Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003)

This Castlevania marked the series' first full leap into 3D action on home consoles, set as an origin story for the Belmont clan, the MC is Leon Belmont, and you play his quest through a gothic castle to rescue his beloved and confront the vampire lord Walter Bernhard. The game features stylish, combo-based combat and a hauntingly atmospheric soundtrack, which is a trademark of the Castlevania series, having amazing OSTs. While its visuals and mood were praised, it has repetitive level design and shallow exploration compared to its 2D predecessors.

Still, it successfully laid narrative groundwork for the franchise and offered solid Hack'N Slash gameplay with Castlevania's signature tone. This is a flawed but atmospheric 3D debut for the series—best appreciated by fans curious about the lore and evolution of Castlevania. I'm not a fan of this one but decided not to skip it simply because I like Castlevania very much, though I don't consider this a must-play, the other entries which have better exploration and RPG mechanics are much better experiences, still I would only play this one if the person is a Castlevania fan to any extent.

I think that what bugs me the most on this game is enemy variety, which is lacks, you have variations of the same enemies, which in on itself, technically, counts as enemy variety, but not in a creative way. There is one thing I can praise about this is the boss encounters, they are very good, and very challenging, it won't blow your mind but this game definitely translated 2D to 3D amazingly when it comes to the bosses.

As a big Castlevania fan, I never had the chance to try the PS2 entries of the series. Castlevania Legacy of Darkness was a great game, though at times it didn't feel like a true Castlevania game. Lament of Innocence, on the other hand, embraces the qualities of the series and successfully makes the leap to 3D.

The game adopts an action gameplay, a la Devil May Cry, where you perform combos to defeat enemies. The mechanics are somewhat simple, but are deep and fun enough to become mastered on a single play-through. Sub weapons, classic enemies like the fleaman, axe armor, and the gargoyle, room driven exploration, and the many other things that transit through Castlevania's bloodlines are well translated to 3D.

One thing that surprised me pleasantly was the story. This is the origin story of the Belmont clan and its fight against Dracula. Given that the series spans many games that cover generations of struggle, this was awesome to see as a foundation. The voice acting is good, though the script is a bit awkward. However, this mixed into a surprisingly endearing result. I was always looking forward to the interactions between Rinaldo and Leon after completing every level.

No mention of Castlevania is complete without mentioning the music. As always, Michiru Yamane and the Castlevania Sound Team have done an excellent job. Crawling the dungeons with these amazing compositions makes the experience very pleasant. Pieces like "House of Sacred Remains" are some of the best I've heard in the series.

Another factor I liked is that the game has plenty of secrets hidden on every level for the dedicated player to discover. Most are challenging without being too obtuse. My favorite is the secret challenge boss that lies in the depths of the castle. I always love it when your exploration is rewarded with content that can become one of the highlights of the game.

The only flaw I would say is that the level design is sometimes guilty of adding a lot of empty corridors and branching paths that lead to backtracking. Without the fast movement mechanics of the 2D games, this can become a tad annoying at times, and making some of the environments look a bit samey. Special rooms with traps or different decoration help alleviate this somewhat.

Despite this, I had a great time with Lament of Innocence. It is an awesome game that sets up not only the origin story for the series, but a bright future into 3D. Despite my love for Legacy of Darkness, I feel that game would have benefited from being a different IP. This is the Castlevania we all expected and wanted, preparing us for the eternal struggle against Dracula.

The best 3D castlevania made so far. This features the first Belmont, the origin of Dracula, and the vampire killer, making it a great bit of lore for fans of the series.

The game is a brawler with heavy exploration (no movement abilities to unlock, you have access to most of the castle from the start and are tasked with finding and defeating all the bosses in any order to open the last area). The combat is much more thoughtful than in other brawlers. Attacking with intent, picking the right combo, and deciding between slow aoe whip swings or faster single target whip attacks will make you go further than mashing buttons. Blocking, rolling jumping and even basic movement all have their uses as defensive tools, recovery animations on rolls/blocks prevent them from being cheesy. Also if you do a perfect block you are rewarded with magic recovery.

In terms of aesthetics it's everything that makes castlevania awesome: cool gothic environments, great looking monsters, and an amazing soundtrack.

You can't stat boost to win like in other vanais There's no level ups to grind for and equipment upgrades are extremely scarce. It does have the usual 50+ skill to toy with although the vast majority are just 'fire a giant projectile' or 'make a huge aoe' and they cost too much ammo to spam.

The game loses a star because there is serious pacing problems. Backtracking is always annoying but with few warps or new movement powers to reduce the time it's especially bad here. Collecting hearts is needlessly tedious as you only get 2 ammo per heart and your attacks use 10-25.

Worth noting is the game's unlocked difficulty crazy mode, which not only triples the number of enemies in every room but replaces all the easier enemies with much tougher ones. Enemies that would be a challenge in a group of 2 now are fighting you in groups of 5-6.