From: "Zach Keene" Subject: Review: Akumajo Dracula - Circle of the Moon Newsgroups: alt.games.castlevania Organization: Feisar is Fair? User-Agent: Pan/0.9.5_images (Unix) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-No-Productlinks: Yes Lines: 104 Message-ID: Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 23:02:58 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.214.52.205 X-Trace: news4.mco 989553942 209.214.52.205 (Fri, 11 May 2001 00:05:42 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 00:05:42 EDT Well, since I've finally totally beat everything there apparently is to beat in CotM, now is as good a time as any to write this review. So here goes. (I'll do this in pretty much the same format as the reviews I used to post to alt.games.video.shooters.) SPOILER WARNING: I've not given any plot spoilers beyond the first minute of the game, such as they may be, since I can't read the dialogue. However I have given a description of the bonuses you get after beating the game, so if anyone wants to remain surprised they should stop reading now (or just don't read the "CHALLENGE" section.) STORY: The year is 1830, and you are Nathan Graves. Nathan, and fellow vampire hunters Hugh and Maurice Baldwin enter Dracula's castle right after Dracula's resurrection by Carmilla, and massive Japanese dialogue ensues. After that, Drac knocks the floor out from under you and Hugh and kidnaps Maurice. Dunno much else, since I haven't read the translation FAQ yet. :) GAMEPLAY: Even though there's no Belmont in sight (WTF?), at first glance Circle of the Moon plays somewhat like Richter's game in CSOTN. You got your guy with the whip, he can slide, he can do that twirly whip thing, you got your basic Castlevania subweapons, what more do you want? Actually, CotM is what Richter's game should have been, as Nathan can gain levels and collect curative items, equip armor and up to two stat-boosting rings, bracelets, and other various doohickeys. And the fun doesn't stop there. CotM also has the wonderful DSS system. Many enemies rarely drop cards, which come in two varieties: Action and Attribute. You can select one of each type to activate a DSS combo, which can do all sorts of neat things. For example, Mercury is an Action card that enhances your whip; the type of the enhancement will depend on which Attribute card you use. Mercury + Salamander gives you a flame whip, Mercury + Serpent gives you an ice whip, that even freezes enemies. (Metroid anyone?) Other Action cards allow you to do all sorts of fun things like boost your stats, activate familiars, change your weapon from a whip into something else like a sword (or laser!), cast summons, reduce damage from various sources, use Magic power instead of hearts to use subweapons, activate item crashes, and so on. On the other hand, CotM feels a bit more like Metroid than even CSOTN did. There's nothing to find in the castle other than Life, Heart, and Magic Max Up items, and a few Relics (most of which are found right after beating a boss.) Everything else (with one exception) is a drop item, so expect to spend some time fighting enemies if you want all the cards and some good armor/accessories. Also, the castle design requires a lot more backtracking than CSOTN did if you want to find everything. Heck, you can even do a Triangle Jump a la Samus once you get the right relic. (Fortunately, this doesn't require the timing of a computer to perform, like it did in Super Metroid.) And no, unlike what has been reported by IGN, only Nathan is playable. CHALLENGE: Circle of the Moon is not the walk in the park that CSOTN was. It's not overly difficult, but you might actually *gasp* see the Game Over screen a time or two. However, once you beat the game, you get a password to play the game in "Magician" mode, where you have astronomical INT and MP and start with every card, but very low HP, strength, and defense. Beating _that_ gets you into Fighter mode, which is a cakewalk since you have very high strength, defense, and HP (but can't use cards... like you'll need them.) Beating _that_ gets you Shooter mode, which can be difficult since all your stats are very low (but subweapons do much greater damage.) Finally, beating _that_ gets you into thief mode, which is basically like your 99 Luck code from CSOTN. Only this time, there are no items with the god-like power of the Ring of Varda or Crissaegrim. MWAHAHA... sorry. Did I mention the Battle Arena? While optional, this is a very difficult section of the castle where you must fight through several rooms filled with very tough enemies. Except you can't use DSS. You will be occasionally able to bail, but you'll have to start back at the beginning. You get an awesome piece of armor if you can make it, though. Good luck, you'll need it. CONTROL: No complaints here. The GBA's L trigger can be annoying to get to with your thumb on the D-pad, but fortunately it's only used to activate DSS combos. IMPORTABILITY: If you want to get the Japanese version and can't read Japanese, CotM is still fairly playable. The menus are all in English. The dialogues of course are all in Japanese. Knowledge of katakana will come in handy, since all of the enemy names and most of the item names are in English, just spelled out in katakana. GRAPHICS: Pretty damn good for a portable. Roughly SNES quality, just smaller. AUDIO: Pretty damn good for a portable. Roughly SNES quality... you get the idea. :) A number of tunes from previous Castlevania games have returned, like Vampire Killer and Dance of Illusions, and quite a few others. No Bloody Tears though. :( OVERALL: 9/10. Buy this now! Or don't, since Konami borrowed a page from the Sony Book of Marketing and apparently only released about 5 copies of CotM. As a result, prices are astronomical, if you can find it at all. (I fortunately got mine when it was "only" $60.) So, wait for the US version and buy it then! Don't just sit there and read this, go pre-order! Now! :D While I'm here I might as well point out a few minor stylistic complaints that don't really detract from the game much, but still... First, where the heck are the Belmonts? (Maybe that's explained in the dialogue somewhere, but I haven't heard anything to that effect.) Second, the castle design seems a bit... odd. One member of the GameFAQs message boards described it as having all the parts you'd expect in a castle, but all jumbled together. (Why is the Outer Wall in the middle of the castle?) Oh well, I'm just nitpicking. Zach Keene ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Author of many FAQs: MK2, FF1, Einhander, CSOTN, AGVS, G3, and G.Darius ftp://members.aol.com/fnlfanatic/arcanelore/ alt.games.video.shooters - Visit it again for the first time! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "The freedom we lost cannot be re-conquered cheaply, but however high, it's a price worth paying." - Robert Miles -----------------------------------------------------------------------