E3 2003: Castlevania Hands-On

Koji Igarashi brings the legendary Castlevania series into 3D, properly. Check out our impressions from the show.

Castlevania for the PS2 was one of the most exhilirating and extremely polished games at E3. Sporting beautifully detailed graphics and lighting effects, along with great gameplay and wonderfully memorable music. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence was everything that the past 3D Castlevanias SHOULD have been but wasn't.

I've always been a big Konami fan. But after mediocre, outsourced versions of Castlevania and the cancelled Dreamcast version, it seems the only time KCEJ would make a grand effort with this franchise is on the PS2. If released on any other next-gen console, I doubt Lament of Innocence would have looked, played, or sounded as good as it does.

Behind the development of Lament of Innocence is the producer and father of the Castlevania series, Koji Igarashi, and his Castlevania team responsible for Symphony of the Night, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. With this being their first attempt at a 3D Castlevania, it's about time the series was reinvented and properly introduced to the next-gen.

The storyline takes place in 11th century Transylvania and revolves around the main character, Leon Belmont, a nobleman who happens to be the forefather of the legendary Belmont clan, and the first of them to embark on the business of vampire hunting. Leon, who is engaged to his beloved Sara soon finds out that the life of a Belmont is never really an easy one as she vanishes one evening. Not willing to live without her, Leon embarks on a journey to rescue his fiancée, a journey that eventually finds him within the walls of Dracula's terrifying castle.

Armed at first with just a dagger and then later equipped with a protective whip, Leon begins his journey into the unknown in hopes of rescuing his beloved Sara so they can live as happily ever after as fate will allow for a Belmont.

After entering Dracula's castle, Leon will be faced with five doors, each one leading him into darker more dangerous areas of the Castle with over 35 of Dracula's minions thrown his way. Utilizing his trusty ol whip, Leon has the ability to combine his whip and five sub-weapons to unleash powerful magical attacks upon the evil that inhabits the castle.

There's also the option to combine seven orbs with the 10 action relics in the game to dish out powerful soul searing attacks on Dracula's army of darkness and reach Dracula's lair for their final battle.

With the storyline set so far back into the past, and as the prequel to the series, Lament of Innocence will finally reveal the history of the Belmont family and Dracula from the very beginning.

Visually, the game was quite pleasing to the eye. Containing some very clean, nicely detailed and well textured graphics, great lighting effects and smooth animations throughout, the game's visuals were just a sight to behold. The character of Leon is modeled quite well, with intricate little details decorating his garment. I just loved the overall visuals of the game, they had a gothic, Devil May Cry look about them but on a somewhat smaller looking scale. Fans who have been wishing for a Castlevania game using the Devil May Cry engine will surely be pleased with this offering.

When I first stumbled onto the game and took it for a spin, I thought for a second that I was playing a Devil May Cry sequel. The gameplay and static camera views were quite similar in ways. In fact, had it not been for the lack of guns, I felt it could easily pass as a sequel.

The music was also great as it contained the classic Konami musical trademarks of catchy melodies and upbeat tempos, things that I've always loved about Konami game music in general and what makes Konami one of my top 4 favorite companies in the game music department along with Sega, Falcom JDK Band and Namco. The music had a thick, phase effects treated synth sound, similar to some of the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night music with a similarly treated guitar sound welcoming players to the latest installment of the Vampire slaying series. Fans of the Symphony of the Night soundtrack should be quite pleased with the music in Lament of Innocence.

The classic Castlevania gameplay formula, while not in 2D side scrolling form as most fans wished fo, still translated very well into the 3D world THIS time around! In this new version of Castlevania, players will do battle against evil by not only using their classical vampire slaying whip, but also string together combo attacks that'll result in even more damage done to the unsavory groups of undead blood suckers.

You'll be wearing out your whip on the hides of 35 different types of enemies in the game, and with a control scheme that doesn't include a convenient auto targeting feature, you'll be swinging that whip all around you in every direction like a maniac as hordes and hordes of enemy creatures surround you from all angles and close in for the kill.

The controls were pretty basic and easy to pick up right away. There was the basic whip attack, jumping, and the option to perform the cool attack combos. The game also had an interesting and cool, but albeit annoying item & weapon collection system which reminded me a little bit of the Resident Evil series. You can collect sub-weapons and various other items throughout the game, but only one item or sub-weapon can be carried at a time, so picking up one item will cause the other to be dropped and vice versa.

The difficulty level of the demo was a bit on the easy side even during the giant boss encounter, but going by past Castlevania experiences that's probably just an early warm-up for what really lies ahead in the game. The action was fast, the gameplay hectic at times and boss encounters quite memorable. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence should see a release this November. Such a bloody long wait for such a bloody delicious title...

Joseph Jackson
Staff Writer, Kikizo Games