Consistency, then. Moving from something that's a muddled mess to an actual classic. Will I find ways to complain? Oh, absolutely, given that it's me. I could get more annoyed with what this represented for Castlevania, if I wanted. It happens so many times with these long-running franchises: the second game is the weird experimental one and the third goes back to the first and polishes it up, and then everyone loves that, and then that weird experimental one gets derided as a black sheep once 30 more of the "traditional" style of said series gets made. Zelda. Mario. Final Fantasy. And, yes, Castlevania. I can keep that anger in check, though, because the weird experiment was basically the groundwork for 1997. You know, when Castlevania just ripped off Super Metroid and created another massive shift that caused them to make 30 more of those types of game at the expense of the traditional ones. In the end, exploratory platforming won out. Even with all that gonzo exorcism aside, Castlevania 3 is sort of a mesh of the two. I say "sort of" because it still doesn't end up working out quite like that. This is a very good game, but it's not perfect. That may be sacrilege to some, but it's true. I did enjoy my replay of it, but there are things that need to be addressed. This is more of a quick dive than a full review, so dip your feet into the spooky pool here. It's Castlevania 3, the third one.
In theory, this game is a mesh between the traditional action platforming of the first game and the winding branching paths of the second. Not only does the game have more stages, but you have different branching paths you can select along the way which end up dictating your route to Castlevania. On those paths you've got the other wild new addition to the game, the new characters. You can choose between three; there's Grant, who has a piddly knife with no range (unless you play the Japanese version where he has an infinite supply of throwing daggers) and can climb walls. Sypha, the mage, has a weak staff for her main attack but the most powerful subweapons in the whole game. Then there's Alucard, who shoots fireballs and can transform into a bat. Sypha is my favorite character, incidentally, because I enjoy tearing through the bosses with her magic... but for the playthrough I did in preparation of writing this I went with Grant. I ended up barely using him, save for abusing his wall climbing power to take some clever shortcuts through certain stages. These really are great new innovations, of course, and they help freshen up the game. It looks and sounds amazing (again, even better in the Japanese version, but I wanted to be comfy in my basement today so I played my NES cart and made do) and I do admire the aesthetic. I'd definitely put it in my top 5 of "classic" (i.e, pre-Symphony Of The Night) Castlevanias, somewhere around the middle. As I said, though, it's very good but not perfect... and the biggest thing is the difficulty.
That sounds just a little ridiculous coming from an individual who willingly beat Battletoads multiple times, but let me explain. I'm not deriding the general difficulty of the game. The path I played is on a level of difficulty that I can respect. Okay, so the penultimate level is a real mountain to overcome but it's placed at just the right point for it to be that massive challenge. Additionally, the removal of a checkpoint before Dracula in the NES release and the bump up in damage for late game stages make things more of a hassle... but, I can endure. No, what sinks things for me is the Alucard path. This is, from what I can gather, the "hard" path of the game. You have more levels, and they're utterly fiendish in difficulty from the get-go. The final level of this path is ludicrous, with a massively long stage with multiple boss fights and autoscrolling segments. It goes a step beyond. Even masochist hard game beater me doesn't ever want to touch it again, and that just sort of spoils the fun of having a branching path game, doesn't it? You made one of your two paths so ridiculous fuck hard that I don't ever want to go near it again. In the end, that just restricts things right back down. Still, complain as I may... I don't hate Castlevania 3. I quite enjoy it, since I bothered to buy a physical cart and everything. I just wished I enjoyed the other half of it as much as I do the easier half. Of course, masterpiece as it may be... things can always be improved upon. That's our lead-in for tomorrow. You may know what's coming. It'll be fun. See you then.
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