It's a fun little romp, but it doesn't exactly create a lasting impression.
One of its most glaring faults is the length of the game. It’s pretty sad that Castlvania’s debut of the PlayStation 2 couldn’t offer more content than the titles released on the Game Boy Advance, and there were a lot of opportunities to expand on the mythos of the Belmont clan that were kind of brushed over here. The opening sequence is pretty long, but don’t be thrown off by this: It’s the longest cinematic in the game, and it will be a while before you see another. The sequence introduces the back-story of your character, Leon Belmont and brings you right into the bulk of this cookie-cut story: Leon’s fiancée has been kidnapped by a vampire and taken to his castle. Naturally, this just won’t do, and so Leon’s racing to the castle to save her. Once Leon enters the forest preceding the castle, though, he discovers that he’s trapped. Luckily, he encounters an old alchemist who is all too eager to hook Leon up with an enchanted whip to slay the undead. And, to sweeten the deal, the alchemist offers to sell Leon any items he needs during his quest. Leon gets ready to head up to the castle, and at this point you’re probably expecting to battle your way up to the castle gates. Well, fear not, because all you have to do is cross a few screen lengths, and you’re inside. I’m sure you’ll see that this doesn’t bode well. Hey, but fear not, maybe the castle will be labyrinthine and . . . oh, not so much.
In fact, the castle in LoI has perhaps the simplest layout of the entire Castlevania series, which attributes to the relative quickness of this title. From the entryway of the castle, you take a left to enter a small tutorial section that shows you how to use your whip to reach higher ledges and how to cross gaps between posts. This may cause you to think that the bulk of the game will involve crossing bottomless gaps and wall jumping to extreme heights, but this isn’t the case. Rather, there are only a handful of these types of platform puzzles. Traveling right will take you to a central hub that will transport you in turn to the different areas of the castle. The goal is to reach the end of each of these areas, take out the massive baddie lurking in that area, all to unlock a piece of the lock that’s protecting the castle’s master and barring you from the love of your life. It probably won’t take more than fifteen hours to get through the first run of this title, and a lot of that time is spent returning to cleared areas of the castle after finding a key in another part. After that, you have the option to play through again in two additional modes, one that increases the difficulty and one that allows you to play through as an alternate character.
Although the game doesn’t have any cunning plot twists, the game plays out fantastically. The battles are intense with monsters coming at you from all angles, and in addition to the whip, you’ll gain access to the usual Castlevania fare: crosses, holy water, axes and the like. Gems that you’ll find in the course of your journey can augment these standard weapons, creating different spell effects that will help you reduce the vampire’s hoard drastically. The camera angle is fixed, which is a personal detriment of mine, but the only time it gets really irritating is when you’re trying to line up a jump and the opposite platform is just out of sight. Even if you miss a jump, the only penalty in store is having to bounce out of a shallow pit, but at least there’s no sudden death leaps involved here. There’s very little load time, and the game moves amazingly quick, which is a blessing when you’re getting swarmed by zombies and skeletons.
All in all, LoI is a fun romp through the Castlevania universe, although this particular journey is a little shorter than other titles out there.
Gameplay – Fantastic, but way too short! Controls are easy to master, and there’s very little platform style puzzles at work here. The castle layout is a little simplistic, and the camera will sometimes affect the few jumps there are at hand. The story is a little weak, and doesn’t offer a whole lot of depth.
Graphics – This is a really beautiful game. The architecture is very gothic and nature, the character models are incredibly realistic. The only mar on this perfect record is the drab corridors in between those elaborately designed rooms.
Sound – The music is absolutely extraordinary, and is filled with the haunting melodies that have become the staple in a Castlevania diet! The voice acting for the cinematics is spot on, and only hangs up a bit because of the weak scripting.
Value – Eh, not so much. Although there are two other modes unlocked after beating the title the first time through, the game doesn’t quite have the hold that would make me want to go through it again.
Tilt – While it was a fun experience, it doesn’t really create a lasting impression. It’s worth a rental, but it doesn’t really have as much depth as I was hoping for in a prequel game.