Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003) Game Review

I wasn't really sure what to expect with Castlevania lament of innocence. I don't ever remember playing any other Castlevania games so as far as I know this was my first experience. At first I was a little concerned with the controls but I mastered them very quickly. The most difficult part with the controls is learning to use your magic relics. To be honest I went through almost the whole game with only using them very little. I also had a little bit of trouble where in certain areas you must jump up in the air and use your whip to attach to the railing and pull yourself over to reveal another room or secret power ups. So when you come to the point early on in the game where they teach you how to do that you might want to spend a little bit of time practicing if it troubles you because there are a lot of areas where you must use this technique to further your cause.

As for the gameplay itself I was very pleased. It reminded me a lot of playing god of war, sure you're alchemy whip is not the blades of chaos but the gameplay for me was very similar. I really like the way you save on lament of innocence. I also like that there's no real set path that you must take. There are five different monsters that you must defeat before you can make it to the evil vampire Walter. So basically that means you have to go through five levels before you can enter the final level. As I said before you can do the five levels in any order you want. One of the few problems I have with the game is that even after you complete a level there are still locked doors that you're unable to get into. You'll find these keys on other levels and usually the door unlocks a relic or something else that is supposedly useful to you. I really like the idea of having the relics there to use but you don't really need them to complete the game. There are a few like the wolf's foot that allow you to access areas you couldn't otherwise but I don't think any of the areas are vital to completing the game. I just think there could have been a better way to integrate the relics into the gameplay. I did manage to find all of the relics and actually completed the game at 100% which is something I don't do very often.

There were also several weapons at your disposal such as a knife, cross, holy water, Magic Jewell's and my favorite the axe which I thought complemented the whip the best. By defeating each enemy you receive a different colored orb and occasionally a new whip which include a fire whip the ice whip and the lightning whip to give you four whips in all to choose from. Each doing different damage depending on the enemy. Some enemies might even be immune to your attacks. Such as flaming swords being immune to the fire whip. As for the orbs, each orb gives your sub weapons a different and unique use such as with the axe one orb gives you a boomerang effect while another will throw axes in all directions.

None of the boss fights are really all that difficult except for Walter but that's only because after you defeat Walter you must fight death also so it's like you're fighting two boss fights back to back. So you might want to make sure you go in with lots of health potions or else you're going to end up getting really close but no cigar. I found death to be much harder than Walter. After defeating Walter and death you can then travel down to the bowels of the castle to face the forgotten one a bonus boss. The forgotten one is an enormous demon which you must face in three sections first the body which is not difficult at all. Second is the chest were you have to watch out for one of his arms which will either swipe at you or drop poisonous blood on you. Third is the head which has basically one attack and that's shooting flames out of his mouth at you and you must hide behind these rocks temporarily until it stops long enough for you to attack him. Again you're going to need lots of health potions if you plan on making it past this boss.

Overall for me it was a very entertaining experience. The music really set the tone and reminded me of all of the old Transylvanian vampire movies all of us horror fans grew up on. Although if you're a hard-core gamer who really likes to be challenged Castlevania might be a little too easy. For me that is not a bad thing because I actually made it through a game without having to really use a walk-through. However I did use a cheat to get the max amount of health potions to fight Walter/Death and the forgotten one. That being said there are a few tweaks that could be made to make the game better. Like I said before the relics didn't really come into play very much. Some of them should have been required to defeat bosses, meaning without them you couldn't pass that stage. The way it is now retrieving the relics just seem like pointless task for the most part. Although in the end what matters the most is that I had a lot of fun playing the game and that's the whole point in playing to begin with. So if this type of game is your cup of tea then I suggest you try Castlevania lament of innocence.