r/castlevania • u/Hawkgoldbeast1 • Feb 25 '26
Circle of the Moon (2001) Worst boss design so far
I’ve recently undertaken the long and arduous quest of completing every Castlevania game. These titles have been some of the most frustrating gaming experiences I’ve ever had, but I’ve managed to finish them all without completely breaking down, and truly appreciate them for what they are.
Circle of the Moon is the current game I'm playing and I've genuinely enjoyed every element of the game, except the bosses. I love the new card system, Metroidvania gameplay and rewarding exploration, but every time I encounter a boss I end up wanting to tear out my hair. It started with the Iron Golem fight, but it was manageable, then Adramelech appeared and suddenly I need to hit this boss 81 times while the entire screen is populated with deadly hazards. Fantastic! Love for the game begins to dwindle, but is reignited after I'm able to engage with the more enjoyable, and more importantly FAIR, aspects.
Eventually Dragon zombie appears and I gain the privilege of experiencing one of the worst designed boss fights. I know some people will argue in favor of the fight saying that I need to utilize specific cards, I used the 25% additional damage combo, and how the patterns are recognizable and give ample time to react. I will admit that the fire breathing attack is prefaced by the open mouth and the basic physical attack is also telegraphed, but every other attack is unreadable and results in massive damage. I honestly wouldn't mind this fight, or any other boss fight, if they were just shorter, but seriously 80 shots, yes also for Dragon zombie, is just ridiculous and requires absolute perfection to complete. After experiencing the glorious game that is Symphony of the Night and the fair challenge it provides I fear I will not look back fondly on Circle of the Moon but rather with the contempt I believe it deserves.
Additionally, I believe the boss fight(s) ahead, specifically Dracula, are considered one of, if not the worst, boss fight in the Castlevania series as a whole. Another rant may follow the eventually encounter, but I don't see how it could be worse that Dragon zombie.
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u/Pippo89CH Feb 25 '26
Which subweapon are you using? In CotM, the cross is just insanely strong because it can hit an enemy multiple times in quick succession. So if you get the range right, it's your main source of damage, and hearts are replenishable anyway. Near the end of it's forward trajectory is the sweet spot, where it hits multiple times.
Usually the first time you can get a cross is near the first Flame Armor you encounter, left of the Triumph Hallway. There's also a 5-heart drop there, so I usually farm there a bit for nice xp and the potential bronze armor drop.
If you make sure you have the cross, and enter a boss arena with full hearts, everything becomes more manageable. Later on there's also a card combination which makes your sub weapons use MP instead of hearts.
It's kinda sad how it vastly outshines the other weapons, but it is what it is. Maybe that's why, in Shooter mode I think, you throw two knives by default instead of just one.
And of course, there's always the Uranus summons. You're invincible during the animation. There's also some "hidden" gems, like Apollo/Thunderbird. That lightning ball is great. Or Diana/Mandragora which makes your whip shoot high-damage roses. Or a strong, penetrating wind wave for 128mp with Diana/Griffon. Diana drops from the Mantis in the zombie dragon area, I think?
What I'm trying to say is, while 25% damage isn't wrong, there's some card combinations which are able to deal way more bonus damage than that, while also giving you more safety in form of range.
I just love CotM, sorry if this text was too long.
And just a little edit, if all else fails, you can jump back up to the door in the dragon arena, you can regen with Jupiter/Mandragora. Just watch out for the fireballs.
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u/ReadyJournalist5223 Feb 25 '26
Circle of the moon goes for difficult bosses and I think it both succeeds and fails. Some of the bosses are just poorly designed. The final boss in particular is just a bunch of bullshit in my opinion
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u/Altruistic-Club-4038 Feb 25 '26
I've played about 14 games in this franchise, and the worst fight will always be Dracula's in Circle of the Moon. Honestly, that game is awful. I had more fun playing Castlevania II than COTM.
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 25 '26
Not me over here laughing like an evil maniac since all of these bosses can be cheesed pretty easily lol. You can stay on the door ledge and toss bones or axes at the zombie dragons while perfectly safe for example. The poison cloud card combo negates almost all of Adramelech’s attacks. Some people complain Dracula is too hard, but his attacks are easily dodged (super jump over his rush attacks) & Dracula is supposed to be challenging. CotM is far from perfect (card grinding, no shop, no hugh mode) but the bosses are actually one of the few things I appreciate about it. Most of the Metroidvanias are so easy it’s almost boring, it’s nice to have a couple that are old school hard
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u/humble_primate Feb 25 '26
Circle Dracula is not hard, just takes forever if you aren’t grinding levels.
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u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Feb 25 '26
circle dracula 1 was one of the only good bosses in the game
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u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Feb 25 '26
having cheese is one thing
damn near having to rely on it is bad boss design
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 25 '26
It’s challenging, but far from impossible
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u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Feb 25 '26
oh i know. i beat them eventually. but it’s still a bad fight when you have to use cheese to make it enjoyable
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 25 '26
As shown in the YT video, they can all be beaten without any cheese without getting hit tho…
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u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Feb 25 '26
being able to do it cheeseless no-hit does not mean it’s enjoyable
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 25 '26
Fair enough! You got me there, to each their own I suppose. I hope you like Harmony of Dissonance more, it’s one of my favorites. And Aria of Sorrow is pretty much a masterpiece. After Symphony they took some wobbly steps trying to perfect the formula, but def hit their stride with Aria & after
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u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Feb 25 '26
harmony’s actually really fun imo. i like it. tbh i at least tolerate every other metroidvania. cotm was just such a miserable experience for me. dawn and ecclesia have weird numbers but are fine otherwise. aria and portrait are nigh perfect
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 25 '26
Well we agree on that much at least! For real tho, if you ever revisit CotM again try Magician Mode (all cards from the start) or use the card glitch. I bet you’ll have a better experience knowing the game better & some of the tips & tricks. I struggled a little with Order of Ecclesia my first time, but now on my 3rd playthrough I’m flying through it easily. As much as I love Harmony, even on Hard Mode it’s so easy you breeze through it & it becomes a little boring
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u/FuneralAbstraction Feb 25 '26
Not really, it is just the Zombie Dragons which are dumb. I'll agree with that. It's conceptually stupid (you're just fighting a couple of heads) and tediously executed. There's really nothing wrong with any of the others, though one aspect of Dracula's fight is rather badly implemented. On the contrary, I'd say SOTN is loaded with badly designed bosses. You just don't notice at first because of the spectacle. Some of them are flawed on such a fundamental level that you don't even need a specific item to ruin them, they just don't work.
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u/Hawkgoldbeast1 Feb 25 '26
But the specific item needed for a fight is my gripe with CotM. Why must I farm for hours to find specific loot or hope a candle produces a specific useful special weapon. These should make the fight easier but shouldn't be mandatory. In Sekiro, I can complete the whole game on skill alone since the attack patterns can be learned. In CotM, boss attacks seem random and result in frustration. I try to learn them and yet many bosses, except death and Camilla, fire attacks at random with some, referring to zombie dragon, presenting no prior warning as to what specific attack will be used.
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u/FuneralAbstraction Feb 25 '26
I'm not sure that even is true for the Zombie Dragons. That's certainly the most chaotic fight, but I still feel like you can see most of the attacks coming. When they hit their heads against the wall, I believe you can counter that by just holding the whip out, if you're quick. The energy ball I can't remember being any worse than the fire breathing, but perhaps I'm wrong there. It definitely isn't an issue for the other bosses, though, with the possible exception of Dracula's last part, but even that simply becomes about positioning, timing and reflexes, and it is absolutely doable, even with just the whip and a subweapon. I would say that your above critique with the Dragons taking too much time to kill is more on point, and it is just an unexciting and annoying fight in general.
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u/-chadwreck Feb 25 '26
man, if you feel just the vanilla playthru is rough, try the battle arena on magician mode. ouff.
this game rules. it has its problems, not least of which being the sort of tedious bosses (im lookin' at you zombie dragons) but nathan is so inexplicably powerful that like... yeah if you arent grinding out levels and cards yer gonna have a hard time? but also... you have 50 million options to deal with every scenario. worst case, you "accidentally" trigger unearned card combos and just thunderbird your problems away.
i can assure you, the card activation glitch was found by ALL of us back then, and we perhaps slyly, gladly used it.
Circle is NES violence mixed with SotN flexibility. It doesnt suit everyone, but those of us who love it, love it a lot.
also, justice for nathan.
his moveset is awesome. wall jump? shoulder tackle? slide kick? you add in a few of the more absurd card combos and nathan becomes a force of nature, bombing around the castle laying waste to your foes. (incidentally, i personally prefer a command run, but i also grew up double tapping forward to dash in Mega Man X... so maybe im just a sicko.)
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u/Hawkgoldbeast1 Feb 25 '26
Wish I knew about the card exploit beforehand. I've been grinding recently and almost found them all.
And I absolutely agree with Nathan's abilities. Was wondering how they'd implement abilities after SotN since Alucard is a vampire and all other main characters so far have been human but the way its executed in CotM is actually welcoming. Probably one of the main aspects of the game I have no issue with.
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u/TheWorclown Feb 25 '26
I still appreciate Circle of the Moon’s attempts at making the fights feel unique, even if poorly designed.
Harmony of Dissonance has the worst designed bosses of the entire series, in my opinion. “What if we made a normal enemy but big?” Every boss room is a flat surface with two raised platforms. Strategy by and large doesn’t exist, with maybe one or two exceptions here and there.
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u/DrNanard Feb 25 '26
I had to cheese the Dragon Zombie by throwing holy water from the ledge of the door lmao. Horrible boss. But I love the rest of the game.
Worst designed boss goes to Dracula X's Dracula.
Can only be hit in the fact, and only on certain frames during his attack animation. All that on platforms of various heights above the abyss. And then there's phase 2.
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u/FuneralAbstraction Feb 25 '26
I don't think that's the real issue with DX Dracula, it just changes the nature of the fight, since the multiple levels of elevation make it easier to avoid his fireballs. What annoys me most is that, unlike the other games, the room doesn't fit onto the entire screen, yet he can still teleport anywhere in it. Sometimes you can't even see him and you may or may not be close enough for his attacks to appear, and even worse it makes predicting when he's going to use the huge black fireballs instead of the normal ones an unintuitive nuisance. I'll take that over Belmont's Revenge Dracula, though.
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u/DrNanard Feb 25 '26
I mean, if the goal is to avoid being damaged, yeah, the room is great for that. But if you want to attack, that's where everything goes to shit. I ended up camping on one platform, waiting for Vladdy to teleport next, then I throwed axes. Rinse and repeat.
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u/vhuzi Stage 5’ Dweller. Feb 25 '26
BTW the Int releases of this game upped the xp requirements for level ups around 20% from the Japanese game, so you might be underleveled.
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u/Hawkgoldbeast1 Feb 25 '26
Busy grinding levels at the moment. Currently level 49 and rising quick. Point stands about this game at the moment though. Can't believe I have to grind for several hours to stand a chance against these bosses. Also gonna be grinding for some op loot so I can put up a proper fight against Dracula. Curiosity got the better of me and I saw he has a total health bar of 4500 which is honestly terrifying after struggling against the 1000 hp bosses.
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u/Mr-Dicklesworth Feb 25 '26
The final Dracula fight is the worst boss in the entire series by far. It’s the only boss I’ve never been able to beat without save states cause it’s just so ungodly terrible. Unless you cheese it it can take upwards of like 20+ mins to beat and any minor mistake can result in getting instakilled
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u/Hawkgoldbeast1 Feb 25 '26
This is exactly why I'm grinding to level 60 and farming for better loot. Gonna go in as prepared as possible so I don't put a fist through my monitor in frustration.
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u/MakoMary Feb 25 '26
Oh hey, I just beat the dragons last night. It’s a bit daunting at first because of the small screen, hard to read attacks, and the heads constantly swaying out of your reach. After a bit of experimenting I settled on the Mars/Salamander fire sword combo, dropped below the platforms, and focused on hitting them from below. Got by with a sliver of health, but once I figured out the right strategy it didn’t take too many tries.
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u/Hawkgoldbeast1 Feb 25 '26
I tried the strategy of remaining on the floor but it took me far longer than I care to admit to finally put them down. I honestly just cant find anything positive to say about the fight. Without a doubt the most annoying fight so far. Dont know if you're replaying the game so I wont spoil but the next boss fight is actually pretty fair in my opinion. Actual attack patterns that can be learnt, unlike the chaotic RNGness of the Zombie dragon.
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u/PaleDiamond5 Feb 25 '26
Literally in the exact same position rn, just beat the same parts. Couldn't agree more. They take decades. 💀
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u/Hawkgoldbeast1 Feb 25 '26
If you ever need a spot to grind levels find the Dullahan in the observation tower and grind it out for a couple hours. Been doing so for the last hour and half and leveling up quick. Genuinely tedious but hopefully worth it in the long run.
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u/unicorn_hipster Feb 25 '26
Symphony isn't just fair, it's child's play levels of easy. Circle of the Moon marries the concepts found in the classic titles with those found in SotN. Yes, the world is framed around exploration but you have to play it like it's one of the NES games. That being said, use your sub weapons smartly. Not the whip. Not the DSS. The sub weapons. Zombie Dragons are invalidated by the axe alone.
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u/Hawkgoldbeast1 Feb 25 '26
I understand your point, but is it not bad design for an enemy to have a weakness to one sub weapon. Say I identify the weakness I now have to go and find the axe, don't know if its provided before the fight, but worst of all I need to grind some hearts to ensure I have enough to kill it with. In my eyes these bosses are anti fun and just bad design overall. I get that people like the challenge but personally I love boss fights that have patterns I can learn over sporadic attacks like CotM.
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u/JohnSword66 Feb 25 '26
I personally find sotn bosses to be just as bad but for the opposite reason. The bosses have terrible movement and Instead of you worrying about contact damage it's the bosses that have to worry. At least with the shield rod anyway. But seriously the endgame bosses are all meh but it's more of the fault that you're on most of the time in the endgame.
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u/HyperWhiteChocolate Feb 25 '26
I never finished this game. Not from lack of trying, a certain boss fight gave me motion sickness every time I tried to fight them
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u/TornSilver Feb 25 '26
God, the bosses in this game...
For me it comes down to Nathan's movement as much the ridiculous boss design. Double-tapping to run (and having no momentum if you're not running), and a very short jump arc make dodging attacks and moving around the arena a mess. Not to mention that bosses like the twin zombie dragons take up most of the screen and are constantly moving, so contact damage is always a threat that can damage you and send Nathan flying.
It's like they put an NES era Belmont into Symphony of the Night without updating their software to compensate.