• Incredibly detailed 3D gameplay and haunting orchestral soundtrack immerse in the origin stories of Dracula and the Belmont family

• Enhanced new attack system for exciting new combos and super-moves

• Unparelleled graphics combine with the classic Castlevania gameplay for the thrilling introduction of this legendary saga!

Now that that's said and done, let's get to the point. Lament of Innocence is, in my opinion, a well made and very fun game. It helps that the design team from Symphony worked on this game. The controls are easy to learn: 2 buttons to attack, 1 to jump, 1 for special weapons, and 1 to block. As long as you can get those buttons down, you can play for quite a while and not have to worry about the others. The new combo system is great, giving you the ability to chain together an entire series of very devastating attacks. If you can master the combo system, the sub weapons can be moved to a USE-ONLY-IF-NEEDED status. The addition of using the whip as a meathod of swinging off poles and rails was a nice touch. Also, the game requires ALOT of exploring and doubling-back to retreive items you couldn't get before. Also, if you think the voice-overs stink, then you can play the game in Japanese with English subtitles.

There are a few caveats, however. The only way to gain magic points is to block a special enemy attack. This can get extremely frustrating, especially if you're surrounded by enemies that are hacking at you, but not performing special attacks. Also, certain areas of the game become inaccessible after the boss is defeated, and you can go back to pick up something you may have missed, some of which can be very hard to find. Also, the real-time window is just plain bad. You could end up getting the snot beaten out of you just for trying to drink some health potion or equipping a different whip.

All the flaws aside, the game is magnificent and a very impressive transition to the 3D format. The storyline is decent, and I think it shows some guts to try to create a prequel to a very famous and recognized series of games.

24 of 26 found the following review helpful:


A Whip for All Seasons  Dec 20, 2003 By Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™"
In a sense this game is old hat. The beautiful fiancée of Leon Belmont, a knight crusader, is captured by Walter Bernhard, a master vampire. Leon deserts the crusades and flies off to the castle of the aforementioned vampire. There, after being handed a mystical whip, he penetrates layer after layer of horrible badness until he faces, and hopefully destroys, his true enemy. Which is about all the plot a good third person hack-and-slash really needs.

However, to create such a game with sufficient workmanship to make it compelling visually and challenging mentally and physically is no small feat. And that is what sets Lament of Innocence apart from many of its competitors. For one thing, developers are always tempted to substitute extreme difficulty for interesting challenges. Lament, on the other hand, is just doable enough to keep the player from throwing the controller at the monitor in disgust. And its puzzles can be resolved by keeping in mind that anything can be a tool.

Castlevania isn't perfect. I found that motion control and camera angle are both a little too loose. To some degree this is intentional, but I prefer controls that send objects where they are suppose to go. Especially when you are leaping from stone to stone in a frantic effort to scale a wall and there is one, and only one, spot from which to leap.

One of the problems in rating a game like Lament of Innocence is that it is very good, but falls slightly short of some other, very similar games. In this case I'm thinking of Devil May Cry. This is a case where 5 stars are too many, but 4 are too few. I would recommend both as great examples of their genre that can be played repeatedly.

14 of 16 found the following review helpful:


Finally, a worthy 3D heir to the Castlevania series  Nov 11, 2003 By Ted Del Prato "technodemon"
Konami's previous attempts to create a fully 3D incarnation of Castlevania until now have failed. The sluggish Castlevania 64 was too ambitious of a project for the Nintendo 64 hardware, and the Dreamcast version was scrapped shortly before it's release for reasons unknown. I can happily report however, that the PS2's Lament Of Innocence successfully ports the series into 3D without losing the elements that make it a great Castlevania game. Everything a Castlevania fan could want is here...fast-paced whip action, plenty of enemies, haunting musical score, beautiful backdrops, a dramatic story, and good voice acting as well. There are a couple of shortcomings though. While the graphics are beautifully detailed, many of the rooms in the game look identical and are too large and barren to be a part of an actual castle. Also, I found that having to pull up a menu to use items/switch equipment can be very tedious during encounters with enemies. Just for the sake of keeping the frustration factor low, I would have liked to have been able to just pause the game to sift through potions, serums, ect. Still, Lament Of Innocence does enough things right to make it worthy of bearing the Castlevania name. It's an excellent 3D platformer no PS2 owner should miss.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:


I picked up castlevania today and it is awesome!!!  Oct 23, 2003 By Rico Wainoris
There has been alot said about Castlevania Lament of Innocence and they vary greatly. I played this game for the first time and as picky a gamer as I am let me assure you that it will be worth every penny. If you are an action gamer and like games that combine action with depth you will love this game. If you like lord of the rings or Devil may cry or Baldur's Gate or Zelda or Rygar you will love this because it takes the best from all of them. If you are a castlevania fan then you will not be disapointed either because while the game can be compared to those other games it is like them in a castlevania style way. Whether you prefer 2D games or 3D games you will love this game. Some sites gave only modest reviews to this game such as Gamespot (7.7)while others gave it good reviews like IGN (9.0). I agree with IGN much more. Gamespot complains that the game is a bit too simple. This game is not simple what so ever. There are all kinds of combo's that you can perform and the fighting and gameplay are unrivaled by anything on the ps2. There are so many different ways to defeat and fight the monsters that it blows my mind. It takes about 45 minutes before you start to realize how much you can do but if you experiment and are creative you can come up with countless ways to take out the enemy. Right out of the gate you get a block that can increase your magic points, several whip combinations, a strong and weak attack (that can be timed to do different things and combined to do different things), a double jump, a dodge, a fire fist, and a jumping lunge fist. That alone makes the way to defeat your enemies fun and varied. You also have 5 other weapons you can pick up right off too that require hearts to use. As the game progresses you learn numberous other attacks and combo's and you eventually learn magics and get relics and rubies and you can mix and match those to create so many different techniques and moves it is amazing and it blows my mind that anyone could use simple and castlevania in the same sentence. So I think Gamespot reviewers need to spend more time with a game because they obviously didn't. I would have to say this game has more different ways to attack than any other ps2 game I have played when you factor everything in I just talked about. The other great thing about this game is the difficulty. It is balanced better than any game I have played. It is not so hard that you get frustrated but just hard enough to provide you with a challenge and give you a fair amount of setbacks. The graphics are in the upper class of ps2 games and the music is superior and beautiful. There is a lot of different enemies for a 3d game and all of the enemies have different patterns and special attacks. There are also some that critisize the camera or the platform jumping. I see no problem whatsoever after about 45 minutes of getting used to it. Once you get used to this game you see that it takes the best of Castlevania and combines it with the best of 3d and 2d and action and rpg to combine for the ultimate experience. Some say that it is not as much a rpg as symphony of the night. WHile it is true you cant level up I think that is a good thing because it made symphony too easy. You learn and get stronger like in Devil may Cry or lord of the rings but there is much more to learn and get stronger from and there is many more combinations in this game. There is a shop to buy things from too. The whole castle is a maze and the different rooms have a great change of atmosphere and secret platforms high up so you need to actually investigate to find them. The game is so fun it is unbelievable and if you own a ps2 this is a must have experience for you. You will be hooked after an hour with this game if not sooner. The only complaint I do have about the game is that it is short. While I have not played the whole game I have heard from review sites that it could end as quick as 10 hours into it. Usually I am the kind of guy that is done with a game once I beat it. This game is so fun though that I will play threw again with their extra difficult mode you get when you beat the game. You also get a new character with new moves...so when you factor that in you are looking at around 30 hours. WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS???? YOU COULD BE PLAYING RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:


What game are these people playing?  Nov 03, 2003 By Aaron J. Thomas "AJT"
I do realize that most reviews up here are positive and as such, at the time of this review the game has a four star average. This is not high enough as this game deserves, however, and as I read some of these negative reviews I have to wonder if some of these people actually played the same game I played. Yes, the camera is not exactly perfect, but I haven't suffered any problems with it. In fact, the only part of the game that I would say I have an issue with is the real-time menu, and even that is not so bothersome for me to lower my ranking for the game.

As for the Symphony of the Night comparisons, I for one think it holds up admirably for being in the 3D realm. Leveling up is done now through combos rather than just beefing up attributes like every other RPG, and while the items and weapons inventories are cut down from SOTN, they still provide a wonderful selection. But on another note, people should realize that this game is NOT SOTN, nor should it be. If people want to keep playing SOTN, then actually play SOTN and stop expecting Konami to continually clone one game for the rest of eternity.

All in all, I am thoroughly enjoying this game and I think people that are not obsessive fans of SOTN will enjoy it also. (For the record, SOTN is my favorite PSX game so I am not bashing it, just those who seem to think all gamedom should be based upon it.) A rental is always probably a good idea but if you like Castlevania then I recommend a buy for this one.

Always judge something based upon its own merits.

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