Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

System: Game Boy Advance
Release Date: 2001
Published By: Konami
Reviewed by: Darien
Rating:

Did you like Symphony of the Night but find yourself wishing it had some balls? Circle of the Moon is the Castlevania for you, then. Because this thing is hard, hard, hard.

Nathan Graves may not be called "Belmont," but he may as well be - he controls exactly like a Belmont, and fights with the traditional Castlevania whip. However, much like Alucard, Nathan's power increases as he defeats monsters. Nathan can also wear armour and a variety of accessories, and cast spells by combining various cards (for a total of one hundred spells).

The trouble is, the monsters can kick the hell out of Nathan without much effort. So you'll need to get very good at not getting hit, and you'll be retreating to save points quite frequently to heal. Unlike most Castlevania games these days, Circle of the Moon does not feature any kind of shop, so your stock of healing items is limited to what you can gather from monsters. On the same note, very few of those hundred spells are used for healing, and the ones that are tend to be rather inefficient. So practice your not getting hit; you're going to need it.

There's a lot of depth of play here, since there are four "secret" play modes that unlock in order, one after another, as you finish them. The first mode you'll unlock is "Fighter," in which Nathan's physical stats are greatly increased, but he loses his magic abilities. Then you get "Magician," which starts Nathan with a full set of cards and tremendous magic powers, but almost useless physical abilities. After that is "Shooter," in which Nathan starts with a zillion hearts and does extra damage with subweapons, but has otherwise crap stats, and then "Thief," which means huge luck and otherwise crap. Finishing all five play modes is challenge enough for anyone, I would say.

Mostly because the final battle is so damn hard. If you get pissed off at how easy it always is to beat Dracula in Castlevania games, well, this is the game for you.

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