History VideoGame / CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Mars + Black Dog combo gives you a ''gun''. Range and damage go through the roof, but it takes forever to fire (and put away) and you need to be on the ground to use it [[hottip:*:Try it- you can jump off the highest drop in the game and pull out said gun at the top, and it won't fire until you hit the floor. Perhaps Nathan is not confident with firearms?)]]

* MoreThanMindControl: [[spoiler: Implied to have been the case with Hugh, who harbored some degree of jealosy toward Nathan, [[WellDoneSonGuy as Morris chose him over his son to be his successor]]. After Nathan defeats Dracula, Morris tells Hugh that his training will have to begin anew.]]

** Maybe [[FridgeLogic Nathan doesn't have any experience with a firearm]], since he was chosen to wield the hunter whip?
*** Also, the first Revolver would be invented six years later then the setting of the game, and is likely a single-shot Flintlock pistol.

* DynamicLeveling: As the player progress through the game, enemies are replaced by more powerful enemies to keep up with them.

* AnticlimaxBoss: Death, who is pathetically easy compared to some of the other bosses. Especially egregious since you fight him after the [[ThatOneBoss Zombie Dragons]].

* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: Blatantly obvious, at least compared to ''SymphonyOfTheNight'' that came before and ''HarmonyOfDissonance'' that came after. Large stretches of the castle have precious few distinguishing features, giving it a far more repetitive feel more reminiscent of NES {{Metroidvania}}s like ''{{Metroid}}'' or ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster''.

* FanNickname: See the second bullet point for ShoutOut

* RespawningEnemies: The only metroidvania in the series that does this.

** The lack of save points, no AfterBossRecovery that's been there in practically every other game in the series and excess of low-contrast projectiles on dark backgrounds really ups the difficulty. The game itself is also pretty hard even with lighting.

* BrandX: The "Hunter Whip", since only a Belmont can use the Vampire Killer to its potential.

** isn't that great nothing, it actually subverts it because the growths for the Warrior is ALSO exponential. Whereas before where the Wizard more or less could care less about MP (in the high 50s-60s, you need not even care that you have a bar at all), the warrior does the opposite where most hits quickly become 1 HP worth of damage. This is so bad that by the time you get to the end of the game, you could TANK Dracula's insane charge multiple times. Considering the sheer defense and HP that you get, the only thing holding you back is the fact that you only have a subweapon and a whip.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Despite having a rather cartoony artstyle, the graphics had some criticisms for being ''too'' dark! However this wasn't exactly the fault of Konami. As an early Game Boy Advance release game, it suffered from the first GBA model's infamously dim screen. But when played in emulator, it becomes obvious that the developers tried to compensate generously for this as the colors appear too light.

** This game is basically [[CardcaptorSakura Cardcaptor Nathan]]!

* BroadStrokes[=/=]FlipFlopOfGod: It is debated whether the game is part of IGA's official timeline. IGA, in a 2008 interview with ''Nintendo Power'' magazine (covering ''[[CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia]]'') considers this game [[GaidenGame a side story]] and [[CanonDiscontinuity not part of his timeline]], as it's unmentioned on [[http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula/product/data.html the Japanese timeline]] (updated as of 2007's ''The Dracula X Chronicles''), though it was shown in the timeline that came with pre-ordered copies of ''PortraitOfRuin'', minus the description.

* BackThatLightUp: Basically, playing this on the original GBA is not recommended. Fortunately, just about any other system that plays GBA, from the SP to the {{DS}} Lite, solves this problem.

* GuideDangIt: Some of the magic cards and secrets. Perhaps most egregiously, the Pluto & Uranus cards requires you return to a certain boss room at a much later point in game- when you would have no logical reason to- and defeat a mook that appears to be part of the scenery. And then hope said mook [[RandomlyDrops actually drops the card]] before it melts away. The Unicorn and Black Dog cards are rare drops from enemies far into the [[MonsterArena Arena]]--an area with abnormally pumped-up enemies whose later rooms you can only get to after completing those before them.

* LuckStat: To go with the RandomlyDrops. The last NewGamePlus bonus you earn boosts it through the roof (hitting the {{Cap}} before long) and is also a GameBreaker to boot...

* RandomlyDrops: The items ''and'' the DSS Cards, the latter of which is the mutant lovechild of this and GuideDangIt. In Magician mode, at least, you start with all the cards.
** Exacerbated by the absurdly low drop rates of items, some of which only drop from one enemy at a rate of <1%. Thief mode helps by starting you out with 1400 luck (and jacking it up close to max pretty quick), but considering that takes three playthroughs to get...

The game caught some [[MisBlamed undeserved flak]] upon release for allegedly having graphics so dark and poorly-defined that it was nearly impossible to see what was going on on the screen. In fact, this was the fault of the non-backlit Game Boy Advance, for which ''Circle of the Moon'' was a launch title. Later improvements of the hardware have dispelled these criticisms, but it explains the uncharacteristically bright and colorful graphics in the later ''[[CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance Harmony of Dissonance]]''. Those critics who could play the game, however, had generally positive things to say.

* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: Blatantly obvious, at least compared to ''SymphonyOfTheNight'' that came before and ''HarmonyOfDissonance'' that came after. Large stretches of the castle have precious few distinguishing features, giving it a far more repetitive feel more reminiscent of NES {{Metroidvania}}s like ''{{Metroid}}'' or ''BlasterMaster''.

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: You need to find a powerup in order to ''run''. Seriously.