Forum Overview :: Deleted Posts :: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence == Rygar with vampires, except better

[quote name="godamit"]Sortof. Gameplay is reminiscent of Rygar: similar maneuvers with your whip, whip combos, and so on, the engine "seems" the same in how it moves. You even run around smashing urns (or, uh, pedestals with candles on them -- but UNLIKE in traditional Castlevania fashion you CANNOT smash all the billions of little candles that are hanging from the walls ?????) Why it's better than Rygar: * More enemies. In fact, way more. Every other room has 4-20 enemies in it, but (like Rygar) only 1-2 different types at a time, MAYBE 3. * Bigger maps/dungeons. More in the way of mazes, with a better map system. A little more fun to maneuver around; but it still has annoying places where the edge of the map "stops" for no good reason (e.g., some bricks you could jump over but just can't). * Awesome soundtrack. Even the old NES games had a good soundtrack, it's awesome. * Better puzzles. Some of them are lame, some of them (in 2003) are jumping puzzles. I get a kick out of them all the same, jumping from moving ledge to moving ledge latching on to things with my whip while trying to hit the lever at the end before the timer goes out. Feels a little old-school which is nice. * More combos. Lame? Maybe, but it's required for combat on this engine to be fun. * More items. Plenty of things you can buy and find. Not as good as the PS1 game, which had shitloads of items and cool things to get. I have yet to find a whip upgrade. But it's got some spells, special orbs to power-up your secondary weapon; enough of a "collector" aspect to add some interest Why it's as bad as or worse then Rygar: * Monotonous enemies. The same kinds of enemies over and over (yawn), sometimes in different colors! * Monotonous maps/tiles. They're really pretty at first, but jesus it's like they designed maybe 5 different types of room layouts for every dungeon level and then just stuck copies of them together, over and over, maybe with a different tapesty hanging here or a smashed statue there, and every non-hallway you enter the first time inevitably results in the doors closing off while you have to finish off a pool of badguys for the doors to open again. SOMETIMES you get to climb ladders or crawl up ledges to get to further portions of the map but you're usually just walking around on the ground from room to similar room. * The fucking fixed camera. Oh gee, I need to jump over to that moving ledge over there THAT'S OFF THE EDGE OF THE SCREEN. * Large expanses of flat floor that you fight on. YAWN. This is where 2D games get it right: jumping all over the place while hacking enemies apart and trying not to fall into pits of lava is just WAY MORE FUN than sitting on a board attacking wildly at everyone who approaches you. There are some neat rooms with bookcases and stairs and torture racks, but 99% of the time they are just backdrop against the wall that you cannot interact with in any fashion (can't jump on them, hide behind them, ...) Conclusion: Repetitive, but fairly enjoyable. 9/10 On no whoops that was for my gamefaqs review: A good rental, and I may even buy it since I'm desperate for a playable PS2 game. 5/10 [/quote]