This game has its great moments,but its not perfect.
The shop system is of course still here.It works like all other RPGs shop where you can buy/sell items and such.
Online system enables you to play co-op,or go to shop mode.In co-op,you choose to play as either Jonathan or Chalotte(Or optional characters if you chose their data)and play through Boss Rush(Yep,thats all you could do)with an online player as your other character.In shop mode,you can sell items you aquired in the game or buy items from players online.When you buy/sell items to players online,you gain points.The points aquired adds up and a certain amount of points is needed to make a certain item appear in the NPC's shop.But due to this online shopping system,You can work hard to get lots of money in the begining of the through candle smashing and get a overpowered weapon at the start of the game.This adds to the easiness of the game and will prove to have a negative effect on the game.
There is a new Quest system in this CV game and it works basically like those in a MMORPG.You give the NPCs what they ask for and they give you something else in return.Some people might like this but it didnt do it for me,it takes out some of the "find secret hidden dungeon which contains rare weapons" sort of gameplay.Most badass weapons can only be found in Quests or online shopping.So your only option is to do the Quest or cough up some money. Ok,unlike other CV games,you get to play as two different characters(Nope, not those unlockable characters) in the main game.Each have their own goods and bads so its a pretty balanced combination.They each can equip certain weapons and armours.During the game,you can either have your partner with you or you can dismiss them.When your partner gets hit,you lose MP instead of HP.You can move your partner with your stylus but you wont have them on the screen that much as they sorta get in the way.
The first guy is Jonathan Morris,the son of John Morris.He is probaly the one you would be using most of the time as he specialises in melee attacks.He comes equiped with the old whip that the Belmonts use.But having not learned how to use it,he cant seem use the whip to its full potential.So you just cant use an atk 5 whip for the whole game could you??So to make up for that,Konami gives you an asernal of weapons that can be found through killin enemies,doing quests,buy from shop and such.This gives you the old "hunt for items" feel,something that i thought is lacking in DoS.Jonathan also have tons of sub-weapons to use,unlike previous castlevania games where you only get a few.Now you dont break candles and subweapons come out and you can only keep one at a time.It works sorta like AoS's soul stealing system,where you kill certain enemies and they drop certain sub-weapons.You keep the subweapons in your inventory and equip whichever you want.You can buy them form shops too.You get your old bible,holy water etc etc but you get loads of new ones,ranging from Shurikens to Cream Pies.I didnt like this system either as it takes out the old sub weapons feel.I mean,sub weapons are what the Belmonts traditionally use to kill Dracky right?Adding Cream Pies and Shurikens to it is just plain dumb.Sure it is pretty cool,like the Soul system but i sorta wished they didnt call them sub weapons.You can gain points for sub-weapons and they become more powerful when maxed out.Thus,sub-weapons are pretty much weak and useless before they are maxed out.
Now the second character you use is a cute girl called Chalotte Aulin,a magic user.Her weapons consist of Books,where images spurt out from them and hit enemies.But you dont use magic users for their melee attacks do you??Yes,she has a bunch of badass spells at your disposal,which you can get them the same way as Jonathan's sub-weapons.Unlike the sub-weapons,you dont have to gain points to max them out.They all come maxed.When you cast them,a bar will appear above Chalottes head and it despicts the casting time.You can charge the spells up beyond the bar and the spells become more powerful.The badass spells takes longer to charge aswell as more MP and weaker ones takes less time and MP.
The bestiary is huge like all other Castleroids and it makes item hunting fun.The boss fights are pretty fun but its too easy and unrewarding.You can kill a boss but but feel like,"what,its over??".Though some bosses are tough and are pretty hard to kill,there will always be a save point next to the boss's room and makes you think like "O well,i died again.Now i should just load my game and go try my luck again.".But this is actualy present in the best Castleroids like SoTN so i guess i shouldnt contradict this one alone.I would really want them to give us really tough boss fights that have you learning their attack patterns and even though theres a save point beside you,you would think "Now i got the hang of his attacks,maybe i can really kill it this time."instead of "its only a matter of time".
In the game,instead of going through the castle alone,you get to go to places from Desert Tombs to Forests.Its actually pretty cool idea and adds scenery to the game.But the level design in this game is quite dull compared to other CV games and im pretty disappointed.You get to go to 4 places in the game and you can unlock another 5 later.Out of the other 5
4 of them are just the same as the first 4 except its night time and the map is different so dont go expecting much.
The replay value in this game in the game is ok.You can play as characters you unlock and one of them has their own story line and uses your stylus to attack.The stylus bit is quite cool but gets boring maybe a few hours later.You also get Hard modes and lvl caps to test your skills.You can do Boss Rushes to get items but the item rewards are not that attracting.There is a optional dungeon but its pretty much just a road where you fight enemies after enemies to reach the end.
Now lets talk bout the sound.As you would expect from a CV game,the music is top notched.The music in the game is well suited for the environment its in.You can unlock the sound mode and hear any tracks you want.There is even "voices" where you can hear the souds of characters/monsters in the game.You can switch the voice to japanese which is pretty interesting.As an added bonus,you can find an item called the "record player" in the game.This allows you to play records(items that you can find in the game)in any part of the game and change the background music.Unfortunately,theres only 5 of these tracks and i was hoping that they would include tracks from previous CV games the next time.(Though theres already 1 of them in this game).
Overall,this game is great,true to the Castleroid RPG formula with a few new stuff of its own.But there still is room for improvement.