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Debuting in 1986, the Castlevania series has been one of Konami's longest running and, in many people's opinions, best series to date. With a deep and enthralling story behind the series and the signature action/adventure platforming gameplay that inspired so many other sorts of games after it, there was no doubt it'd eventually gain quite the huge following. As the games progressed, new innovations were made, some more welcome than others, and new boundaries were explored, for better or worse.

One of the aforementioned boundaries came in the form of the first 3D Castlevania game for the Nintendo 64. With its outright control problems and lack of that "Castlevania feel", it was near-universally criticized as the biggest mistake Konami could have ever made concerning the series. Fans shuddered when they heard of the release of yet another 3D CV game for the N64, then rejoiced when word came that the Castlevania games afterward would be 2D.

Years passed by, and after several iterations on handhelds and the PS1 and Saturn, among other systems, fans all over began to regain their faith in Konami's long running franchise. Then, word came that a new game would be in the works for the PS2 that would tell where the story as a whole started, and it was to be called Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. For the most part, fans were torn to find that it would be yet another 3D game, and why not? Their first cracks at 3D weren't exactly anything to be proud of. Konami, however, had indeed learned from their past mistakes.

Taking note of the popularity of action-oriented games like the Devil May Cry series, Lament of Innocence focused mostly on the action aspects of the game. There were many techniques to learn, and you assuredly needed them all as you progressed. They also threw in the platforming elements that helped put the series on the map in the first place. The game looked and controlled beautifully, with the only really bad criticisms coming from it being its similarity to the aforementioned action series, and the fact that quite a few of the areas you visited in the given stages looked similar to one another as you progressed through them. In all, though, it was welcomed by long-time fans and newcomers alike, though there were still some that were biased towards the 2D form of years past.

The next few games would be 2D, and they would be released on Nintendo's handheld systems. They pulled heavily from their critically acclaimed Symphony of the Night in several instances, though the games were outstanding in their own rights.

Then came the announcement of yet another 3D CV game. Some had renewed faith in Konami concerning the series going to 3D after Lament of Innocence, while others felt that the series should hold onto 2D. Dubbed "Castlevania: Curse of Darkness", this new CV promised to hold much more content than Lament of Innocence did in terms of gameplay and graphical standards as well, and while graphically it did just that, gameplay-wise, not so much.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness takes place three years after the events of Castlevania III for the NES, and yes, the hero of that game, Trevor Belmont, makes an appearance, but we'll get to that in a second. Graphically, there's no doubt about it that Konami outdid Lament of Innocence as they set out to do. Gameplay-wise, there were vast improvements to the combat system, as well as the return of the familiars in the form of "Innocent Devils", creatures you could summon to help you fight or get through certain obstacles. Still, aside from those tweaks, things are horribly, horribly wrong.

First of all, the game is rather easy to get through. Boss fights don't truly take much strategy to defeat, and that's made even more easy with the return of the leveling system. Find a boss that's giving you hell because you die far too easily, and you can simply overlevel, come back and beat it senseless. No weak points to find or anything of the sort.

The puzzles in the game aren't mindbendingly difficult to get through, either, as more often than not, your Innocent Devils are the key, and to make things even more obvious for the player, they oftentimes give you the Innocent Devil you need to clear an obstacle directly before you encounter the obstacle for the first time.

The areas in the game, however, are a HUGE gripe on my part. People complained that the areas in Lament of Innocence could get repetitive quickly. At least in LoI, areas broke the monotony nicely, giving you a platforming puzzle or plain puzzle to solve, and nearly every other room that DID differ from a corridor you went through differed quite a bit at that. In Curse of Darkness, in any given area, you will encounter the exact same room multiple times in succession, or an area that looks similar to a room you left before, but made "different" by a slope in the ground or something of the sort. You were always, in essence, though, in the same room, over and over again. There were also times in LoI that you would enter a room only to have the doors lock so you could fight a myriad of enemies to get out. This happens way too much in CoD, though. Nearly every other room you enter is locked up, forcing you to fight, making things that much more repetitive that much more quickly, and regardless of the fact that you usually had some sort of "new" weapon to try out, it always felt the same.

Nevermind the fact that the platforming that helped make the series popular as it is is gone. You essentially don't even need the double jump that you have from the beginning of the game. It's just there "because".

After going through such monotony for so long, you find a place called the Tower of Eternity that spans 50 floors of nothing but fighting (and afterward, given that you have the right ability, the tower of Evermore, that spans 50 more floors and has stronger enemies). All 50 of those rooms look EXACTLY the same. stare

Games in the series like Curse of Darkness are reasons some can't or won't ever get into the series to begin with. In the future, if they must make 3D CV games, let's hope they're more or less like Lament of Innocence.

apart from SOTN, its unheard of for a castlevania game to have the exact same characters in them.

apart from dracula of course.