Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2/Xbox)
Lament of Innocence constructed up a ton of goodwill for being the Castlevania recreation to lastly put the collection on strong floor within the 3D area, so, it’s comprehensible why people recoiled a bit at its follow-up largely tossing out most of Castlevania custom for one thing that, actually, doesn’t a lot resemble something within the collection, earlier than or after. Time has really been kinder to Curse than anticipated although. Sure, it’s nonetheless sort of an oddball as a Castlevania title–ironically, there’s quite a lot of this recreation in what finally turned Bloodstained–but when you can put apart expectations and the way soiled they do poor Trevor Belmont within the course of, you’ll discover a fairly strong action-RPG with a surprisingly deep crafting system, spectacular visuals, and an immensely underrated Michiru Yamane soundtrack.
The story feels bewildering by itself, solely as a result of, for causes past comprehension, many of the backstory was informed in a manga that was by no means really launched outdoors Japan till years after the sport got here out. It’s not unhealthy upon getting that context, but it surely’s wild how a lot the sport leans on it. Play the sport, and all it tells you is how Trevor Belmont did not put Dracula within the floor for good, earlier than thrusting you proper into the center of some severe bishi angst between two of Dracula’s underlings, Hector and Isaac, over a lady named Rosaly. What the sport by no means tells you is how Rosaly was married to Hector, till Isaac had her accused of being a witch and burned on the stake. It is a fairly strong motive to be pissed off, to be sincere. And sure, anime followers, you learn that right–this is the sport the place Hector and Isaac, in addition to Saint-Germain from the Netflix collection come from. Recreation Isaac isn’t almost as unbelievable as his Netflix counterpart, however the broad strokes of his character and arc are the identical.
Picture: xTimelessGaming on YouTube
