This game is pretty decent, but I think you have to get the correct mindset first to enjoy this game.

If played as a normal action game, this game might be decent, kinda repetitive, but still fun. Combo can get repetitive but it has a nice feeling to it. It also has a bit of simple puzzle to solve. Bosses are good, but not great, most of them are easy and in fact I actually only died once to a boss and that's to a super boss.

If played as a metroidvania (which this game is kinda), then it's pretty bad. The backtracking for item is abysmal, there's no teleport in between area so you have to walk/run back and forth. There's a teleport item which will either takes you to the starting area (of the entire game) or to the last save point, but they cost money.
Not to mention that walking speed feels a bit too slow for how big the map can be.
The cherry on top is that the optional item isn't even that useful or fun most of the time, there's ONE item that I like which is wolf's foot that can make you run and jump faster, and as far as I know, is the only ability that is essential in getting some optional items (apart from straight up key).

To sour the game even more, to use the wolf's foot (and any other RELIC), you need mana, but mana doesn't recover automatically when you go to a save room. You have to either use item or perfectly block an enemy attack (which is almost useless when dodging is a lot easier).
So... I barely use the wolf's foot anyway, or any other relic for that matter.

Lament of Innocence é um jogo que eu não esperava nada honestamente. É um dos Castlevanias que eu nunca tive o interesse de jogar direito mas PRINCIPALMENTE nunca tive uma maquina que pudesse rodar esse cara. Agora finalmente tentei e estou mais surpreso do que nunca.

Ele tem seus problemas graves de level design mas tirando isso, a gameplay é uma das melhores da franquia, conseguiram transmitir bem o estilo metroidvania para algo com um combate mais elaborado, o que ficou sensacional. As músicas, gráficos, histórias também tão incríveis então é um prato cheio.

A exploração é o mais paia, a navegação não é muito boa e é isso que impede esse jogo de entrar no panteão dos melhores da franquia pra mim, mas mesmo com isso, ele tá bem alto na lista hein!

Facilmente um dos títulos que mais me surpreendeu da franquia.
O primeiro jogo da cronologia de Castlevania definitivamente não decepciona, música e ambientação são lindíssimos, gráficos ótimos e uma história bem decente até.

O combate e o foco no mesmo foi bem colocado, temos vários golpes e o chicote nunca fica enjoativo de usar, mas não posso dizer o mesmo do level design. Infelizmente as salas são repetitivas e o backtracking é muito cansativo visto que Leon é um personagem relativamente lento e a exploração não é mais o foco.
Mas ainda sim, é um ótimo jogo.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence hasn't aged well, but it's a good game at its core that is really a time capsule of the era it was produced in. I had a good time but I don't think I'd play it again because of that, and I think I would've gotten lost too often without a walkthrough. First game chronologically in the series!

Shout out to Leon Belmont for being a cool design too. "I'll kill you AND the night!"

Score: 81

Castlevania is one of my favorite series (Even though I haven't played SotN yet), but they've been traditionally a 2D franchise, and its 3D games before this one varied from awful to barely passable. So I wasn't sure what to expect once I got to this. But as things turned out, it's not bad at all!

Sure, this game has aged a lot in some areas, it's a game from over 20 years ago. Main problems include the camera being fixed but not always looking at you, having only a few combos (Not great in a character action game) and little synergy between them, enemies having lots of clones and calling them new (With only one or two new attacks), and some annoying boss fights (Nothing unbearable until the last and the secret boss).

Other than those things, it's a solid game. Instead of being an RPG, Konami chose to make it a character action game, likely riding the Devil May Cry wave (Which I'm sure this game is inspired on). You still have level ups like in previous Castlevanias but it's less prevalent than before.

Gameplay is decent, and you're back to only using the whip and special attacks like in ye olden days, camera may be a drawback and platforming may be annoying sometimes, but overall it's not that bad. For the time it was made, I don't think this game looks bad at all, and places all have the looks and feels of a Castlevania.

That's an important fact: This game feels like Castlevania. The level design is simple and the "metroidvania" aspects aren't used as much as previous games, but from the art direction to the music (Which I really liked by the way) and enemies, it's very distinctly a Castlevania game. This is important, because Castlevania has an atmosphere that few games can replicate, even the sequel to this game, Curse of Darkness, while overall a superior experience, doesn't quite feel right for the franchise (In my opinion, of course).

It's quite a decent game for its time, and I enjoyed it, though by the end I was kinda glad I was done with it. If you like PS2-era character action games, or the Castlevania franchise, give it a try, it can be annoying sometimes but it's not a waste of your time.

SCORE: 6.5/10

I've seen a lot of people compare this directly to Symphony of the Night, and that's fair, it is the next Big Boy console release in the franchise after that game, and when looking at them next to each other it's plain to see where Lament of Innocence lacks lamentably. It's apparent to me though that this is a followup to Circle of the Moon more than anything. Both are attempts at bringing the metroivania style of vania to new console paradigms, and both adopt a bit of a back to basics approach to the aesthetics of the franchise. But whereas Circle of the Moon's dedication to that basic look made the game turn into complete visual mush, the 6th gen 3D look of LoI is beautiful. This is just a phenomenal looking game with so much atmosphere. Each area of the castle has its own distinct look, but they're all drenched in fog and claustrophobic due to the fixed camera angles, and that combined with the immaculate soundtrack makes for a game that I just love walking around in. Yes, the actual layout of the castle is very uninteresting and many, many rooms are repeated over and over with minor variations, but occupying this castle puts me in such a particular state of mind that I just don't care that the rest of the game is pretty mid. The one non-aesthetic thing that really activated my monkey brain was the Orb system. Much like the DSS system from CotM you get to mix and match orbs that drop from bosses with the traditional array of Castlevania items, which leads to all sorts of ridiculous attacks that clear rooms of enemies in a snap. It's definitely not as deep as the DSS, but you get so many stupid animations that it evens out.

Played this game a while back, so my memory is a tad fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure I liked it... with some slight annoyances.

Let's start with the negatives, though. If there are some things I'd criticize this game over, it would have to be a trifecta of stiff controls, awkward camera control, and the questionable platforming. In regards to the camera, normally it can be controlled, but the movement feels slow and restrictive. However, there are times when the camera is in a fixed position, which can cause its own problems in combat and exploration, just with how it's normally angled. Combat, though a little bit nuanced and classic feeling with heavier emphasis on sub-weapon use, also feels somewhat restricted, which is strange because it almost feels like this game is TRYING to take Ps and Qs from Devil May Cry (it's then gothic action competitor), but never really reaching those heights in style or dynamics. This isn't even getting into the fact that Leon, the player character, feels like he moves a tad slow, even if his animation portrays him running at a brisk pace. The platforming, while good on paper and makes sense with "Indiana Jones" style whip use, feels a bit too rough to be any fun, and doesn't even look that good when performed. Jumping also can be a bit dodgy, which isn't a good thing when dealing with platforming, and just as irksome when used in combat. I mean, sure, I got USED to how it works, but it didn't really make me enjoy it any better. These three issues hurt the gameplay in some way, with it being the norm that any given room would have 2 of the 3 problems happening at the same time in different combinations.

You'd think with a brick like the above would have me be rather sour towards the game, but honestly? While the gameplay is marred slightly, it's never to the detriment of killing the fun. It's still very much a Castlevania game, through and through, with a colorful and well realized assortment of demons and monsters to smack up with strategic swings of the whip and liberal use of sub-weapons. Exploration among gothic locations is fun, even if certain environments get a bit too repetitive (such as the underground waterways) and the platforming being annoying at it's worst. Boss fights are fun enough, though not exemplary. Also, the soundtrack is great, but that is a MUST for Castlevania games, honestly.

In regards to the story, it's a simple rescue/revenge story, and maps out the origin of the long standing war between Dracula and the Belmonts, before Dracula himself was a presence, as well as the origin of the holy whip, the Vampire Killer. It's fun, if a bit flat, and characters are over-the-top in a fun way. It's no high art, for sure, and I doubt people would write essays about it, but there's enough of a foundation here that could be expanded upon in the future, like how Castlevania 3 eventually got expanded upon via the anime.

All in all, it's a fun 3D Castlevania game that a fan wouldn't have a bad time playing now and then. I might even come back to it one day in the future, if only for the general gameplay and gothic aesthetic vibes.

Lament of Innocence tries to combine the unique exploration style of its own predecessors while introducing fast-paced hack 'n slash gameplay from contemporary titles like Devil May Cry. Unfortunately, it fails to do either very well.

The exploration is slow and stunted due to dull, repetitive areas; an unintuitive and often unhelpful fast-travel system; and slow, stiff character movement. These combine to make traversal (and backtracking, which you will do an excessive amount of if you wish to get any items or upgrades whatsoever) a chore. Additionally, Lament includes some of the most cryptic, unintuitive, and sometimes outright opaque progression in the entire series (yes, including Simon's Quest). Although much of it is not necessary for game completion, it will lock the vast majority of players out of the actually fun and interesting aspects of the game's combat altogether.

The combat, while not completely boring, is too simple and repetitive to remain interesting for the game's already stretched length of about 10 hours (more if you go for 100%). You start the game with almost no combos (a detriment to a game of its style), and even once you do progress enough to unlock more, you realize that only one or two out of the already extremely limited supply are actually worth performing consistently. The camera is fixed in each room, meaning that if it's in a bad angle, you have no choice but to try to move to another part of the room to see the action better. The Relic system is also laughably underdeveloped, having only 6 options to choose from in the entire game, 3 of which will ever be useful; of these 3, none are unlocked without copious amounts of backtracking and cryptic nonsense. The saving grace is the legitimately fun and interesting mixture of classic sub-weapons (Daggers, Axes, Holy Water, etc.) and Orb powers, which combine to grant Leon many exciting abilities. The system is almost exactly like that of Harmony of Dissonance, making it a welcome return from another troubled Castlevania title. Unfortunately, some of the best and most interesting of these are, once again, locked behind the game's poor exploration.

The music, while legitimately good, starts to grate on you once it has looped for the 100th time on a stage. For as long as you will spend in each individual area picking your way through the same enemies in each cookie cutter room, there is a distinct lack of different music for different floors, sub-areas, etc.

The story is a mess, pulled in two directions by its archetypal nature and its new series lore. The majority of Lament is an uninspired narrative consisting of a young knight, aided by an old mentor, on a quest to save his girlfriend from a vampire (notably, not Dracula). While almost nothing about Rinaldo the Alchemist and Walter the Vampire is particularly compelling, Leon makes for a simple but effective protagonist, and the twists (one of which is extremely obvious) actually make the game's narrative stand out from its peers a bit.

Overall, Lament of Innocence, whether due lack of care or (much more likely) budget and time constraints, is a half-baked entry in the Castlevania series, but it is still far from the worst.

This game kind of owns actually. I was ready for jank (and there was some here and there, this is a pretty early PS2 game after all), but not nearly as much as I'd expected.

We're so used to the right stick controlling the camera in third person games like this now, but I honestly think Lament of Innocence makes a solid argument for letting it do other things sometimes. The directed camera did a perfectly good job 99% of the time and using the stick to navigate items and equipment mid combat instead added some fun friction to an otherwise fairly repetitive (though still enjoyable) combat system. Exploration is fun and will be familiar to players who have seen Castlevania map screens before, but can suffer at times from a slow movement speed with little to speed up traversal through larger sections.

The plot is mostly pretty silly, but had at least a couple of interesting twists and turns, and honestly a series taking inspiration from classic monster movies like Castlevania does can stand to be a bit silly, so it's a welcome vibe. The bigger problem is the larger twist at the end that seemed to come almost completely out of nowhere, and since this twist has massive consequences for the entirety of the series, it's disappointing how little weight it carries for the player in the moment with how little was done to set it up.

Overall though, this game shines as an early example of 3D combat that games like Devil May Cry would go on to refine and has plenty going for it as a transition into 3D exploration as well.

"(...) the Belmont Clan will hunt the night."

How much I loved this game is beyond words; it's been so long since a game captivated me like this. Its art direction is marvelous. I downloaded a pack that enhances the game's textures to HD, and I spent time analyzing the retopology of some things, and I couldn't help but notice how fabulous they are. The interiors of the rooms are stunning. House of Sacred Remain, Ghostly Theatre, and Pagoda Of The Mist Moon have the most beautiful level aesthetics I've ever seen. The story is really cool; it tells about the origin of Dracula, the Belmont Clan, and their endless battle. There are some really good moments, and the cutscenes are quite cinematic. Leon Belmont is literally the most lawful good badass character of all time; I love this guy. The soundtrack is also very good; I wouldn't say it's the strongest point of the game, but it's still amazing (Leon's Theme is literally a banger). Now, the level structure is not very good, which is curious because aesthetically they are beautiful, but in terms of structure, I have to agree with the general criticism that they are indeed quite poor and tiresome. But yeah, that doesn't diminish my appreciation for Lament of Innocence.

https://prnt.sc/SEPAvnnRhpUU

Im playing with Joachim right now, its kinda cool, but ew...

"Dans müziklerinin bu tür bir oyuna, bu tür bir seriye yakışabileceğini kim tahmin edebilirdi?"

En başta dediğim gibi, oyunun müzikleri çokça başarılıydı. "Legacy of Darkness ve 64" oyununu saymazsakta seride asıl gerçek üç boyutlu oyun budur, tartışmaya da kapalı. Mekan tasarımları da bildiğimiz o devasa kale mi bu? Diye sordursa da bazen gerçekten "Ha evet gerçekten ben kaledeyim!" dedirttiği gerçeği var.

Oynanışa bakacak olursak, üç boyutlu bir metroidvania yapılmaya çalışılmış. Anahtar kelimelerimiz yapılmaya çalışmış olmaları... Bunu rahatça söyleyebilirim, oyun sizi kaleyi keşfetmeye itmiyor, itemiyor, çünkü ne keşfedecek çok fazla yer var, ne de kamerayı doğru düzgün bir şekilde kontrol edebiliyorsunuz, en önemlisi de, keşfetmek, sizi yeteri kadar ödüllendirmiyor.

Oyun dövüş mekaniklerine daha fazla odaklanmış, ben bu mekanikleri de beğendim, şu an günümüzde var olan bazı oyunlarda dahi bulunmayan çok önemli bir özelliğe sahip. Aksiyon esnasında ekipman değiştirebiliyor, bin bir türlü eşyaları ard arda kullanabiliyor, özel güçler verecek iki eşya türlerinin içinde bir sürü seçenekleri içerisinde savaşı fazlaca çeşitlendirebiliyorsunuz. Ulan bu harika bir şey! "2018 God of War" oyununda dahi savaşı çeşitlendirmek için oyunu durdurmak ve menü üzerinde aşağılara ya da yukarılara in çık bilmeden rün seçmek gerekiyor. Ama bu Castlevania oyununda savaşırken zırh bile değiştirebiliyorsunuz, ZIRH!

Önceki paragraflardan anlayacağınız üzere, oyun biraz fazlaca dövüşe önem veriyor, bu da oyunun metroidvania havasını kısmaya yetmiyor tabi ki, ancak bir odaya ilk defa girdiyseniz, arenaya girmişsiniz gibi kapıları kilitleyerek düşmanlarla dövüşmek zorunda kalıyorsunuz. Keşfetmek isteyecek olsanız dahi, bu oyunda bir yerden bir yerlere gitmek fazlaca uzun sürüyor, iki boyutlu oyunlarında dahi bu kadar uzun sürdüğünü hissetmiyordunuz, ben tamamen oynamayı başardım, bunun sebebi kesinlikle aksiyon anında yapabildiklerim ve güzel yazılmış müziklerdi.

Oyunun da bir hikayesi var, bu hikaye daha önce çıkmış oyunlara göre kendisini çok daha fazla ciddiye alıyor. Bu da hoş olmuş, insanların merak ettikleri, Belmont'ların vampir avcılığına nasıl başladığını açıklayan bir hikayeyle balığı tutuyorlar. Ancak oyunun bu hikayeyi nasıl işlediğine gelecek olursam... İşte orası çok mutlu etmiyor, oyunu oynama süreniz ve ara sahnelerin ortaya çıkışı, yani hikayenin anlatımının olduğu yerler, sadece ara sahnelerde hikaye ilerleyecek, bunlar çok dengesiz, bir anda birisi çok uzun, bir anda birisi çok uzun. Ama bunlara rağmen zamanına göre kötü yazılmamış bir oyun hikayesi, hatta dönemine göre iyi hikayelerden sayılabilir.

Son olarak spoiler vermeden oyunun sonuyla ilgili düşüncelerimi paylaşmak istiyorum. Bu oyunun sonunda tam olarak aradığımızı alamıyoruz, ancak önceden oynadığımız oyunlarla sağlam anlamlar kazandırıyoruz. En komik olanı da "2018 God of War" oyunun finalinden daha etkileyici bir son baş düşman dövüşüne sahip. Siz geceyi avlarken size bol şans diliyorum...