Perhaps the first major project to fall under Konami's madness. Even though I’m not particularly familiar with the series beyond the two slashers, I admit that it has a very interesting world, excellent gothic art design and even a good story to some extent. Yes, in the first part it was from the category of “we suck at killing those who know who needs to be killed,” but its ending and subsequent story envelops the whole Belmont family, right down to the grandson of the main character. By the way, castelvania still requires an understanding of what happened between parts 1 and 2 in Mirror of Fate, albeit at the level of “this is a son, there is a grandson, and this is a fucking mirror.”
And here is the beginning of the 2nd part. Epic, gothic, the combat has become something better, the picture is surprisingly beautiful for the 6 GB weight of the game, a good main character, staging... but then some nonsense is happening. Suddenly some stories appear about an evil corporation with a demonic virus, the main character is constantly kicked into a castle to fight with possessed subordinates (which in general seems to symbolize his internal struggle with inner darkness, but honestly, this is not implemented in any way), the GG ceases to be a prince and carries out the instructions of the brow to smite Satan for the second time... The plot begins to storm so much that it seems as if the screenwriter was under merciless pressure. He offered one option - everything is shit except this moment. Another? True, but we'll replace half the scenes. Third? Shit, but I like this idea.
At the same time, as a game it’s good. When needed, it’s very beautiful, it plays well, it feels more diverse than its predecessor (even if not in terms of locations, but they don’t really get boring), but all the ideas that were supposed to give the world a plot and motivation are very different in quality. Agree that the ideas of Dracula’s rebirth in our reality, soul-searching and the struggle of internal demons, a meeting with the offspring and the fight against good because... we are evil - excellent. But each of these topics flashes in passing and is not revealed.
Oh yes. Stealth in Castlevania. Everyone spat at him as best they could, but I reacted to him quite calmly as an element of a rather tedious but simple riddle. And even then there are probably 4 moments of stealth, which can be completed at a time. By the way, like the whole game. I completed it on hard and got stuck as little as possible. Either it’s the “turn into smoke” skill, or the game has become easier... I don’t know, it was more difficult in the 1st part.
2.5 out of 5.
The game could have been great, but alas. Of course, I could give the game a C, but after the game ended in nothing for gg, my hand does not rise. Although I admit, I played not without pleasure, so I’ll add at least half a point.