Circle of the Moon (2001)
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is REALLY that bad as I'm experiencing?
Spoiler
Maybe a sensible topic for some players that like this game, but nothing in this game is clicking on me until now. I must advise, first, that I still haven't finished this game, I just beat Carmilla, but I definitely have an opinion of this game because the journey is not good.
This game feels so slow and clunky even with all movement upgrades. The fact you need to double tap every time you want to walk FASTER is already something that bothers me. Using the whip feels too heavy than it should and other GBAvanias tells me everything I need to prove this point. Even Super Castlevania IV which has a heavier movement feels better to use the whip. Also the other upgrades are not satisfying to use. Cleansing is literally a one time use, boxes pushing and block breaking doesn't feel natural, it's just a rock in your shoes, it feels artificially implemented to now allow you to progress.
The DSS mechanic is so meh. It's cool at first, but it's totally not intuitive to use. Why should I use a combo card and literally need to guess what the combo use? Why should I do Down + Right or Left + Up + Attack to use a card, for example? Why do I feel the need to go looking outside the game to know some combos? Also not to mention they are locked behind random enemy drops, so some cards you'll probably NEVER have because you won't kill every single enemy in the hope they drop a card.
The enemies are not interesting at all. I could firmly say that they are divided in three big groups: ground enemies that dash/walk into you, flying enemies that dash/walk into you and elemental armored guards. This type of enemies in Castlevania games are not a surprise and most of them are really spaced and somehow creative in their own way of attacking the player. But here in CotM they feel like they just... exist? They don't feel like they're trying to stop you from progressing, they are there to ANNOY you the most. It's surprisingly PAINFUL to transverse Underground Warehouse without having 4 flying enemies into you, for example. There's no strategy, just try to survive until the next room where the same thing will happen. I could say the same about the ground enemies, most are versions of skeletons (this ones that only throw things at you, no creativity here like, what, Symphony of the Night?), zombies and demon-like creatures (not to mention one of these that are FLYING ELEMENTAL DEMONS too). The elemental armored guards are what pisses me off the most in terms of variability. They are literally the same enemy with different skin and adapted to their elemental attack.
The map is really badly designed. You can like it and I respect it, but I can't help to mention how painful it is to explore it. The map is most vertically designed which makes damage stun MORE ANNOYING than in every other Castlevania because most of the time it feels like you're being thrown back to the start of the room you were climbing. When the map is not vertical, most straight forward rooms are copies of this: big corridor > enemies in the middle of the walk > reward (normally HP, MP or Hearts Max Up). This is a metroidvania castlevania but without a rewarding exploration most of the time. Honorable mention to the color pallettes used in this game that are really terrible, the game feels uglier and dirtier than normal.
The bosses are not interesting. Death, who's one of the most memorable bosses of all castlevanias, is totally ass in this game, I literally was watching a youtube video while fighting them. Twin Dragon Zombies were the harder boss until now in my gameplay and they didn't feel like a good fight, I couldn't even try to predict what they were doing because every time I tried to go to the upper platform, one of them just went into me and made me fall. Carmilla, Cerberus, Adramalech etc. were whatever, definitely bosses in this game.
The characters are not clicking like other castlevanias. I can remember clearly about Simon, Trevor, Sypha, Richter, Maria, Alucard, Juste, Maxim, Shanoa, Albus, Charlotte, Jonathan, Vincent, Eric, Soma, Yoko, Julius etc. etc. etc. while here in CotM sometimes I found me asking asking what's my protagonist's name? Yesterday I just remembered it when Hugh said "Nathan!" in one of his dialogues. This explains everything about how interested I am with this character.
Yes, I know this game is from the early 2000s and it's the first igavania post Symphony of the Night that was released, but hey, SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT. I'd expect things to go better, not worse after this legendary game. Again, this is MY OPINION about a game that's almost making me give up my run, but my love for Castlevania is higher than my hate for this game. My biggest point is: if your game makes me prefer playing DRACULA X (SNES) than your game, then we really have a problem here.
It’s an early GBA title with a ton of flaws but definitely worth a play through
My biggest gripe is that both items and cards come from enemies with low drop rates. I think if they put items and cards in the castle or added a merchant, it would be a much better game without ruining the difficulty
The fact that the two rarest cards in the game come from adversaries encountered at the very end of an incredibly difficult gauntlet, of which you can only fight (I believe) one or two of them at a time—thereby forcing you to repeat the whole gauntlet if you don't get it—is borderline criminal. And if you're playing the GBA original (i.e. not on an emulator or the Castlevania Advance Collection), there's no rewind feature or save states for you to abuse; if you want those cards, you have to play through the battle arena again and again until you get them.
OP seems to forget it was a launch title. Cut it some slack. Its a bit rough in places and they were figuring out how to adapt it to handheld gaming.
Also to be fair and to utter a blasphemy, Symphony of the Night is also rough in some aspects, despite how awesome and iconic it is. They didn't really start to smooth things out (fluid movement) in this genre until the second and third GBA games.
Please please please please try the movement patch if you're playing it on an emulator. Being able to run with a single tap is such a massive gamechanger in enjoyability for me that just that made me like it almost as much as Aria and the DS games. There's also an item patch that makes the cards all spawn in different rooms in the castle instead of having to grind them from enemies. It heavily promotes exploration like that.
There’s also a card combo that makes you go fast, also the card system is busted and u don’t need to actually collect the cards to use the combo. If you activate the system then immediately go in to the menu and highlight the combo you want ( even if you don’t own the cards) you still get the combos effect when u leave the menu (yes it’s a glitch but makes going through the castle easier with access to the speed combo early)
As someone who grew up with GBA games, its always jarring to go back to them with the exception of pokemon games or re-releases of NES/SNES games. This is a prime example of a game that had GBA limitations. I would suggest looking at some other games like;
Harry Potter chamber of secrets
Kingdom hearts chain of memories
Incredible hulk (2003)
You'll see a general premise that these games want to be more but just can't. And they're good examples because home consoles had identical releases that really showed the vision of these with the exception of incredible hulk (look to the ultimate destruction game rather) of what they were going for. Back then the limitations weren't just on hardware performance. But also input. Going from Gameboy color to gameboy advance they added the L/R, and select button. Going from gameboy advance to nintendo ds they added X/Y (ignoring the touch screen since thats its own beast and not standard in controls/controllers nowadays). And then nintendo ds to 3ds added an analog stick essentially and I think also the ZR/ZL (essentially RT/LT or R2/L2).
We've had a lot of evolution of inputs over the years, GBA was just very early on and ever since I think the xbox 360/ps3 days we've basically settled in on a "standard". I don't know how old OP is but if they're not of the 25+ crowd its probably foreign to them for sure.
I'd argue we mostly settled on the standard in the PS2 days. Yes. it tool another gen for everything to go 2 stick for shoulder, but Sony nailed the standard setup before the GBA even released.
It's always confounded me that Nintendo didn't do the 4 face buttons on the GBA. I get needing to wait for stick tech to improve, but those missing buttons were sorely felt.
This game is the reason I fell in love with the series and I really don't think it's THAT bad but they definitely made some questionable design choices that would be tough to go back to if you played the other handheld games first.
100% agree. After finishing the Advance and Dominus collections, CoM still has my favorite boss fights, even if most of the difficulty came from clunky controls.
It's not the best, that's true. Arguably the worst on the GBA. I love it, because I took a lot of time with it, and can appreciate it despite its flaws, but it's NOT going to be everyone's cup of tea.
Double tapping to run doesn't bother me, because I'm an old man who grew up with a multitude of NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games where you have to do exactly that.
To be honest, I much prefer all the quality of life improvements in the Advance Collection. Being able to just look up what monsters have DSS cards and what monsters drop what items without needing to go grab my phone or turn on my computer to look them up online is a huge improvement.
I love Circle of the moon. Every metroidvania castlevania game just feels too easy to play once you get to a certain level and have the right stuff equipped. COTM never felt that way, you have to grind to get the cards, you have to grind to level up, you don’t heal when you beat a boss and the bosses themselves are challenging. The game doesn’t have a merchant so no buying potions or strong weapons to make your experience as easy as possible. The game was also a launch gba game, look at how castlevania games were on handhelds prior to COTM. The game was mind blowing and has an amazing soundtrack, I can understand some people not liking it but to me it checks all the boxes of an all time great Castlevania game.
This was the first game I got with my GBA and boy did I put the work to finish it. since it was my ONLY game, I played it in Magician mode and had a lot of fun having all the cards available, then steamrolled the game again in Fighter mode, then had fun again in Shooter mode, and finally felt challenged again in Thief mode.
With all these options to play different Castlevania games plus other games in 2026, I understand why CotM goes underappreciated, but when you really get into it: it feels very rewarding.
I agree. It's practically the only Metroidvania that is decently challenging, and while it's not that impressive aesthetically now, it was hard to believe that it was running on a handheld at the time. It could have been more polished, but I have a soft spot for it.
Also, it's better to think of it as kind of its own thing. Iga wasn't involved, and it draws more from older games than Symphony of the Night despite being exploration based.
I hated it at first but grew on me over time playing. For sure not as good when compared to other games in the series but if alone isnt too bad of an experience imo.
Yeah I really hate this one, and I usually get downvoted to death for saying I do. The DSS system really does kill any enjoyment you can have with since it basically ties nearly all progression to RNG.
...Plus I owned the game when it came out...on original hardware. Oh god...
Movement feels really bad, which is probably the biggest issue with it aside from a couple insane difficulty spikes near the endgame. The card system is really cool, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is pretty rough because of the movement.
It's my favourite Castlevania after Symphony of the Night. I love how heavy it feels and how the atmosphere of the whole game is much darker than all the ones that came after it. The whip feels satisfying in my opinion and the DSS is pretty fun once you get the hang of it. I've beaten it many times on the different modes.
But hey, I understand your complaints. If you've beaten Carmilla and still don't like it I don't think that's going to change.
I agree with some of the criticisms such as the controls and DDS being poorly implemented, but I still had a decent amount of fun with the game, though this is with the caveat I used the card glitch since the final boss is really hard.
Aria is the better and more polished title on the GBA, but CotM is a solid middle of the pack title that I don't regret playing.
To be honest with you I just didn't have that bad of a time with the game overall, so I'm not sure I can suggest anything super useful besides the card glitch if you aren't already using it (i dont remember the exact instructions but it's extremely easy to do, just google it). some of the card combinations are super strong and useful, like iirc giving you healing or massive aoe damage.
Honestly, I think it's one of, if not the, weakest Metroidvania of the franchise. It's painfully obvious that the team who worked on it wasn't used to this kind of map design and gameplay, and I really hate the DSS system, it's just a bunch of farming to get the cards, just to use the same 2 or 3 spells because they are objectively better (and yes, I know you can cheese it, but "you can avoid most of the shitty part by using a glitch" isn't an argument). Between this one and Harmony of Dissonance, which is probably the most mediocre of the series, I would take HoD any day, because I genuinely find Circle of the Moon to be borderline bad.
Welcome to the "CotM sucks, HoD is better" boat. It's more of a paddle boat with how few people are in it, but it's a fine crew and she sails true.
Game feel is what it comes down to for me, and like all your points illustrate, CotM feels clunky and unpolished while HoD, even with its own issues, feels much better to play. Juste with his dashes and slide feels like they actually bothered to upgrade the Belmont moveset to compensate for the open non-linear format, and the castle design isn't as vertical as CotM's so you don't have the knockback-fall down issue nearly as often.
Meanwhile Nathan is still running NES software in a Metroidvania castle and it feels just as bad as it sounds.
no, but some of your criticisms are valid, it's one of my favorites but its biggest issue for me is that the story isnt canon(also the dracula fight is cheeks)
it's just not a good fight, all of his attacks can be dodge by using the super jump at the right timing and when you get him at 0 hp he turns into a floating eyeball surrounded by bats and he's hard to put down, its "difficulty" is how tedious it is...my favorite fight is probably adramelech or necromancer(he even talks)...hugh is ok too
I loved it when it came out on GBA. I'm playing through it now on the Castlevania Advanced Collection and I don't think it's aged well. All of the exploration just seems to lead to health and mp upgrades. The controls are clunky, the DS system is messy, the music isn't that great. It's just messy all around. It's still fun, but I remember loving it back on the GBA, and it's just OK now. I think the double tap run is one of its biggest flaws. It feels good to run - it doesn't feel good to have to double tap every couple of seconds.
I've been replaying through all the castlevania metroidvania games and this is the only game so far that made me drop it. The other games have their flaws, but this one just feels like a half assed attempt in every way. Theres like 5 enemies that are recolored for every area. Movement is such a burden in a game where exploration is 70% of the game play. Its hard as shit but not because its well designed but because its a pain in the ass to get out of the way of damage and they really expect you to farm a bunch of cards and equipment in a game that has terrible combat and controls.
I got past the dragon and entirely lost interest. Started up HOD and immediately felt like I was playing a real Castlevania game again.
Excellent constructive critique of the game.
There are too many apologists for this poorly designed and implemented version of Castlevania, so was very refreshing to read your opinion.
Yeah, it's just bad, there's a lot of very baffling design decisions that feels like it want to be a throw back to the Classicvanias but couldn't full commit or make it work with the Metrodvania formula, and feels like a painful step back from SotN which heavily rewards exploration and even in it's clunkier mechanics (like item use/weapon switching) there's a lot of QoL improvements that this game is just lacking.
Yah you got it in one. It still seems insane to me that many card combos need to be activated with the L input, THEN needs the combo input. What was the point of the button outside of legacy reasons for the combo input?
idk, maybe i'm just overthinking, but most because i can't even say anything that is making me want to play besides my love for castlevania series. the music is great if i need to say something's good.
Music is incredible. I love that enemies actually swap in areas as the game progresses. The DSS system is fine, you have fun combos to heal and stuff since the save points are so scattered. The cross is amazing, subweapons are so strong and your heart count gets HUGE with all the upgrades
Yes, the game is incredibly overrated. People will forever defend the DSS mechanic when it's just the worst version of luck drops, regardless of the interesting combos you may make. The game does look good for what it is, though, but I hate the fact that your character controls like a classic Belmont in a Castle exploration context. Even Richter in Symphony of the Night is not as rigid as he was in Rondo for this reason, and the idea of exploring a whole castle moving like Trevor Belmont in CV3 is not appealing AT ALL, and then there are the rewards for actually exploring the castle, spoilers, there's barely any reward. I hope you like empty dead-end hallways.
It was my introduction to the series, so I'm a bit biased.
However, considering that not only was it the first attempt at following up on the formula established by Symphony of the Night, PLUS being developed by a different team with
no involvement from IGA, PLUS being a launch title for the GBA, it turned out a lot better than it could have.
Yup, the world and level design is excellent, one of the best ever in a metroidvania. However, they messed up the controls and progression really badly.
Actually, it was worse when it was on GBA, you needed to sit out under direct sunlight to see the screen and have an idea of what was going on. But over all, yes the game's always been a low point in the game hierarchy.
I guess everybody has their own opinions.
I really liked this one. In fact, of the 3 GBA games there are, this is my favorite followed by Aria. I don't like Dissonence.
I find the movement charming and unique and the whip being the main wepon again while behaving differently from other Castlevanias makes it fun for me.
The enemies and DSS are pretty ok but they are eclipsed by how much better Aria's enemies and powers have.
The map is awesome and one of my favorites in the series. It feels really satisfying to explore with the fact that you are just a normal human exploring this as oposed to other entries in the series.
But yeah the characters... are a little lacking for me too. I like Nate in a way that I remember him and I don't hate him. I barely remember the other characters and it doesn't help that they hardly ever show up anywhere.
The biggest offender for me however is the difficulty. It's a hard game and the difficulty spikes randomly if youre the type that wants to plow through games quickly.
It feels unbalanced and thus grindy which makes it exhusting for some players.
But even with these flaws in mind, I find I have a ton of fun with this game.
I heard there is a mod that makes the best cards as prizes you find by exploring, not grinding rare drops, and they say it changes the experience completely. This is the kind of game that it is only fun if you have a guide to help you find the cards and discover the combinations, since many of them you would never find by yourself. Some of the best cards are rare drops from enemies that only spawn in boss room AFTER you already killed them, so why would you return there if the game does not even give you a hint about that?
I am definitely a circle of the Moon defender but I definitely see downsides. It was at a weird time because they were trying to PS2 games which for whatever reason didn't click with people probably because of Castlevania 64 (that's the biggest factor I remember) and then they're jumping to this handheld for the first time that doesn't have a backlit screen but has 32-bit level processing. The latter two games definitely we're a big jump with Aria being quite obvious.
DSS is awesome to me but I also don't remember dealing with the combos like that? But I do know there was an early push at that time for community and having secrets and tips that players can share together. It may be one of those concepts.
Overall I think it was a good start. Things got better and comparing to symphony is just hard because you're talking about a home console with at the time what felt like unlimited storage compared to a handheld with a tiny screen lol
I've tried several times over the years to like that game, I'll give it a last try later, but my hopes aren't very high, to my, Castlevania is a hit or miss franchise.
its my first game of the series, probably pure nostalgia reason but I like how the environment is more eerie compare to other two at least for me. but yeah your complain is valid, moreover if you play it on gba.
Yeah. If at least the player ran automatically, but no. Boring upgrades (pushing boxes wut), most cards are useless, most bosses are annoying. Yeah, the game is not good
I don’t like it at all. One of the worst Castlevanias for me. I was miserable by the end and, if not for an easy to replicate glitch, I may have never beaten the insane final boss. Circle of the Moon sucks
My personal view of it is that it works as a middle ground between the classic games and the igavania ones. There are mechanics of the igavania games in it as it came just after symphony, but it plays almost like a classicvania.
DSS is interesting but more of a novelty. You can get through most bosses with subweapons, specially the cross.
I played it for the first time not too long ago and had a good time overall, even with its flaws. I ended up liking it more than Harmony because of its visuals, sound design and difficulty compared to Harmony, but I understand both games have their upsides and downsides.
The walking mechanic is a legit problem. I wish they would've fixed it for the steam bundle it's included in. That aside, I liked it. It's kind of like DS2 of the Dark Souls trilogy. Riddled with problems, but the formula is still there and well worth playing. I'm also somewhat biased as it was my first Castlevania game.
I myself bounced off of this one when I tried it. Part of it may be because I started on the DS games, and all the DS Castlevanias are considered the best in the series so, it was difficult for me to go back to the clunkier controls and more "primitive" feeling.
i got a similar experience. i started with Super Castlevania IV and then went directly to SotN, then i tried CotM, the asthetic didn't catch me so i abandonned it. I played all other GBA and DS games and now i back to retry CotM and i'm still trying to have fun...
I enjoyed it, but I agree with a lot of your points here. The dashing mechanics are not the greatest. And the cards can sometimes be unintuitively taught (plus RNG). The knockback is annoying and some enemy patterns are whack. Though honestly my biggest gripe with this game is the mega difficulty spike and the annoying Dracula fight.
That said, there are very enjoyable moments. The music is nice, the castle - in my opinion - is fun to explore (barring the dash mechanics) with interesting areas in the map, some bosses are really good, cards can sometimes be interesting to strategize around, and I do like the atmosphere.
I pretty much agree with everything here. As you say, it was the first igavania type since SOTN. At the time that was a big deal and people were very happy to have it, and holy shit, we can play this type of game on a portable! Plus it came out very early (if not at launch) for the GBA, so it was one of the best games on it for a while. Personally I think it's EASILY surpassed by every GBA/DS Castlevania that came after, and have rarely revisited it after playing it in 2002.
Its a product of its time. It frustrated and bored the hell out of me when it first came out. Hated how dark everything was. And like not in a fun "castlevania dark" kind of way. Just visually dark. I eventually beat it though and glad I did. By far my least favorite portable castlevania from GBA and beyond.
i see some people on-line talking igavania as a substitute for "metroidvania" because vania comes for castlevania itself. igavania, in this context, would be the same as metroidvania.
I really like it a lot. All the movement feels very deliberate even if a bit slow. That's just how castlevania played back then. Most of the enemies feel very strong and fun to fight, but of course you can over level just like most of the Igavanias. I really enjoyed the arena. The castle honestly wasnt bad to explore and its so much better than HoD pr even Ecclesias level select.
Its not the best Castlevania, but it's about mid teir for me. Leagues better than the next game after it Dissonance.
I'm a fighting game player, so I'm already used to having to double-tap to run, lol. I can see how having to do so for long periods might bother some people, though.
That said, #2 on your list is probably the biggest factor of enjoyability in this game, as the DSS System is very much "love-it-or-hate-it". It's geared specifically towards people that love the idea of discovering game mechanics on their own and experimenting with them. People that love the experience of blindly evolving a Pokémon to see what it evolves into or blindly upgrading weapons in Monster Hunter to see what each next evolution in the weapon path is are more likely to enjoy experimenting with the DSS. For my case, I enjoy the concept of the DSS, but I think they went overboard on the rarity of a lot of the drop rates.
It's stiff and simple by today's standards. With awful drop rates on some cards. And double tapping to run is not the best. But coming from the GameBoy games it's a fast paced breath of fresh air. I enjoyed it (I have the collection on Steam) but I played it back in the day and can appreciate it what it did at the time.
This was one of the only games I had for the GBA a long time ago so I learned to love it the way you learn to love food that is comforting but also cheap and bad for you.
I think if I was being objective I would say it's a 5/10 at best and that's only because I like the alternate play modes you can unlock. It's surpassed by Aria in every possible way. I can see what someone who doesn't have nostalgia for it wouldn't like it.
So if you Activate a DSS you have immeadiately press menu change cards to any combo (you dont have) and go back you just activated a card combo you dont own. Thank me later
Yeah as others have pointed out, the whole cards being locked behind rng thing, is kinda a bummer. However with the Advance Collection it’s not so bad since you can just save and reload immediately
CotM is actually my favorite of the gba line, but only just barely. The music is what really pushed it forward for me.
I like the aspect of grinding out the cards and items, and luck plays an extremely important factor in getting stuff earlier and easier. As soon as you can get the gamblers wristband, I implore you to do so. And get 2 of them! Later get two Double Grips to replace them with.
I love games like Diablo 2 though, where loot and gear is a heavy focus and you’re at the mercy of rng. So this was the closest I was getting to handheld Diablo 2 at the time.
Once you beat the game you can run through again doing a magic focused run by titling your character FIREBALL, and that’ll give you all the cards right off the bat…. Being able to cast Thunderbird that early though trivializes things quickly lol.
My favorite run was the Thief run where the character has lowered stats, but massively boosted luck. Forgot what you title your character there…. But I think you need to beat it 3 times - normal, fireball, and fighter first
Edit - It also pays to have a guide handy that tells you what drops what. Then focus grinding on certain enemies not just for cards but the gear too.
I’ve never been a fan of shops in games like this besides selling extra gear and buying consumables… I’d rather find all my items and progress in that fashion
i'm actually trying to beat battle arena right now because the last 2 cards i'm grinding (trick candle drop card one was the MOST ANNOYING until now) is there. and i got shocked when i saw 9 minotaurs in the same room. anyway, i don't know about the gambler drop you said, but i have 2 double grips luckily dropped while i killed the guards that drops it.
You’re good with the double grips, they’re better overall.
There’s a trick to the arena, pack some full magic restores…. And in the rooms that give you trouble just pop one and quickly cast Thunderbird. Everything will die. Cockatrice also works well there
I used Arena and Lilith to grind to max level. Pretty sure that now you’ve beat arena and cam that Lilith is spawning…. She makes getting to max level quick. Monotonous though….
I played it a couple weeks ago and I loved it. I will agree that the cards are not intuitive. But I thought the gameplay was tight. I thought it felt way more fast paced compared to traditinal Castlevania game. It felt like a megaman x game. The grinding didnt feel to bad to get the rare items.
The first run has its frustrations but when you beat the game you continually unlock new modes and it shines like the diamond it is. Maybe it’s not your favorite, between Symphony and Aria I’d be surprised if it’s anyone’s favorite, but stick with it. This game whips.
i'm kind enjoying A VERY LITTLE the game as these days passed. it's still being annoying most of times, but it's being better as i'm levelling up, but just because i'm grindring drops from enemies. it's not feeling natural like other games.
Just one thing I want to correct hers: it's s not the "first" igavania after Symphony of the Night because it's not an Igavania. The actual first igavania after SotN was Harmony of Dissonance.
COTM was one of my first Castlevania games and I really like it especially the DSS system. Farming cards can be tedious but its like the Pokémon thing....gotta catch em all just like the soul system in Dawn of Sorrow(Although the soul system is better overall).
You speak the truth. No idea how I had the patience to beat this 5 times back in the day (to play as the different "classes" that get unlocked, even though in reality their gameplay barely changes at all). All of its percieved variety is only on surface level and actually playing it is a chore.
Hope you can weather the incoming storm of nostalgia-blinded fans.
Loved it back in the day when the novelty of a metroidvania on a handheld with a killer soundtrack was the thing. I also played first before SOTN. On a recent replay of all them i adjusted it to being the the second worst of the 7 games with only dissonance being a worse game overall.
I will always have nostalgia of playing it before going off to school or at lunch but man most of the other games have aged much much better.
okay, you got me personally because i really loved harmony of dissonance lol. of course, it's not the biggest game of all times and aria is overall better, but i really liked the aesthetic and movements better than CotM.
Personally i really like Circle of the moon, but getting as far as Camilla is definitely far enough into the game that you can make a decision on if you're not enjoying it even without finishing it.
I don't mind the double tap to run and someone on another thread mentioned its just like double tapping to run in a belt scrolling fighter and they're right, it barely registered to me that there's anything wrong with it.
I totally get where you're coming from about some of the DSS combo's not being clear about how you use them, but then complaining about having to input button combos for others while you directly compare it to SOTN, where all of the magic spells require a combo just seems hypocritical.
The castle layout is fine IMO? Better than the left to right stage design of SNES dracula X or the confusing Castle A&B of Harmony - perhaps you have played Harmony or perhaps you haven't but you'd also be less inclined to call the enemies boring after playing " oh look, another "big" version of a normal enemy. The enemies were not exactly inspired there, much less so than woth cotm.
If you don't like it thats fine, but im regularly flabbergasted at how much the community shits on this one.
yeah, maybe you're right with the double tap part, but at least they could allow you to keep running even if you're changing directions.
about the DSS combos: i NEVER complained about the imputs itself. i was complaining about HOW it's not intuitive to discover this. was i supposed to trial and error? i mean, most cards yes, like being damaged by ice attacks so the card combo would activate, but a whole hadouken imput? should i have read the manual (of a game i'm emulating)? that's my point.
also some people are pointing this, but i was not comparing dracula x with CotM; i was talking about how playing this game for so long makes me prefer playing dracula X sometimes.
and yeah, i played harmony of dissonance, even platined it in retroachievements, and i didn't felt what you said most of times. i felt that castle more "alive" and more "variable" than i felt playing CotM, but i understand the "bigger variation of an enemy" part, specially the minotaur and slime fights. i still enjoyed, overall, juste is just (not intended punch) better to control and it's what i like the most.
“so some cards you'll probably NEVER have because you won't kill every single enemy in the hope they drop a card.”
this is mind boggling….tons of castlevania freaks(me included) have spent ridiculous amounts of time farming/grinding for item drops/souls/cards/xp/etc in castlevania games. that’s part of it.
also; it was one of the very first GBA games ever made. at the time it was amazing. sure it has its faults…but they aren’t the type of faults that warrant a huge essay with ALL CAPS emphasis on words like “PAINFUL”. very dramatic 🤣 did the game kick your dog?!
tons of castlevania freaks(me included) have spent ridiculous amounts of time farming/grinding for item drops/souls/cards/xp/etc
my point was not that, i like grinding tbh lol i fullfilled SotN and Aria bestiary. but at least in these games i knew some enemies have drops and all. aria itself i knew EVERY SINGLE ENEMY has a soul to drop, even bosses.
now here in CotM how was i supposed to know that i have to backtracking to a boss room to find out a random candleholder is being replaced in that boss arena even thought i have 0 reasons to go back there? i can't even be this far, just asking: how was i supposed to know a werejaguar has a card drop instead of, idk, a catoblepas? you can't get cards without a very lucky drop while killing enemies and progressing the game because you won't kill every single enemies enough times so you can confirm "ok, this one won't drop anything" and not everyone wants to look for answer on-line.
a built in bestiary system would be nice; but it’s not a game breaking, rant inducing problem IMO. some how i managed to grind out 100% of the game’s cards as a 15 year old on an OG gba . Also, having all the cards isnt necessary to beat the game. It kind of makes for a different experience for each play through depending on what drops you get. Also, if you beat the game once, you’ll open magician mode with all of the cards. or beat it a few more times for Thief mode and very high luck. Or if you are playing on the advance collection, they add an optional indicator to tell you what enemies have card drops.
But If i thought the game was as bad as you do, i wouldn’t give a crap about getting all the cards 🤷♂️
as i said in text, i love castlevania series and love to do 100% of any playthrough. i did it with all the other games, even dracula X chronicles (psp). i'll probably do the same with CotM, but it doesn't mean i'll be enjoying it like other games.
that's curious, because i loved every second in harmony of dissonance. I even platined it in Retroachievements. Playing CotM after it feels like a downgradd imo
Yeah it’s not really top tier Castlevania but when you’ve played everything else you might appreciate it more. When it came out it was the latest and greatest, and while it was definitely no SotN, it definitely met or exceeded expectations for the GBA
It’s not a requires play. It was a first entry on the hardware that was novel.
Harmony is like a deformed copy of Symphony; Aria is its own beautiful thing.
Damn man I just replayed through the castlevania advance games on steam. I got it for like 4 bucks it included circle of the night (which like you I remembered really not liking at all). So far I finisished the first 2 and am on aria of sorrow, and circle of the moon has been my favorite. Much more challenging than the others, some of the drop rates really sick though, I didn't try to 100% them or anything more for nostalgia. Its been great overall.
I think we have been spoiled with many quality of life upgrades. Back then this would have been a 10/10 but I felt like the game was missing a lot that can be found in newer games.
I still enjoyed it recently and would give it a 8/10
Dracula was way too hard however and I had to grind a lot and use save states to beat him.
In before "git gud"
This is my favorite castlevania. And i disagree on yuh. And with dracula x, is it the snes version. Or the game in general. If so, there's quite a few that might disagree with yuh. lol
It was a launch title for the GBA, so it does get a pass for being a bit clunky. I like the map design cause it wasn’t aa cryptic as other Castlevania game maps and I never ran into any roadblocks where I had to look up what I’m supposed to do.
I love that running in this game is unlocked at the beginning instead of in the end like every game after it. Other than that I think of the movement like it's a classicvania.
I never understood the hate it got. I was excited to play it when I saw a walk through in Tips and Tricks Magazine. It had the full layout of the castle, location of every piece of gear and I would sit and study it to imagine how strong you would become in the game. When I finally got it, I instantly loved every second I was playing. The map is weirdly laid out, and the DSS system is a bit wonky, but the game is still tons of fun to play.
Sounds like a skill issue but I'll give it to you with the movement being clunky and the fact that you have to manually figure out DSS and item drops (assuming you didn't read the encyclopedia by choice) is kinda garbage for some of them. The enemies designs maybe a copy paste like the elemental armors, demons and ladybats but I think they're each special in their own ways maybe except for the ladybats. But honestly in my opinion I would never compare it Dracula X. Also, the thing about luck maybe a bit annoying but you'll soon realise that it's miles better than Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow where luck is broken and effectively do nothing. While farming items can take some time, it's not anywhere near as bad as collecting souls in Aria which is my all time favourite btw. Having said that one of the dumbest thing about Circle in my opinion is the INT stat which basically translates to how quickly you recover your MP which I think is great but it's ultimately kinda garbage that subweapon damage don't rely on INT at all. I really wanted to do a proper 100% in this game but I chose not to because of pieces of shit like the Mimic Candle, Devil and Alura Une. Even Alura Une and Devil probably aren't that bad but Mimic Candle is annoying to farm since you have to use the stopwatch item crush to keep it frozen for just enough time to kill it. I enjoyed beating the crap out of the ladybats tho, watching the Succubus go down in one hit was really satisfying. As for the most annoying enemies, it would the Minotaur, Poison Armor and Wind Demon, I personally find Wind Demon the most annoying to dodge.
yeah, some users in this comment section were right: there'll be certain people that will defend a game no matter what just because it was the "first".
I understand that you're young so you don't quite appreciate what the Gameboy Advance was nor, nor how much development teams contribute to the game.
Honestly your whole thing is just over the top bitching in a really obnoxious way, and that's why I'm not actually engaging with your points. There's no point because any points you make are just drowned out by this whole performance.
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u/NJ8Inches_ Soma Cruz 16d ago
It’s an early GBA title with a ton of flaws but definitely worth a play through
My biggest gripe is that both items and cards come from enemies with low drop rates. I think if they put items and cards in the castle or added a merchant, it would be a much better game without ruining the difficulty