I tried to keep an open mind when Castlevania Judgment was announced back at the beginning of July. Yeah, it seemed that making a Castlevania themed fighting game – oh, forgive me, Mister Igarashi. A 3D versus action game. Right. – was about as good an idea as a Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game, but it might be good! Stranger things have, after all, happened, and Castlevania has twenty years worth of memorable characters, weapons, and environments to pull from. The open arena play, borrowing heavily from Capcom’s fondly remembered Power Stone brawlers on Dreamcast, also seemed like the ideal foundation for the franchise’s transition into the world of fighters. Maybe it would be good fun. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be as bad as Soul Calibur Legends.
Well, it’s better than Soul Calibur Legends, but, after going a few rounds with at Konami’s fall preview event in New York today, I wouldn’t call Castlevania Judgment a must play Wii game. I also wouldn’t call it a good game. The problem comes down to the fact that, even though the game is due out in the next couple of months, it feels woefully unfinished and empty. The arenas recall classic Castlevania (the crumbling cemetery and Dracula’s gold and red throne room as seen in Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood) but they’re nothing but gussied up, barren cubes for the fighters to run about. A stray zombie rises out of the ground in the cemetery, but they’re more of a random nuisance than something to build strategy around. The actual fighting is just as problematic since Judgment uses the Twilight Princess model for basic attacks: shake the controller, and your character attacks. To say that it feels imprecise would be an understatement and the problem is compounded by a camera that completely obscures the action at worst, and confuses you while playing at best. The demo on show had three selectable characters, a barely recognizable Alucard and Maria Renard alongside a pretty swell Simon Belmont, but they were only distinguishable in appearance, their move sets all but identical. The fact that Igarashi’s first Wii title feels more like a throwaway unlockable mode from one of the more recent 3D Castlevania adventures is besides the point, though. Even if all of its disparate parts worked perfectly and in concert, the game would still be flawed on a fundamental level. There is a reason that the franchise is named after its setting and not its characters; at its heart, Castelvania is a series about a world and not characters. Which is why, unsurprisingly, the latest DS Castlevania, Order of Ecclesia, is faring much better than its console sibling.
Anyone who’s played any of Igarashi’s last seven 2D Castlevanias (excepting the excellent PSP remake of Rondo of Blood) will feel right at home with Order of Ecclesia. The tight control and smoothly animated sprites are as comfortable and smooth as a pair of worn-in boots. Ecclesia’s glyph system, the new play style replacing Dawn of Sorrow’s enemy-soul-collecting and Portrait of Ruin's dual characters, shows significant promise thanks to its emphasis on combat (that you can equip a weapon in both right and left hands is made useful for the first time in series history.) Even more impressive is the new environment. The introductory areas of the game show the same incremental visual evolution the series has enjoyed for a decade, but they feel particularly fresh thanks to a more open world and variety of locales. Ecclesia takes a step beyond Portrait of Ruin, taking the game entirely out of the castle and providing a world map. The first area of the game, a monster-filled monastery, has one of the most beautiful areas I’ve seen in a Castlevania since Symphony of the Night: a tangled forest at twilight, with interlocking bare tree branches obscuring your character, Shinoa, from view as she approaches the monastery entrance. It’s wonderful.
This gets to the heart of what does, and what doesn’t, work in Castlevania. The series has yet to be successful in three-dimensions because no three-dimensional Castlevania has been designed to have a compelling world first and good action second. When Iga finally builds his 3D castle, he’ll finally solve the 3D Castlevania mystery that’s plagued the series since the N64.
Related links:
When Good Developers Go Bad: Koji Igarashi
Castlevania: Curse of the Stupid Red-Headed Kid
Castlevania Fighting Game Elicits Anguished Moans of the Living
New Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Pics