Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Initial release: Oct 21, 2003 (United States)
Platform: Sony PlayStation 2
Also known as: Castlevania (Japan)
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| images c/o Moby |
Not very many franchises or developers weathered the transition to 3D gracefully. Mario did alright, but the less said about Bubsy the better. When the classic gothic horror platformer series Castlevania made the jump to the Nintendo 64, it was something of a hot mess, and while the re-release Legacy of Darkness sought to redress some of its shortcomings, Konami chose, perhaps wisely, to lean in on the popularity of their 2D games for a bit. But by 2003, with a Dreamcast title quietly canceled and Capcom's Devil May Cry showing everyone how it's done, Konami would revisit the 3D space with Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. It’s… not bad, for a weak Devil May Cry clone.
Let's just get the good parts out of the way: Legacy of Darkness is pretty — very pretty, probably one of the best-looking games on the Sony PlayStation 2. The soundtrack is up there with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in terms of being absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately the game just doesn’t really excel in any other areas.
While the combat is perfectly passable, it lacks the fast-paced, rewarding nature of its obvious primary inspiration, Devil May Cry. You’ll more or less be using the same combos over and over because the fancier ones simply aren’t worth the trouble — and the whip is slow. There’s a big bestiary, but the majority of them can be sorted into a few categories that more or less behave similarly — and that’s not even counting the obvious reskins… or the million varieties of skeleton. Unlike some of the preceding Castlevanias, there is no experience system. You occasionally learn new moves by killing specific monsters, but you always do the same amount of damage unless you have the right elemental whip or are using a relic that boost stats — which means every fight is a slog.
The
game’s greatest sin, however, is the level design. Don’t expect a
realistically-designed castle like, say, the one in the first Devil May Cry (yes, I know I keep coming back to that, but it's the most obvious contemporary cousin.) Five levels connect via lift to a small hub area — and they’re all the worst in copy-paste environments. Picture
a collection of identical rooms connected by identical corridors,
constructed in a confusing maze-like fashion, and you’ve got a good idea
of what to expect. Every room was clearly prefabricated before level
construction. There are very few actually unique rooms. While
you can always leave a given level and come back later, it’s not easy —
you’d have to trudge all the way back to the lift, or use rare
teleporting items. After the interlocking, non-linear paths players took
through Symphony of the Night and the Game Boy Advance games, this is a major disappointment.
Probably the most entertaining feature is the subweapon/orb combo system. All the classic subweapons are back, and colored orbs that you can obtain by killing bosses (though one you can just find as a secret) can give them different behavior — some combos are quite powerful. As always, subweapons are fueled by heart pickups, which are in every single stone fire bowl that lines every room — smashing them reveals the item, as is tradition. When your hearts are full, the pedestals drop $1 coins instead, which can be used at the shop. The shop is kind of underwhelming for how central it is to the gameplay; most of the important items are ludicrously expensive (the best armor is 3x the value of the next-best) and many basic items (like heart potions) that one would think would be for sale simply aren’t.
While
the plot is fairly minimal, it’s told through a number of cutscenes
that detail the history of the Belmonts and the whip each generation’s
hero uses, as well as providing an origin story for Dracula himself. If Castlevania lore interests you, Lament’s a good place to start. The
English voice acting is passable, a bit overacted but that’s normal for
the early 00s. The character design is pretty cool. The box art is
gorgeous. All in all, it’s a decent ~10-hour diversion that comes short
of its ambitions but almost makes up for it in presentation.