Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Konami's Castlevania series is one of the gaming industry's most tried-and-true. Though things change over the years, over the consoles, and over the many, many installments, one thing remains the same: the player's goal to survive the lord Dracula's massive castle and defeat the undead terror.
Circle of the Moon was the first Game Boy Advance installment in the Castlevania series (it was also one of the GBA's first titles), but not the last - as of this writing, two more GBA Castlevanias have already been produced following CotM's success. It borrows some old Castlevania elements, makes some new ones, and blends them together to make quite an impressive pocket adventure.
If you've ever played - or even heard of - a Castlevania game, you can probably guess the plot of this without much trouble: Dracula has been revived, and it's your job (as main character Nathan Graves) to stop him from wreaking havoc upon the mortal world. There are other minor players in the drama, and some familiar names are dropped, but in the end they're really rather irrelevant. The story does what it needs to do: facilitate the destruction of innumerable baddies.
The fundamental basics of CotM's gameplay are nothing greatly new; Nathan walks, jumps, and smacks enemies around with the legendary Hunter's Whip. You've got HP for getting hurt, MP for using magic abilities, hearts for using special items; strength (for attacking), defense (for enduring blows), intelligence (for magic strength), and luck (chances of getting good stuff) stat points. In tried-and-true real-time action-RPG fashion, killing enemies nets you experience points, and leveling up increases all your statistics. There are also items which, once found, increase your HP, MP, or hearts maximum; items which, when equipped, can alter your other stats; and items which, when used, can restore your status (from replenishing HP to ridding yourself of poison). There are magic items which permanently give you new abilities, like pushing blocks or jumping to the ceiling. But in addition to these slightly-above-the-norm platform/action/RPG facets are two great gameplay areas: DSS cards and the castle itself. From defeating certain enemies, you'll get Dual-Setup System (DSS) cards: there are two types, Action and Attribute, and ten different cards of each type (named and modelled after mythological figures like Jupiter and Cockatrice). When one of each type is activated, the two-card combination produces a magical effect ranging from elemental attack abilities to enhanced statistics, to summoned creatures, to defensive shields... almost every one of the 100 combinations has its use, and it's fun discovering each of them. And finally, Dracula's castle in CotM is laid out in a similar fashion to that of Symphony of the Night - that is, a Metroid-style map wherein you can roam around the interconnected areas of the castle and return to old areas at your leisure. The areas of the castle are varied greatly, including a mechanical-themed clock tower, a sewer area, and moonlit levels high atop the castle.
Taking a departure from most GBA platformers where the main character has exaggerated physical stature in order to stand out, the characters in Circle of the Moon are rather small; however, this serves only to help them better fit into the massive castle's environments. Everything in CotM looks duly sharp, from enemies to spells - however, a major graphical failing of the game is that it is dark. If you don't have good lighting, it's unplayable. But anyway. The sound effects are perhaps perfect (you'll love whipping things just for the sound it produces), and the music's respectable quality is enhanced by remarkable composition.
There's more to Circle of the Moon than just killing Dracula and his minions, though. There are many, many hidden areas the castle has in store, many hidden items, and even several modes of play (available from beating the previous ones) which modify statistics and abilities to give the game variety and challenge.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is a solid platform action RPG, and despite difficult patches, a joy to play. Its length is nothing to scoff at either, especially if you mean to collect every item and fully explore what the castle has to offer. Dracula is calling you... But make sure you have a good light.
Progress: Complete