Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe
Initial release: December 1, 1999 (US)
Platform: Nintendo 64
Alternate title: Demon Castle Dracula Apocalypse: Side Story − Legend of Cornell (Japan)
 |
| screenshots c/o MobyGames |
The late 1990s were a tough time for games. Developers, long used to working in 2D, were finding their skills outstripped by major advances in technology and graphical capabilities; the market was hungry for 3D games, and long-running 2D franchises hit those limitations hard. While it's almost forgotten about now, the venerable Castlevania series faced the same fate as so many others in the early 3D era. In early 1999, Konami released their first Castlevania title for the Nintendo 64, known simply as Castlevania in English but colloquially referred to as Castlevania 64. (In Japan it was known as Demon Castle Dracula Apocalypse.) While it wasn’t a bad game, and was actually a moderate success, it had a lot of issues endemic to the era, such as an uncooperative camera. It’s hard not to compare Castlevania 64 to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night; indeed, many contemporary negative reviews of the former made reference to the latter, and for good reason: Symphony proved that 2D still had what it takes to make a good game, and Castlevania in 3D… well, it’s rough.
In what was an unusual move at the time, Konami later that year released an updated version of Castlevania 64, this time subtitled Legacy of Darkness, intended to more closely represent the developers’ intended vision. Adding back in a character who was cut from the original game, it also added several new levels and redesigned the old ones, as well as some important quality of life improvements. These days, this kind of update would be released as DLC or even just a patch; but here, it’s not immediately apparent that this game is an updated re-release, as Reinhardt and Carrie, the heroes of the first game, aren’t immediately selectable at the character select screen. Instead, the game opens 8 years prior to their adventure with the werewolf Cornell. As such, you could consider the game to be a prequel as well as an expansion, as the story is refocused on Cornell. Cornell also gets the longest campaign, going through most of the original levels with two new exclusive ones, neither of which are terribly entertaining sadly. Not all the levels are bad, though. The game offers plenty of variety in a way that the later PlayStation 2 games didn’t; the villa level for example is sort of Resident Evil in miniature, with your character wandering a small mansion and surrounding grounds, with a few fun scares to keep you on your toes. It’s an interesting change of pace, and well fitting for the series’ roots in gothic horror.
Once
you’re finished with Cornell’s campaign, you unlock a fourth character,
this one the grown-up version of a child rescued by Cornell, named
Henry; having grown up as a knight of the Church, Henry has his own
mission aside from Reinhardt and Carrie’s but the mission is otherwise
set concurrent to theirs. This campaign is really
short, and open-ended, with your quest to rescue a number of children
across a short selection of maps. By rescuing children, you unlock new
things, namely the original campaigns (redone for the new level designs,
of course) and alternate outfits. The whole thing can be done in half
an hour, as Henry is hilariously overpowered with a bottomless revolver.
The others all have their own play styles: Reinhardt is the obvious Belmont stand-in, hitting things with a whip; Carrie flings magic fireballs at enemies, and they can be charged up to do greater damage and even home in on enemies. Cornell can slash the air magically… I think? Cornell also has the added ability of transforming into a werewolf for greater damage and higher resistance, using up gems (which replace hearts in this game) to power it. The downside is you can’t turn back until either you run out of crystals or trigger a cutscene. Speaking of cutscenes, this game has an awful lot of dialogue for not a lot of voice acting; it’s actually kind of jarring since everything is mimed out in cutscenes as if they were speaking anyway. I suppose some of it’s down to hardware restraints, but it's a strange choice, and I'm saying this as a big fan of the N64-era Zelda games.
That being said, despite the rough graphics, Konami managed to squeeze out some genuinely creepy moments, like the fight against a random vampire, and just as you think you've got him licked, his victim pops up, turned into a bloodthirsty monster. It’s clear that they were taking cues from games like Resident Evil or even their own Silent Hill, also released that year. The soundtrack is also a treat — while there’s a few remixed classics, most of it’s moody ambient or original tunes that really add to the atmosphere of the game. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the best parts of the game; there’s some real variety, too.
If there’s just one thing that bugs me, it’s how lazily done the redone Castlevania 64
campaigns are. While there’s some levels Cornell doesn’t do, most of
the other game modes are simply rehashing Cornell’s path through the game, though
thankfully there’s less emphasis on sun and moon cards. That’s right,
there’s another fucking day/night system, and this one actually locks doors
depending on what time it is. You’re forced to use cards to magically
move time to sunrise or sunset if you need to unlock a door, which is an
enormous pain in the ass. I
think the most frustrating thing to me, though, is that saving your
game does not save your powerups. That and a few annoying quests like
having to move an explosive bottle without jumping really push this game
from “competent but flawed” to “flawed but competent.”
It’s not a bad game by any means, despite what other reviews then and now will tell you. There are some clever ideas here, plus it’s always fun to kick Dracula’s ass as a 12 year old girl. For all its flaws and failed experimentalism, it’s a far sight more fun than the PlayStation 2 games.