To date, Konami has attempted 4 times to make Castlevania a 3D game.
First came Castlevania 64, a Classicvania in 1999. It followed the story of Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez, partners and descendants of Belmont family friends. You can play as either, though the story is mostly the same, save one branching path. It's got a very basic storyline, the same the all Classicvanias share: Dracula is back, kill him. Each character had a main weapon and a side weapon, as well as the ability to grab subweapons and use them via expenditure of Red Gems. Reinhardt has a whip for a main weapon, which gained power by grabbing Power Ups, like older games. He also totes a short sword for a side weapon. Carrie shoots Magic bursts that track opponents, which also gain power via Power Ups. She sports a single Chakram as a side weapon. The subweapons functioned the same for both characters: Knife, Axe, Cross and Holy Water. The game took you through various areas of Dracula's castle, and branched after the Duel Tower. Reinhardt has to climb a certain tower and confront Death over the death of a vampire girl named Rosa, whom he meets earlier. Flashback: Rosa tried to commit suicide, but Reinhardt stops her. She attacks him, only to be killed when he tries to defend himself. He loves her, somehow, so he's kinda ticked when Death comes to take her. Carrie has to climb a different tower and fight one of her vampirized ancestors, and a vampire named Actrise.
If you get the good ending, you find out that the dude you thought was Dracula is actually just his servant, and some kid you rescued earlier is really Dracula. You have to fight Dracula and some weirdo Dragon-Centipede final form.
Second came Lament of Innocence, which hit the PS2 in 2003. This game finally unveiled the origins of Dracula and the Belmont Clan, in the Castlevania universe at least. It centered around Leon Belmont, a lord knight during the crusades, and his journey in 1094. Leon and his friend Mathias Cronqvist were leaders during the crusades, and best friends. Mathias fell extremely ill when he was told that his wife had died. Leon kept going, until his fiance Sara disappears. Monsters start showing up around populated areas, so Leon comes back to find her and kick some monster ass. The Church denies his plan to counter attack, so he ditches the Church. Mathias get his sick ass up, and tells Leon that this is all because of a vampire, and that the vampire took Sara to his castle in the middle of a cursed forest. Leon goes to save her, and he's given a whip made with alchemy by a man named Rinaldo. The game essentially follows him going throughout the castle, kicking ass and trying to find Sara. Eventually you come to find that Walter, the vampire that took Sara, has infected her with vampirism, though she's not quite a vampire yet. Leon takes Sara to Rinaldo, and of course there's no way to save her. Though Rinaldo reveals that the whip can be "completed" by pouring Sara's tainted soul into the whip via a blood pact. Sara sacrifices herself to give Leon the ability to kill Walter, Leon promises to school him. This is the birth of the famous Castlevania weapon: the Vampire Killer. Eventually you kill Walter, only to have it revealed that this was all a ruse set up by your friend Mathias. Mathias used the power of a special stone to harness the power of Walter's soul, all in an attempt to get revenge against God for stealing his wife away. Mathias offers to make Leon an immortal vampire like himself. Leon refuses because of the promise he made to Sara. You have to defeat Death, and the epilogue reveals that Mathias is Dracula.
After that, in 2005, Konami releases Castlevania Curse of Darkness on the PS2 and ye olde Xbox. The story was also adapted into a Manga, which tells a bit more of Hector's past. Curse of Darkness took the Alucard / Soma Cruz route and had their protagonist wield a fuckton of weapons rather than be limited to just a whip. Hector's adventure takes place 1479, 3 years after Castlevania III (on the NES). Hector used to be a high ranking general, known as a Devil Forgemaster, under Dracula's regime during one of his resurrections. His rival and fellow general, Isaac, is the only other Devil Forgemaster out there. Both served under Dracula, though Hector leaves once Dracula started killing humans without rhyme or reason. Isaac served until Dracula was killed by Trevor Belmont at the end of Castlevania III, and even after for some time. Isaac wanted revenge on Hector, so he kills Hector's lover: Rosaly. Hector, gets a little pissed and goes to fuck up Isaac's shit. So, the object of the game is to track Isaac down and beat the living hell out of him. This game kinda broke the mold a bit, you plow your way through more of Wallachia's terrain, but the game ends within Dracula's Castle, as always. As Hector makes his way towards Isaac, he meets a plethora of characters, all trying to stop Dracula's Curse from ravaging Wallachia. Dracula's Curse refers to the final acts of Dracula before his death in CVIII, in which he curses humanity to fester in their uncertainty until the obliterate themselves. Hector comes across: Zead, a monk who seemingly wants to be rid of Dracula's Curse. Julia, a witch that acts as your shop for the game. Trevor Belmont, nuff said. And St. Germain, a time traveling man sporting a top hat, a british accent, and a poisoned blade. He attempts to discourage Hector from his quest, later we find out it's so Hector doesn't bring about Dracula's resurrection. You come to find that Zead is actually Death (gasp), and plotted to use you and Isaac's impending duel to release a ton of dark power, and upon Isaac killing you, use your body as Dracula's vessel for his resurrection. It still happens, but the fact is that Hector kills Isaac, so Isaac becomes the new vessel. The end of the game culminates with Hector's fight against Dracula, and Hector using his powers to turn back Dracula's Curse.
Ugh. Then came Lords of Shadow in 2010. As you can tell, I hate this game. I refuse to dignify it with the surtitle of Castlevania. Not to say the game is bad in and of itself, it's alright; but no way in Hell is it a Castlevania game. Lords of Shadow is not part of the series canon, it's supposed to be a reboot, but it's not. It takes place in 1047; Gabriel Belmont is a member of the Brotherhood of Light, which has received wind that the Lords of Shadow will rise and bring about the World's End. They send Gabriel for some reason, I assume because he's a good warrior. It plays like God of War, to the T, I'm not even kidding. You want a good reveiw: watch Zero Punctuation's review of it, it's spot on. Gabriel is one of those newfangled and incredibly chic "Dark Protagonists", you know: the ones that are inherently good, but go about being good in the most violent and almost comically mean ways conceivable. I think the slogan for the game even says: "Dark times call for a Dark Hero!". My biggest gripe is that this game didn't feel like a Castlevania game, it just lacked the gothic flare and...just everything. Anyways, you spend most of the game running around fighting werewolves and trolls with a weak ass whip for a weapon. You're also being creeper stalked by Patrick Stewart, your ally and the game's narrator. It has the cheesiest after-credits ending I've ever seen. Not even kidding. There's also a Portal reference. Whoo.
Castlevania newbs will say the Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness suck because they're boring and there's no "epicness" to them. Conversely they'll also say Lords of Shadow was amazing because there were all these actions scenes and epic bloody kills.
Veterans of the series will say all three suck, and that's what mystifies me, with the exception of Lords of Shadow. I personally love Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, and I'm here to say why.
Castlevania 64
The Pros:
It was the first of it's kind. It was pretty revolutionary considering that it was on the Nintendo 64. The story was pretty decent, given how basic the skeleton is. It pioneered the item system, as well as the money system.
The Cons:
The platforming was pretty choppy at times, and frustrating when you were far away from a save. Some of the enemies are hard to hit due to the limited range of Reinhardt's whip or the awkward tracking effect of Carrie's magic. This game can be pretty rough the first time around, as far as difficulty goes.
Castlevania Lament of Innocence
The Pros:
The game has that gothic feel to it, complete with sexually ambiguous artstyle and completely orchestrated music, mostly. Leon wields nothing but a whip, and the classic subweapons from older Castlevanias. They added the Crystal as a new subweapon because they couldn't find a way to implement the Stopwatch without being cheap. They also have a new mechanic, in which you gain and Orb after killing a boss. Adding an Orb to your subweapons changes the effect, but also increases the cost of the Hearts you use. Example: Holy Water. Normally you generate a small half circle of blue flame in front of you on the ground. Simple, costs 4 <3's. However, adding the effect of the blue orb gives you Energy Gazer, which fires repeated pillars of energy in front of you, a la Magneto's Magnetic Shockwave in Marvel vs Capcom 2.
The whip in this game functioned a lot better. There's combos to unlock, and the range is greatly improved. The addition of a Guard command, as well as a dodge, really helps you get a leg up on some enemies. The layout, while confusing at times, is expansive and very pretty actually. I find myself using the Map a lot, to see where I'm going, but I find that good because I never seem to use it in any other games. Memorial and Magical Tickets come about in this game, which teleport you back to your previously used Save room and Rinaldo's cabin, respectively.
The Cons:
Some of the dialogue is incredibly cheesy, but that's a Castlevania staple really. The camera has a fixed position, which can get annoying at times, but it's easy to get used to. The layout can be a real pain, sometimes there's a chunky of backtracking, but that can be circumvented (sort of) by Memorial Tickets. The storyline is a little cliche, but it's still implemented well, despite it all.
Castlevania Curse of Darkness
The Pros:
The ability to use multiple weapons gives a sense of freedom that the other Castlevanias don't. The weapon fusion systems adds a sense of grinding for people who like it. The storyline is pretty interesting actually, despite it's aged roots. The new system of familiars, known as Innocent Devils in this game, is really cool! I dub this game Poke'vania because of the way it works. When one finds the basic form of an ID, you can view a tree spread of its different evolutions. ID's evolve by Hector using certain weapons and gathering Evo Crystals from slain enemies. Depending on the ones absorbed, the ID's evolve differently. After a while, your ID will also drop an Egg, which can be used to hatch a new ID, and evolve it differently. Depending on the current ID, they can learn different attacks and be used for certain purposes. This provides a new level of customization, and it can be kinda addicting. Any unused ID's are kept in Julia's care. There's a fair chunk of secrets to find too, and challenges.
The Cons:
The plotline can be a little confusing at times, what with masquerading characters. The layout for this game makes Lament of Innocence's look like a punk. This game is huge, and takes time to fully explore. As such, it can be really confusing, and sometimes a little boring. I found some backtracking to be really tiresome at times, and some of the bosses are tough the first time off.
Lords of Shadow
The Pros:
It's very pretty, the devs really took their time. The whip combos are also very flashy. Some of the stages were pretty cool, and the creature control was nifty. PATRICK STEWART! Also, there's some pretty nifty puzzle solving.
The Cons:
Oh God this game is bland as Hell. VERY cookie cutter, and the similarities to God of War are almost offensive. Buggy camera angles really piss you off during combat. No matter how much want, your whip doesn't get ANY stronger. Enemies that take a while to kill in the beginning still take a while later on, and you don't feel like you're really progressing. Half the time you just want to scream at Gabriel "THAT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!" but he won't listen. The Shadow of the Colossus fights are incredibly boring and take too long. You can skip puzzles.....no, just no. Logic puzzles....also no. WTF, WHY IS SATAN THE FINAL BOSS??!?! The After-Credits scene took the whole game and made it the creation of a seven year old child. This game doesn't feel like a Castlevania. The soundtrack is also very bland, and very generic "Epic" kind of stuff. It sounds like Batman Dark Knight, Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings had a baby.
All in all, this is just my personal opinion of these games. My verdict: just try them, especially if you actually like Castlevania. They're not hard to find, and can usually be found for pretty cheap.
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