Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Castlevania I through III a (very through) guest review

Castlevania I through III a (very through) review 

So as part of the Dracula extravaganza known as fangsgiving, I want to offer my services as a guest reviewer (I’d like to welcome Mr. Davis our guest reviewer! I, your normal reviewer will be here in green text!). After myself, your editor, and our host reviewer along with other friends watched the Castlevania Netflix series I took it upon myself to research and play the original video game series. Now before we begin and dive into the history of this franchise I’ll clear a few things up. I do not have access to the original hardware/software instead I took advantage of steam and purchased the “Castlevania Anniversary Collection” for the PC. This provided me with both the opportunity to play the games and take advantage of things like saving progress which I would not be able to otherwise.

Now to take a page from our usual reviewer I’ll start with a little history lesson (Does this make me a positive influence? {It makes you an influence…}). The first Castlevania game was released in Japan in 1986 and something hilarious I learned is that it was published for the “Family Computer Disk System” under the name Akumajō Dracula. Which can be roughly translated to either “Demon Castle Dracula” or “Dracula’s Satanic Castle” but when the game was ported to NES cartridge in 87 the name Castlevania was coined to conform to Nintendo North America’s censorship standards (Considering we were in a panic over satanic music and games… That was likely a wise choice!). So for the sake of simplicity, I’ll be using the North American titles of the games from here on while I talk about this franchise. The first three games, which have been consistently ranked in the top 25 games ever made by Nintendo, owe their existence largely to director Hitoshi Akamatsu.

Akamatsu stated that he set out to direct the game like he was directing a classic horror film, the visuals and soundtrack were designed to deeply emulate this. In the first game from the very beginning scenes the background and music. The first game is much like a side-scrolling platformer of its day but with a few notable changes, this led to massive commercial success for the original Castlevania. According to interviews at the time Akamatsu was a fan with a deep love of western horror films and cinema, reportedly wanting the main weapon of the Belmont’s to be a whip due to his love of Indiana Jones. Little is known about Hitoshi Akamatsu, beyond what coworkers have stated about him and his eye for detail which had a ripple effect through not only Castlevania but also Konami and the game industry. A particular sticking point in development was the synchronization of what action the player took to what was displayed on screen. Akamatsu is reported to have wanted players with a little practice to feel that Simon’s movements were an extension of their own limbs. This attention to detail is something that I will bring up as I dissect the three games he directed in order with my own take on their review before I ultimately discuss why so little is known about their director.

The first Castlevania game begins with a text crawl describing how every hundred years wicked men with evil in their hearts (their words not mine) chant dark prayers to Dracula to bring him back to life. Now 100 years since Dracula was defeated at the hands of Christopher Belmont evil cultists assemble in the ruins of a monastery to revive their dark lord Dracula during the Easter holiday. Only one man can stop them Descendant of the Belmont family Simon Belmont! At the start of the game you begin by walking up the entryway to the castle, this gives you a chance to get used to the controls and experiment with the whip. Along the path, you can see a variety of textures for trees, statues, the cobblestone of the path, and the burning braziers which you learn quickly give you rewards for smashing. This right here if you can put yourself into the headspace of a kid playing Super Mario which they might think is the most cutting edge graphic is worlds away in terms of game design. The controls are smooth though not as fast as Mario but that fits with how Simon’s walk animation works. You are able to not only move forward through the scene but also backwards as well something many other games of the era did not allow (This blew my mind as a kid and remains a treasured memory). The music has a charming synthesized organ sound to it and the whip animation is frankly satisfying. As Simon moves through the castle you are able to pick up not only upgrades to the whip (very quickly usually before the main game even starts) but also a secondary weapon. This was a unique challenge for the original NES because remember there were only two main buttons and a simple 4 directional control in addition to the system operating buttons start and select. So how do you quickly work a secondary weapon when you also need to be able to jump? Well, this was solved with what was at the time a clever bit of coding using the up button on the directional pad to designate that the secondary weapon should be used. In all, there are several alternate weapons including throwing daggers, axes, holy water, and even a watch that can pause time for a moment. These weapons all work at the cost of in-game currency, hearts, which come in large and small sizes and are dropped by breaking objects like candles or by killing monsters.

The monsters are another subject that I have to tackle because OH MY GOD FUCK THAT RED SKELETON AND THE FLYING MEDUSA HEADS! (Hated those things!) The monsters in this game are varied and unique to the individual levels and the game designers were smart in how they reused multiple sprites and movement animations often by simply changing colors and stats. Something quite clever that was considered quite the twist when the game first came out was the red skeletons that you can easily break into a pile of bones with a single hit and seemed like less of a challenge than the bone throwing blue skeletons. However, these bastards only stay dead for about 4 seconds or so then they are right back up and coming for you. Weird fish people that pop out of the water at the beginning of the game are also vastly different later when they start spitting fireballs at you out of nowhere. The boss fights are usually larger or tougher versions of monsters you have already fought until you get to Dracula… who you have to kill by taking off his head so he will have to transform into a demon and you know what? Fuck it just throw holy water at it till the problem goes away (Holy Water was awesome in the game and I’ll hear nothing against it).

The second Castlevania released in 1988 game is a massive departure from the first game, in terms of format and layout (never got the chance to play this one). The art, enemies, weapons, and music are similar but with a few notable updates in quality and variety. For gameplay, this installment uses a much more non-linear map in addition to a challenging day-night mechanic. Similar to Metroid and a few others the game features a maze-like map that you will have to explore repeatedly to find all 5 parts of Dracula’s body so you can return them to the castle, burn them and end the curse once and for all. There is a starting area where you will return repeatedly to talk to villagers who can sell you new/upgraded weapons for hearts. During the daytime, any monsters outside are noticeably weaker/slower and villagers are willing to interact with you. During the night monsters are stronger and will drop more hearts but the village is filled with zombies and friendly NPCs are presumably hiding. The mazes can get a little confusing and it's possible to get turned around trying to get back to where you need to be. There were reviews at the time that disparaged the game saying it “ripped off” Metroid’s map design, but this is false but without the internet, the rumors persisted. These factors combined along with some poor language localization (which has since been corrected) caused North American sales to falter on this installment.

Finally, the third chapter in this saga is actually a prequel that takes place 100 years before the events of the first two games. You start as Trevor Belmont, the last of an exiled noble house that had previously protected the people from Dracula and other monsters. This game feels more like the platformer of the first game and is actually the direct inspiration for the Castlevania Netflix series. In this game, you have two major paths that you can follow to make it to the inner sanctum of Dracula’s castle with smaller different paths along the way. There are some new enemies and bosses (including a cyclops with a hammer) but the main mechanic difference is the addition of an alternate character. In this game, you are able to switch between the main character Trevor Belmont and one of 3 alternates, and if you switch alternates when the opportunity presents itself you cannot go back. This mechanic actually leads to 4 different end text/synopsis including one for if you defeat the whole game as Trevor. The two alternates that most people will play with are either Alucard the son of Dracula, or Sypha Belnades. The third character who unfortunately does not appear to make the cut for the Netflix series is Grant Dynasty which is frankly a shame (Warren Ellis felt that a pirate just didn’t fit the world and that the name Grant Dynasty was just silly {I’ll give you the name but man it could have been great to hint at him in the third season with Isaac traveling across the sea. Fun fact the plot of crazy monks in a monastery reviving Dracula comes directly from the game!}). Grant is a pirate who uses a dagger and can climb walls, that ability makes some of the platforming puzzles much easier, but not as easy as some other options. Playing as the other characters can also offer some differences to the challenges that the game offers. I can honestly say that with the right spell on Sypha can make very quick work of any boss battle, the spells like all alternate weapons require a pool of hearts to cast, but the weird sphere spell thing that sends bouncing globes of destruction across the screen is clearly the best (I think a Megaman game has a weapon like that!). Especially when faced with an enemy that is very mobile, as they can quickly fill the entire boss screen leaving no place to hide. Alucard can also make some of the challenges much easier as he can use hearts to turn into a bat and simply fly past the endless jumping layers that were popular in this era of video games.

The end of Castlevania III (simpler due to limitations of space on old cartridges) can actually be seen reflected in the Netflix series. If you end with Alucard the text states that he knows he did the right thing but is conflicted about killing his father. Ending with Sypha you see Trevor put his arm around her as she reflects that even though her life has been hard she is hopeful about her future. However, one difference is that while the game states that the Belmonts will forever be honored and respected, the Netflix series is a bit more realistic in how slow the truth of events would spread in the medieval period (We also needed grist for more seasons!).

As a final note, let's take a look back at the release of these games: three vastly different games with extremely cinematic elements were released from 1987-1990 (North American releases). Few games these days manage to incorporate new mechanics as well as a departure in story and style with such a quick release schedule. Unfortunately, video games can be a lot like Hollywood movies, where you are only as good as your last project. So looking back at the director and a strong force in writing these games, Hitoshi Akamatsu, we have little evidence of what happened to him. At the time Konami published the games with directors under pseudonyms to prevent corporate talent poaching, so the actual name of the director was not known till years later when former coworkers were interviewed. Yes, former, after the commercial failure of II and III Akamatsu was transferred to managing one of Konami’s commercial locations (essentially an arcade) before he resigned. After a good bit of searching, I have been unable to find any direct interviews with him (This is a terrible shame, as I feel that if he was given more time and space that we would have seen a powerful talent emerge. We lost out here in my opinion!).

In the years since Nintendo power, Kotaku, Game Informer, and dozens of independent reviewers have regularly placed all 3 games in the top 25 games of their era. Konami has re-released these games several times in collections, updates, and across multiple platforms. These games changed the ideas of what a game could be and if you put them against some of the best-selling games of their era, they are miles ahead technically and thematically. I can't really give them a grade they haven’t earned before (I disagree, it’s your review, give them whatever grade you feel they’ve earned!) but what the hell they all get a solid A (There you go!).

So I’m posting this a day late and I would like to apologize. I won’t go into details but events and my day job caught up with me. I humbly request everyone’s forgiveness. I would like to thank Mr. Davis again for this great guest review and I will note that my door is open for such things, although I should note that I won’t post guest reviews on short notice. Give me a couple of weeks at least to work it in unless it’s something I’ve specifically requested. At the end of this week, join us for Dracula in Istanbul and a look at the first season of Castlevania, the Netflix series! Until then, stay safe and keep reading!

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