Castlevania is perhaps one of the longest running game series. It also did not have much of a story aside from a character or troupe embarking on a trip to Wallachia, Transylvania to rid of Dracula who by now has to be recognized as one of the most idiotic villains in the videogame world (How the hell can such a revered figure lose big everytime he is reincarnated every one hundred years?). I have learned from the old days of Castlevania never to take Castlevania stories seriously. They never seem to produce anything substantial even though the writers at Konami think they have something epic going on.
Trudging through the Castlevania games have been a relatively happy one although there are a few Castlevania games I wish to forget. Castlevania 1 was maniacally difficult with Simon possessing such an incompetent jump of which the game was literally filled with jumping sequences. Castlevania 2, my personal favourite, took the series to a different direction and one that I welcome. It has its own problems but frankly, I could care less. There's been quite a few Castlevania games since then and most of them are fairly similar. I have played Castlevania 3, and Bloodlines from the old days, respectable efforts I'll say. But needless to say not different enough to make a very powerful impression except for characters they introduce.
I liked Circle of the Moon but I did not appreciate all that much the "SotN-ish" approach. By the time I played Harmony of Dissonance, I was sick of it. And every game I saw that used that same template, I have skipped. I wanted something desperately different. I had even gone as far as say the brand needs a reboot of sort. Really. It is getting pretty ridiculous with the things they are doing with it. Also, fire your artists, Konami.
Anyhow, Castlevania's journey into the 3D realm has not been a smooth one in comparison to other franchises like Super Mario 64, the Legend of Zelda, and Metroid Prime. Castlevania 64 was a decent game, but it was nothing to write about. When you have a game as tight as Super Mario 64, it is hard to see the things Konami did right with Castlevania 64. I thought a lot of problems of Castlevania 64 had been ironed out with Castlevania Legacy of Darkness, but it is a shame because the game is too late. Castlevania 64 should have been this game and that was not what we got. For all the good things Legacy of Darkness achieved, it was for naught. It was a decent action game, far better than Castlevania 64, but largely went out unnoticed and also was not a strong enough entry to have an impression on gamers.
Fast forward to a few months ago, Konami riding high with Order of Ecclesia (aka yet another SotN-ish game), unveiled the mother of shockers to Castlevania fans (and gamers) all over the world. The Wii Castlevania game is a fighting game. Unlike the rest of the world weeping over this circumstance, I found it to be very good news. I was going to get something different and it is going to get a release on a console I find to be a good system too. Castlevania Judgment was born. The scorn of the many, and apparently the only person defending the game is Igarashi. I'd like to think the day they unveiled Judgment to be the fateful day the game would be doomed to failure. It was not the game rabid fans were expecting, and ultimately, I believe that most of the gamers have already made up their mind about it. Such an unfortunate circumstance, but I applaud Igarashi for trying hard and pushing into very unknown grounds.
Castlevania Judgment released a few weeks ago and I had expected it to get murdered in reviews. It did. Most of the reviews slagged this off, and complained again and again. Castlevania Judgment will largely be seen as a travesty to the series, but I have spent an entire day plowing through the game and I find that I have been largely right to stick my nose through all the bad reviews and try it for myself. For the Wii, reviewers are more often than not the most unreliable source of information. And I have learned to trust my own instincts over games I like and would be interested playing. I always felt that I "got" what Iga wanted to produce.
Let us get something out right now. Castlevania Judgment has one of the most horrible art directions ever. There is no question about that. But that is just a piece of the entire pie. Sure that Eric Lecarde looks horrible in the game, but that should not be what negative reviews are about. They should ultimately be discussing what the game did right, what the game did wrong, and the entire discussion should make sense. Every negative review I read left me with the impression that they approached the game wrong. Think of it like playing Fallout 3 expecting it to be a shoot-fest action game.
That is not to say Judgment has issues because it does, but I happen to see that the issues it has does not greatly deter from what the focal point of the game is. It is not a great game by a long shot, but it is a fairly decent effort from Iga and co.
Castlevania Judgment is a fighting game more of the ilk of Powerstone but tuned to the non-frame counting, combo-system-analyzing folks. You want a full fledged fighting game, go knock on SNK's doorstep. This game is a very nice entry-level fighting game with some of the more complex concepts (guard crush, juggles, combo cancelling) tweaked for a more accessible take on the genre. Each character does not have a whole lot of moves to do and frankly, I like it that way. After a few practice runs on training, you would have figured out some basic strategy for most characters. I had a kick out of some of the combos I was doing, though at times it does feel a bit oversimplified.
The game gives you the option of playing with the Classical Controller, Wii remote nunchuck combination, and the Gamecube Controller. I have only tried the Gamecube controller. It was readily available and I decided to give it a try and it works very splendidly. I definitely do not miss using the Wii remote at all. One of the few Wii games to make me feel that way about the Cube controller.
The character designs, I repeat, are horrible. And I also feel the necessity to reiterate that Konami needs a dose of artist change. In fact, get someone like Alex Ross or Clyde Caldwell to supervise art direction. Missed opportunity also is that the characters are redesigned so drastically that whatever nostalgic effect they were throwing in with the, mind you very awesome soundtrack, is gone. Carmilla looks terrible. Eric Lecarde does not look good either. Grant Dynasty design gets murdered. There is a whole lot more characters that the redesigns get really wrong but I do not need to go through each one.
As I said earlier, the soundtrack is amazing. It still gives me goosebumps listening to the classic ones and playing the games with the songs tuned to the max is not a problem. I feel Konami poured the most work here and it does really show.
The gameplay itself does have issues. Balancing is a problem. Some characters are incredibly cheap while others seem like they do not really belong there. Camera issues do exist here, especially in the heat of the battle and your eyes get lost as to what is actually happening, but it is not insurmountable. In fact, after a while, you get used to it, though it is never really problem-free. The Powerstone style of fighting where you roam free running around the background is an intriguing concept but one that needs more time to develop. It is not that easy to determine distances between items and sometimes it is not easy to face your opponent you are trying to kill.
Lastly, the problem with Castlevania Judgment is one that is handed down from one game to another. The writing is incredibly bad. The dialogs are incredibly stupid. The voice acting is cringing (I switched the voice acting to Japanese so I could not understand a thing they were saying). And lastly, whatever plot Castlevania Judgment ever had is lost inbetween horrible banters from Aeon, and other pointless pre-fight dialogs each character has, most of which do not really make sense unless you are familiar with the Castlevania lore. Entry level? Definitely not an entry-level game from the Castlevania lore point of reference.
There is also multitudes of stuff to do, of which the Castle mode needs a special mention for being a very interesting spin to the already quirky twist Judgment is for the Castlevania series. Castle mode plays a bit like the traditional Castlevania game where you go room to room until you face Dracula. It can get tedious but it is a welcome addition. One problem I see is that there is no real sense of location with the castle as the backgrounds are fairly limited. I would have rather had save points more often than the "save room" style they lifted from the SotN games but well, what the heck. The core game works. It plays fine and there is good fun here, especially if you have the not-so-fanatical fighting gamers around for you to joust with.
I feel Judgment deserves a sequel so as it can really spread its wings and soar. But it will not get the chance. Because everyone had already made up their minds on the game, most of them having not even been able to play it. It is a shame, but Iga should have known the sharks he was going to wade through to get this game out. Me personally, please give it another go, Iga. This is a welcome addition to the series. And I hope gamers keep an open mind and try it. It may not be a game everyone will love, but you will never know if it is from just reading at some media reviewer hacking away at his computer.
