"A mostly successful foray into the fighting genre for the Castlevania franchise, though not without its problems."
Castlevania has always been a remarkable gaming franchise, ever since its most notable entry and shift in playstyle (Symphony of the Night, which spawned the term "Metroidvania.") With the recent chain of successes (three DS titles and two notable DS titles) with the franchise, IGA decided to experiment and branch out into previously unearthed territory for the series: a fighting game. As a result, one can now teach an old Belmont new tricks! It provides the ultimate in fanservice, but how does it stand up to the current generation of games?
Graphics - 7/10. One does not normally turn to the Wii for graphics, and as an old Nintendo fan, I will be the first to admit that. First impressions of the game dictated that character models would look absolutely horrible - a renowned artist from Death Note drew up the stills. As a result, we have Shanoa the nun, Simon Belmont the S+M whip wielder, an over-boobed Carmilla, an overly-girly-looking Alucard (yes, even more so than before,) and a cross of what looks like Voldo from Soul Calibur and a roll of toilet paper for the former (current?) pirate, Grant Danasty.
Once you load it up, that all goes out the window. Character animations are fluid with very few gripes in how the characters look in action. Yes, you even get to ignore Carmilla's and Sypha's rack (unless you're Maria Renard, of course) in favor of how smoothly their animations chain together. It's no Soul Calibur IV by any stretch of the imagination, but for a series mainly dedicated to action, you can't ask for much better.
Next one comes to the stage graphics and the camera, and what seems to be the biggest graphical gripe in the game. While I personally have not experienced TOO much difficulty in the camera, I can see how it can be irritating, but at the same time, with how mediocre it is, it has the potential to become a gameplay element - for instance, when Maria charges up her Tsunami attack, if she is facing the camera when releasing it, the player will be able to play mindgames with another human by shifting her position or launching a long-range attack or sub-weapon while it travels. Since Maria relies on set-up and counterattacks,
Music and Voice. - 9.5/10. This is where fanservice REALLY begins to shine: a great number of recognizeable tunes has been added to the game. Including the ubiquitous Vampire Killer, Beginning, Dance of Illusion, and Bloody Tears, other tracks have emerged from the archives such as Iron Blue Intention, Dracula Castle, Clockwork, and Mad Forest. Fans of Castlevania music will NOT be disappointed in the soundtrack.
One may, however, be disappointed in the English voice actors. Dialogue seems hilariously overstated at times for certain characters - personally, I was looking forward to another strong showing after Order of Ecclessia. After all, the same voice actor for Shanoa in that game (Michelle Ruff) made a strong showing, but in Judgment, as Maria she is shrill and annoying, and as Shanoa, she sounds completely dead inside. There are some diamonds in the rough when it comes to emotion in the voice, notably in Carmilla and Grant, but it's mediocre on average, which brings the sound category down a half point from a perfect 10.
Mechanics, Game Balance, and Control. - 8/10. Controls seem, at first glance, a daunting task to learn. Movesets for the 14 characters are rather limited until you pick up on the nuances of it, especially with the importance of various cancels and evasion moves. Button mashers can be heavily punished with certain characters, while seeming overly strong in others - after all, there is only one standard attack button, with the only variations in attacks appearing if you hold the "special" button and/or tilt the control stick while attacking. Standard attacks, however, are able to cancel into jumps, special attacks, or unblockable attacks, and this is where the meat and potatoes of the fighter come into play. Opponent guarding too much? Try to elongate your natural combo by pitching a vial of holy water to possibly break their guard and put the pain on them, or cancel your attacks and throw an unblockable into the mix so they're forced to dodge or react.
I'm certainly not the first to admit, however, that the game is not balanced. Certain characters natural comboes allow for easier ground-to-air mixup games, whereas the stats of other characters, for example Golem's horrific standard movement and attack speed allows him to be easily punished, even with super armor frames, make or break a character in matchups with others. One common gripe is about super moves - everyone's super move damages your enemy by approximately 60% of their max health, and certain characters have far too easy a time landing the initial hit (Carmilla, Grant) while others have to pray for a clock subweapon and 10 hearts just to initiate and land the hit (Aeon, Death.)
That segues into another point: subweapons and stage-object interaction. Each character can perform a special action on objects in a stage (such as the Belmonts throwing a torch with the whip, or Grant placing a knife trap to stab the enemy if they get nearby one) or simply break the object to obtain a powerup. Powerups include a random subweapon (each character has a certain selection pool to choose from,) a multiplier tool (allows you to throw two or three subweapons in a row,) or hearts, which are your subweapon's ammo clip. Subweapons can tie into comboes, and just like special attacks, can be charged up to consume more hearts but create a more powerful effect. These attacks become an integral part of play as one grows more and more comfortable with the game.
The gist: despite every character possessing a shallow movepool, the sheer variety of attack and defense created by cancelling and subweapon usage allows for a simple fighter to have a surprising amount of depth.
Story - 7/10 - There are several modes in Castlevania: Judgment, the most noteable of which is the titular Story Mode. Essentially, thirteen warriors from various eras along Dracula's timeline enter a rift in time and meet a time-obsessed warrior named Aeon, who informs them that their hearts desire shall be fulfilled if they pass the trials... being, of course, to pummel the snot out of various warriors from the Castlevania timeline, including: Simon Belmont, Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Alucard, Grant Danasty, Maria Renard, Shanoa, Eric Lecarde, Cornell the Werewolf, Carmilla the Vampiress, Golem, Death, and of course, Dracula himself. As the stories complete, more stories will unlock, and... well... that's going into the realms of spoilers, and what fun is that?
Fighters aren't known for their depth of storylines, but this fares rather well, especially given that is JUST the story mode - Arcade Mode and Castle Mode have their own quirks to them.
Buy it or Rent it? - For the casuals, rent. Castlevania freaks, for the most part, will enjoy many of the throwbacks and nostalgia value from the music, subweapons, and some of their old favorite characters coming out to play (sadly, no Soma or Richter,) but unless you plan on playing heavily on the (as yet laggy) online modes, or have a couple close friends or roommates that love CV as much as you do, it doesn't justify the full price tag... yet. Wait for a price drop if you find you enjoy it and then pick it up; you'll be pleasantly surprised at its depth.
