Castlevania : Curse of Darkness Approaches its 20th Anniversary!

 

Castlevania Curse of Darkness 20th Anniversary Celebration!

     In the history of long-running video game franchises, there is often that occasional game that wanders from the formula of most games in the series, maybe that game proves to be a hit, maybe it doesn’t.  Now the game I am referring to is Castlevania : Curse of Darkness.  Castlevania, as a game series, began back in 1986 with the release of Castlevania or Akumajo Dracula first released for the Famicom, then for the NES.  Also for the other Nintendo Personal Computer known as the MSX-2, there was Vampire Killer, released later in 1986.  Now Vampire Killer, while it was the same character and general concept as Castlevania, featured a different gameplay progression with finding keys to unlock new doors and access new areas of the Castle as opposed to the more simple linear action platforming which the original Castlevania had.  The mechanic of keys unlocking doors to new areas would be brought back to the later Castlevania games known as Metroidvanias.

Vampire Killer for the MSX Home Computer

     There would be a number of games in the Castlevania series where you play as different members of a family lineage known as the Belmont Family, while the first protagonist featured in the Castlevania games was Simon Belmont, you would later play as other members of the same family both before the time of Simon, as in Castlevania III : Dracula’s Curse as Trevor, or in 2 of the original Nintendo Gameboy Castlevania games as Christopher, then you would play as later members of the bloodline such as Richter or even non-Belmonts such as the Son of Dracula, Shanoa, the Morrises, or the Lecardes.  
    The first Castlevania game with the option of playing as a non-Belmont character was Castlevania III : Dracula’s Curse, in which you could unlock three possible companion characters as Trevor Belmont, including Alucard, Sypha Belnades, or Grant Danasty.  Then, in on top of the three optional companions, you could optionally play the whole game as only Trevor Belmont.  Think of the last option as a Dark Souls play through.  This will come up later in the story behind the making of the game I am mentioning right now.  

    In the fifth generation of video game consoles, there was a rush to bring numerous game franchises into the 3rd dimension, and Castlevania was no exception.  The first Castlevania with 3D gameplay was that of Castlevania for the Nintendo 64 in 1999, or as it is referred to, Castlevania 64 to distinguish it from the original Castlevania in 1986.  I will have a separate video talking about Castlevania 64.  After Castlevania 64 in 1999, there was an ultimate edition released the next year known as Legacy of Darkness, with additional campaigns for Cornell the werewolf along with that of Henry Oldrey.  After that, was the release of Castlevania Lament of Innocence and Castlevania Curse of Darkness, which we will be talking about today in anticipation of the game’s 20th anniversary.  

 

    Now, I will mention the cancelled 3D Castlevania game known as Castlevania Resurrection, meant to feature Victor Belmont, a new character living in the 19th century, only to time travel into the past to meet a time traveling Sonia Belmont who time traveled into the future.  The game was canceled, but there is demo footage shown in this video which you can also view on YouTube via links in the description.  In short, Castlevania never had a good time as a franchise in terms of trying to transition into 3D gameplay.  There was a 3D game called Castlevania : Lords of Shadow. The first game in the Lords of Shadow reboot actually became the highest selling game with “Castlevania” in its title, selling 1.77 million copies. However, that game was an alternate universe reimagining of Castlevania as a franchise, for which I have an older video going into the different type of Castlevania which was shown in Lords of Shadow.  

    Going back to Castlevania : Curse of Darkness, the game was more or less a project produced by Koji Igarashi, who had stated that Castlevania III : Dracula’s Curse, had been his favorite game in the series, as stated in interviews, and made a game which served as a direct sequel to Curse of Darkness.  Also on board in the making of this new direct sequel, after the earlier Lament of Innocence, included a summoning system, somewhat similar to the Summon Familiar Cards in Symphony of the Night.  However, the Summoning System in Curse of Darkness is more complex than its predecessor in more ways than one.  The Summoned creatures, or as they are called, Innocent Devils, in the game, have a complex system over which they “evolve” into more advanced forms and gain new special abilities.  There’s multiple paths to evolve your various innocent devils in Curse of Darkness, depending on the type of weapon equipped when you destroy your enemies. 

    Without summoning?  Well, you essentially play a game similar to Dark Souls in terms of the combat style before Dark Souls became a thing!  You can block, dodge, and strike with your weapons, which the character of Hector can craft, and should craft for better weapons with more damage and a faster attack rate for the more brutal bosses.  But after reviewing all these positives, this is where the game becomes a disappointment.  The game is almost entirely combat, but gone are the acrobatic puzzles and the mechanical death traps that almost every other game known as “Castlevania” has much more of.  Sure you can mount a gun turret and demolish foes with cannonballs, but that is not the same as the other games in the series, where a bad step can turn you into skis kebab on spikes, crushed in cogs, and so on.  The game has lost a lot of what made Castlevania before it and after it.  
    Is it an enjoyable game?  That’s rather subjective, but I really doubt I would play the game from start to finish more than once if I really didn’t like it.  However, the game departs a great deal from what made previous and even later Castlevania games what they were, including the “Metroidvania” games.  But otherwise, I would overall enjoy it as a fighting game.  But the real kick, aside from the fighting in the game, was the plot twist, which I’m really not sure it’s something which quite happens in Castlevania in quite the same way.  Major spoilers here, so if you intend on playing Castlevania : Curse of Darkness, and don’t want to have the surprise ruined.  You have been warned, and can skip over this to the next chapter, avoiding major spoilers in the process!

===================Spoilers Below!==================

 

    Hector was taught by Dracula himself as an apprentice, how to summon Demons from Hell to fight for Dracula’s army.  Perhaps one of the best aspects of the animated Castlevania on Netflix is that it does not spoil this plot, as it goes off on its very own.  While the animated Castlevania series try to tell a Drama in the vein of Game of Thrones, the game Curse of Darkness tries to tell a horror story, similar to the Dracula movies, especially the Hammer Dracula films starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, with the most horrific element being that evil in humanity brings Dracula back from the Dead.  Yes, that kind of horror.  
    In this particular game, Dracula had a contingency plan, he would teach his sorcery and his power to summon demonic entities to his apprentice Hector, as well as to his other apprentice, Isaac LaForeze, this practice of the dark arts would corrupt both Hector and Isaac, and the corruption of these two apprentices would make them into something akin to Voldemort’s horcruxes in Harry Potter.  Essentially, the Devil Forgemasters would become expendable backups for Dracula himself, wherein if a Devil Forgemaster dies, Dracula’s soul would enter the Forgemaster’s body, and the Forgemaster would become Dracula himself.  That alone is a rather unique plot twist for a game known as Castlevania.  Some plot twists in Castlevania games came rather close to this, such as in the case of Aria of Sorrow or Dawn of Sorrow, where Soma Cruz is revealed to be the successor chosen by Chaos to replace Count Dracula as the Avatar of The Devil, or Malus being revealed as being Dracula impersonating a child in Castlevania 64, or in the non canon Lords of Shadow where you were revealed to have been playing as Dracula himself the entire time.  But here, there is no choice involved, and Hector wasn’t aware of his purpose as intended by Count Dracula until he finally gets the mind-numbing revelation from Zead about what Dracula had planned for Hector and Isaac the entire time.  It’s revealed that if Hector had actually died throughout this ever increasingly difficult game, Hector would literally become Dracula, and now Dracula would be back to wreak havoc once more, in a devious plot carried out by himself and his associate, the Grim Reaper. The plot would get even more horrific if Hector had fallen in the duel with Isaac, as Trevor would have been rendered out of commission, and Alucard out of the picture, Trevor’s other companions, including possibly a child left at home, would have been easier pickings for Dracula and Isaac together to seek out and eliminate.
    

 

    So, in the end, what was Curse of Darkness?  It was a type of spiritual predecessor to Dark Souls in a lot of the mechanics at the very least.  Similar to God of War, although there was a development cycle to both God of War and Curse of Darkness, with both games being released in 2005.  The Boss Battles can get pretty tough, including the hidden Legion Boss Battle, but it stands aside, while enjoyable as an oddball out of the series of games called Castlevania.  Hopefully, if Konami continues their pattern of re-releasing and remaking Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and Castlevania, there could be a hypothetical “Castlevania 3D Collection” as there has been with The Anniversary Collection, the Advance Collection, and the Dominus Collection, where all major consoles and even PCs get the old Castlevania games as a playable experience.  Time will tell.   In the meantime, I was glad you stopped by join with me in celebrating the 20th anniversary of Castlevania Curse of Darkness!  In the meantime, as I always say, Until We Meet Again, Farewell.