Click to take a photo tour of Konami's E3 booth
I don't have to tell you how odd it is to see the Castlevania franchise make a leap into the 3D fighter space. It's not so much odd as it's completely unbelievable. Now, I'm willing to give anything the benefit of the doubt, and I did just that going into my play session. The first few minutes with the game weren't bad, but the longer I spent time with it, the more its flaws started to rise to the surface.
Within the demo build available here at E3, three characters were selectable. There was Simon, Alucard and Maria. Of all three fighters, Maria is by far the strongest. The Konami rep that was there with me during the session informed me that Konami knew of this issue with the balance and were working on it. But, this is just the first issue with a game full of them.
The biggest problem with Castlevania Judgment is that there just isn't any depth to the fighting. Each character has combos, albeit like two total (plain old waggle does normal attacks, holding B while waggling does strong attacks), along with a sub-weapon they can equip before being thrown into the fight. Using the sub-weapon is accomplished by hitting the A button, but the targeting on this is difficult. The Holy Water has a splash damage area, whereas the axe (these were the only two available sub-weapons during the demo) needed more specific aiming. You can also move your character around the 3D arena wherever, whenever with the Nunchuk's analog stick.
Now, it may be easy to write off the game based on the character redesigns alone (seriously, what were they thinking with those Alucard and Dracula character models?), but with some more time in the oven, I'm fairly sure that Konami could turn this into a fun fighter. As it stands now, though, here at E3, the game is very unpolished and needs to have the balance issues fixed. Also, it would be nice if the fighters had more fighting moves.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-17-2008 @ 3:49PM
Patius said...
Eh, it was just announced. The fact that they only had 3 characters to use just shows how its not very close to being done yet.
Give it time and it should turn out fine.
When was the last Castlevania game that was bad?
I think it was Castlevania 64 and that sequel.
Reply
7-17-2008 @ 4:00PM
Abscissa said...
"When was the last Castlevania game that was bad?"
Every non-portable Castlevania that was made after Symphony of the Night.
7-17-2008 @ 7:41PM
ChrisCanberg said...
Actually, not true.
Curse of Darkness was great. Lament of Innocence not so much. At all.
But Curse of Darkness ruled.
7-19-2008 @ 1:09AM
Abscissa said...
Man, I have SOOOO lost track of which "Castlevania: X of Y" game is which. I *think* what you're saying is "The one that was the second PS2 Castlevania (and the only one on XBox 1) was great and the first PS2 Castlevania...not so much", right?
If so, then I'll have to give that one a try. I tried the first PS2 Castlevania, and, well, I admit that I did kinda like it, but it just had absolutely no business being called "Castlevania". I skipped the next one because it sounded like just more of the same.
7-17-2008 @ 4:33PM
Demotruk said...
How many days ago did we hear about this?
Surely the build is bordering on a concept demo at this stage...
Reply
7-17-2008 @ 5:54PM
Josh said...
I don't believe a company would show off a game unless it is mostly representative of the final product, since first impressions are so important, so I don't believe the game is going to improve too much by the time it's released, unfortunately.
Reply
7-17-2008 @ 6:07PM
TWOO DEE said...
FRUIT FUCKER!
Reply
7-17-2008 @ 6:10PM
TWOO DEE said...
wrong article, pls delete mod, thx!
7-17-2008 @ 6:19PM
skoorbian92 said...
this is either going to go very well or very badly... just depends on the final prodcut... have faith, though! it's KONAMI
Reply
7-17-2008 @ 7:19PM
Hafk said...
I do actually hope this does go bad, and then IGA gets the boot on future projects.
Not that I hate IGA, but I just want a new creative talent behind the series. His last couple of games have been pretty boring for me (Portrait of Ruin and Curse of Darkness), and I just want to see someone else do a Castlevania game. Just one game with some new person.
I would also like for that new person to restore the maturity in the Castlevania series. Portrait of Ruin had terrible dialogue. Or better yet, no dialogue. SotN and CotM didn't have as many "cutscenes" as the last Castlevanias. In PoR, I felt that every 10 rooms, I would get into another drawn out conversation with terrible dialogue.
Don't get me wrong, I love the series. I have been playing since III. I just don't like seeing a franchise I like go downhill even further. Atleast Konami isn't ruining Gradius.
Reply
7-17-2008 @ 8:49PM
Shaq-Fu said...
After hearing IGA talk about it, im convinced it is an action game. Lets compare this to Street Fighter IV. Street Fighter doesn't give you 360 degree motion, you move left+right and up+down make you jump,crouch,or sidestep. In this game, you can run behind of somebody instead of repeatedly sidestepping. Street Fighter has 2D backgrounds that pretty much are there for show. IGA said you are able to go throughout the environment and pick up items and use them. So, it controls more like a battle in Zelda or Sands of Time
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 4:20AM
hvnlysoldr said...
It needs a Challenge mode where you compete to defeat a certain amount of enemies before beating your opponent.
Reply