Jade Defends: Castlevania Judgment

[JadePharaoh]

Castlevania Judgment
Wii
2008

To those of you who know me, it's no secret that I love me some Castlevania. The series consistently delivers excellent gameplay (even if it is often balls-hard), combined with its gothic aesthetic and some of the best music in all of video-game-dom. Traditionally, the gameplay has gone down one of two roads. There's the Nintendo-Hard stage-driven platformer style, commonly called Classic-vania. Then there's the non-linear exploration-driven games commonly called Metroid-vania (due to the similarities the codifier, Symphony of the Night, shared with Super Metroid). And then the series would delve into 3D platforming now and then, but was usually not met with as much enthusiasm from fans (I do love Lament of Innocence, but I admit it's mostly for the INCREDIBLE music)

Enter the Nintendo Wii. When people saw its motion-sensitive controller, fans of the series were conjuring up images of a Castlevania Wii game involving you swinging that Wii-remote to whip some undead ass left and right. When a Castlevania for the Wii was finally announced however, we found ourselves with something... quite different from what we were used to seeing from the franchise. And most fans were pissed as a result. Rather than a Classic-vania, or a Metroid-vania, what we got instead was a fighting game, starring an array of characters from all throughout the Castlevania canon.

The plot is a little screwy, but it revolves mainly around Galamoth, yes the Big Bad from the Kid Dracula games and a bonus boss in Symphony of the Night. As a being trying to usurp the dark powers of Count Dracula, Galamoth has dispatched his minion the Time Reaper from 10,000 years in the future to alter the course of history to suit his ends. Another with the power over time, Aeon, has summoned fighters from throughout Castlevania history to do battle with the Time Reaper:

Simon Belmont (Castlevania/ Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest)
Trevor Belmont (Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse)
Adrian "Alucard" Tepes (Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse/ Symphony of the Night)
Sypha Belnades (Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse)
Grant Danasty (Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse)
Maria Renard (Castlevania: Rondo of Blood)
Eric LeCarde (Castlevania: Bloodlines)
Cornell (Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness)
Shanoa (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia)
Golem (Various)
Carmilla (Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest/ Rondo of Blood/ Circle of the Moon)
Death (Almost every single one...)
Count Dracula (The Big Bad of the whole damn series...)

What we get as a result is a pretty run of the mill 3D fighting game. Yet is is also regarded very poorly among most Castlevania fans as the absolute worst game in the entire series.

So, what went wrong? Well, judging by reactions before the game was even released, The biggest problem people had with this game were the character designs. To say some creative liberties were taken would be putting it lightly. The designs were done by none other than Takeshi Obata, most famous for his work on Death Note. His interpretations of the above characters were... not what fans were expecting. I think most Castlevania fans were most familiar with the artwork of Ayami Kojima, or at least were the most partial to her work. Her gothic style always seemed to capture the look of the characters of Castlevania the best and fans were known to revolt when she was not involved in the character design. Look at Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin; those went to a more "anime" style of artwork and a good number of fans shunned those games based on that fact alone. Judgement would be the most radical change yet to the portrayal of many mainstays of the Castlevania series, and that alone seemed to be enough to get the game on everyone's shit-list long before it even came out.

(See here for a gallery of the characters: http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castle...nt/Gallery)

So, while everyone was quick to jump at Obata's throat over the character designs, how was the game itself? Well, I thought it was pretty decent overall. I can't say it was spectacular or ground-breaking, but I think it was a competent 3D fighter. You battle on a 3D plane; your base moves are pretty basic, but you can collect sub-weapons and hearts on the stage, just like in most Castlevania games. And then you can build up a special meter as you attack that enables you to unleash a super move that wipes out at least half of an opponent's HP if it hits.

There are multiple gameplay modes. There is the Story mode that plays through the basic plot of the game with each character. I mentioned Galamoth earlier, and while he is the Big Bad of this game overall, the final boss is in fact his minion, the Time Reaper. Then there is an Arcade mode not unlike many other fighting games, though you are pitted against Dracula as the final opponent this time (and just like the classic games, he loves his teleport-spam...). There's a Castle mode where you explore Dracula's castle and partake in different challenges in each room. Finally, there's the tired but true Survival mode; an endurance battle where you defeat as many opponents as possible in a single life.

Overall, I find it an enjoyable game thanks to its Castlevania fanservice. I really don't mind Obata's version of the characters (I mean, c'mon, it's not like the character designs have been THAT constant to begin with...), and as a Castlevania fighting game, it's handled quite well. And it's a nice change of pace from the deluge of Metroid-vania on the GBA and DS, and the modern-style 3D platformers/ hack-&-slash "God of 'Vanias" that have become the mainstay of the series on the modern systems nowadays.

(If I were to pick the worst game in the Castlevania series, it certainly wouldn't be this one; it would be a toss-up between Castlevania: The Adventure for the GameBoy and Haunted Castle, the virtually unplayable arcade game.)