Rating: 7.0
I’m a sucker for a good Castlevania game, and even more so on a handheld device. There is something special about getting to sit down and kill zombies on the go. This time around Konami went for the 3DS promising a 3D-2D Castlevania. So how does this game hold up to it’s predecessors? Is this the next great handheld Castlevania??
Gameplay
Right out of the gate you can see a very console-oriented approach to the game. It’s difficult to determine genre, as Mirror of Fate attempts to marry a God of War hack and slash with a side-scroller action title. While I’ve not played the console version of Castlevania aka: Lord of Shadows, you could see its influence in this title. A simple description of this game would be “linear”.
Core elements for standard handheld Castlevania have been removed. This lack of exploration was one of the biggest disappointments. Prior portable Castlevania titles belonged to the genre referred to as Metroidvania, an open-ended traversal of a wide area with locations blocked off by your access to gear or abilities needed to enter them, forcing a gradual exploration. But this title follows a very linear path and never really features very much exploration, as there is even an arrow pointing you towards your goal. While a few secret areas remain, generally the game is so straightforward that the joy of finding a “secret” is lost.
The traditional RPG elements have also been removed for, again, a more linear approach to leveling. You have an experience bar that fills up over time, granting you another combat move each level. There’s very little cusotmization, and no armor of any sort. So gone, too, is the grinding of experience to find a particular drop.
Combat is more of a hack and slash style God of War beat-em-up, even going as far as adding closed-off areas where killing all the enemies is the only way to proceed. While I wasn’t in love with the combat I can’t deny that it wasn’t fun. The combat was really smooth and the combos were pretty seamless. I would however remove the killing blow move – it broke the flow of battle.
While there were some areas for improvement, I was impressed with a couple of changes. One of the areas I felt was an solid choice was the checkpoints. In previous titles when you die you would be taken back to the menu, but in this game you load up from the last check point. There were even checkpoints during Boss battles, which I really appreciated, as the battles were pretty epic. While the relentless challenge of beating a boss on a single life was missed, the game flowed much better as a result.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-L1bAdVsg[/youtube]
Graphics
Okay so this is a 3DS game and it does use a pretty impressive engine. That being said, the game uses two different art styles: the one used in gameplay, which looks more “animated,” and the one used in cutscenes, which evokes a gritty comic-book look that I really liked. The colors really pop and it looks nice, but doesn’t at times feels like classic Castlevania. Graphics are still top notch in general, with the only other downside the long load times between areas.
Sound
Okay this was the only area the game had some major issues.
First, know this going in that this isn’t your standard Castlevania soundtrack. It’s less upbeat fun, aiming for a more dramatic mood. This would be all right, but the problem is the tendency towards very high, loud treble, making it sound distorted even at lower volumes.
The featured full voice-over in English is reasonably acted, but is nothing to write home about. It, too, has a volume mixing problem, and I had to turn on subtitles to really understand what was going on.
Overall
I’m a bit on the fence about this title. It’s certainly not the best Castlevania I’ve played, and I almost feel like this title would have done better if realeased under another title. But if you’ve never played a Castlevania handheld and you are looking for some hack and slash fun this is the game for you.
Rating: 7.0