Love the cover more than I did the game but Leon is iconic and the ost slaps, will always have a fondness for this one
Disappointing 3D 'vania followup after the bangers on the N64. Bland corridors, bland fighting, bland bosses.
You see the cover art right there? That's where the game peaks.
You see the cover art right there? That's where the game peaks.
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.
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.
The precursor of all Belmonts
It ain't the best, but it felt a lot closer to a Castlevania experience than say Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Worth it just for the iconic line "I'll destroy you AND the night!"
i liked it more than i thought i would
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.
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.
Meh. Considering the budget, it's impressive how long this game is, but the repeating locations, shit ton of pointless backtracking, and lack of any memorable level design makes it questionable for such game to even be finished. The story, for how important of a task it tires to accomplish, doesn't deliver any hard hitting moments or significant revelations, and the game is simply not worth the 8 hour playtime it asks.
Strangely enough, Castlevania 64 ended up being a far better game.
Strangely enough, Castlevania 64 ended up being a far better game.