Very solid Metroidvania and an impressive GBA launch title, Circle of the Moon was very fun to revisit and finally beat. The DSS system is really cool to mess around with and adds tons of variety to both combat and exploration. The exploration, while way less complicated than most Metroidvania games, was super fun and most areas were fun to explore. Being a GBA game it's relatively short and doesn't overstay its welcome being a nice in and out experience.
My main gripes with this game were three things
1. The GBAs screen crunch issue that was present in many of the early library. While it wasn't as bad as some other games from the era it was still frustrating to get blindsided by some projectile offscreen.
2. The low drop rate of DSS cards was kinda sad as the DSS system is one of the most fun parts about the game. By the end of the game with the entire castle minus arena explored I only had 5 cards without grinding. This is somewhat alleviated by the glitch that lets you select any card but its not perfect as that just completely breaks the game. It just needed either a slight drop rate boost or a way to just find them on the map.
3. The massive difficulty spike around half way through the game. I remember when I first played Circle of the Moon as a kid I could never get past Adrameleck and the game only gets harder from there. It wouldn't be so bad if the DSS cards were more easily obtainable but again the low drop rate (or my bad luck) made some sections an absolute pain in the ass.
That said some of this frustration is admittedly (and accidentally) self inflicted as right after fighting Adrameleck I went straight to Underground Waterway which, without the purifier, is Super Adolf Blight Town Deluxe. I simply thought there was no other way to go and didn't realize I could slide until right after I beat Hugh. It's cool that you can sequence break and it's probably my fault for not realizing such an obvious button combo but holy fuck I wish that the game gave a little more direction about that to have saved me the trouble.
Overall Circle of the Moon is a really solid short romp. Not as good as other Metroidvanias like Symphony of the Night or something but it's fun little ride if you're a fan of the genre.

Completed at slightly above 90% completion rate at around 7½ hours and felt alright with those numbers. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon marks a successful proof of concept to continue the Symphony of the Night direction of incremental upgrades allowing greater map exploration. Circle of the Moon comes equipped with interesting new items and mechanics, emphasizing the RPG-styled progression from before with more expansive options to customize the game experience. The customization is solely thanks to the DSS or Duel Set-up System, where players combine cards dropped by enemies to create different effects that assist the player. On-the-fly experimentation can supply a longer whip, fireballs surrounding and protecting the player, turning the whip into a giant hammer, and much more. Though the card system adds a lot to the experience, relying solely on random drops for these cards means grinding the same enemies repeatedly, hoping you'll get a card drop so you can move on. The game is generous in telling you if a enemy has a card to drop and if you have it, so this could be far more stressful than how its already implimented.

Speaking of killing enemies repeatedly, the map design does leave something to be desired in how the player backtracks old areas. It's the literal name of the game, which is to explore new places and defeat bosses to get new abilities so you can go back and find new stuff. Running through the same areas repeatedly with little to break how you navigate said areas gets old after a while. Not until you can finally launch yourself into the air towards the end of the game does any movement upgrade feel substaintial, and is too little too late by then. No amount of spawning newer, more challenging enemies in old areas can make the leveling and exploration feel as impactful as it should, either.

All these negatives aside, Circle of the Moon is still a great game. For a GBA launch title, most of my expectations are met for a great action title. Exploration is plentiful and there are secrets plenty. If you're a sucker for severe punishment, a gauntlet of obnoxious, incremental arena battles are available to grind. Being a game released before publishers could charge for more modes and cheats, Circle of the Moon has ceaseless unlockables and modes to toy away at to maximize your time with it genuinely. Even if the later entries dwarf the first GBA Castlevania, this is leagues better than the trash I was playing as a child. I would've traded nearly any other game I had for something as replayable and complex as this.

Completed with 100% in-game progress rating, played via Castlevania Advance Collection. Circle of the Moon is a decent first attempt at transitioning the 'Igavania' formula to a handheld format, but with its fair share of frustrations. Relatively short as far as Metroidvanias go, typical playtime with the game will be extended by a punishing difficulty level - unless you're very overleveled, several of the boss encounters will see death coming within maybe 3-4 hits and even standard enemies frequently post a stiff challenge. I'm also not a great fan of Metroidvanias that base progression at least partially around levelling (which often necessitates grinding) and Circle of the Moon further emphasises grinding with very low drop rates for the small set of cards which provide supplemental combat abilities.

Setting these negatives aside, though, the core gameplay is overwise solid enough and the primary ability upgrades focus on satisfying traversal skills, which eventually make the game world quick and enjoyable to explore. I understand that the later GBA releases are a significant step up in quality from Circle of the Moon, so it clearly provided a good base from which to build.

Given I haven't quite finished it at the time of writing (game hard), I don't quite get the hate surrounding this one. It's definitely clunky, probably quite a bit so compared to newer entries, but for me, Circle of the Moon is a great fusion between the things I like about classic Castlevania and presumably, the things I will like about "metroidvania Castlevania", this being my foray into that style of the series.

First off, I really fw this game's difficulty, tight as it is. While it's possible to grind for levels and recovery items, my goofy ass is stubborn and impatient, and I tend to run past encounters with spongy enemies. Often this leaves me high and dry for the boss fights, but I honestly can't say I don't get a sick kick out of that. Finally beating a tough boss after hours in the salt mines is a favorite feeling of mine.

Good music is another thing Circle of the Moon possesses in no short supply. Castlevania is full of bops in general, and this entry's no exception. Even the driest of exploration turns to mad vibes when met with the right tunes. Unfortunately, I think that exploration is where Circle of the Moon (and in fairness, a lot of other metroidvanias) can fall a bit short.

While this game offers solid level design and a lot of cool, useful things to discover, obtuse progression is a staple of its genre and not one it's exempt from. Often there is only one way or a few specific ways to go, and while this is relatively common in metroidvanias, it is no less egregious here. Circle of the Moon also occasionally lets you sequence break to an extent. This is certainly not a negative in of itself, but due to the game's sharp difficulty, it's totally possible to scrape yourself into a certain late game area like fifteen levels early, only to be met with an absolute brick wall of a boss fight. To be honest, I find this kind of thing sort of commendable, only in my case I did this on TWO separate occasions thinking it was the only way to go, having to painstakingly backtrack the entire length of it both times (AND IT'S A POISON SWAMP). I'm probably just stupid, but I'm admittedly still butthurt lol.

Overall, I've found Circle of the Moon to be an incredible time, just one I can't really recommend to everyone considering its fair share of retro game bullshit; sluggish movement, obtuse progression, and comically low item drop rates. With that being said, I think this version might have save states, so it's probably worth a shot if you're normal and don't mind using those. Formidable but fair vibes for sure.

It's not THAT bad but it isn't great either.

Having a character that plays a lot like a Belmont in a search action CV title is both novel and boring in a way, probably because the unlocked abilities are not particularly fun.

Not a really hard game per se but can get very annoying, the map is nothing special and a little frustrating to navigate at times.

Starting off the GBA trilogy (idk if it is) since symphony of the night and its just a fine or decent game.
This is the first game that igarashi (the sakurai of castlevania) did not direct and they did an ok job .
Best part of the game is the soundtrack and it is amazing for an GBA game which really pleasing tracks while traversing the castle.
This is also the first mainline game where the main character isnt a belmont which is interesting but didnt care bc this game doesnt have much story.
The layout of the castle was suprisingly dense and could rival SOTN but has few teleport rooms.
Worst part of the game is the difficulty bc MAN IS THIS GAME CONTROLS CLUNKY ASF.
Also the game's skills, subweapons, and equipment is ENTIRELY RNG. I've only gotten a few items during my playthrough.
The RSS system was fun tho.
And finally it was smaller and shorter than SOTN which made it bareable . (took me 5-6 hours)

You know, maybe if Dracula just moved his castle to the moon, he'd be bothered a lot less by the Belmonts. It worked for Rita Repulsa, so why not?

Circle of the Moon is a deeply confused game that can't seem to figure out how it wants to play. By this point the original formula, having peaked with Rondo of Blood, seemed to have been replaced by the new Metroid-esque one set by Koji Igarashi's Symphony of the Night. Attempts to bring the series into 3D led to a decent attempt, but took two attempts to make a product that people even sort-of liked, so it was looking rough on that front. So with the series' GBA debut - as a launch title, no less - it's clear that KOBE (developers of the 64 titles) wanted to try and recapture SotN's magic, despite not being the same team that made it. And boy, does it really show.

The critical issue I take with the design of the game is how there's an immediate juxtaposition with the way it controls. Symphony of the Night had slow, deliberate movement mixed with a default sword attack that was fast and responsive, making you feel very in control, if restricted. Within the first 10 minutes of CotM, Nathan Graves will be able to dash around at a double-tap of the d-pad(argh) and jump long distances. A mobile protagonist is not at all an issue, but the primary whip attack completely counteracts this by being as slow and delayed as it was in the original NES entries. It's such a weird contradiction, how you can manoeuvre with unprecedented agility but have to manage the whip swings. Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this game's issues.

Dracula's castle is as different as ever, and boy, is it vertical or what this time around? The general design of the castle is just really, really tedious to traverse, and the different areas feel uninspired for the most part. I can't believe the sewer section was one of the more refreshing segments, and even that was dragged down by tedious switch puzzles. I understand they were limited by the GBA, especially with it being a launch title, but that isn't going to get sympathy points from me. While you eventually gain abilities that make it easier to traverse the castle, it doesn't make it any more fun to explore - simply less tedious. Some of the obstacles that lock your progression are pretty embarrassing, as well. Iron Maiden doors unlocked by hitting a specific switch? Sure, I can tolerate that, but - wooden boxes? Wooden fucking boxes as obstacles, are you kidding me? Nathan can whip Death himself to, well, not exactly death but - but you're telling me his whip can do that but not break a wooden fucking box?? I even tried using a fire ability on it - more on that part later - but no, you need a lategame ability that allows you to slowly push them out of the way. I'm not expecting Nate to turn into a wolf or a ball of fog or anything, but is this the best they could come up with?

Level design aside, what really, really hurt this game for me was the RNG. While SotN had a healthy mix of items you could discover through exploration as well as random drops, and also a shop if you have the cash handy, CotM puts everything - EVERYTHING - behind random drops from enemies. And these drops can be in the realm of 1%, if the devs felt particularly cruel. Every armor, item and card is locked behind this asinine grind.

Yeah, card. The big gimmick that sets CotM apart is the addition of a card system. There are two type of cards, and about 10 of each. You can then mix and match them in pairs, which trigger different ablities that drain your MP. These range from shields, stat boosts, whip upgrades or new weapons altogether. As a system, it's pretty nice, though switching between card configurations can be pace-breaking in the middle of a fight. Unfortunately, every card is a rare drop from specific enemies. The Advance Collection port, by default, adds two features that do aid this. For one, it gives a pop up every time you hit an enemy that can drop a card, and whether you own it yet or not. Secondly, you can rewind at any point during gameplay. While I refused to use it to undo mistakes, it makes grinding for the card drops just a little bit less tedious. Simply rewind to just before you kill the enemy, hit it on a different frame, and pray. Even with luck boosting gear and rewind, it took me 20 minutes to get a card once. The fact that your stats can fall behind due to getting unlucky with armor drops as well is another side effect at this that I deeply dislike.

There's story, by the way, but it's as whatever as Castlevania plots usually are. Dracula's back, your master's in trouble, go save him while you get bitched at by some other loser who blundered in with you. I can't knock it when it's no less hollow than the typical Castlevania story, though I do miss the hammed up voice acting. Not that I'd expect it on GBA, but ah well.

Speaking of GBA sound, while I've never been too fond of the soundchip of the console, CotM's soundtrack is by all means OK. Not exactly an instant set of classics - actually, on the contrary, almost the entire soundtrack is reused from older games. They're fine remixes, though I think I like those tracks a little less now that I've heard them looped so many times while losing my will to live.

Altogether, I really think the team at KOBE should've made a more traditional Castlevania game as their GBA launch title. I appreciate what they tried, but the asinine design decisions made here leave it as just an OK, mediocre title that feels like a lesser imitation of SotN. As far as I'm aware, there's a romhack that turns the cards into pickups instead of RNG drops. That alone would've bumped this up a whole star, just saying.

Played it on the SteamDeck. I dig the gothic vibes of Castlevania so this was no exception - monsters, levels, music - they build a great atmosphere.

However, the game overall feels very “rudimentary”. Maybe because it’s an early GBA title, or that it tried to combine classic Castlevania with Metroidvania, or it’s just me that played this one after Aria Of Sorrow and the DS ones.

I basically enjoyed the movement, weirdly enough, and the core Metroidvania bits. Everything else felt lacklustre to me; the lack or super low rate of item drops, the even lower drop rate of cards - which made the whole DDS mechanic feel secondary - the super shallow plot and terrible dialogue. It pales in comparison with earlier and later series entries.

Still, it was one of the entries in the series that intrigued, and I still enjoyed it enough to finish it.