A blog for those who love 2D games.
By Video_Game_King 43 Comments
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
(Is it possible to hate this game?) Seriously, if you don't like Symphony of the Night, raise your hand, right now. Go ahead, there's no j-*shoots people who raise their hands* That's better. Now for those who weren't...um....killed...byyyyyy.......Dracula's forces, I'll begin my review by saying that I played the Sega Saturn version. What this means is that although there were things like new weapons, areas, and playable characters, I had to experience all of this in Japanese. Keep in mind that I actually had to look up the phrase "watashi wa" on Wikipedia. That should tell you how much Japanese I know.Fortunately, I've played the game before, so at least I had an idea as to what was going on. It's the late 18th century, and a Belmont has killed Dracula in a manner that doesn't come off as a complete misnomer (because this was the Japanese version). However, four years later, we find out that this particular Belmont (Richter) was absolute crap at his job; not only did he not kill Dracula, but now he's under his control. And as if that wasn't embarrassing enough, Dracula's bastard son must now rescue him. The only thing that could be more embarrasing would be if Richter's girlfriend became horny for this Dracula sp....wait, she does. Pathetic. Anyway, being Dracula's son, Alucard has all the traditional powers of a vampire, like turning into a bat, a....wolf, or...a...poisonous fart? What the hell, am I playing as a vampire or a Wonder Twin?
The weirdness doesn't end there, though; Alucard has to collect the items that give him these powers, bat included. They're scattered throughout the castle in non-linear fashion, kind of like Metroid. So we have plenty of motivation to explore the castle, aside from the fact that it's really fun. It is, I'm not even joking; there were times when I'd just roam Castlevania with total disregard for any goals I had at the time. Granted, I eventually got back to the main quest after a long stint of plundering Dracula's house, but it's not like the game prevented me from dicking around. Instead, like any good Metroidvania game, it gives you a bunch of neat toys and lets you explore to your hearts content.
As should have been obvious before this review, there's a second castle, and guess what? It's upside down. This may sound a cheap way of artificially lengthening the game, but the reality is that while your experiences in the previous castle can help you plunder the inverted bastion, for the most part, it feels like a completely different environment. There are new weapons, power-ups and you can explore completely at your leisure (unlike the first castle, which placed a few limits on your exploration for most of the time). All of this, when combined with the other playable characters and unlockables, mean Symphony of the Night will last a long time.
So why didn't I give the game a perfect 10?....That's a good question, as there aren't any major flaws with the game. Sure, items are harder to use than they should be (go to menu, equip item, go back to game, use item, go back to menu, equip what you had before) and shields are completely useless, but those aren't enough to knock the game down to the 8.8 I gave it. I don't know, I guess it falls into "that" category of games. The subset of video games that have no major flaws or hinderances, but aren't perfect. Prince of Persia, NiGHTS, Dynamite Headdy, Dragon Warrior III, take your pick. They're all the same, in that regard. I should know, I've reviewed them all and given them awards. This game, too, but I'll do it again: Mega Man/Tomb Raider/Sonic Award for Continued Abuse. OK, in all fairness, this one's personal; SOTN used to be in my Top 10 games, but after some thought, it got demoted to #20. Still in the Top 20 games, that's an honor, isn't it? Well, Panzer Dragoon Saga was so awesome in every way, it bumped every game below it down one position. Now Symphony of the Night isn't even in the Top 20. You have to feel sorry for it at this point.
Review Synopsis
- Two large castles to plunder!? Take that, Metroid!
- Alucard has a variety of weapons and special forms with which he can destroy anything in his way.
- New areas, scenario changes, and a playable Maria should be enough reason to import this for your Saturn.
I know it's extremely late for bad economy jokes (jokes about the poor state of the economy, not low quality jokes about the current economic atmosphere), but I'll make one anyway: GM's image is so poor, nobody wants to see it. Not even Capcom.
Mega Man X6
(*sigh*) Do you know how many Mega Man games I've reviewed here, not counting this one? Six. Six Mega Man games, and it's getting harder and harder to recycle the same thing in these blogs. I have no problem playing the games, but as I just said, reviewing them is where things get difficult. Mega Man X6 is no exception. OK, it did surprise me in one place: the story. Imagine my surprise when I started the game and was greeted by Japanese voicework. I thought I accidentally obtained the Japanese version, but no, it was the American version. Can somebody explain this to me, because I couldn't find anything about it anywhere.Localization issues aside, X6's story is standard fare: it's three weeks after the events of X5, and already shit has hit the fan. Somebody named Gate is promising the same Nazi "Reploids are better than humans" crap that we saw in X4, and X has to stop it again. Also making a return from X4 is, drum roll....Sigma! Yes, despite permanently dying off in X5, he makes a predictable return in the sequel, meaning X sucks worse at his job than Richter could ever hope to. Other than that, there's not much I can say about the story other than "this sentence is a sort of proof of what I mentioned earlier."
To expand on the previous statement, I cite as evidence the gameplay. It's the usual "pick boss, get weapon, repeat for weakness" thing that they've been doing for years now, that goes without saying. However, unlike several other games in the series (I'm looking at you, Mega Man 4), this game at least tries to make the connections logical, like fire beats ice, ice beats "rain", rain beats anchor...look, I said it tries. That's something Mega Man X6 does a lot: trying new things with mixed success. For example, there's now an experience system. There are certain enemies that, when killed, give off an orb that gives you a certain amount of experience. What do you get from the experience? Actually, I never really figured that out. I'd imagine it's "stronger attacks and more HP" but you still have to collect hearts and armor parts and a third thing that rhymes with the previous two terms.
Oh, and if you don't collect the orb in time, the enemy you just killed comes back to life, with full health. Like another Capcom platformer, Mega Man X6 can be extremely cheap at times. Bosses can spam shots, jumps can be impossible, and enemies can (and often will) regenerate when you leave the screen. That last one may not sound like much, but it gets really annoying when you kill one enemy, get knocked back by the shot of another, and are now fighting two at the same time. Or you could be trying to rescue one of your Reploid friends, but an enemy will possess him and destroy all hopes of getting that cool item (or even recovering HP).
That's another big feature in this game: rescuing your friends. Yea, I know it was also in Mega Man X5, but in X6, things are more fleshed out. Instead of rescuing the occassional refugee, you must now save enough Reploids to fill the bus they probably crashed on their way to the level. When you rescue them, they give you an item and a slight HP boost, and then leave. It's a good feature that makes the game somewhat easier to manage, and the only complaints I have for it can be categorized under other sections, like the aforementioned ball-busting difficulty. Other than that, I don't have anything to say about this game that I haven't said about other Mega Man games. It's hard, you pick a boss, you collect armor, blah blah blah. I'll end this with the Pigmask Award for Lack of Any Individuality.
Review Synopsis
- Sigma's back, you have to beat 8 Mavericks, what else is not new?
- The new rescue feature is actually fleshed out and put to good use.
- I could understand the Japanese voice acting for Symphony of the Night; here, it just confuses me.