The Cruel Angel's Shrine

Here you will find reviews of the games we concern ourselves with, all written by our talented author, Wing of Faith.

 UPDATE: As of October 27th, 2008, we acquired a new writer, Darla. Her first review is marked as such, and any reviews that come after it will be written by her, and not Mary, unless they are otherwise marked.

Devil May Cry 4 is the second sequel to Capcom’s smash hit, Devil May Cry. After the stylish-action-game-abortion that was Devil May Cry 2, Capcom learned a valuable lesson in marketing, and went on to make Devil May Cry 3 stylish, classy, and fast paced. Devil May Cry 4 continues this tradition, but in an awkward way: it got rid of Dante as the focus.

Devil May Cry 4 still has all the action, all the posing, the witty banter, and gorgeous visuals that made Devil May Cry 3 such a treat, but Nero’s presence as the new main does take a LOT of getting used to. Still, unlike Raiden in Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 2, Nero controls much differently than Dante, and when you unlock Dante’s missions later on, you’ll retread the same levels that you had already beaten as Nero, face the same bosses, and have ample opportunity to compare play styles.

The chief alteration of game play involves Nero’s “Devil Bringer”, a magical arm that can hyper extend, grab distant objects, and sling, smash, and crush your way through each of Nero’s missions. While it has a bit of a learning curve, by the time you finish stage 3, you should be “Bringing It” (Ha. Pun.) with the best of them. The Devil Bringer is a thoughtful addition, and creates its own style. When you can stay suspended in the air for an entire fight by hurling an enemy into the air, using the am to pull yourself up to their level, slam them back into the ground, grab another enemy and repeat the whole process before you even hit the ground again, it becomes very fun. Also, there are opportunities to use the Devil bringer in extra-over-the-top and stylish ways against bosses and while that whole function screams the fact that it’s a watered-down version of the boss combos in God of War, it doesn’t stop them from being flashy, and a GREAT way to finish off a boss battle. There are similar moves against most enemies, but they are nowhere NEAR the visual spectacle. If you do these while in a Devil Trigger State, they become even more flashy. And if Devil May Cry 3 proved nothing else, it proved that we gamers LOVE flashy.

Also, the game deviates from previous titles in the sense that the weapons that you start the game with are the weapons you finish the game with. But it’s okay, because if you burn through enough cash (which comes in two forms, one for items and one for techniques, but only the first, Red Orbs, is readily available in most missions, which you CAN redo), the numerous upgrades, additional moves, and other unlockables/purchasables, you’ll eventually be able to overcome many obstacles; for instance, fully leveling up a certain sword skill will let you hurl Nero dozens of meters into the air, to reach those high up and hard to reach places.

Nero controls pretty sweetly, and plays somewhat like Dante’s previous incarnations, but with some novel upgrades which provide a certain uniqueness to keep the experience from feeling like it’s more of the same.

Once Dante is unlocked, it’s a WHOLE different ballgame from Nero. If you rocked at Devil May Cry 3, then get ready for a bit of more-of-the-same, but it’s topped off with a nice hefty dash of customer service.

A major complaint from the previous game was that you could only equip two guns, two devil arms, and one style a time, and you would need a God of Time statue if you wanted to switch. Well, no more. Dante plays almost exactly like his Devil May Cry 3 incarnation, with many of his moves from that game returning, but, as is fitting for this being a sequel to the first game, he’s picked up a couple of Vergil’s moves from DMC3 as well, and adds his own unique brand of style to them in the process. Finally, he carries all of his Devil Arms and guns on his person at all times (which was one of the few good innovations of DMC2), and switching them is easy and quick; he can also change STYLES on the fly, with a simple tap of the directional buttons. The Swordmaster, Royal Guard, Trickster, and Gunslinger styles from Devil May Cry 3 are all pre-unlocked, and once Dante retrieves Yamato, Vergil’s Dark Slayer style from Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition also becomes available. He’s well balanced as a fighter, and more streamlined from his last portrayal, but outside of his beard (one of the more controversial parts of the game), there’s not anything about him we haven’t seen in a previous game.

Now, if I’ve made this title sound easy, forgive me, because it is HARD. To quote PSM3 Magazine:

This is EXACTLY it. There are no words I can use that explain it better. This title will KICK YOUR ASS. Over and over. But, like the original game, if you die too much early on, the game will give you Easy mode to play, which is SUCH a self-esteem boost. The game is basically saying: “Hey! You Suck! Stupid little n00b, have easy mode, and go play in the corner with the little children!”

The game is quite hard, and like the first title, unforgiving of any mistakes, even on Easy Mode.
Now then, here’s the downside to this game, and it’s a big one. The level design, frankly, sucks. It’s the worst since Devil May Cry 2. A stage will feel great, smooth, and natural, and you’ll get into a certain “groove” whilst traversing it, and then… BAM, they smack you with a random platforming challenge that makes little to no sense as to why it’s located there. There’s pointless dodging of those seemingly mandatory moving laser beams of death, pointless time-stop puzzles, etc. None of these seem to have been put in with any thought in regards to whether the location or nature of the puzzle makes any sense given the rest of the level. For instance, in the Order of the Sword HQ, there is a time-stop/platforming challenge. You slow down time and platform up these giant whirling blades of death and get to the doorway at the top (which is much harder than it sounds). Why the hell is there a giant column of whirling blades of death in the middle of a presumably oft-used passageway? Wouldn’t it just be easier to put in stairs? Maybe an elevator? Moments of designer madness like these are all over the game, and they do nothing but hurt it. They aren’t there because they are relevant or because they improve the game play, they’re simply there because they can be. That’s not a good strategy. Capcom, just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you HAVE to do it. These random challenges merely annoy and throw off a player’s groove, much to the chagrin of the player. Between these pointless trials are very flat and uninspired stages, but with a HUGE amount of fighting, so unless you notice absolutely everything on screen when you play, most of the time, you’ll forget how boring they are until the game slaps you with another mandatory challenge.

The music is more heavy metal for combat, and ambience for environments. Not much to say, really, except that it mucks up the game this time around, instead of aiding the mood like it did in the last game.

The plot is rather simple, and pretty much the same as Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, only with a romantic subplot between Nero and Kyrie replacing Shanoa’s rescuing the idiotic villagers. The whole story feels very cheap and tacked-on, but since the cutscenes (typically) aren’t very long and the meat of this game is the actual combat experience, in the long run, it doesn’t matter.

In conclusion, for the most part, I like this game. A good kick-off for a next-gen transition; even if the play is still distinctly last gen, there’s nothing wrong with the play style of the last console generation. Entertaining combat on all counts, hefty difficulty (with an easier route if needed), and a decent amount of added content are the game’s good points, and they serve to counter the bad points, which are a boring soundtrack, bland levels, pointless trials, and a ho-hum (but not unbearable) story.

Devil May Cry 4 slays 4 Demons out of 5, because it's fun to play, and boring to watch.

Game full of references to titles way better than itself? Check. Predictable storyline? Check. Stale, Emotionless hero? Check. Best friend turned enemy turned friend again? CHECK.

If that isn't clear evidence that the idiots who worked on Circle of the Moon also helped Iga with his latest title, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, I don't know what isn't. There's some very heavy similarities. I'm not bashing Circle of the Moon. I think it's an appreciable game, and one worth playing. I am bashing the ghost of KCEK, come about to haunt us devoted fans once again with another dull gaming experience, returning from it's foul, unholy grave to wreak boredom and annoyance as stubbornly as Shaft's Ghost. These losers obviously never learned their lesson when Iga retconned every Castlevania title they ever put out. Shall we recap? Circle was mediocre, Castlevania 64 was PURE CRAPOLA, and Legacy of Darkness was the only shining moment of this dull company. Their Symphony of the Night port/remake/remastering is barely worth mentioning; it's a REALLY bad sweatshop bootleg made by what seems to be 9-year old kids. So, why did Iga hire these losers to work on Ecclesia? Probably because his own team ran out of ideas.

If I were to describe Ecclesia, it would be like this: take the world-roaming of Curse of Darkness, the equipment system of Symphony of the Night, and the general frustration of Circle of the Moon, and you have Ecclesia. This game is not HORRIBLE, it's not mediocre either. For someone unfamiliar with the old KCEK titles, it's actually damn good. But for someone who's like me, who is celebrating ten years of fandom this year, it was a major disapointment. Some franchises are built suprisingly well from scraps of other disjointed entries, like Robotech. This game though, is built in true KCEK fashion: Take popular elements from previous entries with no regard as to whether they work well together, and then package it, label it, and ship it to the slobbering masses who are simply DYING for another title, regardless of quality.

The game begins with a conversation between the first realistic looking male of the series in YEARS, Albus, and Shanoa, who has the face of a porcelain doll. Seconds later, Shanoa's talking to her boss, Barlowe, and then loses her memories and emotions (go figure), and has to start all over again.

What follows is the first half of the game consisting of trudging through bland locales with boring music, saving dim-witted villagers (like a morbid musician who sees in Lennon-Vison, a surfer-boy doctor, and a cake-baking obsessed old lady), and then following up with boring quests from these same villagers, like sketching the view from the top of the lighthouse (which would have been cool, if it used the touch screen and stylus), recording a banshee's scream (which would have been good if it had involved screaming like a shrill little girl into the microphone), and shooting photos of cryptids (which is not cool no matter HOW you slice, dice, and prepare that particular sushi). I nearly died of boredom slaying mandrake after mandrake hoping to acquire ONE mandragora root, scouting for silk thread so I could have the ditzy seamstress make me a dress, and other pointless endeavors. In the end, I just used the completed Dominus Glyph to kill myself in the most spectacular fashion the series has ever seen, just to kill my own boredom.

Then, I picked up the game again and found that, indeed, the story was as predictable as I had speculated while eagerly awaiting this title. I was completley and utterly disappointed. The only good moment of the game was a Simon's Quest reference as Shanoa entered Dracula's Castle; the Castle IS impressively sized given how late in the game it arrives, but as the great Master Yoda said: "Size Matters Not." The whole thing was a dull experience, and a MAJOR boredom factory. After the game FINALLY ended, I ran crying to my PS2 and Devil May Cry.

Now that I'm done reviewing the awfulness I was tormented by for the entire game, I'll get around to the gameplay. This is definitely the sweetest controlling ride since Symphony of the Night. The "Hand" system is back, and better than ever; having been retooled for Shanoa's Glyph abilities. Shanoa herself is a gracefully animated, smoothly controlling character, a stark contrast to her woman-power predecessor, KCEK's Sonia Belmont, who was stiff as a plank and steered like a blimp. It's endlessly fun to watch Shanoa slide, run, strike, and flip; the sheer fluidity of her sprite animations are a true joy to behold. Not since Alucard in Symphony of the Night (and Maria in the DXC port) have I admired such a good job of animating a Castlevania sprite. The subweapons, which have been in practically every title in some form or another (sans The Castlevania Adventure), are eliminated completely, being replaced with Glyph Combinations, where by pressing up and y (or x) simultaneously, Shanoa combines the power of both equipped Glyphs in her hands to unleash a super attack that consumes hearts. Her basic attacks consume MP, as she uses magic to manifest the glyphs in a physical form. She has seperate attack animations for her left and right hands, which is an improvement on Symphony's hand system. The attack animations for each glyph is lovingly detailed and handled, resulting in a very realistic feel (as realistic as 2D can get, anyways).

The Character artwork is AMAZING in this game; Iga found real talent in this Masaki person. In my opinion, Masaki can keep coming back over and over, screw Kojima. She had a good run and great designs, but frankly, the poor girl is stuck in a rut (reusing Dracula's costume from CoD in DXC?Shaft's outfit from Symphony?! Reusing the Succubus' overall design, with slight deviations, from Lament in DXC was the last straw for me. Why, Miss Kojima? WHY?!). Masaki offers a fresh, realistic look at the world of Castlevania with his intricate and stunningly detailed portraits. This guy has got TALENT up the wazoo. In the music department, Michiru Yamane returns, to a rather cold reception in this reviewer's opinion. The woman has cranked out some truly revolutionary tunes over the years, but that was then. This is now. She presents us with a dull, thudding soundtrack, albeit with some good moments, with brief segments of harmonizing that echo Hokkai's work in Harmony of Dissonance, and even her early work in Bloodlines, but for some reason, she spammed musical cues from Dawn of Sorrow like crazy, kind of how like forum trolls spam a good forum and turn everybody's experience to crap as a result. Iga, do us a favor, fire Yamane, and get someone new. If there's one thing KCEK's games did well on every count, it was delivering a truly amazing soundtrack in each title; Iga should hire those guys, instead of the writers and programmers.

The asthetics of Ecclesia are amazing. This game looks and feels as good as any Castlevania title we've seen before. But looks and feels don't make a game. The poor soundtrack, predictable storyline, and emotionless hero simply ruin the experience for me. I cannot stand the storyline, or the characters. If anything, I play it just for the gameplay, skipping each dialog scene.

Now then, if you are a die-hard, buys-every-title-for-the-sake-of-owning-the-whole-series Castlevania Fan, then you will probably enjoy this game. But if you're like me, a person who wants a completely original marvel, a game to capture the spirit of a series in the way that Symphony of the Night did for me 10 years ago, you'll want to look elsewhere, because you probably won't find it here.

I give Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia three annoying hauntings out of five.

Every game series has to have a sequel somewhere. In the case of Devil May Cry 2, it came right off the bat, even before the first game was able to fully sink in.

Devil May Cry 2 is, bluntly, a miserable attempt by Capcom to steal as much of the almighty dollar as they could as quickly as they could. The fact that the quickly converted fans demanded a sequel merely served as an excuse to rush the game as fast as possible.

The result is a game that is not strictly horrible, but nowhere approaching good, either.

Devil May Cry 2 is set after a timeskip of indeterminate length following the events of Devil May Cry. Dante is hired by a group of Devil Hunters on another fictional island to deal with Arius, an evil businessman who uses “the DEMON POWER” (as TCA once said, “Not just any demon power; THE demon power!’). You can already tell by the presence of an EVIL BUSINESSMAN AS THE MAIN VILLAIN that this game is NOT going to score very well on anyone’s charts. Dante looks much older, and he must have gone through some sort of trauma, because he is as silent as Charlie Chaplin for most of the game, and when he does talk, he utters a few simple words and shuts up again for the next 3 hours. Also, the game added a second disc with basically the same missions in a slightly different order where you play as Lucia, a badly voiced female Hispanic Devil Hunter. As a matter of fact, the voicing acting all around is just plain horrible. Did Capcom hire voice actors, or just rip people off the street? These are just a few of the controversies that this game is comprised of.

The game controls exactly like the halfway point between the first and third games, just with less finesse. In all honesty, the issues with this game don’t lie in control schemes. If you’ve played the first game, controlling Dante and Lucia in this game will be a breeze, and you’ll easily slide into bashing demons over the head and blowing them away with floods of hot lead.

But maybe that’s the problem. Devil May Cry 2, in all that it is, is TOO EASY. The first game wasn’t exactly a Mensa mind puzzle, but it wasn’t that easy either. There are a few puzzles in the game, and each one will take all of five minutes to solve. The enemies are pathetically stupid, and so are most of the bosses. Fortunately, for the hardcore fans, Dante’s play mode includes a boss named Bolverk, who was obviously meant to be the second Nelo Angelo, and he is QUITE hard, requiring quick reflexes and excellent timing to conquer. But one hard boss doesn’t really do it. And on top of that, this is one Devil May Cry that should have had Dante get rid of his sword. His sword is only good if you want a FAR more challenging game, because it is slow and clunky, not to mention every single sword skill Dante had in the last game was totally ERASED from the game here. If you want to simply beat it, whip out good old Ebony and Ivory and just plug away. The game is more of a 3rd person shooter than anything else. Lucia has the same problems, only worse. Her swords (if you can call them that) are a 3rd the length of Dante’s, and her ranged weapons are USELESS. And yet… her game is often easier than Dante’s. The Graphics are about the only thing that has improved, and some of the detailing rivals the PS3, for instance, you can see the bumps and texturing on Dante’s coat. The animators did a decent job of aging Dante, and he has a more mature look. But all the other characters, especially Arius, look HORRIBLE, but aren’t they rendered so nicely?

The only other thing I can think of to review is the MASSIVE amounts of fanservice present in the game. A great deal of content from the first game has been cut and pasted here. You can unlock Dante’s Devil May Cry outfit, which replaces Rebellion with Force Edge, and also you can unlock Trish as a playable character. She wields Sparda’s handguns from the first game, as well as the blade Sparda. Both the blade and Trish’s 3D model were ripped straight out of the first game. Phantom and Griffin also reappear in a COMPLETELY non-canonical appearance as bosses for Dante and Lucia respectively. Interesting how these non-canonical appearances lie within canon storylines, and numerous enemies from DMC have also been copied. Capcom is weird, but that’s old news.

But the thing that’s the most infuriating about all this copypasta is that nothing was copied that should have been copied. Where are Dante’s Devil Arms from the first game? Why doesn’t Trish show up in the actual story mode? Gripes like these never cease when one plays Devil May Cry 2, which, in the end, is a mindless beat-‘em-up with a salad dressing of a storyline.

Devil May Cry 2 is enjoyable if you’re looking for a nice diversion from your hectic and cruel life, but it fails miserably as a sequel to such a classic game. It adds a number of moves that would be perfected in Devil May Cry 3, like multi-directional shooting, but the whole game feels like it was commissioned, produced, and put on store shelves within a two week timeframe. The control is decent, but it’s way too easy, and on top of that, the story sucks, the VA is horrible, the music isn’t even worth mentioning and as a whole the game is just poorly put together. Still, because of its FANTASTIC pick up and play qualities, it earns a FEW points.

Devil May Cry 2 earns (you guessed it) a 2 out of 10.

Do you remember the year 1997? It was the year the Google domain name was registered, and the year Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was unveiled to millions of slobbering fans worldwide. But we left another friend back in 1997, one that has become the single most successful game in its series. Let’s welcome back into the limelight our good friend, Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VII is probably on the top five most overrated games of all time. In all honesty, it didn’t really change much in the series. It added Materia and… that’s about it. No REAL innovation. Nothing special. Just 3D graphics, and materia. And, just for you hardcore “I will kill you in your sleep for not bringing him up” fans, Sephiroth.

Before I go further, I would just like to go on the record and ask “What’s to review? A quick trip to GameFaqs will hammer such a knowledge of the game into your head, you couldn’t erase it with a mind wipe!”

That said, I will now begin my review, though it will be a difficult review, as high emotions running on all sides of this game’s fanbase (yours truly included) deprive any real organization to this one. But who cares? IT’S FINAL FANTASY VII.

So shut up.

Final Fantasy VII introduced us to a now all too familiar cast of characters who have by now swarmed into every single convention hall in cosplay form for 11 years straight. The story starts off with Cloud, a mercenary who once worked for the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company (as part of its unexplainable private army. What the Hell does an ELECTRICITY COMPANY need an army for? O.o), now in the employ of his former boss’ worst enemies, the environmental group Avalanche (often spelled in all caps for some odd reason; so is Soldier. Who knows why? I sure don’t.) Things soon get complicated though, and Cloud and his ragtag team of allies soon are confronted by a much bigger problem; Cloud’s old C.O (Commanding Officer), Sephiroth, an effeminate man among men with a huge sword that is probably under-compensating for something. Stuff happens, the flower girl dies, and I’m sure you all at least know the story by now. If you don’t, then I guess there’s no hope for you.

Sephiroth is one of about 10,000 kabbalistic references within this over-esteemed game, and Final Fantasy VII can be noted for removing most of the then-traditional Final Fantasy monsters in favor of more unique monsters. From here on out, the D&D inspired bestiaries that filled prior games would be removed. No more Mind Flayers, no more Goblins. I’m still waiting on my much desired cameo by C’thu’lhu though.


Anyway, Final Fantasy VII plays a great deal like the Final Fantasy’s that preceded it, aside from being a 3D game, with world map navigation, airships, chocobos, moogles, a guy named Cid, and of course, turn based combat. The addition of the materia system added a new dimension of character customization as well as a significant plot element, but by itself isn’t really special. The gameplay graphics are sub-par, even for a 1997 PSX release, but the FMV’s are of appreciable quality, featuring a level of polish and presentation that was unheard of at that time. Final Fantasy VII definitely put Square on the map as a pioneer of cutting edge graphics. The music quality hearkens memories of the good old days on the SNES and Sega Genesis and the soundtrack might actually be more popular than the game itself. Composition and Arrangement of the soundtrack was handled by Nobuo Uematsu, one of the names that made Square Inc./Squaresoft/Squeenix far more than a simple dot on the radar screen of gaming. Numerous tracks from this soundtrack continue to be remixed by fans and recomposed and rearranged by Square itself in the numerous sequels, spin-offs and prequels to this game. Who can ever forget the majestic main theme of the game, or the electrifying boss theme? And what kind of fan of this game isn’t completely OBSESSED with One Winged Angel at some point?

The character design is another feature of the game touted as “one of the best”, and it was handled by Tetsuya Nomura, a man who gets WAY more credit than he deserves. Just to clear things up, he DID NOT direct, produce, or write the script for this game. He drew the pretty pictures that became those lovable characters that every FFVII fan is obsessed with, and that is the end of his involvement (he did, however, direct the Kingdom Hearts series and the FFVII sequel, Advent Children). Promotional art was handled by the original concept artist for the series, Yoshitaka Amano (whose art I completely ADORE), whom Nomura replaced.

Final Fantasy VII firmly rejected the “Knights and Damsels” formula followed by most of the previous titles, in favor of a tuned-up version of the sci-fi formula followed by FFVI, incorporating more high technology than ever before, while using the Materia system to keep the old magic system in the loop.

The dialogue sequences are long and frequent, and there might be more exposition in this game than in Frank Herbert’s Dune, but I can’t fault it for this because I have fallen in love with this fact over the years. Also, here’s a game to play with your friends: do a run through the game. Whoever spots the most “engrish”, or, badly translated English, by the end of the game wins. Much of the translation is shamefully bad in spots, but this has become a classic feature adored by many generations of fans, so much so that Square-Enix would likely be forced to keep it in under pain of death if they actually ever DO remake the game.

All of this adds together to create a classic Final Fantasy adventure, with a sense of epic-ness that will not only keep you playing for over 1,000 HOURS, but moreover 20 or so YEARS.

Final Fantasy VII is fun. It’s a great game. I love it to death. BUT, I do not let the fun this game has to offer COMPLETELY cloud my judgment. With this in mind, the game has several flaws. One, there’s the obvious, ever-present problem of level-grinding. I know it’s an RPG, but does it have to take so long to get Cloud to level 50? And with the massive cast of playable characters, level grinding is WAY more tedious than it has been in previous and subsequent titles. Then, there’s Materia Grinding. Level up that materia, master it, and you can do anything. You can even be god if you’d like. But first you have to get there. I really hate this feature, no matter what game it’s in. At least you don’t have to level up your weapon (I’m glaring at you, Soul Calibur Legends!). A sword is a sword. It cuts. How would leveling it up make any difference? However, the benefit of leveling up your materia is that spells you get in the beginning of the game can remain useful all the way through the game, but I still hate it. Also, the movement controls are AWFUL.

“WHAT THE HELL CLOUD?! TURN AROUND AND WALK BACK THE WAY YOU CAME!!!”

Because the backgrounds for each area are hand drawn, rather than rendered in 3D, moving Cloud around can get very irritating, because there’s no controllable camera, so you have NO idea where you REALLY are, and as a result Cloud will often get stuck, with no way to get out, and you’ll have to reboot the game or spend hours jiggling the controls trying to free our little chocobo-headed friend from invisible bondage.

Still, it’s impossible to deny that this game is pure magic. You’ll fall in love with every character by the end of the game, and there’s enough to explore and tinker with that gamers who bought it back in 1997 are STILL finding new things to discover in the game. That’s what I call well designed, and for that reason, Final Fantasy VII finishes this review with an 8 out of 10. If not for the annoying problems present in the game like lack of camera control, it would have been perfect.

Soul Calibur II has been called by some the greatest Fighting Game of its day. This isn’t too far from the truth. The game features exceptional gameplay, music, and its graphics remain top-notch on the consoles it was featured on. It’s hard for me to find anything bad to say about this game to keep this review from sounding fangirlish, but as I am a human being, I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

Soul Calibur II’s story is a somewhat unwarranted continuation of Soul Calibur’s. I say “unwarranted” because Soul Calibur had wrapped up perfectly; Nightmare was defeated, Siegfried had regained his sanity, everything turned out fine. Soul Calibur II wasn’t needed, but since it was made, I might as well quit quibbling and get on with the rest of my review.

Taking place 4 years after Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur II details (loosely) the re-possession of Siegfried by Soul Edge, and Nightmare’s quest to resurrect the cursed blade. Basically, it’s the EXACT SAME PLOT as Soul Calibur.

There are new characters to play: Charade, Talim, Raphael, Yun-Seoung, Necrid, Cassandra, and also the game features guest characters Heihachi (PS2 version), Spawn (Xbox version) and Link (Gamecube version). In addition, the North American, European, and Australian versions included Assassin (whose fighting style was based on Hwang from the previous games), Beserker (whose fighting style was based on Rock’s) and Lizardman, though this Lizardman is not Aeon Calcos, the Lizardman from Soul Calibur.

Gameplay is about what one would expect from a Soul Series game, with superb controls, splendid controls that vary in difficulty depending on what character you’re using; Nightmare is pretty much an all-experience-level character, but Ivy is definitely for a more advanced player. Combos play an important part in game play, and mastering higher difficulty combo attacks will increase your odds of winning at higher difficulty levels. Fortunately, one does not HAVE to master the higher level ones to enjoy the game. There are many attacks with decent power that are available to less experienced or more casual players, but many of these lack the visual pizzazz of the more advanced attacks; but still, you can at least win using them, even if they aren’t as flashy. Difficulty is adjustable, with easy mode being so easy a five year old could beat the game with little effort, and Ultra Hard mode being so hard attempting to beat the game here will have the game proceed to school you in the art of getting your ass kicked. Normal mode is exactly that- normal, Hard mode is a step up from Normal, and Very hard is a step up from Hard, and just underneath Ultra Hard.

The music is SPECTACULAR. Easily one of the best soundtracks ever heard on the Playstation 2 console. There’s not a weak track on this soundtrack, although Ordinary Pain is weaker than the rest of them. Also, on a side note, Eternal Struggle sounds like something out of Pirate of the Caribbean. No Turning Back is gorgeous, with perfectly arranged instrumentation that lends a certain sense of class, elegance, and nobility to its stage. Easily one of the best themes in the game is “If there was any other way”, one of the two destined battle themes. With a fast tempo and the usual artful arrangement and composition, this is one theme that can get you pumped up anytime, anywhere. I carry the whole soundtrack on my iPhone. It’s that good.

Character design is, as is most of the other content of the game, excellent. Nightmare returns with a very evil looking new suit of armor, and all the other returning characters have received a new outfit that is remarkably true to earlier incarnations. An interesting design is that of Charade. Floating Eyeball = Interesting.

There’s also a new story mode, “Weapon Master” mode, where Soul Calibur II barely attempts to create an original game within the actual game by taking the included characters, giving them incredibly cheesy MMOish avatar names, and trying to call it a new story. Honestly, the story and the mode itself are not half bad. However, the reason this is a low point is because this story mode is what the NORMAL GAME’S STORY MODE SHOULD HAVE BEEN, it just should have had actual Soul Calibur characters in it. This extra mode is what we should have been given in the default story mode in the first place; far more effort was put into this mode than any of the others, so why is this not the main mode? Regrettably, you’ll have to slog your way through this mode in order to unlock all the useful stuff, like weapons for your characters, and this also involves copious amounts of level grinding as well. Many of the “special stages” you’ll encounter in this mode are frustratingly hard, and bosses here are criminally difficult, as you can’t set a difficulty for weapon master.

If you’ve played Soul Calibur, I think you’ll find this game a worthy successor. It carries over everything that made Soul Calibur great, and while not particularly innovating, remains an excellent game to play. Weapon Master is a hit-and-miss addition, some of it’s good, but I find it pretty annoying overall.

Regardless, if you’re willing to grind your way through, or if you decide to cheat to unlock everything, you’ll find this a VERY good game.

I give Soul Calibur II a 8.6 out of 10.

Some game series have a failure or two, sometimes many. It’s an honest to goodness fact. But, some games refuse to let their failures get them down. Castlevania is one of those games.

It’s been a long time since Castlevania made its debut in the 3D arena on the Nintendo 64, and after two subsequent 3D titles (both of which were very warmly received), Konami decided to try it again. Here’s my review of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness picks up on the Playstation 2 where Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse left off on the NES almost twenty years ago. Turns out, when Trevor Belmont and company destroyed Dracula, he left a curse upon the land that made people violent, illogical, and just plain mean (as if they needed help). Anyways, although this game is a direct sequel to Castlevania 3, it does NOT directly star any of the characters from the now famous NES title (though Trevor remains an important character in the game’s story). Instead, the game revolves around one of Dracula’s former minions, named Hector, who betrayed the Dark Lord during the events of Castlevania 3. Hector wants revenge for the murder of his wife at the hands of Isaac, his former comrade, and that’s the basic gist of the game. I can’t tell you more about this, because the game doesn’t delve too deep into Hector’s past, but then again, it didn’t need to.

Hector is a Devil Forgemaster, which is a pretty fancy name for what is actually a demonic version of a POKEMON TRAINER. Throughout the game, Hector acquires Innocent Devils, or I.Ds, and each one has a unique set of abilities that allow them to assist Hector in combat, and also allow him to reach new areas, which in turn allow the player to collect power ups and powerful weapons, and also to reach new segments of the game, which moves the story along. I.Ds are pretty stupid though, and will often interrupt your combos by hitting your foe before you finish them off.

The game plays how I would guess Symphony of the Night would have played had it been a full 3D game. Hector can collect weapons and I.Ds, just like Alucard could collect weapons and familiars. Thing is, Hector has a basic attack string which can be launched by mashing the attack button up to five times, with a nice variation of fighting styles and speeds, which means that certain weapons can handle certain situations better than others. In addition to this, pressing the circle button at different points in the combo ends the combo early with a powerful finishing move that depends on the point in the combo at which it was launched. These finishers are more powerful than your average attacks, but are often slower, and leave Hector wide open to an enemy attack. But, they are also quite stylish and flashy, and successfully make you feel warm and fuzzy inside when you manage to kill Isaac or Death with a fully powered finisher.

Also, Hector can put his Devil Forging talent to other uses, like forging weapons. Unfortunately, this requires a LOT of item grinding, which we all hate. However, Iga knew about this beforehand it seems, and added in a “Steal” feature, where you can steal certain rare items from enemies. This ability is CRUCIAL if you want to get Death’s Scythe, the most powerful weapon in the game, but it’s still annoying in its own way, as once again, your I.D will often screw this process up by striking your foe before you can steal the item, meaning you’ll have to wait all over again for another opening.

Now then, these are all cool innovations, but the combat system itself frankly sucks when compared to Lament of Innocence’s awesome combat system, which felt far more like an action game than Curse does. Curse feels more like an action RPG, ala Kingdom Hearts and Crisis Core. You can just mash away at the attack button until a fight is over, which makes for a pretty dull experience.

Occasionally, you’ll enter a room where you must defeat all the enemies to move on, much like in Lament of Innocence. Difference is, here you have to kill the SAME ENEMIES in every room. The bestiary is simply not expansive enough, especially when compared with Symphony of the Night and Lament of Innocence, and this makes combat dull and unentertaining.

The 3D character models and cutscenes are stunningly detailed. There’s a level of detail included in the outfits and FMV’s that far exceeds what Lament of Innocence had to offer. But, this is counterbalanced by the generally poor appearance of most of the areas. Notably bad areas are the Baljhet Mountains and the Infinite Corridor. Notably good areas are the Abandoned Castle and the first half of the Garibaldi Cathedral, which actually look like a castle and gothic cathedral. There’s the slight problem of lack of content though in indoor stages, with rooms and hallways basically being boxes, unlike in Lament where they had much more content, like statues and carvings to ogle when you weren’t busy killing the local monsters. It didn’t bother me on my first run through the game, but on subsequent runs, it killed all of my desire to explore the areas for full map completion.

While we’re on the subject of locations, this particular world is HUGE. Each area is quite long, especially given the fact that you are treading this entire game ON FOOT. Hector’s not slow by any stretch, but some of the areas just seem to go on FOREVER because of the length. “Infinite Corridor” indeed. Most of the game is spent simply trying to get from “point a” to “point b”, and that is NOT fun.

One area where the game excels is the boss battles. There’s not a boring fight in the bunch. From the Crazy Armor to the final fight with Dracula, each boss battle ups the challenge and enjoyment factor, and during each battle, you forget how long and awful the stage you just slogged through was. As you get closer to the end, the boss battles become faster and more frantic, and by the end of the game, things get to the point where you feel as if your arteries are about to explode from the sheer stress.

Even if the stages are dull and repetitive, the game SOUNDS perfect. All the voice acting is splendidly done, and the game features such talent as Crispin Freeman (always a good choice), Reuben Langdon (Dante fangirls may squeal now), and Steve Blum provides a perfect voice for Dracula, which almost makes us forget the awful English voice he did for Vincent Valentine in Advent Children. The music is once again handled by series mainstay Michiru Yamane, and aside from a few weak tracks, the soundtrack is every bit as good as Symphony of the Night.

Grading this game was difficult. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness may not have lived up to the legacy left behind by Symphony of the Night and Lament of Innocence, but just because it isn’t a new “best game evah” doesn’t mean it’s bad. The game has many good points, and even though there are equally many bad points, the game ends up shining in the end. No one ever said trudging across a whole country on foot to kill the Lord of Darkness would be laughs and giggles, and this game doesn’t claim such. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness makes the player feel Hector’s pain, and I give it props for that “flaw”, because when you look back on this experience, you can realize just how intriguing an experience this was. As annoying as the faults of this game are, they do not make completing this games, as Adam Sessler put it in his review of Symphony of the Night, “an act of masochism”. The new features, clunky as they are, and the qualities put into it by the actors and music are just what this game needs to push it out of the realm of terribleness, and into the realm of forgettable enjoyment.

I award Castlevania: Curse of Darkness with a score of 6 out of 10.

Aria of Sorrow is the last game in the triad of GBA Castlevanias. Taking place in 2035, it's already somewhat of a departure from the traditional settings. Sadly, little is done with this, aside from three ranged weapons that Soma can equip, the most powerful one being the positron Rifle. It would have been interesting to have the game start out in a city or something, just to see what IGA's take on the future might have been.

The story revolves around Soma Cruz, a Japanese High School student. In the English version, he's a foreign exchange student studying in Japan. I will go with the English localization, since "Cruz" (Cross in Spanish) is obviously not a Japanese name. When Soma visits his girlfriend's family shrine to watch the first Solar Eclipse of the 21st century, he blacks out, and awakens in Dracula's Castle.

The starting plot is unusual to say the least. But, it passes the test. After a brief conversation with Genya Arikado, a mysterious man in a black suit, Soma learns that he must journey through Dracula's castle (which is sealed inside the eclipse) and gain the power to send himself and his girlfriend, Mina, back to the human world. He has the ability to absorb the souls of slain monsters, which grant him additional abilities and attacks.

Soma controls a good deal like Alucard did in Symphony, being able to collect many different kinds of weapons, and his souls enable him to have transformations (such as a Devil, Bat, etc.), Familiars (like Imps and floating swords), Spells (such as summoning a giant ax to destroy everything on screen), as well as increase his stats.

Soma has his differences though, and they lie in his character. He is VERY different from Alucard in how he behaves. There's the occasional spot of childishness one might expect from a young man like him, there's heroism, and on a whole much more emotion than Alucard displayed.

The cast of characters is diverse, echoing Symphony of the Night's expanded cast, and the cast includes Julius Belmont, Yoko Belnades, Genya Arikado (who is revealed to be Alucard himself when Yoko slips up), Hammer, Mina Hakuba, and Graham Jones. Interestingly enough, with the exception of Mina (who just stays at the front gate) and Hammer (the shopkeeper), every main character appears in 3 different dialog scenes if you play for the best ending (Graham saying "Damn! I hate to be Interrupted!" and teleporting away does not count as dialog). 3 appearances is enough to develop Soma's relationship with each character enough for the player to have some sort of emotional response.

The graphics are beautiful. Soma and Julius have an excellent amount of fluidity and motion in their sprites. The environments are gorgeous, with a few exceptions. The Chaotic Realm was pointlessly stupid (a bleached out version of random bits from elsewhere in the game), the Dance Hall was too creamy in its colors, the Chapel didn't look very Cathedral-y (Stained glass looked more like a painting), and the Sacred Cave (Forbidden Area in English) was just as bad as every cave stage before it.

The Music was mostly good. Michiru Yamane teamed up with Soshiro Hokkai (the guy who did Harmony of Dissonance's music) and came up with some great music. "Ruined Castle Corridor" is great, "Can't Wait Until Night/ Heart of Fire" is awesome, and "Dracula's Fate" is simply superb. The boss themes on the other hand could use some work. The primary boss themes are just horrible. "Battle for the Throne", while it is frequently bashed, is actually okay, but that is the core of the problem: "Okay" does not cut it. "Struggle Against Chaos" had a great opening segment, but failed later on. It's a fairly well composed OST, but is awfully rough in some spots.

Platforming is dreadfully easy, and lacks challenge. It's a shame this happened, as Castlevania used to require excellent platforming skills to beat.

As for difficulty... this is an IGA game, which means, "Difficulty? There was difficulty? When? Where?"
The game had decent enough difficulty, and some segments present a challenge, but too many times that challenge simply comes from having more enemies thrown at you at once. This isn't even much of a challenge. Most of the sprites came from Rondo of Blood, so the enemies have no way of keeping up with Soma and Julius' advanced movements and high power spells and attacks, which pretty much makes them cannon-fodder.
The bosses are okay, but mostly for show. Death and Julius were the only bosses that gave me real problems.
There is a "hard mode", but don't let that fool you. It doesn't change anything, except you do less damage.

On a whole, this game is a "win some, lose some" scenario. While it features great gameplay, an interesting story, and lovable characters, some of the music drags it down some, the lack of difficulty means this game can be beaten quickly and easily, and the unimaginative enemy set in the game drags it down further.

I'd give this game a 6 out of 10, because some of the faults are just inexcusable, but it remains a fun game to play regardless.

If you own a GBA or a DS, you might want to consider getting this, but only if you are a loyal fan of Castlevania to begin with.

Sure, it's becoming an older game, but whenever I play it, it's as if it's a brand new experience each time.

The Graphics were beautiful for it's day, running at a constant smooth 60 frames per second in both gameplay and cutscenes; and detailed designs for Dante, Trish, Mundus, and the host of enemies filled out the world and made it immersing.

The music haunts me to this day, and I will never forget the on-edge feeling "Ancient Castle" filled me with and continues to fill me with; it instills in you a sense of genuine dread, and a hesitance to look around the corner or into a dark room. "Will there be an evil puppet there that will slice me to pieces?" you ask, your fear goaded on by the creepy vocals and ghost like SFX in the music, only to find that there is nothing around the corner after all, resulting in a sigh of relief, and then you're ambushed by enemies a few minutes later. "Psycho Siren", the mid-boss theme, is frantically paced, and lends a sense of urgency to the fights that feature it, which is just as well, because mid-bosses frequently are during a timed stage. "Ultra-Violet" and "Super Ultra-Violet", the boss themes to Nelo Angelo, are perfectly suited for the boss, with fast paced electronica beats mixed in with gothic pipe organs and heavy electric guitar riffs. "Karnival", which replaces "Ancient castle" after a certain point, almost induces sheer terror when it is combined with the changes in Mallet Island's castle that accompany the theme's introduction.

The areas are incredibly engaging, with each new area lasting just long enough to build suspense that is released like a coiled rubber band when you finally get to that stage's boss.

Which brings me to difficulty. I didn't find normal mode all that hard, and easy mode must actually be unlocked by dying a certain number of times on the first three stages, a method that encourages first time players to test out their skills before resorting to easy mode. If you beat normal mode, hard mode awaits you. The enemy set is strengthened, bosses do more damage, and the game gets harder in a way that makes you feel challenged rather than playing a steroid enhanced version of normal mode. The enemies actually get tougher and smarter as the difficulty modes go up, rather than what some games do to increase difficulty (by throwing more enemies at you at a time). By the time you beat Dante Must Die mode, you feel like you're on the top of the world.

The areas are splendidly designed, and while this game has a few badly decorated areas with bad layout, you won't be spending much time in these. The underwater stages where Dante must swim around with the needle gun as his only weapon are the most poorly designed areas, with identical looking rooms and chambers that seem to go on forever until you reach the end by dumb luck. Lighting is horrid in these areas, and the murkiness of the water, while a nice, realistic touch, proved to be a massive hindrance to me while I played, strengthening my hatred for these areas. An annoying feature of the underwater areas is the whole gameplay setup, where the game play switches from a third person perspective to a first person perspective. You cannot use items underwater, and most annoyingly of all, Dante somehow cannot use his sword underwater. I'd think that a metal blade would work just as well underwater as on land, but Capcom apparently disagrees.

The voice acting is terrific, and some of the best I've heard in a franchise up to that point. The only problem is that in some scenes, the music is so loud that it drowns out the VA, which annoys me because many of these scenes dialogue is some of the best in the game, and at this point, subtitles weren't really an option for some reason.

The plot is something that comines much from previous games from throughout history in a very original way, and excecuted an almost "Gothic Horror Soap-Opera" type plot towards the very end, which Castlevania's own Lament of Innocence would attempt to replicate, but fail to do as well a job with it as was done here.

Weapons are varied, with options such as swords, pistols, gauntlets, shotguns, demonic firearms, grenade launchers, etc. The addition of the Devil Trigger system was a MAJOR help as well.

Using red orbs, you can upgrade Dante's abilities and buy items, but that's pretty standard, and doesn't merit a in depth review. All I need to say is that the abilities are well thought out, and picking up all of them, while not required, is recommended simply for the novelty value.

Finally, there comes the small matter of Devil May Cry 1's frequent comparison to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. While I will not deny there are similarities between the two games, Devil May Cry is decidely more linear than SOTN. The gameplay is similar, but different. The music in Devil May Cry leans more towards an ambient gothic style, rather than SOTN's broad genres of music. The character designs are totally different, and the two plots can't really be compared. Transformations in Symphony are FAR more specialized than they are in DMC, as well. The games really are not as similar as they are sometimes made out to be.

All in all, Devil May Cry is a solid game, weak in few spots, but it is guilty of a few bad features, such as the needless inclusion of a few enemies that are difficulty level-specific, meaning if you want a full bestiary, you'll have to get 100% completion on each difficulty mode; and the horrid underwater stages. Outside of the occasional annoyance (and the underwater areas), the game is incredibly well built, with gameplay that requires a bit of mastery to get truly good at, but simple enough that mastery isn't truly required.

I give this game a 9 out of 10.

If you don't own this game, pick up a copy. It's worth every penny.

How do you improve on what is considered by many to be a perfect game? Well, Konami gave it a shot when they “ported” the PSX smash hit Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyouku (Released stateside as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) to the Sega Saturn (though it’s more of a overhaul than a port). The end result was hardly a success, but I can't quite bring myself to call it a total failure. For all its faults, some interesting additions were made.

Most notably, the addition of Maria Renard as a playable character, and the addition of 2 new areas, and an extra costume for Richter, designed to more closely resemble Ayami Kojima’s official artwork. Also, Richter Belmont and Maria come pre-unlocked right from the get-go, which I found refreshing, since I didn’t want to have to beat the game again, having already beaten the PSX version and not wanting to do it over again if I didn’t have to.

That said, the game is also quite shoddily ported. The graphics are reduced in quality, and many of the new enemies look like something out of Loony Tunes. The mist form looks like it was downgraded quite a bit, as well. Also, the game lags quite a bit, and there are far more loading screens. In addition, the Saturn port (despite being on a console with 2D capabilities beyond the PSX), did not include the graphics in a new resolution to solve any pixelation from the PSX version, and merely stretched the PSX resolution, warping the graphics. Also, the graphics look smudged compared to the PSX version. Does this automatically make it bad? Well, no. Not yet.

There are numerous flaws in some of the extras though. For one, Maria is WAY overpowered. Richter’s new costume also has a few flaws (he’s INCREDIBLY broad shouldered for one). Some people point to Maria’s ninja-like attacks as a major flaw, but I didn’t have a problem with that, honestly. It was mainly her overpowered stats that annoyed me.

The new stages are hardly eye candy, consisting of reused tiles with a boring layout. The only reason to forge these areas is basically to level up, and fight the boss.

With the new areas came a need for new background music. Most of the new compositions are quite good, with the two new versions of Vampire Killer standing out as some of the more memorable ones. In addition “Guardian”, the new boss theme for when you fight Maria as Alucard, is also very good. The most outlandish theme is the jazz/ragtime version of Beginning, which just seems completely out of place in a Castlevania game. It’s not a bad piece at all, but it completely ruins the tone of the game. “Charconne c. Moli”, the Cursed Prison Theme, fits a Castlevania game to a tee, however, and is one of my favorite pieces from the whole series.

However, this game finally explains the origin of the Alucard Spear, seen in Bloodlines, and you can equip it as Alucard himself. There are other useful items, such as the Running Shoes. Items like these make Nocturne much more evenly balanced in some areas than its PSX counterpart.

The sprites on a whole are more animated during dialog sequences, which helps those scenes feel more like cutscenes, rather than just typical “stop all action and watch the scrolling text with dialog” that Symphony of the Night had. These cutscenes felt more like a blend of Rondo and SOTN’s scenes. Of course, the whole game was in Japanese, so I had to learn how to play without reading as much as possible, but it’s not that big a deal if you get into a proper groove. Or if you speak and read Japanese.

Altogether, the game was a decent enough concept. Many of the additions could have carried real weight and made this version better than the PSX game, if only the game were properly remade. As it stands, the smudged, stretched graphics from the PSX version combined with the cartoony graphics for the new enemies damages the visual appeal, and even though most of the music did fit, it wasn’t really required. The constant load screens ruined the pacing, and all that results in a lower quality game than the original. Still, I would advise that you play it and make the final call yourself.

As for me, I give Nocturne in the Moonlight a 4 out of 10, because while this could have easily been a better version, laziness and mindless additions without planning degrade the experience, and result in a poorer version of the game.

Dirge of Cerberus. Bad rap, but I think it's actually a well made game. Sure, it had some clunky controls at some points, but they're okay once you get used to it.

The graphics are solid, and have come a long way since the original Final Fantasy VII. I can actually tell that Cloud is a person now.
The plot is a faithful continuation of FFVII and Advent Children, and I was honestly expecting something like DeepGround to crop up at some point. Any organization that turns out someone as dangerous as Sephiroth is bound to have even more dark secrets.
The music is ambient and uninvolved for much of the gameplay, which is what it honestly needs to be in a real time game, so the player can focus on beating the boss rather than admiring the music. The FMV music is much more involved, and lends that additional "oomph" that the scenes need.
The combat system could stand some tweaking with the addition of more close range attacks and some more transformations, but other than that, it's fine.
Character design is top notch (once you get over the fact that Shelke hasn't aged in ten years), but Weiss' hair does honestly drive me a little crazy.
The VA is splendid, except for the AWFUL dubbing on Genesis' voice. Cloud sounds like the Cloud we all know and love, Vincent is now much better (Steve Blum learned his lesson I guess), and Reeve is fantastic. Cait Sith still makes me smile.
There is some problems in stage design, but skilled gamers can get over these with relative ease. Still, for an inexperienced gamer, these will take some practice.
The biggest problem lies in the bosses. They're too easy. Something should be done about this.

But, these flimsy problems aside, it's actually an okay game. Transitioning from a turn based RPG to a real time shooter is a difficult process, and Square-Enix did it satisfactorily.

I give it a 8.3 out of 10.