Legacy of Darkness is kind of weird. We're currently living in a time where less-than-a-decade-old ps4 games are getting full on remakes, much to the chagrin of many, meanwhile this game sorta kinda did it back in 1999 and just under less than a year after the game it was based on released. It's a a finished game/remake/expansion/side-story/update/director's cut/companion piece to castlevania 64...which itself was also a weird 3d action platformer-metroidvania-survival horror mish-mash that I thought managed to make the jump to 3d pretty successfully and stand on its own as something incredibly unique, even by today's standards.
Its sister release, then, is a whole different beast, ending up as a game that I can genuinely and wholeheartedly say is one of the N64's best thanks to the abundance of additions and improvements it makes. Two entirely new campaigns, new and reworked levels, tweaked controls, n64 memory pak and high resolution support - hell, there's even a blinking indicator in a few boss fights that just says "USE LOCK ON TARGETTING", since that's a thing that was added. I honestly interpreted it as the devs being spiteful towards people who wrote the initial release off despite not properly reading the manual or engaging with its mechanics, and that's cool honestly, like they're saying "hey dipshit, we added this thing to make your life easier. use it. "
In short, I'm right and you're all wrong. Again.untrue, this is entirely subjective Unless you agree with me for whatever reason. I initially said that cv64 didn't really stand as any kind of genre pioneer but playing this game and further hindsight has me thinking that may not entirely be the case. Hear me out on this, but Legacy of Darkness cutting the fat and really accentuating what cv64 already excelled at may or may not show signs of something akin to an early proto-soulslike????
This is entirely based on what little experience I have with soulslikes in general so this is mostly just conjecture, but aside from listing the genres that I think this game encompasses, the best I could describe LoD is as "a difficult 3d action game with an emphasis on slow methodical platforming and combat, rich atmosphere, and minimal guidance". Maybe this game influenced fromsoft, maybe it didn't, I dunno. Either way, Legacy of Darkness is cool and is probably as good of a 3d adaption of what castlevania represented at the time as one could ask for.
Its sister release, then, is a whole different beast, ending up as a game that I can genuinely and wholeheartedly say is one of the N64's best thanks to the abundance of additions and improvements it makes. Two entirely new campaigns, new and reworked levels, tweaked controls, n64 memory pak and high resolution support - hell, there's even a blinking indicator in a few boss fights that just says "USE LOCK ON TARGETTING", since that's a thing that was added. I honestly interpreted it as the devs being spiteful towards people who wrote the initial release off despite not properly reading the manual or engaging with its mechanics, and that's cool honestly, like they're saying "hey dipshit, we added this thing to make your life easier. use it. "
In short, I'm right and you're all wrong. Again.
This is entirely based on what little experience I have with soulslikes in general so this is mostly just conjecture, but aside from listing the genres that I think this game encompasses, the best I could describe LoD is as "a difficult 3d action game with an emphasis on slow methodical platforming and combat, rich atmosphere, and minimal guidance". Maybe this game influenced fromsoft, maybe it didn't, I dunno. Either way, Legacy of Darkness is cool and is probably as good of a 3d adaption of what castlevania represented at the time as one could ask for.
Nowhere near as bad as 64, but certainly not good either.