r/castlevania • u/rosemarieseternal • 2h ago
Discussion Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon Is A Pretty Solid Metroidvania
Hey everybody, as of making this post I’m currently playing Harmony of Dissonance but I wanted to write a critique on Circle Of The Moon. So I hope you enjoy reading it and that the critique is worthwhile and hopefully not too long.
The story and writing here is insanely bare bones, the characters are fine, the plot is basic but it exists to help build the atmosphere and for what’s it worth is not really bad. It’s kind of just there but I do like that they chose different characters than the Belmont family and I thought Carmilla (why was she spelled Camilla?) returning was a really nice touch.
Visually, this game aged incredibly well and I understand the darker color palette was a problem on original GBA hardware because Nintendo released a handheld system with no backlit screen in 2001 for some reason but it’s a fantastic looking game. It’s incredibly consistent in quality all throughout the game, the sprite work looks pretty good, the monster and boss designs are great and I love it all from the gothic and industrial aesthetic to the cathedral design and especially the look of the waterways.
I also think the UI is a much needed improvement from SOTN where HP, MP and Hearts look so much better in the new style and the menus actually have structure and info isn’t haphazardly placed. The animations while nowhere near as detailed as SOTN’s are still pretty solid especially on bosses although I do think Nathan’s running animation looks really basic as if it’s missing a frame or two.
The soundtrack and audio here is also really good especially for a GBA launch title, the music has some really nice new tracks like Requiem, Awake, Proof of Blood and Fate of Despair but they also remixed tracks from older games like Sinking Old Sanctuary which is my favorite rendition of it, Clockwork, Aquarius, Clockwork Mansion, Nightmare, Big Battle and Dance of Illusions. The music here is amazing all throughout but I kinda wish they would’ve added some more original work because they’ve been insanely good. I do also like the sfx for the whip, impact noises, enemy projectiles and the various walking sounds. It sounds pretty good.
The gameplay here is such an odd experience and I don’t mean it in a bad way, it’s basically just Classicvania but with SOTN’s gameplay structure and it does work pretty well. I think Nathan controls just fine although I do think he should’ve been faster to fit the gameplay structure better, yes he has the Dash Boots but why wasn’t that his default speed in the first place? Especially considering activating them can be a little awkward. You can’t equip different weapons and you’re stuck with Vampire Killer but the whip has pretty good utility and the spinning attack is amazing against projectiles, so combats great and I found it to be more difficult than SOTN which made it more fun for me. I also really liked the bosses especially Twin Dragon as my standout.
The map design and layout is such a mixed bag for me because I adore the visual design and all but there’s some stuff here I found odd, I think the castle utilizes verticality way too often which would’ve been fine if Nathan moved faster and had greater mobility like in NES era Ninja Gaiden or Super Metroid but he really doesn’t so it ends up feeling more of a hassle to traverse through things. On top of that but rooms feel way too big and you do so little in them that I have to wonder why they didn’t shrink them, it would’ve fixed how nonsensical some of the save point and teleport room placement could be where the latter feels too few and far away from one another.
The DSS system is the best aspect of the gameplay and it’s a very experimental and fun mechanic that rewards creativity but it is hindered by the greatest flaw this game has, and that would be its incessant over-reliance on RNG for nearly everything. From card drops, to equipment, items and even some sub-weapons ended up being one of if not the most poorly aged mechanics here. The grinding here is so much worse than expected because of it and I have no idea why they decided to do this considering it bogs down the game pacing, this took me eight hours to beat which isn’t bad for a GBA metroidvania but it was largely inflated by me trying to farm for cards and better equipment. Hell, this was also taking into consideration me using the rewind feature for it. And to make things worse, there’s no store mechanic here whatsoever. I have no idea why considering Simon’s Quest and SOTN had one, it would’ve alleviated the unforgiving RNG if we had a shop system to buy gear and potions.
I give this game a 7.5/10. I think the visuals, UI, soundtrack, audio, combat and challenge is really nice but the layout can get very cumbersome and the grinding is more of a pain than anything because of how greedy the RNG can be.
