Any game with an Item Duplication glitch is an immediate 10/10, so yeah. That's the review.
Ok, for real though. It's fun! And a nice origin story for the Belmont clan.
We're back in 3D land, and in a post Symphony of the Night world, it's only natural they would try to replicate the search-action formula in the third dimension.
It obviously doesn't work as well as it did for SotN. This is one area in which I feel Castlevania 64 actually one-ups this game, the level-to-level structure and platform-heavy design of CV64 just worked for me. Lament's approach to exploration isn't exactly bad, but I'd be lying if the multiple repeated rooms in each area and the long corridors with fuck all in them didn't have me thinking of Reinhardt and Carrie's adventure instead.
That said, in all other aspects, Lament comes out on top compared to its 3D predecessors. It obviously looks better, both in terms of 3D models and character design, the music has Michiru Yamane's fingerprints all over it, and the combat is far more elaborate than the 1-hit max slapfest of CV64. It's not Devil May Cry 3 levels of intricate, but considering it's their first attempt at something like this, it does a fine job.
Lament serves as an origin point for the Castlevania timeline, so there's more emphasis on story this time around, meaning lots of voice acting and cutscenes after each boss.
The voice performance is... Alright. It's clear that the voice cast is talented, and the script is much better than SotN's, but the voice direction is a little stilted. Since most of the cutscenes are pre-rendered, I assume the voice actors had no choice but to talk as fast as the cutscene runtime demanded. That doesn't mean it lacks cool lines though; Leon's speech to Death at the end comes to mind, very badass.
Overall, a very accessible entry in the series. It really doesn't ask a lot from the player and it's not very long either, which might be a downside to some, but as someone who's marathoning a whole bunch of Castlevania games in one go and also appreciates short games a lot more nowadays, I like that about it.
Ok, for real though. It's fun! And a nice origin story for the Belmont clan.
We're back in 3D land, and in a post Symphony of the Night world, it's only natural they would try to replicate the search-action formula in the third dimension.
It obviously doesn't work as well as it did for SotN. This is one area in which I feel Castlevania 64 actually one-ups this game, the level-to-level structure and platform-heavy design of CV64 just worked for me. Lament's approach to exploration isn't exactly bad, but I'd be lying if the multiple repeated rooms in each area and the long corridors with fuck all in them didn't have me thinking of Reinhardt and Carrie's adventure instead.
That said, in all other aspects, Lament comes out on top compared to its 3D predecessors. It obviously looks better, both in terms of 3D models and character design, the music has Michiru Yamane's fingerprints all over it, and the combat is far more elaborate than the 1-hit max slapfest of CV64. It's not Devil May Cry 3 levels of intricate, but considering it's their first attempt at something like this, it does a fine job.
Lament serves as an origin point for the Castlevania timeline, so there's more emphasis on story this time around, meaning lots of voice acting and cutscenes after each boss.
The voice performance is... Alright. It's clear that the voice cast is talented, and the script is much better than SotN's, but the voice direction is a little stilted. Since most of the cutscenes are pre-rendered, I assume the voice actors had no choice but to talk as fast as the cutscene runtime demanded. That doesn't mean it lacks cool lines though; Leon's speech to Death at the end comes to mind, very badass.
Overall, a very accessible entry in the series. It really doesn't ask a lot from the player and it's not very long either, which might be a downside to some, but as someone who's marathoning a whole bunch of Castlevania games in one go and also appreciates short games a lot more nowadays, I like that about it.