Club Retro 2019: August - White Whales
Aug 19, 2019 18:31:59 GMT -5
Post by hooplehead on Aug 19, 2019 18:31:59 GMT -5
Knocked out another personal White Whale by the end of last week, but my mixed feelings on it led me to write a dissertation of a review. So, my apologies beforehand if you are at all interested in my thoughts on Circle of the Moon. In short, it was a pretty big disappointment. In long...
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Konami, 2001)
I always considered myself a fan of the Castlevania series, albeit with a pretty large asterisk — I’d never played any of the seven titles in the style of Igavania. Having conquered most of the tough-as-nails, linear action-oriented entries preceding the titles responsible for the “-vania” in Metroidvania, I thought Circle of the Moon would be the perfect entry point for me. After all, it features a character who played like the earlier entries and carries the torch for the tough-but-fair difficulty. Plus, this was the launch title that made me jealous of all my friends who owned the Gameboy Advance, which I missed out on all those years ago. Sounds like the perfect choice, right? Well, maybe not.
Developed by Konami’s KCEK team, whose only prior Castlevania games are the two much-maligned N64 installments, it turns out that Circle of the Moon is something of a polarizing title. Unlike the titles developed by Igarashi, Circle of the Moon aims to repurpose the principles of Classicvania for the structure of the Igavania games instead of simply embracing the changes Igarashi introduced along with that structure.
Developed by Konami’s KCEK team, whose only prior Castlevania games are the two much-maligned N64 installments, it turns out that Circle of the Moon is something of a polarizing title. Unlike the titles developed by Igarashi, Circle of the Moon aims to repurpose the principles of Classicvania for the structure of the Igavania games instead of simply embracing the changes Igarashi introduced along with that structure.
When I first gained control of the vampire hunter Nathan Graves, it was like stepping back into those familiar Castlevania shoes. You move slowly, your whip has a delayed wind-up, your jumps are weighted, and you’re knocked back when taking damage (at least when airborne). It makes each new enemy you encounter (of which there are many) a blast. I love the series’ signature strategic comat, requiring careful timing and spacing, which feels best when you’re in tight platforming and tricky combat sections. Luckily, this is the more than half of the game.
However, it becomes clear within mere minutes that such a control scheme isn’t built to sustain an 8 to 10 hour adventure where you explore an enormous castle. Thus, you’re almost immediately gifted with the double-jump and dash. Oddly enough, these are the only real additions to your movement for almost the entirety of the game. While the double-jump is pretty standard fare for the genre, the inclusion of the dash as an upgrade and not something you start the game off with was my first clue into the game’s questionable design decisions.
The most obvious knock against the dash is its implementation in the controls. Engaging the dash requires you to double-tap a direction instead of using a sprint button like most platformers. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Kirby also uses this set up. However, changing directions immediately disengages the dash and knocks you back to Nathan’s original crawl. Kirby, on the other hand, maintains his speed so long as some directional input is held. This quirk means you’ll be double-tapping like a fiend whenever you need to quickly change directions in order to dodge projectiles or zig-zag the many staircases of vertical rooms. The stutter step you take before the dash commences will often lead to you taking damage despite your best reaction time, and t’s simply annoying for your thumb. I thought that perhaps this choice was a byproduct of the Gameboy Advance’s limited buttons, but I quickly discovered that the R button is only used for the rarest of context situations. The abilities it does govern could have easily been mapped to a double-tap or some other configuration to allow for a more intuitive dash, which the game almost requires you to master.
Despite the dissertation on the dash, the woes of Nathan’s abilities don’t stop there. Knockback, which was cleverly used to increase the difficulty in Classicvania with bottomless pits, becomes an annoyance in the context of a sprawling adventure. The wall-jump, another staple ability for the genre, is so clunky and slow that it becomes useless outside of any of the obvious progression it’s the key for. Inventive and flexible abilities that not only allow for progression but double as upgrades for combat or traversal are a must for maintaining player interest in a Metroidvania. The majority of the abilities you unlock have no uses beyond obvious and lazy progression locks and don’t impact the gameplay in any way. Sub-weapons aren’t permanent additions that you can toggle through but are swapped at certain candles which hold only one specific sub-weapon. This might work in the linear levels of the past games, but it kills player agency in a Metroidvania. You often find yourself using only your whip for combat because the sub-weapon that would be useful for your current situation is nowhere to be found in the area you’re in. Any sort of options in tackling enemies or level hazards are taken out of the player’s control and left in the hands of RNG and the whims of the designers.
But the biggest problem lies in the games magic system - the DSS Cards. Basically, you have two sets of ten cards that you can find throughout the castle. One set of cards provides an ability while the other set provided a modifier. Their unique magical effects range from screen clearing attacks to stat buffs to weapons to replace your whip to summoned magical buddies. While most players online wanted them to overcome difficult enemies and bosses, I simply wanted variety beyond the standard Castlevania move set to spice up my 9 hour journey. Halfway through my playthrough, I’d only come across 4 of the 20 cards. Why? The cards aren’t hidden in set locations like key abilities are. Instead, they’re hidden behind rare drops from specific enemies. Even worse, there is no indication as to which enemies will drop what cards if they drop any cards at all. You just have to grind for them with rates hovering between 1% and 3%. While the equipment exists to increase your luck and these drop rates, it’s also locked behind similar rare drops. Even then, you’re only looking at a 3% increase at most. So, if you’re hoping for Nathan to acquire fun and interesting abilities along his journey to develop the gameplay along with your stats, you better be ready to spend over an hour grinding random drops. And it’ll take you even longer if you don’t look up a guide (as I did) to find out which enemies hold what cards so you aren’t aimlessly grinding enemies whose rarest items are equipment with weaker stats than what you already have. By the game’s completion, I still only had 9 cards, which is surprisingly above average for first playthroughs.
I could probably detour into how the RPG mechanics the game utilizes clash with the very design philosophy of a Metroidvania, but this review is already long enough. To put it succinctly, I find it quite uninteresting to be able to crush enemies who were once a challenge due to increased stats instead of crushing them via new items, abilities, and mechanics I’ve gained and mastered as a player.
Metroidvanias often live or die based on their level design. It’s no fun to explore and backtrack through areas that weren’t designed to facilitate traversing them in such a flexible manner. Circle of the Moon, in this regard, is a mixed bag. I should state that I do understand that the primary inspiration for Igarashi’s level design comes from Zelda and not Metroid. Circle of the Moon follows suit. The castle is segmented into designated chunks that branch off from the central area. After unlocking a new ability that allows access, you explore them in one go, much like you would a Zelda dungeon.
This is actually a great way to structure a Metroidvania. Metroid Prime 2 put this structure to great use. You always feel like you’re progressing, since each new area features a new central mechanic, new enemies, and a new visual and musical theme. Circle of the Moon occasionally achieves greatness with these areas. The game starts off on the right foot with the Catacombs, appropriately featuring a bevy of skeleton enemies and things like mud men to then be capped with a boss fight against Cerberus (who in mythology often guards the underworld). Other highlights included the Machine Tower, home to mechanically moving platforms and projectile enemies, the Chapel tower, home to fast enemies that thwart your climb to the boss, and the Underground Waterway, in which switches open and close a series of paths in some light puzzle solving. All of these areas function like tightly designed linear levels that feature just enough secrets and optional areas to feel at home in a Metroidvania. They also somehow manage to feel like real places given their layout within the castle. Not all of the areas are winners, though. In particular, the Underground Warehouse’s main mechanic involves slow and tedious block pushing “puzzles”, and the Observation Tower forces you to fight the tight screen real estate of the Gameboy Advance as you avoid large homing enemies whose status effect prevents you from attacking.
No matter how much I enjoyed going through a section on the critical path towards the ending, Circle of the Moon’s level design immediately falters whenever you decide to explore off the beaten path. Such exploration is only natural, as every newly available progression block is almost equally valid as hiding the new dungeon. Exploring quickly reveals how the way that some of these rooms are and aren’t connected is baffling. You can head down one hallway only to realize it leads to a dead end that only connects to the hallway above (where you need to go) only at the original room where the two hallways branched several rooms back. Returning to previous areas or entering them from a different vantage proves that they weren’t designed for flexible traversal. Since new movement abilities that allow for more interesting or more capable traversal don’t exist, the moving platforms of the Machine Tower or the enemies of the Chapel Tower become frustrations rather than fun tests of skills they were when you first encountered them. Sure, you can kill these enemies with one whip strike, but their attacks for one damage point still incur knockback. When your destination only hides a health/magic/ammo upgrade, you deflated. Grinding levels achieves the same stat boosting results. Suddenly, exploration - a key tenet of the Metroidvania genre - becomes dis-incentivized. And this is coming from someone who does not need extrinsic rewards for these types of games.
While Nathan’s controls and abilities and the level design seem to falter in as many areas as they succeed, there is one aspect to this game that is nearly without fault - the enemy and boss design. Even after you complete the final area before facing Dracula, the game still manages to throw new and difficult enemies your way. Even the game’s pallet swap enemies feature clever new attacks and enough differences to make you excited to take them on. It’s such a great feeling to discover a new enemy that you think can’t be overcome with the standard Castlevania moveset only for it to suddenly click and you defeat them without taking any damage. Enemies range from sentient suits of armor to actual devils to poison-spewing plant monsters to animate furniture to even bulls whose breath turns you to stone. The variety is impressive yet the game somehow manages to make each one feel at home in its setting. The bosses are also fantastic both in visual design and mechanical conception. Some of them, I’d even venture to say are among the best bosses I’ve ever fought in a Metroidvania. There is one boss that basically functions as the Dark Link to this game which felt more like a test of how well I mastered the dash function more than anything else, but all the rest are cream of the crop stuff. This is easily one of my favorite final bosses to a Castlevania.
If there is any fault to be found with the enemies, it’s that the designers seemed a little too happy with their own enemy designs that you’ll often come across hallways that feel copy and pasted four or even five times over with the same two or three enemies in the same pattern. I understand these likely exist for grinding purposes, but it still feels like a lazy choice.
Before I wrap things up, I do want to mention this is a pretty fantastic game for a Gameboy Advance launch title. It's sad that players had to struggle to appreciate the excellent visual design with those launch systems that lacked a back-light. Despite the system's limitations, the game manages a consistent and atmospheric art style that is full of character - remaining both distinct and right at home with the series. The music, on the other hand, needs no qualifier regarding the game's launch title status. It's easily one of the best soundtracks I've heard for the system, and stands tall among the great soundtracks the series has. If you don't play this one, at least give the soundtrack a run through. It's that good.
If you haven’t played this game and like the genre or the series, I’d recommend using a guide to avoid two of the bigger pitfalls in the game: first, to find out what enemies hold which cards (as well as equipment and health/magic/heart refills) so you know what you will need to grind, and second, so that you know the critical path to avoid wandering in a game that doesn’t feel designed to facilitate it. You’ll have a significantly better time with the game.
Even with all of the problems I encountered - some of which were nearly game-breaking for me at times - I’d still say that I liked Circle of the Moon overall. It’s actually the weakest Metroidvania of the dozen or so I’ve played, but it still has enough moments of greatness to be something that was worth playing. And there are enough choices unique to this game that seem emblematic of the series to continue on and see how Igarashi was able to craft games worthy of coining the term Metroidvania.
6/10
Up Next: Probably my last White Whale that I can tackle before the month is over - Symphony of the Night. Circle of the Moon almost killed my drive to take this one on so soon, but playing the opening hooked me right away. Excited to finally play such a classic.