Castlevania - Nintendo 64 Review - Ultra HDMI - HD

[Music] the Castlevania series is perhaps one of the most well-loved series of all Titan it also surprised them that we had to wait so long to get a Castlevania game on the Nintendo 64 even more surprising considering how many games Konami released in the console before they pulled an ace from their sleeve and announced that for the very first time the series would be entering the third dimension developed and published by Konami in 1999 in all regions Castlevania was in development for over two years and it's fair to say it didn't go smoothly development of the game was dealt with by Konami zko based studio and the game was teased as Castlevania 64 at the 1997 Tokyo Game Show with an infamous trailer which caught everyone's attention it said that by September of 1997 the game was still only ten percent complete and it took a further five months to reach 20 percent and it began to go by the name of Dracula 3d at this point at the following year's Tokyo Game Show the game did have some playable levels and was well received by those in attendance but the biggest problem was just how far the game was behind in development the original intention for the game was to have four playable characters who storylines would into wine with one another to create one final epic finale each character had their own story path and ending but you'd only been able to see the full ending when the game was completed with all four characters realizing this complex mechanic and creating four story lines was causing the delays Konami made a decision to cut two of the characters from the game in order to streamline the development and also to be in a position where they could announce a release date they were however able to revisit this idea with legacy of Darkness which I'll come to in another review now off the bat this game isn't Symphony of the Night which is the vastly superior title while Castlevania offers is an alternative experience and so whilst many people will often say the PlayStation got the superior game which I will agree with not to say that there's nothing redeeming to play here her story begins with Dracula awakening in 1852 after around 60 years due to rising horrors of mankind in the world to hero cents his return and no surprise there the two characters are you'll get to choose from Reinhardt is the heir to the old Belmont clan of vampire hunters and Cary Fernandez has magical powers which he plans to use for the good of the world they both sell for Transylvania and so your quest begins and whilst I personally enjoyed the overall story which is packed with twists and turns I felt that more could have been done to flesh out the characters backstories also characters take similar paths at time with their own stages along the way I personally would have liked perhaps a prologue style level to start their journeys in the actual village below Castlevania where you could interact with NPC's to get a better sense of the peril that awaits you Castlevania instead drops you straight into the action from the moment you play now this could be a throwback to the older Castlevania titles which were much more linear experiences but with the added abilities of developing for the console it seems to have been a missed opportunity to really inject some sense of purpose at the start of the game on a positive note however the opening level does a really great job of thrusting you into learning your characters combat mechanics and I can't think of any other game which throws you up against a mini boss so quickly the story does develop during the game as you come across various characters you'll aid you in your quest and each other character has two different endings dependent on your own progression through the game avoiding spoilers which I know you all hate I will say that the game is worth playing through at least once with each character as a minimum and so the amount of gameplay you'll get from the title makes it a worthwhile payoff whilst at first glance a game appears to be a simple platformer action game the gameplay is often broken up with some RPG like elements at various points in the game the action will take a backseat whilst you need to explore your surroundings to gather information from characters solve some fairly basic puzzles and to find items to open up your next heir whilst I may be alone in this thought I'd also say there is some basic survival horror elements - again there are times in the game where you'll either be trapped or locked in an area and you'll be unable to leave until you've killed all of the enemies around you of course the sense of anxiety can be reduced if you've stocked up on power-ups which you can buy from Renan here is a demonic salesman and stocking up is something that I suggest you do because perhaps the items he has available for sale will greatly aid you in your quest most notably by him selling purification items in the game you'll often come across vampire enemies or not only want to beat you to a pulp they'll also want to suck your blood once they latch onto you you have a limited amount of time to shake them off before you yourself will become infected being infected limits your abilities and starts a countdown before you'll become one of them fully and the game will be over you'll also be able to pick up Sun and Moon cards from Renan which play an important part in the game as the game progresses it cycles through a day and night cycle and certain events in the game can only the action at specific times of day this could be something as simple as being able to move a block or open a door but other storylines specific events will only take place at the right time of day take for example when you need to meet Rosa in the villa she's the beautiful vampire who is fully aware of what she's become and lives in turmoil contemplating her existence being a vampire she will not be around during the daytime and so in order to meet her you'll either need to hang around until nightfall or use a moon card to turn the day into night to speak to her in the courtyard whilst it may sound tedious on paper in reality it's often dealt with perfectly and in another cool twist the game is also counting how many days it takes you to reach Dracula I won't make any spoilers again but let's just say the quickie gets it Dracula the more epic the game's finale is again it's another reason for multiple playthroughs and if you don't quite manage to snag the good ending in the game it gives you a reason to go back and play the entire experience from start to finish once more I also really enjoyed the combat in the game you have your core weapons which are the whip with Reinhart and magic with carry as well as a secondary melee weapon another projectile weapons you can pick up during the game there's also power-ups to collect to improve your attack damage and red jewels which you'll need to keep a good stock off to UC project our weapons sadly though the North American and Powell versions of the game don't have on cart saves and so you will need to be using a memory pack when playing this title with 14 stages across the two characters in the game there's plenty of action in varying environments backtracking is also limited in its use and so the game continually feels fresh in terms of the area's you'll be playing in and the pacing of the game from start to finish is fairly good what makes the game slow down at times however are the challenging platform sections at far too many points in the game there are areas which will require pinpoint jumping without a double jump in the game it's a case of one mistake and you often falling many levels to your death or ending up in a pool of toxic liquid which leads their game over screen I urge you to watch some of the many speedruns of this game which is still very popular to this day and they'll give you a whole sense of appreciation for how good they are once you've tried this game yourself there are also some glaring things which Konami missed the boat on such as having note areas where you'll use Reinhardt's whip to cross larger areas we did get our fix for that with Indiana Jones on the n64 but this is a staple of the series and something that many long-term fans would have expected and it seems an odd decision that they didn't make use of this likewise targeting enemies is based on the area that you're facing Zelda like lock-on system would have been ideal here and many times you'll be attacking the wrong enemy simply because a lock-on isn't selecting the enemy that you actually want to attack also previous tile for capturing the Gothic style and the cool and creative enemies then again some of these are updates to 2d favorites the actual graphics in the game seem out of place for a 1999 release there's no expansion pack support so the textures are standard resolution and sadly that means the entire game has quite a look to it now this is common with n64 games as we know but Konami were one of the worst culprits for this with all of their titles on the console they never really seem to get to grips with how to get the system strength into their games framerate to take a hit with multiple enemies on the screen and there's fogging to mask out areas now the fogging actually works really well in the external areas as adds a sense of atmosphere but internally it doesn't work and combined with a small amount of pop up it drags down the overall package I do though think that the graphics get better as the game progresses and there are some pretty awesome-looking areas later in the game but it's the bosses where I feel the game really delivers in the Castlevania feel they are quite honestly awesome and very fun to play now they aren't overly difficult until the end of the game at least but they do create huge epic battles where the bosses can at times fill the entire screen it helps add a sense of scale and there are some occasional lighting effects to further enhance of visuals but sadly not quite enough of them to make the game feel as scary as it part should have been the game's audio will divide opinion just as much as the actual game itself my opinion is that the soundtrack is excellent but as you may know from other reviews I've done I tend to prefer and get a kick out of more ambient scores and I prefer a limited use of epic pieces of music in games Castlevania delivers for me in that regard and some areas in the game even having no music whatsoever leaving you with just the sound effects to build attention and atmosphere the effects are superbly done and like some of my other favorite Konami games like Hybrid heaven and the goemon games they have a great job here of creating the effects which sound clear and are of a higher quality there will be some long-term Castlevania fans that will be disappointed with the music though many of the classic Castlevania pieces of music which we all know and love and not present here this may seem like a strange choice and perhaps it is but I personally feel that this was to set the game apart as its own start of a new series of 3d Castlevania games it wanted to create his own classical pieces which I think it missed the boat on full but that's only because the 8 and 16-bit games were such instant classics in terms of their music there must be fans of this soundtrack like me however because the game's soundtrack did get a CD release in Japan and with over an hour's worth of music is worth seeking out for any castlevania collectors all those that like a more subtle soundtrack than allowed in your face style when you first hear the opposing bloodlines violin piece of music in the game's opening sequence you'll pretty much know what to expect for the rest of the game overall though Castlevania is a very enjoyable game you'll just need to manage your expectations like many franchises which jump from 2d to 3d at the time the game does a great job but it never quite mastered the transition what you're left with is a game which does I feel or it can't have become the 3d Castlevania that people wanted and I think had Symphony of the Night not being released years before or if it hadn't have actually been that great then Castlevania on the n64 would be more fondly remembered the game did receive generally positive reviews and it's launched and whilst many reviews of the time were disappointed that two characters were pulled from the game they said that their worries about the game's long development problems were unfounded the fiddly camera in the game is a constant battle which they all picked up on and I admit it that they will cause you lots of death throughout the entire game however I feel that if you play a lot of early 3d titles and this is something that you'll have already been accustomed to and you may be able to work through as you progress through the game with branching storylines multiple endings cool character many me designs as well as some awesome cinematic storyline twists I can't help but recommend Castlevania the problem is however is that legacy of Darkness is the true Castlevania to play on the n64 now I'll eventually get around to covering that but had Castlevania being the only n64 release it would have been an instant buy for anyone looking for a cool horror adventure title with a legacy of Darkness though you may want to hold off purchasing for another time until I've covered that game because as I said that is the more vastly superior title and so for today's topic of conversation I'd love to know your favorite Castlevania game on any platform whilst I love the orig or I also enjoyed the new releases which are no also divided opinion and also love to know who your favorite characters to play as in this game is I'm guessing for many it will be Carrie who is the speedrunners choice but I personally always found Reinhart the more interesting character but as always thank you for watching and until next time

Channel: N64 Glenn Plant

Views: 81,554

Keywords: castlevania, castlevania 64, review, legacy of darkness, nintendo 64, n64, n64dd, konami, violin, theme, song, music, soundtrack, speedrun, walkthrough, long play, nes, snes, symphony of the night, dracula x, rondo of blood, super castlevania, trailer, bloody tears, netflix, episode, season, requiem, ost, vampire killer, final boss, bosses, avgn, intro, opening, dracula, carrie, reinhardt, xbox, xbox one, kojima, lords of shadow, beta

Id: 8mwlGatuHoo

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 23 2018