I’m starting this opinion with a tip: For the love of your nervous system, stock up on dark elemental armor! I will explain why later. First things first, Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is set 1,000 years after the last Arc game. You will not see your favorite characters and Arc’s name is only mentioned once in the entire scenario. Hopefully, this doesn’t keep Arc fans from getting the latest.

Story and Characters
I have never played the Arc the Lad series and this first experience with the latest installment has been quite satisfying. I actually underestimated it, seeing as how I found myself disappointed with the lead character Kharg for being your modern whiny RPG hero. Furthermore, Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is ridden with old school RPG clichés. Every scene is filled with love-hope-courage monologues that remind you of typical shoujo anime. Nobody is really mean, because for some insane reason, the lead characters find themselves betrayed left, right, and center. And unbelievably, they still have it in their hearts to forgive. You have the usual heroes with dark sides, ultra slow beefcakes with superhuman strength, and pretty kick-ass female characters who will never get love lives.

But it gets better…

Notice I’m talking in the plural sense here? That’s because Kharg isn’t the only hero. There are two main parties, each with their respective leaders and cliché-defined members. You control Darc half the time, so you can see different perspectives. This is much similar to the Trinity System employed in Suikoden III, where there are three different points of view you find yourself playing. The only thing I find fascinating is that I played Kharg’s chapter first, and yet I developed an extreme case of loathing for the humans and Kharg’s bratty attitude.

Now, I don’t really have to state the obvious—I loved playing Darc. Born a pauper and damned to slavery for the rest of his pre-pubescent days, Darc is far from the spoiled brat his human counterpart has become. Even his allies are funny, which is why I found his chapters to be the most entertaining of all.

Another character to note is Kharg’s sidekick Paulette. The girl absolutely breaks the tradition of weak females good only for spellcasting. In fact, she’s even stronger than Kharg in attack, defense and HP. How’s that? Unfortunately, we all know female party members of this caliber get downplayed most of the time because of Aeris (Final Fantasy VII) wannabes. And that, in Twilight of the Spirits, is Lilia—a useless girl who is so helpless, she practically has Kharg and Darc vying for the position of her Knight in Shining Armor. Well, not entirely useless. After all, like Aeris and all other imitations, she does have the fate of the world in her hands. Sadly, I get terrible headaches every 5 hours of exposure to Arc the Lad.

Audiovisuals
Now, Twilight isn’t exactly Final Fantasy material, but that doesn’t mean we should all be looking at the flaws in the 3D CG. The background music sort of reminds me of Star Wars, but they’re generally okay. I wish I could turn off the dubbing, though, or at least be able to switch it to Japanese. There are English subtitles anyway.

What boggles the mind, however, is the loading time. If the graphics were as good or better than Final Fantasy X, I wouldn’t have protests about the loading. But the graphics aren’t as good as Final Fantasy X, so there shouldn’t be any noticeable lags. In fact, had I not exchanged PS2s with my brother, I wouldn’t surpass most of the FMVs. They cause my own unit to hang.

This game could also use mini-maps in villages. I notice that ever since PS2 games started focusing on imagery, there have been slightly abrupt angle transitioning you can’t control. I experienced this in Kingdom Hearts, Suikoden III, and the dotHack series. All but Kingdom Hearts and the new Arc the Lad have mini-maps that give you a sense of visual stability, places where your eyes can rest on. They also prevent migraines.

Gameplay and Battle System
Twilight of the Spirits is like Final Fantasy meets Front Mission. In essence, this is an RPG, and yet the battle system seems like a pumped up tactics game. You can move your characters around in a map where they can attack, use special skills, magic, or just plain walk to a particular area. The only difference this has to a full-blown tactics game is that tactics move in squares. In Twilight, you have free reign over the area of your range. You can even place yourself at an angle that allows you to tackle two enemies at a time. I must admit, the battle system is what got me addicted to Twilight in the first place. I was so hooked that I was at the final dungeon on the 3rd day of playing.

Two major gripes: (1) You can’t skip the FMVs; and (2) You have to pick up items/gold BEFORE a battle ends. Gripe number 1 is extremely frustrating, especially in the final battle. Remember the tip I gave at the beginning of my opinion? Well, you need those black accessories if you want to survive the final battle without leveling up and with your sanity intact. Don’t get me wrong; going through the entire game was a breeze. Everything was so easy, it’s almost laughable. So facing that boss came as a shock. Not because the end was difficult, but because it was mind-numbingly tedious. Now if you want to repeat that experience to correct a mistake you might have made along the way, bear in mind that you can’t skip the cut scenes. Prepare yourself for overly long cheesy dialogues.

Gripe number 2 is simply dumb. Imagine this: If you were in the middle of a clan war, do you tell your enemy, “Wait a moment! I have to pick up the gold your friend dropped.” And you think your opponent is just going to stand there and watch you rob his brother’s corpse? That is basically the concept. Stupid, isn’t it? In battle, it is logical to pick up the loot AFTER everything is over. Not during the heat of the event!

Other than those two complaints, the rest of the features are amazing! Gone are the days when you curse at every fork in the road because some would lead you to dead ends. Gone are the long and winding mazes (except in the final dungeon). Gone are the endless walking and searching for enemy encounters when you want to level up. You need only to click at a certain field on the world map and you get your instant encounter. These new timesaving innovations help us zero in on what’s happening to your characters and your story, as well as improve your familiarity with the controls. The latter is very important since the Arc the Lad series have been known to not have tutorials.

Best of all, the game is fairly short, but you would feel like you have gone through a lot. The points of concentration converge more on the plot and less on needless battles or finding unknown villages. If other RPGs would go the way of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, I’d say developers are headed in the right direction.

Player Status:
Difficulty: Easy
Completion Time: 50 hours (probably less if I had black charms)
Highest Level Achieved: 50 (Darc, Delma, Kharg, Maru, Paulette and Tatjana…because I didn’t have black charms)
Ratings: Gameplay 9; Battle 9; Story 7; Visuals 7; Characters 7; Sounds 7; Replay Value 7

Genre: Action / Side-Scroller
Platform: Gameboy Advance
Credits: 2001 Konami. Screenshots and images courtesy of Amazon.Com.
Shop: Castlevania Game Shop, Strategy Guides, Toys and Games, Music

Cover Description:
Count Dracula has been resurrected and evil will reign supreme unless he is stopped. As Nathan Graves, you’ll hunt down the Count and use your whip and a variety of special items to destroy his minions. Battle your way through Dracula’s castle and rid the world of evil once and for all!

Wow, imagine a condensed version of Symphony of the Night with good sprite graphics and a very innovative and fun use of the cards. This is what Circle of the Moon is. It’s not very long in RPG standards but for a Game Boy game and in comparison to some games in the Castlevania series, it is still very long. What I just love about this game is all the exploration and freedom of movement involved, much like in it’s highly praised predecessor, Symphony of the Night. With the same director and many from the same staff, this game will remind you much of SOTN and in many ways adds to the few parts that SOTN lacked.

The biggest change is the use of magic being centered around a system of combining cards found on many enemies to create spells. The best spell for me was when you combined the Jupiter card with any of the attribute cards to transform your whip into a wide variety of swords. Yes, that’s right, once again you carry a whip but this time not as a Belmont. Your name is Nathan Graves and your father and mother, along with another family related to the Belmonts put Dracula to rest ten years earlier. The only trouble is that he has once again come back to life. You, along with your life time friend Hugh and his father run to meet Dracula after he has risen only to be dropped though the floor to the bottom floor of the castle and your friends father, Morris Baldwin is kidnapped by Dracula. This is where the game begins.

The game is great, resembling a kind of combination of Symphony of the Night and Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse (Castlevania fans might remember this one from the later days of the original NES). This was fabulous to me since those two games are my personal favorites in the Castlevania series. But not only do the graphics remind you of both these games, but the music as well. I have recognized themes from SOTN, Castlevania 3 and even one from Castlevania 4. Yes, once again the excellent music is back, not quite as grand as SOTN but still very well done. The battle system is like a smaller version of SOTN and not much was changed aside from the use of cards for magic, but it was a great change. The use of the cards is fun and really do help you if you know which to use at bosses or certain areas. Let me just say that if you don’t use the cards at times that they are needed, you are going to be playing the bosses many times over or running around losing a lot of life. Another great thing is the fact that certain moves like the double jump, super jump and slide are back from SOTN. That’s good news to those of you who are like me and really got use to these great items.

Yes, to any Castlevania fan, this is a must buy. I would also suggest it to anyone who likes side scrolling action games or games like Metroid and the older versions of Mario. Believe me, it’s great.

Player Status:
Difficulty: Moderate
Completion Time: 12-15 hours
Highest Level Achieved: 55
Ratings: Gameplay 9; Battle 9; Story 7; Visuals 9; Characters 9; Sounds 9; Replay Value 9

Genre: Sidescroller / Action-RPG
Platform: Nintendo DS
Credits: 2005 Konami. Screenshots and images courtesy of Amazon.com
Shop: Castlevania Game Shop, Strategy Guides, Toys and Games, Music

Cover Description:
Reach Out And Touch The Magic… A year has passed since Soma Cruz discovered the evil of Dracula hidden inside of his body. Now, a mysterious cult wants to release the power of the lord of darkness. As Soma, you must do everything in your power to stop them before it’s too late.

Dawn of Sorrow is my first Castlevania experience, and let me say, if every Castlevania game is as good as this one, then I may just get heavily invested in this series. This is a game that is worthy of buying a DS for (if you’re a Castlevania fan) and if you’re a DS owner, it’s a game you’ve probably been anxious for since before the DS was released.

Gameplay: DoS is very easy to pick up and play. The controls will take seconds to master, and new controls are added as you progress through the game and acquire new souls. Souls are gathered from defeated enemies (although some enemies’ souls are outrageously hard to get, like a 2% chance, no joke) and are used by various means, ranging from bullet types (press Up+Y) to being constantly on. DoS is done action-RPG style, meaning you level up and can choose your equipment. You can upgrade your weapons and some of your souls, making it possible to have a different play style for every gamer. You’ll find yourself spending hours upgrading weapons and leveling up, yet you’ll never feel bored. However, soul-gathering, as stated before, can be one of the most tedious things ever experienced. A 2% chance of getting a soul that you need for upgrading a weapon is a little mean. They should have given a +10% chance for every soul, but I digress. The touch feature is used only for really two things: drawing seals, and removing ice blocks (once you get Balore’s Soul). Seals are a very cool effect, and if you can’t master them you’ll never win, because the boss you’re facing will constantly regain life until you can seal off the dark power being fed to them. It’s a very cool and well thought out idea. The game’s very generous about seal drawing, also. You can rush a seal and as long as you hit the points right; you don’t have to draw straight lines or anything like that, so you don’t have to be a master artist or anything like that.

Story and Plot: Being as I never played Aria of Sorrow (the prequel to this title) and was not fully aware of all the story elements, I never felt truly left out of the story. You won’t need to play Aria to enjoy this one, although I’m sure it must be an added pleasure to have some past knowledge. The story is pretty linear, excluding a few twists and turns along the way, and basically consists of Soma trying to stop this organization whose goal is to revive an absolute evil so that God can be an absolute good…which doesn’t make too much sense, but hey, this game is a little too much fun for me to worry about details like that.

Visuals: This game is a 2D platformer, but there are a few 3D effects scattered about (mostly in backgrounds). The effects for each soul are cool and colorful, but a few areas in the castle are pretty dark. This shouldn’t really be a problem, seeing as your DS is backlit. There is a bunch of cool effects in DoS, like your image trailing behind you while you run.

Characters: This game has some interesting and well fleshed out characters. The main character Soma Cruz is just a teenager, and is very mature in his actions, but still can lose it if ticked off enough. A few other characters have some cool stories, but they’re not all particularly interesting.

Sounds: The music is catchy, there are a few scenes with sound bites of voice acting, and everything else just feels right. There are unique sounds for most of the 100+ enemies you’ll face throughout the game, and a unique song for all of the 7 or so areas all inside one castle. If I could find the soundtrack somewhere, I’d probably buy it.

Replay Value: Replay value is very high for this title. At the beginning, you are only given Story Mode and Versus Mode (yup, versus mode). Once you beat the game (which has 3 possible endings) you are given Hard Mode, New Game Plus (which can be started in hard mode), Julius Mode and Boss Rush. Boss Rush is very addicting if you can’t seem to get it under 5 minutes for that Rocket Propelled Grenade. Julius mode is basically what would happen if you got the bad ending and Julius Belmonte (With the help of Yoko and Alucard) had to go in and take some names. Hard mode is seriously hard, and will take you down a notch if you go in with the wrong attitude. With so many reasons to play this game, really, if you have a DS, you have no excuse not to play it.

Players Status:
Difficulty: Moderate - Difficult
Completion Time: 5-15 Hours
Highest Level Achieved: 70ish
Ratings: Gameplay 8; Battle N/A; Story 8; Visuals 7; Characters 6; Sounds 8; Replay Value 8

Genre: Action / Adventure
Platform: Playstation 2
Credits: 2003 Konami Digital Entertainment America, Konami TYO. Screenshots courtesy of Amazon.
Shop: Castlevania Game Shop, Strategy Guides, Toys and Games, Music

Thundersenshi’s Description:

“The forest of Eternal Night is swollen with darkness, as if it would rob away everything, and only moonlight provides a ray of hope for those who seek to reclaim the love they have lost.” - Intro

This is the adventure of Leon Belmont, the first of a long line of famous vampire-hunters, and the story of how the centuries-old feud with Dracula all began.

I must confess something before starting this review. Although I consider myself to be a Castlevania fan, I have actually only played three of the games in the series, two of which I finished, and only one which I completed 100% on my own (that would be this game, Lament of Innocence). My interest in the series only started while watching my brother play Dracula X or Symphony of the Night and then eventually, when I attempted to play it myself. However, I have long been familiar with this series since I was but four years old. I was too young then to play the game, and the sight of floating medusa heads gave me nightmares; it was only my siblings and their friends, all a good deal older than my four years, who played the game and called it fun. And because of their enthusiasm years ago, and because of Symphony of the Night was such a great game (and I had long overgrown the fear of medusa heads by then), I came to be knowledgeable of the series’ characters and storyline though I hadn’t done much of the playing myself.

So you might call me a fan of the series’ story. However, if I were to rate Lament of Innocence bearing this particular element in mind, then I would say that I was a BIG disappointment. It started off with promise, but as I was nearing the end of my game, there wasn’t much else to look forward to, and even the ending left a blank look on my face and I was thinking, “That’s it?” Suffice it to say, I had been expecting more drama, a greater tragedy and the characters to elaborate on why things had gone so and so. This is the game about the first vampire-hunting Belmont! It’s supposed to be the beginning of the legend; never mind how predictable the bad guy has been from the start; the story ought to have had more build-up and tension. It’s the least the developers could have done.

Despite this, the game is not without some saving grace. Though it leaves much to be desired as an RPG (the way the story was executed leads me to believe the production of this game was hurried), it’s satisfying as an action game. This just proves how dynamic and engaging Castlevania battle systems can be in 3D. Leon has powerful whips, sub weapons, orbs, relics and magic. I like the orbs especially because they allow more freedom and creativity in the use of your sub weapons. Leon with his whip can do amazing combos from a single target to a roomful of monsters (battling the latter, especially, can be strangely therapeutic). Add this to his skills of double-jumping, dashing, rolling and magic from the relics, playing this particular Belmont can get quite addicting. Everything from old to new, sub weapons included, are spectacular to watch in glorious 3D. So while it may not be the best game in the series, it’s certainly the best-looking.

The battle system isn’t the only thing that’s looking good since Castlevania went 3D. The castle’s gothic interior is beautiful, to say in the least, and the experience is heightened by the accompanying music. If you loved Symphony of the Night’s soundtrack, then you will definitely adore this. Hair-raising chorus, piano, woodwind, strings and more, all converge to set just the right atmosphere for a vampire-hunting adventure.

Lament of Innocence, however, is frustratingly short. And though I ought to be whining that making secret characters won’t make up for that lack since they’d just be going through the same thing, I satisfied myself with this anyway. So yes, I ended up playing Lament of Innocence thrice, with three different characters on each run. I had fun battling the undead and though it can get repetitive and eventually, too easy, the unforgettably horrendous Belzeebub and the last two bosses of the game were always a challenge. I play it again every once in a while, certainly more than three times, even if the story’s execution sucked. Also, I really wish they had put something more into Joachim’s version of the game. His story is just begging to be explored.

Player Status:
Difficulty: Moderate
Completion Time: Leon (17:26:02), Joachim (3:54:00), Pumpkin (3:48:50)
Highest Level Achieved: (Search ratios) Leon 100%, Joachim 96.6%, Pumpkin 72.1%
Ratings: Gameplay 8; Battle 8; Story 5; Visuals 9; Characters 6; Sounds 9; Replay Value 8

Genre: Action RPG
Platform: Playstation 2
1997 Konami. Screenshots and images courtesy of RPGFan.
Shop: Castlevania Game Shop, Strategy Guides, Toys and Games, Music

Cover Description:
As a descendant of Dracula, you must end the vampire bloodline. Can you rid the world of this unspeakable terror? Uncover the mystery of Castlevania and challenge an adventure as legendary as its name.

Skysenshi’s Description:
Since the early Nintendo Family Computer days (I think that was Nintendo Entertainment System in America, which came a little later after the release of NFC in Asia), there has been a struggle to vanquish the evil forces invoked by the powerful Dracula. Enter his castle and you will be swept by unimagineable terror. Only those who have the ability to tame the supernatural can survive…

NOTE: This series been one of my favorites of all time, even though we’ve only played the Castlevania games in Japanese.

Oh, talk about the memories. Castlevania has been a series I have played ever since I owned my original Nintendo Entertainment System. But within this awesome series, one game rises to become to many people the best of them all. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (or Dracula X: Nocturne of the Moonlight as it is called in Japan) is by far one of the best 2D games ever made, putting it right up there with Metroid, Mega Man and Mario. But not to compare them to these series at all, Castlevania is one series that has been around almost as long as Zelda and aside from a small diversion to the 64, has stayed completely 2D for over 15 years.

But as for Symphony of the Night, it is an amazing game. Anyone who has played it can tell you it has great graphics and gameplay. Now, my score of 10 for graphics is based on comparing it to other 2D games from that time. But even without it being 3D, the graphics are very well done and actually give you the feel of a giant Victorian castle with long hallways, huge staircases and a great evil feel. Definitely a castle fit for none other than Dracula himself. But the castle is just the beginning. Filled with many different areas, the castle houses a wide selection of enemies. From skeletons to bats and all that’s in between, all the usual enemies from the past Castlevania games are here. Then when you add the new enemies and the many bosses you must face, you can see how 2D can still be used as an accurate and very fun gaming platform.

The battle system is not much different in look from any of the other Castlevania games, but in fact it incorporates a heavy mixture of RPG elements with a unique on screen Hit Point display and various magic abilities. But then there’s my favorite part, the items you find along the way. There are a wide variety of swords, shields, suits, armors and even helms one can find, much like any RPG, but used in the trademark free movement Castlevania environment that Castlevania fans have grown to love. The star of the game this time is not a Belmont and does not use the normal whip. Instead he relies on swords and special abilities he finds on the way to aid him in his search for Dracula himself. Then there are the many items you pick up that help you overcome obstacles in Dracula’s Castle. There are many of these from items that help you open secret passages to become stronger but by far the coolest one to me was the double jump. How often have you played a game where while you are falling you find you are about to land on an enemy and can’t do anything about it? Well, with the double jump, you can simply jump in mid-air to avoid him. What a great idea that looks so cool even when you’re not trying to avoid anything. And of course there are the various summoning cards you obtain through out the game to call different helpers to your side like a Fiery, Bat, Ghost and even a floating Sword.

The game, powerful and dark with all its extremely cool powers and great characters is nothing without the music. One of the best parts of the Castlevania series has been its extremely powerful and even at times beautiful music. This game takes it to the next level with much of the games music being Orchestrated and deeply powerful. Adding to this with chorus songs and a few very well done gothic rock tunes, it well overcomes the horrible dub given to it in America. Even with its bad voices, I gave it a 9 because the sound, both in the music and the voices of the characters as you use them are extremely good.
If you have an original Playstation and have not yet played this game, you are missing out on one of the best Playstation games ever made, as well as in my opinion one of the best games made period. I love this game and will play it forever.

Player Status:
Difficulty: Moderate
Completion Time: 20-30 hours
Highest Level Achieved: 74 (Alucard)
Ratings: Gameplay 10; Battle 9; Story 7; Visuals 10; Characters 9; Sounds 9; Replay Value 9

Genre: Role Playing Game
Platform: Playstation
Credits: 2000 Squaresoft. Screenshots and images courtesy of Amazon.Com
Shop: Chrono Cross Game Shop, Strategy Guides, Toys and Games, Music

Cover Description:
Twenty years after the events in Chrono Trigger, a new set of adventures are preparing for a battle that will surpass even space and time…

The long awaited sequel to one of history’s favorite adventures. A multitude of playable characters and intertwining game scenarios. Unique design eliminates random battles and experience points. A new visual and audio experience from the original creators.