...yeah. If the title doesn't give it away, I firmly believe one of the reasons this game has been "Vindicated by History" is merely the new founded appreciation for females excelling in anything or everything. I say this because other than Sonia being female(and that somehow is a plus on it's own) the game is...soundly inferior to other portable Castlevania games, such as Belmont's Revenge and it's absolutely brilliant level design and kickass music(it's still widely above The Adventure, though).
The story is simple yet contradictory to the rest of the series. Standalone it works fine if a little restrained by the Gameboy limitations. However, there are two major problems with it and the rest of the continuity: It makes a female (openly such) the first Belmont. (It wouldn't be as egregious if this wasn't succeeded by SYPHA, who hides her gender for the whole game. This basically establishes that women CAN fight in the Castlevania universe but aren't expected to at the time this game is taking place, so there's a clear contradiction of how the universe takes gender roles(wether is politically correct or not, is inconsistent))
Second, It makes Alucard to have a son. (It DOES imply towards it, which is totally OOC for someone with "cursed blood".)
The level design is ATROCIOUS. It's slow paced, artificially extended, disjointed, unintuitive and drags on. It can get from rather dull to a chore to play, and even the cheap shots aren't well paced(yes, there's proper pacing for that, oddly enough).
It's not helped by some of the mechanics either, as the inventory is pretty unintuitive and slows the pace even more.
The music is good at times but oddly unfitting. Some themes I would swear were composed for a Megaman game.
Overall, this is a game you can skip in the series. Sure, it's not as bad as people back in the day said, but it isn't as good as some people nowadays claim. It's mechanically unintuitive and not exactly well designed, yet points given because "female power".
And that's something I have to cringe towards.
Having a female protagonist shouldn't be a selling point on itself(not entering on gaming gender tropes debates here) because it's not the gender but writing what makes a character good. A strong female lead is always welcomed, but that alone doesn't guarantee a good product.
Average game, feminine hype
...yeah. If the title doesn't give it away, I firmly believe one of the reasons this game has been "Vindicated by History" is merely the new founded appreciation for females excelling in anything or everything. I say this because other than Sonia being female(and that somehow is a plus on it's own) the game is...soundly inferior to other portable Castlevania games, such as Belmont's Revenge and it's absolutely brilliant level design and kickass music(it's still widely above The Adventure, though).
The story is simple yet contradictory to the rest of the series. Standalone it works fine if a little restrained by the Gameboy limitations. However, there are two major problems with it and the rest of the continuity: It makes a female (openly such) the first Belmont. (It wouldn't be as egregious if this wasn't succeeded by SYPHA, who hides her gender for the whole game. This basically establishes that women CAN fight in the Castlevania universe but aren't expected to at the time this game is taking place, so there's a clear contradiction of how the universe takes gender roles(wether is politically correct or not, is inconsistent)) Second, It makes Alucard to have a son. (It DOES imply towards it, which is totally OOC for someone with "cursed blood".)
The level design is ATROCIOUS. It's slow paced, artificially extended, disjointed, unintuitive and drags on. It can get from rather dull to a chore to play, and even the cheap shots aren't well paced(yes, there's proper pacing for that, oddly enough).
It's not helped by some of the mechanics either, as the inventory is pretty unintuitive and slows the pace even more.
The music is good at times but oddly unfitting. Some themes I would swear were composed for a Megaman game.
Overall, this is a game you can skip in the series. Sure, it's not as bad as people back in the day said, but it isn't as good as some people nowadays claim. It's mechanically unintuitive and not exactly well designed, yet points given because "female power".
And that's something I have to cringe towards.
Having a female protagonist shouldn't be a selling point on itself(not entering on gaming gender tropes debates here) because it's not the gender but writing what makes a character good. A strong female lead is always welcomed, but that alone doesn't guarantee a good product.