Hey, what's up? Wes here, thanks a lot for tuning in.
So, I recently played through Castlevania 64 after not touching it for eighteen years,
basically because I completely despised it, and it was actually the subject of my latest
episode of 'I Haven't Played This Game in Years'.
In fact, it seems like I just reviewed it yesterday….
"The camera will even turn on you in mid-jump.
C'mon! Gimmie a fuckin' break!"
"Oh, good lord!"
"Let's be honest here.
A game that's challenging because of broken cameras and terrible jumping mechanics is
not a good game.
These faults stick out horribly like a gangrenous thumb, and arguably ruins the entire experience."
Anyway, Castlevania 64, back in the day is the reason why I completely avoided Legacy of
Darkness like it were church, and I actually enjoyed Castlevania 64 a lot more this time
around, so it encouraged me to pick up Legacy of Darkness—and I got a helluva deal on
it, too.
So, is it as good as Castlevania 64?
Is it better?
Is it worse?
How does it hold up?
Let's take a look.
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness was released in North America on November 30th, 1999—only
ten short months after the original Castlevania was for the Nintendo 64.
Legacy of Darkness resembles more of what the developers at Konami had originally envisioned
with Castlevania 64—including a campaign starring a man-wolf named Cornell, which was
scrapped from the initial game to avoid release delays.
Cornell arrives at his hometown only to find it engulfed in flames, and his adoptive sister,
Ada, kidnapped, in order to be used as a sacrifice to resurrect Dracula.
Cornell retrieves her pendant, and using his wolf abilities, tracks Ada by her scent.
Cornell's adventure takes place eight years before Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez's,
and serves as a prequel to Castlevania 64.
The quest begins with Cornell embarking on a haunted ship en route to Wallachia, where
we reach familiar ground in a remade setting of Castlevania 64's first stage.
Legacy of Darkness utilizes Nintendo's Expansion Pak, culminating in crisper and sharper visuals,
while at the same time, unfortunately, compromising the game's frame-rate, resulting in some
choppy gameplay.
This bothered the hell out of me initially, but the game does allows you to select high
or low resolution each time you turn the system on.
Playing in low resolution fixes the frame-rate issue, but unfortunately, the fog which plagued
Castlevania 64 is abundantly present here as well, and I decided that the choppy frame-rate
was the lesser of two evils.
Here's a side-by-side comparison.
What do you think?
The forest is aesthetically comparable to its Castlevania 64 counterpart, but that's
where the similarities end.
The layouts are completely different, making it much easier to navigate this time around.
The enemies consist of the same skeletons with additional baddies present, such as fishmen,
and the boss is the same from Castlevania 64 with slightly different attacks.
The next stage is a return to the castle wall where you can, oh my god, adjust the camera!
Hallelujah!
It's amazing how much a difference a somewhat, efficiently functioning camera can make in
a game.
The camera is such a huge improvement over its predecessor; that the difference is night
and day.
If you hated the camera in Castlevania 64 like I did, then you'll be absolutely ecstatic
to know that it's been fixed here.
While not perfect by any means, compared to how broken it was before, I can't really
complain.
Many of the stages in Castlevania 64 return in this one, and while some of those have
been completely overhauled—including the Duel Tower, thank god—some remain exactly
the same, such as the Villa.
Since the game takes place eight years prior to that of its predecessor, Legacy of Darkness
requires new puzzles to be solved, and new obstacles to overcome.
While Castlevania 64 consists of ten stages, it would seem extremely cheap if Legacy had
the same amount, with many of them just being rehashes.
Put those concerns at ease, cuz Cornell's campaign is made up of fourteen stages, with
several new and refreshing maps such as The Outer Wall, and the extremely disorienting
Tower of Ruins.
I actually had to draw a map to get through this stage.
Yeah, a map.
When was the last time I had to draw a map for a game?
Sure it looks janky as hell, but hey, I couldn't have made it through this stage without it.
While many of the settings are the same as that of Castlevania 64, the stages are "remixed"
enough to where it feels like completely different levels.
While I do prefer some of the layouts in parts of the original stages versus the new ones,
ultimately the sacrifice of a halfway decent camera from the original annuls the sometimes
less-favorable layouts of the newer stages.
It's really no contest.
For me, gameplay will always supersede somewhat more desirable maps.
Legacy of Darkness, while for the most part is almost a 100% improvement over its predecessor,
for some reason decided to fix one of the few things that Castlevania 64 actually got
right.
In Castlevania 64, the lock-on feature will automatically home in on the nearest enemy,
regardless of which direction you're facing.
Not anymore.
In Legacy, you have to be facing the enemy nearest to you in order to lock-on.
While this isn't that big of a deal, it does soil one of the few pearls that can be
unearthed from a mountain of shit that makes up a majority of Castlevania 64.
Growing up with a father whose favorite hobby was to fix things that weren't broken, I
have a profound disdain for the "If it ain't broke, fix it" mentality.
But hey, that's just me.
One thing that Legacy did get right though, is adding some new music tracks to the game,
including a remixed version of one my all-time favorite Castlevania tunes, "The Sinking
Old Sanctuary", which first appeared in Bloodlines.
The bosses are also changed up from the original, with Cornell at one point confronting his
long-time acquaintance and rival, Ortega.
His boss battle replaces the encounter between Death and Reinhardt on top of the clock tower,
with Ortega transforming into a bloodthirsty chimera.
The Clock Tower is like three times the size of the original, with brand new obstacles
to overcome.
Thankfully, the save crystals in Legacy of Darkness are generously placed throughout
the game, as opposed to Castlevania 64.
Notch one more improvement for Legacy.
Add another with the ability to now power up your sub weapons up to three times stronger
than when initially obtained.
Now that's Castlevania!
And seeing as Cornell is a man-beast, the ability to transform into a wolf using the
L button can also be utilized here.
Now, if I didn't have the instruction manual, I would've never known that this feature
even existed since nowhere in the game does it tell you that you can do this.
Since it completely drains you of your crystals, which is the ammo for your sub-weapons, I
never used it, except for the final boss.
While Konami should have figured out a better way to use what could have otherwise been
a really cool additional gameplay mechanic, taking wolf-form unfortunately is a big swing
and a miss.
But like I said, I may have never known about it to begin with, so it's not really a big
deal at all.
And that's Castlevania Legacy of Darkness.
The game that Castlevania 64 should've been.
If you're only gonna play one of these games, Legacy of Darkness is definitely the way to
go.
Wait!
Where are you going?
There's more.
A shit-ton more.
After completing Legacy of Darkness with Cornell, you then unlock Henry, a child rescued earlier
in Cornell's campaign.
Henry returns as an adult, festooned with armor and packing heat.
How awesome is it running through Wallachia blasting monsters back to hell with a six-shooter?!
Pretty freakin' sweet, let me tell ya. Henry is set on a quest to rescue six children hidden
throughout as many stages, with a time limit of seven days to complete.
The children are cleverly hidden, and each youngling you save unlocks a new feature in
the game, including Reinhardt and Carrie's campaigns.
That's right.
Basically the entirety of Castlevania 64 is packed within Legacy of Darkness' tiny cart,
with the original stages replaced with the remixed ones, of course.
Reinhardt's quest throughout the dark caves is present here, now with a boss battle against
against a giant spider.
Carrie's plight through the Waterway is here as well, as is her climb up the Tower
of Science.
And some of our favorites return as well, such as—
Let's not start that shit again!
Castlevania Legacy of Darkness is what Castlevania 64 should've been.
Konami scrapped Cornell and Henry from the original in order to shit out an unpolished
product to appease ravenous fans and critics alike, who had been waiting patiently through
delay after delay to get their hands on Castlevania's first foray into the 3D realm.
In a practice that would become commonplace for Konami in the ensuing years, they screwed
over their loyal fanbase and unloaded a huge dump upon us, and then rectified that mess
with the game that they had originally intended—at full price!
C'mon, Konami!
I would have loved to have seen Konami take full responsibility for this disaster, by
exchanging copies of Castlevania 64 for Legacy of Darkness, plus a small fee of course, to
give the fans what they had truly deserved from the beginning.
Of course, Dracula would've had a better chance with a holiday in the sun than that
ever happening, but what the hell?
I could use yet another reason to resent Konami wholeheartedly.
Meh, whatever.
It's in the past now.
But make no bones about it.
If you only want to experience one Castlevania game on the Nintendo 64, make sure that it's
Legacy of Darkness.
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is a great game!
Everything that was wrong with Castlevania 64 was pretty much fixed here.
So, this is definitely the way to go.
If you avoided Legacy of Darkness like I did, because you didn't want to go through another
Castlevania 64, don't worry, this one is WAY better.
Way better.
So, if you've played Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, what do you think of it?
I highly recommend it.
If you're a Castlevania fan and haven't played it yet, take a look at this one.
It's pretty good.
So anyway, thanks a lot for checking out this review, I hope you enjoyed it.
Until next time, I will catch you all later.
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