Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2/Xbox)
Lament of Innocence built up a ton of goodwill for being the Castlevania game to finally put the series on solid ground in the 3D space, so, it’s understandable why folks recoiled a bit at its follow-up largely tossing out most of Castlevania tradition for something that, honestly, doesn’t much resemble anything in the series, before or after. Time has actually been kinder to Curse than expected though. Yes, it’s still kind of an oddball as a Castlevania title–ironically, there’s a lot of this game in what eventually became Bloodstained–but if you can put aside expectations and how dirty they do poor Trevor Belmont in the process, you’ll find a pretty solid action-RPG with a surprisingly deep crafting system, impressive visuals, and an immensely underrated Michiru Yamane soundtrack.
The story feels bewildering on its own, only because, for reasons beyond comprehension, most of the backstory was told in a manga that was never actually released outside Japan until years after the game came out. It’s not bad once you have that context, but it’s wild how much the game leans on it. Play the game, and all it tells you is how Trevor Belmont failed to put Dracula in the ground for good, before thrusting you right into the middle of some serious bishi angst between two of Dracula’s underlings, Hector and Isaac, over a woman named Rosaly. What the game never tells you is how Rosaly was married to Hector, until Isaac had her accused of being a witch and burned at the stake. It’s a pretty solid reason to be pissed off, to be honest. And yes, anime fans, you read that right–this is the game where Hector and Isaac, as well as Saint-Germain from the Netflix series come from. Game Isaac isn’t nearly as incredible as his Netflix counterpart, but the broad strokes of his character and arc are the same.
Image: xTimelessGaming on YouTube