabs, while doing the same a button earlier would send a blast of wind from Hector's fist. It's simple, but it keeps hack n' slashing through an assortment of ancient Transylvania architecture interesting.

Better still is that Curse of Darkness features a simplistic crafting system. Being a Devil Summoner, Hector is able to use alchemy to fuse items together. Unlike other Japanese action-RPGs, however, obtaining a new crafting metal doesn't just aid you in creating one genre of weapon, it unlocks an entire tier for all of the weapons.

Obtaining Red Steel, for instance, will allow you options to forge a new sword, axe, armor, and knuckles. As supplies are limited, you end up having to make choices as to what you forge and what you equip. It adds another layer to what could've been pretty simple hack n' slash gameplay. It may sound a little too complex at first, but it's all very easily navigated and performed, keeping things streamlined and action oriented.

Going even deeper into the trench of customization through equipment, accessories in the game offer the standard RPG buffs: resistance to fire, wind, ice, etc. A few creative ones can be found in hidden little corners of the map, and net you more useful abilities. In example, the "Sixth Sense" accessory lets you know when an enemy off-screen is about to strike at Hector. You barely notice it during gameplay, but it does make things easier in the long run.

A lot of little things work to make the stabbing fun.

Last, but certainly not the least of the mechanics, are the Innocent Devils. An honestly innovative feature of the game, the Innocent Devils are creatures that Hector can summon, and are the central pillar of his magical powers. They come in several different classes: Battle, Fairy, Magical, Flying, and just flat out Devil.

Each class has an evolutionary chain. They evolve and gain more special attacks based on what Evo Crystals the enemies drop. Subsequently, what Evo Crystals enemies drop depends on the type of weapon you carry. There are a lot of evolutions for any given class. Far more than it's possible to see in just one playthrough.

When equipped, depending on the class of ID and their evolution, they can carry out various attacks. The battle Devils have a variety of moves all based on offense. They do everything from rain swords down to transforming into a flying Mercury Meltdown blob. Other classes, like the magician, can even stop time briefly.

Like most of the RPG elements, Innocent Devils seem complex, but they work themselves directly into the main gameplay. All of the RPG elements rely on Hector slashing through his devilish assortment of enemies. It's brilliant in its design.

It's pretty involved.

As for the environments, Curse of Darkness went the honorable path of making all of their hallways look interesting. Despite any flair on the surface, it's a straight up action-RPG at heart, and the stages are just hallways filled with enemies for you to slash at. Most of the environments are enormous, and when they aren't, they still manage to feel it. This can be both a blessing and a curse.

Most of the game's locations, like the mechanical Eneomaos Tower, look haunting, dark, and moody, while still offering neat visual touches. There are gears beneath the floor under metal casing, and if you pay close enough attention, only the connected ones will spin. Even in that single location, the environment gets changed pretty rapidly, from an outdoor garden to a series of circular rooms to a gloomy balcony to the tippy top of the clock-tower. It shows that Konami was absolutely dedicated to their design.

The excellent atmosphere and art direction are complimented by an appropriate score that takes a page directly from the Book of Ys. It's fast paced and fierce, but it still manages to hold a good mood for each stage's personality. To help matters further, the hammy voice-acting -the robotic actor for Julia aside- hits the mark perfectly, solidifying the overall feel of the game and Hector's place in it. Bottom line is: CoD has created a damn good world.

While we talk art direction, Curse of Darkness has a pretty odd gag or two that acknowledges how ridiculous and surreal the time traveling British fellow in a top-hat is. While he's taken dead serious by the few characters who interact with him in the story, as to them he's just an incredibly outlandish sorcerer, the game tips its hat to us and our understanding of his time-bending tomfoolery.

There's a bizarre building late in the game, where upon entering, you're greeted with a modern desk, complete with a laptop, half a bathroom, containing only slippers and toilet paper, and an odd little collection of chairs from your adventure so far. While the idea of a floating garden island with impossibly advanced future technology would appear to be some sort of magic to Hector, it looks absolutely absurd to the player.

A few other instances of odd little visual gags are a modern park bench with little characters wearing top-hats plastered on it, an office chair sitting in the middle of nowhere, and a little Rube Goldberg puzzle sequence. It's cute, clever, and absolutely did not need to be there, which is all the reason it's so wonderful.

An abundance of environments wouldn't be any fun without the proper pacing, and this is something CoD is thankfully aware of. The game has a very, very slow pace, but because of that, it's always consistent. The treks through individual stages of the game seem like a complete journey by themselves. The game clocks in at the standard 8-10 hour length in the end, assuming you only complete one run, but it winds up feeling much longer than that.

This pacing isn't lost on the gameplay, either.  The bosses gradually grow from a cakewalk to unbelievably tense and challenging, as the game does so itself. By the end of the game, it's almost awesome how far you've come and what you're capable of.

There are so many things I could never praise properly, regardless of how long I talked. The massive variety in enemies, the precision based theft system, the hidden bosses, and the effects of raising different generations of Innocent Devils, to name a few. Curse of Darkness is a brilliant game made by a brilliant dev team. It nearly surpasses greatness. If any speck of thought you've ever had has made you wonder about this game, you need to play it right now. You will not be disappointed.