Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

aka: Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Gaiden: The Legend of Cornell
Moby ID: 7089
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Description official descriptions

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is the sequel to the first Castlevania Nintendo 64 adventure. Although at war with the same enemy in the same castle, the player must fight as 4 different characters, with improved graphics and a new look to certain areas that appeared in the original.

To begin with, set 8 years before the events that took place in Castlevania, the count has kidnapped the young sister of Cornell, a powerful werewolf. As Cornell, the player must battle through the castle and defeat Dracula to save Cornell's sister.

Once completing the game as Cornell, the player may take up the role of Henry, a demon-hating hero who must save captured children from the hands of Dracula within a set time limit. The player may then take on Dracula once again as the original heroes of Castlevania 64, Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez, and re-live the events of the previous game through new and improved surroundings.

Spellings

  • æ‚Șé­”ćŸŽăƒ‰ăƒ©ă‚­ăƒ„ăƒ©é»™ç€șéŒČć€–äŒ ïœžăƒŹă‚žă‚§ăƒłăƒ‰ă‚Șăƒ–ă‚łăƒŒăƒăƒ«ïœž - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Nintendo 64 version)

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Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 19 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 21 ratings with 1 reviews)

A mildly fun Castlevania with too much wasted potential

The Good
Four playable characters and extra levels add some replayability. Graphics and sound have been updated. Combines action and adventure genres, and has some nice action sequences. An old-school Castlevania feel occasionally shines trough.

The Bad
Poor camera issues still remain, targetting system carries the same problems, and control is too loose. Some graphics remain washed out and too pixelated. Gameplay becomes too repetitive and not as diverse and interesting as other Castlevania titles. Combat is somewhat hit and miss - literally.

The Bottom Line
Fangs for the memories

Back in the day of the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation, the notions of 3D in consoles had been challenged. Games back then started to show how 3D could be implemented in gaming for purposes other than simple graphical appeal, even if unfortunately 3D sometimes felt (and still feels) like a gimmick as developers seem unwilling to explore it fully, instead opting to enforce old designs but giving them a cosmetic update. Still, the games released back then in these next-generation consoles had this magical aura of being able to, much like their 16-bit predecessors, render attractive and immersive gameworlds that dazzled players.

As is the case with new consoles, most game companies decide to invest time and resources in new franchises, but they also eagerly wait for the opportunity to bring their old franchises into these new platforms, both as a means of captivating a new audience and of bringing in fans of the old games. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to find entire series of games spread across nearly all platforms, either maintaining their old design and visuals, or adapting to new gaming trends, such as 3D.

The success of old franchises being given a three-dimensional treatment appealed gamers as well as companies, and so it was no surprise to find Konami jumping into the fray with one of their long standing franchises, Castlevania. Based around vampire folklore and tasking the player with thwarting Dracula himself while travelling trough dark and gothic undead-filled levels, the series saw a shift from two-dimensional action platformer to a three-dimensional action adventure, becoming the first 3D title in the series. But unfortunately it failed to capture most of the essence and gameplay of past titles. Instead of a hallmark, it fast became a mere footnote in the series.

However, Konami decided to keep investing in the game, and some time afterwards, it released an ‘updated’ version of the N64 title, tentatively subtitled Legacy of Darkness. It carried graphical improvements, extra characters, levels and some minor gameplay changes. But in the end, was it enough? For those that have played the original release, this update comes too late and gives little reason to replay the game. But for those who have yet to play either version, and are willing to endure some technical and design issues, Legacy of Darkness proves to be a sufficiently entertaining title.

Drac attack

It’s the end of the 19th century, and as the legend of the series goes, peace and prosperity is put in check as an evil shadow spreads across Wallachia, Transylvania. Once again, Dracula has awoken from his sleep, and his place of power, the dreaded Castlevania, has risen to announce his coming. Aided by a devilish cast of characters, the Count soon starts spreading terror in the countryside, attacking the weak and making his name be heard across the night as a whispered omen of death.

Fortunately, not all is lost. As is standard fare across every single Castlevania chapter, someone is fated to fight the evil Count as stop his evil ways. Be it a legendary family doomed to confront him, or characters who unwillingly get caught up in Dracula’s machinations, there is always someone who will take up the mantle of vampire hunter and step forward to fight against the evil vampire lord. And in Legacy of Darkness, four heroes are destined to confront Dracula over an eight year time span.

While each character’s story is acceptable, you’ll get the feeling that the story could have been much better. Mainly contributing to this is the game’s dialogue, which is terribly conceived, and suggests it was a quick translation from Japanese with minimal effort in trying to make it more vivid for English-speaking gamers. Sometimes game characters will say the most trivial things for no reason at all, or repeat their lines as if trying to explain what they meant previously to the audience in somewhat condescending ways, or simply stutter and repeat “oh” a good amount of times. It just drags on without ever reaching a satisfying level.

Oh I’m a vampire hunter and I’m alright, I sleep all day and I hunt all night

Legacy of Darkness’ main feature is the ability to play with four characters instead of the original two. Besides the traditional whip-wielding vampire hunter Reinhardt Schneider and the magically inclined Carrie Fernandez present in the first version, players will now find Cornell, a man-beast of considerable power who is able to turn into a werewolf, and Henry Oldrey, a sacred knight armed with a six-shooter. All characters have their different reasons to be here, as well as different storylines that are exposed as the player advances trough the game. Some levels are exclusive to them, while others are shared.

Reinhardt is the character who comes closer to the Castlevania spirit and who is by nature doomed to oppose Dracula, as he is armed with a whip which he uses to attack enemies, a traditional element of the Belmont family, the clan of holy vampire hunters present in the series’ myths. As a side note, he was originally going to be called Schneider Belmont, but for some reason this never came to be. Carrie is a young spellcaster who uses magical projectiles as her main weapon, and carries with her an iron will and the resolve to fulfil a promise to her dying mother. Interestingly enough for Castlevania fans is that she is also the descendant of a vampire hunter present in the old NES title, Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse - Sypha Belnades. This may only be apparent in the Japanese version, though, where her last name is Belnades but was subsequently changed to Fernandez in other versions.

Cornell’s adventure supposedly takes precedence over that of Reinhardt and Carrie, eight years before to be exact. When returning from a long period of training, Cornell comes upon the burning wrecks of his village to find most inhabitants slain by Dracula’s forces and his sister, Ada, kidnapped. The man-beast, armed with a medium-ranged energy blast and a ferocious melee claw swipe, decides to rescue his sister. Finally, Henry Oldrey is a child that you encounter while playing as Cornell’s story, but later becomes a church knight decided to rescue other children trapped in Castlevania. He returns eight years after meeting up with Cornell, precisely at the same time where Reinhardt and Carrie’s adventures begin.

Worthy of note about character selection is that you won’t be able to play with all the characters from the start - the game forces you to play the game first with Cornell. While this would make sense from a chronological order at first glance, as Cornell’s adventure happens before the other characters’ adventures, you will then be forced to play with Henry right after. Konami saw it fit to make it so playing trough Henry’s game would unlock the ability to play as the last two remaining characters.

While not that much of a problem for those that are only playing this version for the first time, it might displease those that are familiar with the original version and that would like to play with the original characters from the start. It’s somewhat strange that you cannot start immediately playing with Reinhardt, who is the closest you have to a Castlevania classic character.

Biting my time

The types of levels in Legacy of Darkness are twofold. One type is the standard linear romp seen in past games of the series which involves players guiding their characters from the starting point of a level to its end, often switching between dodging environmental traps and jumping between various platforms; the other takes on a more adventure and exploration emphasis, sometimes even employing puzzles, not entirely different from survival horror games such as Alone in the Dark or its more recent revisiting, Resident Evil. Sometimes during a stage, players will have to confront a boss or perform some tasks in order to acquire special items or to advance in the game.

As mentioned before, the problem with some 3D games is that they still use old gameplay conventions when they could be and do so much more instead. Here the same situation happens – especially in the linear, platforming levels which just end up feeling like levels that didn’t make the cut of games like Tomb Raider. Some levels just seem nothing more than time wasters specially designed to make players take longer to finish the game, doubly so because these are mostly pointless within the game’s structure and are very formulaic, with no significant detours or surprises. As a consequence, they feel detached and just there for the sake of inflating level count.

Legacy of Darkness is clearly going for the old-style approach to early Castlevania levels with these linear levels and platforming, but here it doesn’t work nearly as well. Whereas its predecessors usually were more dynamic by presenting a greater interactivity with the environment, along with more and varied enemies, here the result just feels stale. Environments can rarely be interacted with and hold no surprises. Most enemies come at you slowly and with little danger, and the only problem of jumping from platform to platform usually come in the form of bad camera angles not allowing players to properly gauge the jumping distance (which will happen quite a bit). This update to the original game sports the ability to change between three types of camera views, but they are still not as well refined as they could be.

The adventure levels look better, with occasionally entertaining situations for players to handle, such as puzzle-solving, quest solving or even some minigame of sorts (sometimes even story-related). But even here there are problems, as these levels take on more than a passing similarity to the survival horror games mentioned before. As you travel trough some of these levels, you will need to perform boring backtracking and seemingly unrelated actions to keep going. You’ll encounter locked doors which need keys, hollow panels which require items and so forth. It seems that Konami couldn’t be bothered to find broader adventure game references, on conceal the ones they used better. There’s an underlying sense of deja vu when playing some of these segments, which hinder more than help. Also, while some of these levels aren’t overly difficult to memorize, there are a couple which could definitely use an automap.

Another feature present in the game is a day/night cycle. As you progress trough the game, time passes by and changes from day to night to day again. This brings some changes to gameplay. For instance, at night vampires are more resistant to damage and some enemies come out of hiding. Some characters will only appear at a given place at a given time as well. There’s also a time limit in the game which determines which ending you’ll get for three of the four characters. Basically the quicker you reach and confront Dracula to thwart his full resurrection, the better the chances of seeing what is considered a ‘good’ ending; spend time idly and things may not go for the best. Other than these features, the use of a day/night cycle is largely wasted. The enemies don’t get that much more resistant, and there isn’t that much of a reason to dawdle in the levels (in fact some are so empty that players will instead find themselves rushing to find something to do). There is also a puzzle that involves using Sun and Moon cards (cards which magically speed up time to dusk or dawn), but it’s more of an afterthought than an ingenious use of the mechanic.

Fortunately, there are some interesting interactions to be had with other characters drawn into the castle as well, from a tormented vampire named Rosa, to a mysterious boy named Malus, and even a shady devil merchant named Renon trying to make a profit. Some of these will be paramount to the story, and their exposition will be made across the various stages.

Whip it, whip it good

No Castlevania game would be complete without combat being waged against creatures of the night, from simple bats and undead to hellhounds and dragons. But for a title clearly aiming to return to some of the best features of the more action-oriented titles in its past games (even if only in some levels), combat in Legacy of Darkness is somewhat lacking.

Characters get a long range attack and a melee attack, but more often than not the long range attack will be preferable as it is safer – melee blows should be used for emergency situations or when an enemy gets too close and drops its guard. While Konami was smart enough to look at contemporary titles on the N64 to get a feel of what would be best for combat - and as such took on an approach very similar to that of Ocarina of Time’s Z-targeting system – it never feels as intuitive as it does in that Zelda title. The system is basically used in these 3D games to allow characters to get a quick lock on nearby enemies, but here the targeting is loose, and players can’t always rely on the shaky camera. Also, most animations – including attacks and character movement - seem overall a bit slow, which might compromise players on occasions such as recovery time after every attack, and this is specially true of Cornell’s controls which feel less precise than those of the other characters. Although it’s all manageable, you get the feeling the game would benefit from an increase in frames per second so it was faster and more dynamic. Still, tapping the R button to quickly face the enemy is a good idea, and the automated camera mode for boss fights helps a bit.

Some of the combat sequences in Legacy of Darkness are fun, and maintaining a sense of style when it comes to depicting fantastic creatures with which players must do battle with, Konami has created some fine bosses to challenge players. Though there are some smudges here and there (as is the case of monsters like the Villa vampire), giant skeletons, demonic hounds, and assorted mythical figures all come alive and are some of the best highlights of the game. Still, there are some sour points in this, namely their AI. Some enemies are just barely competent while others just stand still waiting for you to get up so they can attack you again. Others will do their best to navigate their surroundings and reach you but it’s vexing to see them do this as they either get stuck on walls, have to jump across barely visible cracks on the floor, or just perform awkward moves to reach you. When it comes to enemy patterns they are easy to guess and to work with, and sometimes the only challenge is managing to hit them when you’re confined to very small spaces or areas with little freedom of movement, or just managing to get a fast lock on them to avoid being pummelled without a chance to react.

The undeath of the party

To aid in the combat, you can rely on an old standard in the series, items and powerups. These are usually dropped by slain enemies or by destroying candles, torches or similar decorations found throughout the 12-plus levels. Every character can power up their standard attacks two times by finding an item with the shape of a coat of arms. Most of the times, these upgrades bestow more power, range or speed, and are often accompanied by graphical changes. Reinhardt’s whip, for example, goes from a standard whip to a whip enveloped in energy, while Henry’s pistol fires more shells the more power ups you acquire.

You can also acquire items which serve as secondary weapons, like a throwing axe or a cross-shaped boomerang. Another staple of the series, these items can be used as long as you have ‘ammunition’ for them, which comes in the form of jewels (replaced by hearts in past games) that you find strewn across the game. Some weapons cost more or less ammunition, and in the same way you can increase your main weapon’s attack by finding power ups, you can also increase the usefulness of the secondary weapons by collecting them again - but instead of raw power you get to use more instances of the weapon. In other words, while a throwing axe at first power level only allows you to throw one axe, collecting another instance of the weapon will allow you to throw two of them, up to a total of three with a final power up. These have different attack ratings, speeds and uses as well.

As you travel trough the game you will also find non-combat items, namely things like cure ampoules (to stop poison), pieces of meat (to heal yourself) or money bags (used to purchase items from a merchant). These will all be stored in your inventory which you can use anytime during play by accessing the menu. This menu setup for item use works but is a considerable drawback when you’re ploughing trough intense combat actions or quickly need to cure yourself. It would be preferable to add an interface element that allowed players to quickly cycle trough inventory items and activating them on the fly without needing to stop the action and go trough menial menu-based tasks that drag on.

While navigating trough the levels you will come upon white jewels which save the progress. These will be very important as the game carries one damning element: players only have one life. Unlike the more arcade-based Castlevanias in the past, Legacy of Darkness goes with a more adventure game approach when it comes to handling character death. This wouldn’t be a bad idea - and is in fact used by more modern Castlevanias - but the game’s camera control and excess of jumping sequences are very frustrating and lead to the character’s doom many times. This means that instead of being able to continue in the same sub-stage where you just died, you do get the chance to load from a previous save or to restart the level. But in occasions where your last saved game was a long time ago, you’ll probably wish the game sported the old system of continuing nearly seamlessly at the expense of a player life.

Aside the four playable characters, two of which are unlockable, playing trough Henry’s story will also grant alternative costumes for the characters. These aren’t very imaginative, though they are a small extra that might entice some gamers. Also, playing with him also unlocks a Hard Mode, which is always good for those looking for an extra challenge. Though it’s anybody’s guess why this was not available from the beginning.

Call your arterial decorator

The graphics in Legacy of Darkness have gotten an update as well. If you decide to use the Expansion Pak, they look even a bit more impressive but for some reason the game stutters a lot more with it. At times, this becomes game-breaking to the point that it’s better to just play it without the Expansion Pak (which isn’t that bad as the without the graphics are still fine). The backgrounds have also gotten a facelift, with some improved and detailed textures used throughout the levels. A better optimization between the game code and the Expansion Pak might have been a good idea.

Though, while some graphics were improved, you can still see some washed out textures and generally bad texture wrapping which were present in the original. Ground textures still feel like they have been stretched until they covered a polygon, making them too pixelated and blurry. Special effects aren’t terribly exciting, but they get the job done.

Sound wise, the game was also improved. Many complained about the original’s sparse music and use of more ambient tunes instead of the catchy trademark Castlevania tunes, but this has been fixed here. From classic tunes featured in the series to remixed or orchestrated versions, the music is superior this time around.

Final Words:

All things considered, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is an above average game with some entertainment to be had, but is brought down by what is seemingly a desire to make it 3D just for the hell of it instead of taking 3D to a higher level. As an action/adventure title, it succeeds in giving some challenge to combat and exploration, but it never reaches the point of giving satisfaction when these obstacles are resolved. As a Castlevania game it is a brave step forward, but mostly becomes a sketch for something far bigger, larger, more exciting – something that it unfortunately never comes to be. Something the more recent 3D iterations in the PlayStation 2 seem to have gotten right, and something the 2D Castlevania: Symphony of the Night released for the PlayStation a mere two years before it managed to be.

If you played the original version, then there is little to be found of worth here. The addition of two characters with their own storylines, more levels with more objectives and a graphical and audio update are nice but don’t constitute enough reasons to return, unless perhaps for die-hard fans, because it’s basically still the same game with most of the same problems.

However, for those who are new to this title and just happen to have a Nintendo 64 lying around with an Expansion Pak, you’ll find Legacy of Darkness to be a somewhat satisfying game with some extras to be unlocked, though the gameplay can get frustrating and repetitive, if not outright boring after a couple of sessions.

In the end, Legacy of Darkness is a quick action romp that is mildly fun but also a glaring example of why 3D transitions aren’t always for the best when there is no solid design backing them up.

Nintendo 64 · by Diogo Ribeiro (332) · 2005

Trivia

Title

The back cover of the manual for Hybrid Heaven had a small preview ad for this game. Back then, its title was Castlevania: Special Edition.

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Game added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: Roedie, Guy Chapman, chirinea, Foxhack, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger.

Game added August 12, 2002. Last modified January 15, 2024.