Before I get started, it's important to note that until now, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was the best the series had to offer. I say was because Circle of the Moon takes the similar premise of SotN in that the castle is free for you to roam around, levels are gained, large monsters are slain, and these large monsters give away items allowing further travel through the castle. However, unlike SotN, CotM is actually a challenge. The bosses can not be dispatched of in seconds, and are often brutal fights to the death. A factor I definitely appreciate.

As I mentioned earlier, the gameplay is very similar to SotN, and while that may be true, the game engine is most definitely not. While SotN featured a massive plethora of weapons and a small assortment of spells, CotM offers you the reverse. The magic system is powered by two types of cards which can only be found when randomly dropped by an enemy. One card type deals with the main effect of the spell, changing your weapon, your defenses, or the various properties of your whip. The other card type deals with what type of an effect the spell has; turning your whip into fire, making it so you regain health when struck by lightning, or turning you into a bone-hurling skeleton. The trouble with this system is that after playing through the game for fourteen hours, and spending nearly a third of that time ready to beat the game, I had only managed to accrue two-thirds of all the cards available. However, since the game offers another quest mode to play through after beating it, in which all of the cards are granted to you at the very start of the game it pretty much makes this point moot. And since the characters stats are reduced, it also increases the difficulty as a balance to being able to pull of some evil spells from the very beginning of the game.

I should point out though, that the extra 5 hours I put into finding cards was actually necessary with my final battle in the game. As opposed to SotN, Very few boss fights in this game are easy. And again, unlike SotN, the save points seem more spread out. During my first few run-throughs of the castle, I lost more than a few hours to a desperate search for a save point. And while you may begin to learn the layout of the castle, the game throws you another curve ball in changing which enemies go where. There is no feeling that quite describes running into a higher level batch of monsters as you expected to meet minor resistance on the way to the save point. Well, there are a few actually, doom, despair, and personal anguish for starters. But while this may have frustrated me a few times, it's twists like those that force you to stay on your toes and not take anything for granted. A factor that adds to an already rich atmosphere.

An atmosphere that is built on excellent music and graphics. The music consists of a number of arranged tunes derived from familiar stages such as Symphony of the Night and even the fifth level score from the original NES game makes a return. And while the sound effects may be decent, I really think the KCEK could've done a better job with the way voiceovers are featured. For starters, there aren't that many, and as Super Mario Advance has shown, the GameBoy Advance is certainly capable of delivering high-quality voice samples.

Castle of the Moon's graphics are of a high-caliber as well. The backgrounds are well rendered, with some areas having works of art on the background, similar to the Manticore/Medusa chamber from SotN, while other areas are more commonly recognized throughout the series, areas such as the clock tower and the main entrance to the castle itself. The animations in the game are done of a quality that seems significantly better for the enemies than the actual hero. The bosses in the game look fantastic, from the Zombie Dragons, to Death, to the dark lord Dracula himself. Each one seems part artistic vision, part unholy nightmare. A sort of hallmark I've come to expect from the series. However, with the dark tone in the game, also comes a minor difficulty. As I'm sure you've all heard by now, the game is extremely dark and the GBA is poorly lit and has a surface that seems similar to a mirror-like material. This allows for two choices: suffering from the occasional missed enemy/projectile/jump due to being unable to see that which you are doing, or having a large amount of glare on your screen, making it impossible to see anything.

Overall, Castle of the Moon is excellent, In my opinion, it's designed better than Symphony of the Night and my few detracting statements should be considered to be nothing more than a small bit of nitpicking. As a long-time fan of this series, not only can I recommend the latest edition, but now, I can finally feel clean after having played through the N64 incarnation. So if you'll excuse me *plugs in his GBA and goes to a well-lit corner* I've got to go teach some undead freak the meaning of the word "respect".

· · · Robert Rence