Review: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Konami's latest addition to the Castlevania lineage may take its cues from its immediate predecessor, Symphony of the Night, but has a slightly different approach that makes it more suitable for a handheld.

Essentially, it's a platform adventure game with RPG leanings. You assume the role of a Vampire Hunter who has to rescue some sort of hostage from a newly-resurrected Dracula, and defeat the maniacal vampire until the next installment. So far, so normal, but the game has a neatness to its design that makes it wonderfully suited to a handheld. Firstly, the control system. The left and right d-pad buttons make the character walk those directions, down makes you crouch, B attacks, and A takes care of jumping. It's easy to get to grips with, but a little bit of experimentation reveals that certain combinations or adaptations of button presses do different actions; down and A performs a sliding tackle, for example, and holding B spins the player's whip weapon in a circle.

The enemies present in the first few rooms, (bomb-lobbing skeletons, roof-mounted turret-like enemies, and snakes which drop from nests on the roof), encourage you to get used to the moves available, and in no time, jumping attacks and sharp dodges are second nature. Eventually, you run into a save point, which also restores health, magic points, and status, and a few areas you can't quite reach. The first sub-weapon, a dagger, falls from one of candles on the walls, and this addition to the game is activated by another button combination (up and B). Different kinds, with different effects and costs in Hearts (also available from candles) per use appear as you progress, but they are all operated in the same way. Soon, a special "magic item" is found, enabling running with a double-tap left or right. All fairly easy to understand, but these little features add a lot to the hack and slash of the game, giving you more freedom to choose how to dispose of the baddies. Ultimately, you find that you can't progress any further; a visit to a boss area is needed.

Clearly marked out by blue, vertical doors, these traditional, attack-pattern based confrontations should end with a new "magic item", allowing further progress in the game. To save cluttering up the controls with too many combos, the right shoulder button comes into play, and some of these new abilities (such as a neat shoulder tackle) can be used against the game's enemies and bosses. The basic level design of the game works out fairly neatly: you progress through each "level", taking in save points, new types on enemies with different attack patterns, and different platforming-lite challenges (and even a few block-pushing puzzles), and learn how to overcome them and get on in the game. In practice, you head out from the game's hub area (the "Audience Room"), fight a boss, get a new ability, and are led back by a new passageway that you can reach with your new abilities. Then you head out again.

To make it easier to get around the various sections, a gradually growing network of teleports can be used. So, although there's a lot to see and do in the game, it's always obvious where to go and what to do next. It's helped by a select-button activated automap that keeps a grid-like blue trace of the game's many rooms and exits, and marks save points and teleports. Although it's occasionally hard to see where you are, it works respectably. So far, so Metroid. But the RPG elements that have been woven in, reminiscent of Symphony of the Night, add a lot. Summarised on the pause menu, the player's strength (power of attacks), defense (protection from damage) intelligence (speed of magic point recharging) and luck (likelihood of enemies dropping items) increase as the player levels up, along with Health and Magic Points. As is traditional, more challenging enemies grant you more experience points, and as you progress, more and more points are needed to level up. Traditional stuff, sure, but it's that bit more interesting, and gives players good reason to explore more. Branches from the main game paths lead off to items that boost up your HP, MP and Hearts even further, acting as mini quests and encouraging backtracking to earlier sections where the new abilities found through the game can open up extra routes. Enemy attacks often carry status effects which have very clear results, such as a gradual loss of HP in the cast of poisoning, or a temporary inability to attack, making the choice between battling forwards in the hope of finding a new save point, or dashing back to heal up, that little bit more tense.

Items dropped by enemies can either be used, to restore HP, hearts or Mana and remove certain status effects during battle, or equipped, to selectively boost up or drop your four stats. Three slots are available- one body and two arms, and generally, you choose whether to focus on magic or direct attacks with your body equipment and select to build up some of your other four stats depending on circumstances. It's a far cry from the junction system of FF8, but rearranging your equips to suit item hunting or an experience-point gathering sortie is fairly interesting, and made easier by the game's straightforward menu, which shows how much a statistic will be increased or decreased by switching an item over. As with the "magic items", the contents of your inventory build up as you progress, so that you never really have to worry about it until later in the game. And last, but not least, the game's wonderful magic system. I've left it until last with good reason; it sits on top of the rest of the game, and plays an important supporting role. Cards, very rare items dropped by appropriate enemies, come in two classes: Action, which determines the magic's general effect, and Attribute, which determines the property of the magic. Once one of each is selected in the menu, the magic effect can be switched on or off with the L button. It effectively changes something about your actions in the game- increasing your speed, replacing your whip with a Fire sword, surrounding you with ice balls which damage enemies and ward off attacks... although in practice there are one hundred spells effects, the loose effect-and-property categorisation of each makes it easy to understand. And besides, like the rest of the game's design, you don't have an awful lot to deal with to begin with- usually just two cards (one combination) up to the first boss.

Naturally, there is an MP price to pay for every use or second of effect. So, to sum up, the game has a straightforward progression in tasks and the skills you can use to perform them. There are plenty of little side tasks to do, with a nice statistical reward, and the game's RPG leanings support the action well. There is not aimless running around, although there are some nice secrets to uncover. Obviously, this game's never going to challenge the vast depth of its immediate predecessor, but it feels very suited to the platform. Finally, presentation.

Graphically, the game is okay, having a fairly stable framerate and smooth scrolling and motion on the sprites, although it's not the most detailed, bright or nicely animated title on the block. Backgrounds are varied, and generally the aesthetics do the job well enough. The audio is far better, with slap, jump and chop sounds providing feedback for every action, and what is still some of the finest music on GBA. The game's save slot system is nicely pulled off-you choose a blank slot at the start of the game and punch a name in, and then your game is always saved there, preventing overwrite woe and fiddling about in menus. There you go- a nicely done, fairly varied and increasingly deep adventure game. Not exactly ground-breaking, but satisfying in a traditional, modest sort of a way.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Alex Whiteside