Great review, these were also my exact feelings on the game. Love how you were so passionate about how the secrets were hidden in the game, I was namely exactly this ecstatic about discovering many of them. Also you have a great voice.
Thanks mate! I like this game a bit more each time I play it, I'm glad my passion for it came across. Also thanks for the compliment, there's about 100 more examples on the channel, feel free :-)
I remember almost pulling my hair out finding the relics in this game i whipped everything, jumped to every suspicious ledges so yeah those extras are insanely well hidden and the music in this game is a treat as well.
The PS2 castlevania's look super cool ! I remember the damage numbers seeming really cool in an action game when I first found out about it as a kid. I only ever messed with the n64 one growing up and it really scared me off the series. Keep up the great videos !
Thanks for commenting mate. They are really cool games. I'm partway through the next game, so you can expect a video on that soon enough. All told, they're above-average action games which is s shame because the PS2 has some of the all-time best action games so it was easy for these to fade into relative obscurity. And yeah, the N64 games did quite a lot to damage the franchise. A lot of folks still like the N64 games and that's great, but if you had to list the franchise in order of best to worst, I feel like the N64 games would be in the bottom half. Thanks for commenting, glad you enjoyed it. Keep liking the stuff! 😁
@@JamesRegan-tz3gs damn I couldn't disagree anymore. Simon's quest is my favorite, and I loved the 64 one. Well only played the first one. Other than the camera being annoying they were pretty great.
Finally, a review of this game that doesn't crap all over it and compare it to the rest of the franchise. Thank you!! I LOVE this game and play it annualy
PS2 Castlevania are way underrated. Plus both give a different vibe. Lament is closer to the pre-SotN Era while Curse edges way more on the Metroidvania side of things with familiar, crafting, loot. The unlockable characters give a good reason to replay the game in a fun way. And those secret bosses! Forgotten One is probably one of the hardest PS2 3D Action boss indeed and Curse brings back a famous 2D secret boss (that also starred as a non-secret boss in the GBA game with Julius I believe). I think the fact I was a bit young for DMC (which I ended up getting the full trilogy of after DMC3 released) is probably why I ended up with the Castlevania+Prince of Persia combo instead of the PoP+DMC combo like most. I'm glad it's getting a bit more reputation honestly. While Lords of Shadow was fairly cool, LoS2 was a slog and Lament and Curse both outrank them IMO. At least as far Castlevania and 3D Character Action goes, LoS1 is a very good beat-em-all that easily equals and maybe even outranks GoW in terms of pure gameplay).
The DmC / GoW comparisons are so strong with the two main Lords of Shadow games. I really rank them both, it will be fun to talk about that series one day. I just love Castlevania, what can I say?!
@@MattyStoked Well, let's see... I liked the comparison with the times of the release in mind. Castlevania 64 was a serious attempt at something that the hardware just wasn't evolved enough for. Devil May Cry was definitely an influencing factor, and, well, I just enjoyed the thorough nature of the retrospective without leaning too heavily on how this game compares to modern titles. This was the era when 3D gaming was hitting its stride, and new experiences over the next 5 years would go on to be revered as masterpieces in the interactive medium. This video was fair in analysis with a conscious effort to remain objective, and I guess that's what I liked best. Konami was going through some weird times with Castlevania, and I wanted to know if this was a game that I wanted to add to my growing collection of PS2 games. Thank you for this, and I hope my reactionary comment here was helpful in some way to your process. This series is brilliant, and I really look forward to seeing more of these.
Wow, that's a very kind and informative comment. Thank you! My biggest focus when I do these videos is to give a contextual review. I think context is very important when talking about older things. I want to ask "is this still worth playing today, with the wealth of alternatives available?" But also I want to explore the historical context, the conditions under which the game came to be made. In real life I'm a really positive person so I want that to come over in the videos too. It's too easy to pour scorn onto things or to trash them for being old, looking bad, having bad controls etc. I think context helps you see the game in a better light. I like our corner of the internet to be a positive space, talking about things we like. Thanks for the brilliant comment, it definitely inspires me to make more!
This video, the soundtrack, and the fact of this being a prequel inspired me to ask for this as a Christmas present this year. Pretty cool so far. Great review man!
Gonna go replay this on an emulator again, but you are on the mark on the slow start of the early game, lost interest as a teenager and didn't realize how amazing it was til I came back later.
First time I played this, I got bored and stopped. When I went back to it to make this, I realised just how much I had missed and how good this game really is!
I've been sitting here trying to figure out who Leon sounds like. It's Kakashi's English voice actor. Can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. Good old Kakashi Hatake.
This game came out a year before I was born, however my brother gave me a PS2 and Lament of Innocence for my 9th birthday. I still play this game once in a while to this day (I’m 19 now), I’m glad I grew up on such a great series! This was my first and by far favorite Castlevania of all time! Great video by the way ❤
I remember buying this game. I really liked it, but I thought it was too short. I think I beat it the same weekend I got it. It was fun to replay though. I wish they'd do a Castlevania package on steam for this era like they did from the NES/SNES era
The story certainly doesn't take long. It definitely takes some time if you want to find everything, and the "true" way to play is to play through three times with all the unlockable characters!
I watched the Castlevania episode of Captain N as research. The whole way through I couldn't get a grip on what was going on. Alucard is a skate rat? WTF mate
Your review was done so well and I agree with almost every point you had. I would say though this game is too easy in my opinion but crazy mode is hard as hell to the point where it isnt fun so maybe it's well balanced idk
Thanks very much for commenting :-) I think the game was overall quite nicely balanced. A couple of the bosses are much harder than they need to be without the good gear, but once you've got decent armour, a few good combos and one of the elemental whips everything does become a lot easier.
I still think it has more challenge than SotN. I love it but it’s just two easy especially once you obtain the leap stone. LoI gets easier because of the skill progression and by the end you are used to the combo’s and mechanics like dodging and perfect guard. The end game boss and the secret boss are no joke though.
Richter has been my favourite Belmont since the 90s. I think canonically he might actually be the strongest Belmont. Not that I'd care, I just think he's rad!
@@MattyStoked I agree, I LOVED how they handled the Item Crash references like the flame/elemental whip, thousand edge dagger, and possibly Grand Cross. The next and possibly major game changer could be how they handle Hydro Storm!
Ya know, I just recently started playing this one out of curiosity, and it's really fun. I like how it translates a lot of the Igevania stuff into the third dimension, but doesn't get weighed down with XP bars, leveling, excessive stats, tons of weapons that, for the most part, just do the same thing but stronger and with more reach - it's you, your whip, and your skills against the castle. Though what the game could have used, I think, was some kind of maybe half-hour, completely linear prologue instead of that wall of text that has you interact with representatives of the church and [spoiler] who tells you your loved one's been kidnapped, and maybe get to slay some monsters with some piece of iron found on the way before you get the whip. It was kinda weird how a knight (even a former one) wouldn't have a spare sword lying around.
Lament of Innocence is such an underrated game! I want a remastered Version with modernized Graphics and... a Modding Kit, so the Players can create their own Stories and Adventures within the Castlevania Universe. Konami screwed up, we all know that, which means it's up to the DIEHARD Fans to fix this :)
@@MattyStoked I know man, but try to see it from another point of view. Imagine there is a modding kit and YOU are an experienced Modder AND a Castlevania DIEH ARD FAN! We all know that there are many questions unsanwered. Now it's your turn... ;)
Just finished Lament of Innocence today. Was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, given most reviews I saw called it repetitive and mediocre. My thoughts are absolutely with you and this review, however. Not a magnificent 10/10 game, but as you said, definitely a 'diamond in the rough' - certainly not the mediocrity other reviews had conditioned me to think I was going to experience. Really glad I played it.
Repetitive and mediocre are two words I would *not* choose to describe this game! Rough around the edges maybe, but this game is still great fun. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for taking the time to comment 🙂
@@MattyStoked Indeed, your review was much more positive than the others I saw, and I'm inclined to agree - this game is neither mediocre nor repetitive and was much better than its reputation, which is a damned shame. Very solid and fun experience.
Please do, it's really worth your time. Maybe take a look at a guide or a walkthrough to help. There's nothing wrong with that, I use them all the time :)
Replaying this now having fun. You're right is kinda dry at first just going square square triangle all day but it improves. And it looks pretty damn good for ps2.
Learning about the timeline when this Covid scare is subsided I’ll pick this up to start my chronological play through. For now since Castlevainia 4 storywise is 1 I’m giving the classic NES game a go. I just want to play through it so I’m not shy with the save states especially since you can fall through stares which breaks my brain.
That's a good idea! The NES trilogy are good, but very hard. No different to other games from the era, but they can be frustrating. Don't be shy with savestates - they're imperative to get through a lot of these older games!
My favorite game lmao, I go back and play it every few years, just vibing to the soundtrack and killing monsters, it never gets old. Wish my disk wasn't scratched so I could still play on OG hardware.
Overall good style. Im old school Castlevania fan (and Sotn) and just buying Cod and Loi cause they are about only vanias that i havent still played yet :)
Since I started watching the show again I've been having this huge urge to play the PS2-era Castlevania games I never tried before. This one looks so freaking good, gonna hunt a copy today.
Played this game years ago when it came out, and loved it. Recently getting a Castlevania itch, what with the 2 collections I now have on my switch- I decided to rebuy Lament for my ps2, it'll be here Wednesday. YOOHOO
@@MattyStoked I played it when it first came out, but it's been a long time. I did get it and am really glad I did. It's excellent! Cleared 3 areas already.
I actually really love Lament of Innocence. It's actually one of my favorite Castlevania games. A little something I really appreciate about it is the Orb and Relic rings. The fact that you can see that you're missing a few of these really incentivizes you to go on the hunt for them. Just a nice touch in my opinion.
I wonder why this game didn't include the subtitle 'Lament of Innocence' in the PAL regions? Here in Australia it's just called Castlevania. I can't find an answer for this anywhere.
It was only called "Lament of Innocence" in the US. It wasn't even called that in Japan! I get why they wanted to call it Castlevania, but yeah the "Lament of Innocence" title is pretty weird to just tag on there.
@@MattyStoked Yeah, I guess that makes sense. A strange title as I don’t know what it means for the game’s story. Must be a thing the localisation team wanted to put in for the NTSC regions.
I played this game a year ago for the first time, fully blind with no walkthroughs or videos so I had no idea what to expect. When I fought that first boss I remember completely freaking out the first time I entered that room, Undead Parasite is the boss room of nightmares.😨 I don’t think even Dark Souls bosses have freaked me out that bad.
There was definitely marketing in the US for this hell in Miami where I lived it got coverage on the local news on a morning show of all things. There was even a promo trailer for it in a PSM demo disk. I love this game its still fun to play today.
Petition for a Spirit of 2003 series, KOTOR, Beyond Good and Evil, Jedi Academy plus all my childhood sleepover games (Tony Hawk/Need For Speed Underground, Simpson's Hit and Run). What a great year
By complete coincidence I started writing a script today for a game which was also released in 2003. The games you mentioned are all in the script! One of my favourite sleepers that year was Primal. It really was a cracking year for games.
I love this game. Oddly enough 2 of my favorite games in the series are Castlevania 64 and Lament of Innocence lol. I even have Leon’s portrait featured on my forearm in my Castlevania themed sleeve!!
I enjoyed your overview of the game. I wish Konami would rerelease Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness for modern systems. I would love to play them. Very unlikely, I know.
This video was 100% captured in PCSX2 with 2 or 4x upscaling. All standard settings, this game emulators beautifully with no need for additional tweaks or hacks.
@@MattyStoked Got it working with some pretty extreme upscaling. I had some problems initially but it turned out to be due to the DVD drive. The game would lag at the same time the drive slowed down, then the drive would start up again. I ripped it into an ISO and tried that and now it works beautifully. I'm a little shocked at how crappy the non-upscaled original graphics actually were. I didn't remember it looking like that!
I am about halfway through Castlevania 64. They will be covered on the channel. They're both very peculiar games, I think the N64 and PS1 hosted a lot of franchises that leapt into 3D before they looked.
rly well made vid, I hope to play this some day! I'm in love with the OST and the characters are beautifully designed :D what's the song in the intro btw?
Thank you so much. It's really worth playing. I have a more recent video about this and its companion, Curse of Darkness up on the channel. The video is called "The Death of Castlevania". Please go check that out! The song is called House of Sacred Remains, it's on the Lament of Innocence OST. Hope that helps :D
@MattyStoked I defo will, Curse of Darkness was the first game which rly piqued my interest after being introduced to the franchise :D again, I've not played it but wish I could ty! I'm sure House of Sacred Remains shares a sample with Pulsating Ambience from Silent Hill 4, very neat :) I don't think I listened to it the whole way through before but now I've got it on loop :P
@@MattyStoked Now that mobile ps2 emulation has actually made some progress this and Curse of Darkness are the only ps2 games I've been able to get running even close to playable on a phone. Lament is just playable with kind of slow performance but Curse can handle 50-60 fps most of the time at double native resolution with no performance drop. To say this game emulates well is an understatement now I'd say
This game is really good . The story , the music and power ups are fantastic . Graphics and atmosphere are really good too . Also , I think you just showed footage of a spot that I got stuck on , collapsing bridge or bridge that fell into a normal room. I could not figure out how to get to the other side 😢
Yeah. I think about this game weekly. It really flew under the radar and it shouldn't have. The collapsing bridge will _always_ fall faster than Leon can run. In order to make it across you need the Wolf's Foot speedy boots relic. To find the Wolf's Foot you need to use the Red Phoenix Key on the Phoenix door in the Lab. The red key is found in the Garden. SO MUCH BACKTRACKING!
I’ve never actually heard of this Castlevania game before. Granted I’m not super devoted to the series. 3D Castlevania games have a bad rep, but this one looks quite solid. Like the type of game you’d pop in on a boring afternoon on whim, and end up with a pleasant surprise.
Not many people have heard of the PS2 Castlevania games. They were released with a whisper around the time of some mega releases. You're absolutely right with your comment. Guess nobody needs to watch my video, just read Diego's comment 😂
You right I’m not going lie this is a solid game and the best 3D castlevaina to date the soundtracks and the gameplay was flawless this and lord of shadows number 2 won’t that good
the castlevania ps2 games areee pretty good. I like how the PS2 has a lot of character-action-games. If you wanna play a 3D game where you can combo shit and be all like heh the PS2 is the best console for that.
You're absolutely right. I feel like the PS2 was the last bastion of very good games in a wide variety of styles. It absolutely smashed it with 3D action platformers, which is maybe why this one flew under the radar a bit.
As much as I love the Dreamcast, saturn, ps1, etc.. the ps2 has a pretty unfuckwithable library. Very little money can get you a pretty badass ps2 collection.
i really love this game!!! i love to equip holy water sub weapon, combine it with red orb to create roaring flames or purple orb to create cross blazer
@@MattyStoked i always start with anti soul lab to grab whip of flame and red orb then combine it with holy water, for early game i think its the best one...for late game i use cross sub weapon + white orb mainly, to create agnea, cz we might face tough aerial opponent
Best Castlevania ever. Bought Curse of Darkness thinking it would be LoI part 2, it was a really big let down. Why? The Game Show should explain in debt as in this review why CoD sucked big elephant balls, and why anyone would strip our Belmont heroes of their whip.
Oh you'd better believe CoD is on the list. One of the reasons I've reviewed all of the Castlevania games in order is so I can give a full, contextual review of Curse of Darkness :)
This fella has three forms, each with thousands of HP. You can see in the video I'm doing an average of 2HP in damage per attack with the best weapons in the game. Can't move or dodge and he gets one shot kills too.
Yeah dude what he said...dark souls is fucking murder compared to this...only game that comes close but fails in terms of difficulty is ninja gaiden...that was tough but an excellent game...part 3 was utter bullshit though.
Do you mean the secret boss? Not much of a spoiler, but sorry all the same. I try to keep all story spoilers out of my videos, I didn't think this counted.
@@MattyStoked Type of game you either absolutely love and you do all of it and then keep playing, or you hate it. I know people who gave up after 5 hours then came back 2 years later and now its also their favorite game.
Curse of Darkness is a great game. I'm working toward covering it on the channel, as it's a fascinating game which essentially ended the console franchise.
Even though the grapple mechanic is jank and the backgrounds are bland and repetitive I still like this more than SOTN and AOS. There is just more substance challenge wise. I'm not saying those other two games are bad or shouldn't exist. I just like the combat more.
@@MattyStoked yes. Especially for new comers. They think Kyarusuvania is part akumajo dracula.Andv even kanji is different between akumajo and Kyarusuvania
I thought the voice acting was fine most early PS2 titles had bad voice acting. You should have mentioned the Japanese audio option as the cast was more experienced and did really well in conveying their respective characters intentions and emotions.
The voice acting is fine. I can't comment on the Japanese voice acting because I don't speak Japanese. I don't feel qualified to comment on how well someone from a different culture is acting tbh.
@@MattyStoked ID say give it a play through with the Japanese VA, there was more money put into that aspect for sure and the delivery is more believable even if you cant understand there are subtitles and tone and emotion can stilll be felt even if you are not understanding of the language.
N64 castlevania games sucked a lot of fun with the save feature. 30 minutes (+) where wasted if your character unfortunately died. The game was so time consuming making the whole grind in the game more of a tedious chore than a side activity from real whole responsibilities. I personally beat castlevania 64. Loved it for many reasons, hated few (really hated the few reasons)
My issue with this game is how half baked it feels. It wants to be God of War so bad and it fails because of that. The whip isn't satisfying to use because there's so little combo potential, it's mostly spamming, the platforming doesn't work- especially because of how ass the camera is- and the areas in the castle feel pretty uninspired. I haven't played Curse of Darkness so I hold out hope, but this just feels like ground work for Lords of Shadow
I think half-baked is harsh but fair. It clearly is a game which is trying its best to get the most out of what the dev team was given. It definitely falls down in a few places. But honestly, games which are a little rough, which reach for greatness but fall short; to me are far more exciting than games with mega-budgets which turn out so be super polished but boring.
The game is set in 1094, and it's said that Leon was a crusader before then. If we assume Castlevania-world's history loosely follows our own world's history, this would be set during The First Crusade. The First Crusade saw a large army of West European (white) Christians marching across Europe into Western Asia and Northern Africa. Fighting Turkish Muslims, European Jews and pretty much anyone who wasn't a White European Christian. The manual says Leon was fighting "heretics", and I think today this is generally accepted as a medieval blanket term for any party who doesn't qualify as white christian.
3:05 The Prologue is EPIC don't you dare trash talk it..... 3:20 The cheesy voice acting ties into the feel of it being a PLAY you dear sir hold no taste, *HAVE AT THEE!!!!!*
@@MattyStoked Yeah he’s good in both Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate. But to me he also did a great job as Mathias in Lament of Innocence and Hector in Curse of Darkness.
Yeah you're dead on. That's was what I was getting at in the review. It is a good game, it's fun to play. It's just a shame that the same year it came out it got battered by two specific games that beat it at its own game. Worth a play though!
Personally I found the combat boring and the repetitive environments super annoying like 70% of the hallways and rooms look copy pasted, the combat could have been so much better and more enemy variety too. Honestly the best part is the music and atmosphere and the fact that it was the first decent 3D Castlevania. Really appreciate your take on everything in the review tho 😄
Fair enough, we can't all agree on everything all the time! You can sort of tell that the investment wasn't there. Not exactly a rare story at Konami at this this point. But I really appreciate the passion and what the team accomplished with what they had.
Castlevania should have stayed 2D like Mega Man did! Yes there were also 3D Mega Man games but they were not as successful as the 2D games! Castlevania is not devil may cry or God of War
I'm not sure what you mean when you say Castlevania should have stated 2D like Mega Man did, and then admit that there are indeed 3D Mega Man games. Do you mean Castlevania should go back to making 2D games?
Thank you! I feel like so many people don't appreciate this gem, your review was spot on.
Thank *you*! I really liked the game. There's not too many reviews out there so I wanted people to find out what a gem this was. Really very good.
I love hearing this from both anime perspective and true fan perspective. I was stoked that they featured Leon in season two.
Me too! Such a cool detail, there was no need to have that callback. I was very pleased they expanded the lore though. Very cool.
@Charles Hastings Agreed!!! I loved hjs voice acting in the game so much. A prequel anime would be so lit.
This is my favorite Castlevania and Leon is my favorite belmont
Awesome! Thanks for commenting, I love this game too!
Same here, wish it'd get more attention
Mine too! Leon went HARD!
I too love Castlevania Lament of Innocence more than every Castlevania. 💖
Underrated Gem!!!
My boy richter schools leon
Great review, these were also my exact feelings on the game. Love how you were so passionate about how the secrets were hidden in the game, I was namely exactly this ecstatic about discovering many of them. Also you have a great voice.
Thanks mate! I like this game a bit more each time I play it, I'm glad my passion for it came across. Also thanks for the compliment, there's about 100 more examples on the channel, feel free :-)
I remember almost pulling my hair out finding the relics in this game i whipped everything, jumped to every suspicious ledges so yeah those extras are insanely well hidden and the music in this game is a treat as well.
Doing a 100% item run is _rough_! Some of the relics are awesome though, so the reward does feel worth it. What a game
The PS2 castlevania's look super cool ! I remember the damage numbers seeming really cool in an action game when I first found out about it as a kid. I only ever messed with the n64 one growing up and it really scared me off the series. Keep up the great videos !
Thanks for commenting mate. They are really cool games. I'm partway through the next game, so you can expect a video on that soon enough. All told, they're above-average action games which is s shame because the PS2 has some of the all-time best action games so it was easy for these to fade into relative obscurity. And yeah, the N64 games did quite a lot to damage the franchise. A lot of folks still like the N64 games and that's great, but if you had to list the franchise in order of best to worst, I feel like the N64 games would be in the bottom half. Thanks for commenting, glad you enjoyed it. Keep liking the stuff! 😁
They do look cool!
Praying for PS5 HD remakes of these 2 great PS2 games..
The N64 games are at the very bottom, well, right after Simon quest lol
@@JamesRegan-tz3gs damn I couldn't disagree anymore. Simon's quest is my favorite, and I loved the 64 one. Well only played the first one. Other than the camera being annoying they were pretty great.
Finally, a review of this game that doesn't crap all over it and compare it to the rest of the franchise. Thank you!! I LOVE this game and play it annualy
It's a banger game! Might even be one of my favourite games in the whole Castlevania franchisse. Cannot understand why people refuse to like it.
Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness are absolute masterpieces
Agreed! Fantastic games.
PS2 Castlevania are way underrated. Plus both give a different vibe. Lament is closer to the pre-SotN Era while Curse edges way more on the Metroidvania side of things with familiar, crafting, loot. The unlockable characters give a good reason to replay the game in a fun way. And those secret bosses! Forgotten One is probably one of the hardest PS2 3D Action boss indeed and Curse brings back a famous 2D secret boss (that also starred as a non-secret boss in the GBA game with Julius I believe).
I think the fact I was a bit young for DMC (which I ended up getting the full trilogy of after DMC3 released) is probably why I ended up with the Castlevania+Prince of Persia combo instead of the PoP+DMC combo like most. I'm glad it's getting a bit more reputation honestly. While Lords of Shadow was fairly cool, LoS2 was a slog and Lament and Curse both outrank them IMO. At least as far Castlevania and 3D Character Action goes, LoS1 is a very good beat-em-all that easily equals and maybe even outranks GoW in terms of pure gameplay).
The DmC / GoW comparisons are so strong with the two main Lords of Shadow games. I really rank them both, it will be fun to talk about that series one day. I just love Castlevania, what can I say?!
I love this approach to reviewing games. Well done!
Thanks mate! What exactly did you like? I'd really appreciate the feedback so I can make sure I do it again in future videos.
@@MattyStoked Well, let's see... I liked the comparison with the times of the release in mind. Castlevania 64 was a serious attempt at something that the hardware just wasn't evolved enough for. Devil May Cry was definitely an influencing factor, and, well, I just enjoyed the thorough nature of the retrospective without leaning too heavily on how this game compares to modern titles. This was the era when 3D gaming was hitting its stride, and new experiences over the next 5 years would go on to be revered as masterpieces in the interactive medium. This video was fair in analysis with a conscious effort to remain objective, and I guess that's what I liked best. Konami was going through some weird times with Castlevania, and I wanted to know if this was a game that I wanted to add to my growing collection of PS2 games. Thank you for this, and I hope my reactionary comment here was helpful in some way to your process. This series is brilliant, and I really look forward to seeing more of these.
Wow, that's a very kind and informative comment. Thank you! My biggest focus when I do these videos is to give a contextual review. I think context is very important when talking about older things. I want to ask "is this still worth playing today, with the wealth of alternatives available?" But also I want to explore the historical context, the conditions under which the game came to be made. In real life I'm a really positive person so I want that to come over in the videos too. It's too easy to pour scorn onto things or to trash them for being old, looking bad, having bad controls etc. I think context helps you see the game in a better light. I like our corner of the internet to be a positive space, talking about things we like. Thanks for the brilliant comment, it definitely inspires me to make more!
This video, the soundtrack, and the fact of this being a prequel inspired me to ask for this as a Christmas present this year. Pretty cool so far. Great review man!
That's amazing! Glad to have influenced that decision, and even more glad that it's paying off! Enjoy yourself mate and merry Christmas ⛄🎄
@@MattyStoked Merry Christmas to you as well
And, did you get it?
@@Mathiasvandenberge Sorry that I’m late to this comment. Yes I did, and I beat the crap out of it. It was awesome!
Gonna go replay this on an emulator again, but you are on the mark on the slow start of the early game, lost interest as a teenager and didn't realize how amazing it was til I came back later.
First time I played this, I got bored and stopped. When I went back to it to make this, I realised just how much I had missed and how good this game really is!
I've been sitting here trying to figure out who Leon sounds like. It's Kakashi's English voice actor. Can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. Good old Kakashi Hatake.
This game came out a year before I was born, however my brother gave me a PS2 and Lament of Innocence for my 9th birthday. I still play this game once in a while to this day (I’m 19 now), I’m glad I grew up on such a great series! This was my first and by far favorite Castlevania of all time!
Great video by the way ❤
I am so pleased to hear that someone younger than this game is still playing it and enjoying it. Long live Lament of Innocence!
I remember buying this game. I really liked it, but I thought it was too short. I think I beat it the same weekend I got it.
It was fun to replay though. I wish they'd do a Castlevania package on steam for this era like they did from the NES/SNES era
The story certainly doesn't take long. It definitely takes some time if you want to find everything, and the "true" way to play is to play through three times with all the unlockable characters!
Solid video! I'm really interested in hearing more about this series of games and it's mythology!
Especially on how Simon Belmont met Captain N.
I watched the Castlevania episode of Captain N as research. The whole way through I couldn't get a grip on what was going on. Alucard is a skate rat? WTF mate
Hahahaha none of the characters featured in that show bore any resemblance to their game counterparts.
Except for Game Boy 😂
Is Gary Oldman canon?
Your review was done so well and I agree with almost every point you had. I would say though this game is too easy in my opinion but crazy mode is hard as hell to the point where it isnt fun so maybe it's well balanced idk
Thanks very much for commenting :-) I think the game was overall quite nicely balanced. A couple of the bosses are much harder than they need to be without the good gear, but once you've got decent armour, a few good combos and one of the elemental whips everything does become a lot easier.
I still think it has more challenge than SotN. I love it but it’s just two easy especially once you obtain the leap stone. LoI gets easier because of the skill progression and by the end you are used to the combo’s and mechanics like dodging and perfect guard. The end game boss and the secret boss are no joke though.
@@renereyes2648 agreed! SotN is ridiculously easy, but very enjoyable! I hope they remake both games in newer engines.
I loved this game, use to play it constantly growing up. Feeling nostalgic seeing this.
7:03 dude, have you seen Nocturne and the crazy $H!T Richter can do with the whip in tandem with magic!?
Richter has been my favourite Belmont since the 90s. I think canonically he might actually be the strongest Belmont. Not that I'd care, I just think he's rad!
@@MattyStoked I agree, I LOVED how they handled the Item Crash references like the flame/elemental whip, thousand edge dagger, and possibly Grand Cross. The next and possibly major game changer could be how they handle Hydro Storm!
Ya know, I just recently started playing this one out of curiosity, and it's really fun. I like how it translates a lot of the Igevania stuff into the third dimension, but doesn't get weighed down with XP bars, leveling, excessive stats, tons of weapons that, for the most part, just do the same thing but stronger and with more reach - it's you, your whip, and your skills against the castle.
Though what the game could have used, I think, was some kind of maybe half-hour, completely linear prologue instead of that wall of text that has you interact with representatives of the church and [spoiler] who tells you your loved one's been kidnapped, and maybe get to slay some monsters with some piece of iron found on the way before you get the whip. It was kinda weird how a knight (even a former one) wouldn't have a spare sword lying around.
I"m actually sure that the perfect Castlevania game lies partway between this and Castlevania 64. Hire me Konami, I'm the perfect Ideas Guy!
Lament of Innocence is such an underrated game! I want a remastered Version with modernized Graphics and... a Modding Kit, so the Players can create their own Stories and Adventures within the Castlevania Universe. Konami screwed up, we all know that, which means it's up to the DIEHARD Fans to fix this :)
I'd love to play this again with slightly tuned up controls. Nothing else is needed really, they game's really good.
@@MattyStoked I know man, but try to see it from another point of view. Imagine there is a modding kit and YOU are an experienced Modder AND a Castlevania DIEH ARD FAN! We all know that there are many questions unsanwered. Now it's your turn... ;)
Awesome review. Congrats my friend. 👏
Thank you so much, glad you liked it buddy :-)
Just finished Lament of Innocence today. Was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, given most reviews I saw called it repetitive and mediocre. My thoughts are absolutely with you and this review, however. Not a magnificent 10/10 game, but as you said, definitely a 'diamond in the rough' - certainly not the mediocrity other reviews had conditioned me to think I was going to experience. Really glad I played it.
Repetitive and mediocre are two words I would *not* choose to describe this game! Rough around the edges maybe, but this game is still great fun. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for taking the time to comment 🙂
@@MattyStoked Indeed, your review was much more positive than the others I saw, and I'm inclined to agree - this game is neither mediocre nor repetitive and was much better than its reputation, which is a damned shame. Very solid and fun experience.
Both PS2 and N64 Castlevanias are underrated imo.
Your review made me wanna try again after putting this game down due to the fact that I couldn't figure out what to do
Please do, it's really worth your time. Maybe take a look at a guide or a walkthrough to help. There's nothing wrong with that, I use them all the time :)
Replaying this now having fun. You're right is kinda dry at first just going square square triangle all day but it improves. And it looks pretty damn good for ps2.
I'm glad. It's a verryyy slow start but once it's up to speed it's a great game.
Learning about the timeline when this Covid scare is subsided I’ll pick this up to start my chronological play through. For now since Castlevainia 4 storywise is 1 I’m giving the classic NES game a go.
I just want to play through it so I’m not shy with the save states especially since you can fall through stares which breaks my brain.
That's a good idea! The NES trilogy are good, but very hard. No different to other games from the era, but they can be frustrating. Don't be shy with savestates - they're imperative to get through a lot of these older games!
The Game Show That’s how I got through Metroid played that on a Famicom Mini. Got the Castlevainia Collection on my PS4.
My favorite game lmao, I go back and play it every few years, just vibing to the soundtrack and killing monsters, it never gets old. Wish my disk wasn't scratched so I could still play on OG hardware.
You could put a HDD in your PS2 and play it from that. You need the modem adapter, but it's a great way to play rips on original hardware.
Really nice review and reviewer thanks :)
Overall good style. Im old school Castlevania fan (and Sotn) and just buying Cod and Loi cause they are about only vanias that i havent still played yet :)
Thanks so much, I'm glad you liked it! These are definitely worthy entries into the Castlevania series, they're just not mentioned that often!
North American version of the game have English and Japanese voices. That also goes for Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.
Since I started watching the show again I've been having this huge urge to play the PS2-era Castlevania games I never tried before. This one looks so freaking good, gonna hunt a copy today.
I'm covering both PS2 games in one video this year. Looking forward to covering them!
Played this game years ago when it came out, and loved it. Recently getting a Castlevania itch, what with the 2 collections I now have on my switch- I decided to rebuy Lament for my ps2, it'll be here Wednesday. YOOHOO
Did you play it yet?
@@MattyStoked I played it when it first came out, but it's been a long time. I did get it and am really glad I did. It's excellent! Cleared 3 areas already.
@@jbd332 great to hear. It's a fantastic game :)
I would love a remaster of this to modern platforms
Oh hell yes
Lament is hands down, the best 3d Castlevania
STRONG opinion but not one I'm going to argue with :-D
I actually really love Lament of Innocence. It's actually one of my favorite Castlevania games. A little something I really appreciate about it is the Orb and Relic rings. The fact that you can see that you're missing a few of these really incentivizes you to go on the hunt for them. Just a nice touch in my opinion.
I think it might be my all time favourite, TBH
I wonder why this game didn't include the subtitle 'Lament of Innocence' in the PAL regions? Here in Australia it's just called Castlevania. I can't find an answer for this anywhere.
It was only called "Lament of Innocence" in the US. It wasn't even called that in Japan! I get why they wanted to call it Castlevania, but yeah the "Lament of Innocence" title is pretty weird to just tag on there.
@@MattyStoked Yeah, I guess that makes sense. A strange title as I don’t know what it means for the game’s story. Must be a thing the localisation team wanted to put in for the NTSC regions.
I played this game a year ago for the first time, fully blind with no walkthroughs or videos so I had no idea what to expect. When I fought that first boss I remember completely freaking out the first time I entered that room, Undead Parasite is the boss room of nightmares.😨 I don’t think even Dark Souls bosses have freaked me out that bad.
Oh yeah that big meatball is pure nightmare fuel. What a great game!
There was definitely marketing in the US for this hell in Miami where I lived it got coverage on the local news on a morning show of all things. There was even a promo trailer for it in a PSM demo disk. I love this game its still fun to play today.
Ooh, that's awesome. I didn't see any here in the UK. I'd love to have seen coverage for this on TV!
Petition for a Spirit of 2003 series, KOTOR, Beyond Good and Evil, Jedi Academy plus all my childhood sleepover games (Tony Hawk/Need For Speed Underground, Simpson's Hit and Run). What a great year
By complete coincidence I started writing a script today for a game which was also released in 2003. The games you mentioned are all in the script! One of my favourite sleepers that year was Primal. It really was a cracking year for games.
I love this game. Oddly enough 2 of my favorite games in the series are Castlevania 64 and Lament of Innocence lol. I even have Leon’s portrait featured on my forearm in my Castlevania themed sleeve!!
You sound extremely cool. Glad you enjoyed the video :-)
I enjoyed your overview of the game. I wish Konami would rerelease Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness for modern systems. I would love to play them. Very unlikely, I know.
They were both apparently on the US version of the PS Store, so I think you could get them for PS3 / PSP for a while. That was it :(
Game is worth playing for the soundtrack alone.
Absolutely! Got some cracking tracks in this one.
I really need to get around to completing this some day. I wonder if I can upscale it on a PS2 emulator?
This video was 100% captured in PCSX2 with 2 or 4x upscaling. All standard settings, this game emulators beautifully with no need for additional tweaks or hacks.
@@MattyStoked Got it working with some pretty extreme upscaling. I had some problems initially but it turned out to be due to the DVD drive. The game would lag at the same time the drive slowed down, then the drive would start up again.
I ripped it into an ISO and tried that and now it works beautifully.
I'm a little shocked at how crappy the non-upscaled original graphics actually were. I didn't remember it looking like that!
Subscribed. Great video. Thanks
Aww, thank you so much. Glad you liked it! 🦇
Solid review. You should try to also review Castlevania 64 and or Legacy of Darkness. Very underrated and under appreciated gAmes
I am about halfway through Castlevania 64. They will be covered on the channel. They're both very peculiar games, I think the N64 and PS1 hosted a lot of franchises that leapt into 3D before they looked.
The Game Show so looking foreard
rly well made vid, I hope to play this some day! I'm in love with the OST and the characters are beautifully designed :D what's the song in the intro btw?
Thank you so much. It's really worth playing. I have a more recent video about this and its companion, Curse of Darkness up on the channel. The video is called "The Death of Castlevania". Please go check that out! The song is called House of Sacred Remains, it's on the Lament of Innocence OST. Hope that helps :D
@MattyStoked I defo will, Curse of Darkness was the first game which rly piqued my interest after being introduced to the franchise :D again, I've not played it but wish I could
ty! I'm sure House of Sacred Remains shares a sample with Pulsating Ambience from Silent Hill 4, very neat :) I don't think I listened to it the whole way through before but now I've got it on loop :P
I take it this is emulated? It looks how my child brain remembers it, which is better than reality!
You got it. This is in PCSX2 with optimal settings, running in 1080p. It emulates well except for two breaking bugs and a couple of bits of slowdown.
@@MattyStoked Now that mobile ps2 emulation has actually made some progress this and Curse of Darkness are the only ps2 games I've been able to get running even close to playable on a phone. Lament is just playable with kind of slow performance but Curse can handle 50-60 fps most of the time at double native resolution with no performance drop. To say this game emulates well is an understatement now I'd say
Konami needs to remaster this and Curse of Darkness.
Agreed! This game deserves to be played by more people :)
Would also enjoy the Curse of Darkness review. Very solid game as well
Coming up, I'm playing Curse right now. Surprised how different it is. Will definitely be making a video when I'm done.
what was the secret ending btw? how does it differ from the standard one?
This game is really good . The story , the music and power ups are fantastic . Graphics and atmosphere are really good too . Also , I think you just showed footage of a spot that I got stuck on , collapsing bridge or bridge that fell into a normal room. I could not figure out how to get to the other side 😢
Yeah. I think about this game weekly. It really flew under the radar and it shouldn't have. The collapsing bridge will _always_ fall faster than Leon can run. In order to make it across you need the Wolf's Foot speedy boots relic.
To find the Wolf's Foot you need to use the Red Phoenix Key on the Phoenix door in the Lab. The red key is found in the Garden. SO MUCH BACKTRACKING!
Found this at a Goodwill for a buck 29. Haven't played it yet though.
That's a bargain! I paid £15 for my copy and that's what, $25US?
I’ve never actually heard of this Castlevania game before. Granted I’m not super devoted to the series. 3D Castlevania games have a bad rep, but this one looks quite solid. Like the type of game you’d pop in on a boring afternoon on whim, and end up with a pleasant surprise.
Not many people have heard of the PS2 Castlevania games. They were released with a whisper around the time of some mega releases. You're absolutely right with your comment. Guess nobody needs to watch my video, just read Diego's comment 😂
lords of shadow 1 is the highest ranking one
Lords of Shadow 2 is one of my favourite 360 games but we'll get to that!
You right I’m not going lie this is a solid game and the best 3D castlevaina to date the soundtracks and the gameplay was flawless this and lord of shadows number 2 won’t that good
In hindsight, I really wish I picked up this instead of the stinker that was DMC2.
It's not too late! If you're in the USA, you can pick up Lament of Innocence on PSN.
This was a great game at the time - would love to see a true remake in UE or something
the castlevania ps2 games areee pretty good. I like how the PS2 has a lot of character-action-games. If you wanna play a 3D game where you can combo shit and be all like heh the PS2 is the best console for that.
You're absolutely right. I feel like the PS2 was the last bastion of very good games in a wide variety of styles. It absolutely smashed it with 3D action platformers, which is maybe why this one flew under the radar a bit.
As much as I love the Dreamcast, saturn, ps1, etc.. the ps2 has a pretty unfuckwithable library. Very little money can get you a pretty badass ps2 collection.
Easily the most underrated Castlevania!
Agreed!
i really love this game!!! i love to equip holy water sub weapon, combine it with red orb to create roaring flames or purple orb to create cross blazer
Hell yeah! The subweapon / orb combinations are absolutely crazy. I lost so much time getting everything and them experimenting with each combo.
@@MattyStoked i always start with anti soul lab to grab whip of flame and red orb then combine it with holy water, for early game i think its the best one...for late game i use cross sub weapon + white orb mainly, to create agnea, cz we might face tough aerial opponent
You got my like! Can't watch the rest because you say the game's good ❤
Haha, like gratefully accepted 😆
How about curse of darkness?
Great game. Longer video on that in the pipeline. One day!
Best Castlevania ever. Bought Curse of Darkness thinking it would be LoI part 2, it was a really big let down. Why? The Game Show should explain in debt as in this review why CoD sucked big elephant balls, and why anyone would strip our Belmont heroes of their whip.
Oh you'd better believe CoD is on the list. One of the reasons I've reviewed all of the Castlevania games in order is so I can give a full, contextual review of Curse of Darkness :)
I also thought Cod is Lament sequel. But its not . Belmont had pokemon? argh
If you found that last boss hard, don't try demon or dark souls!
This fella has three forms, each with thousands of HP. You can see in the video I'm doing an average of 2HP in damage per attack with the best weapons in the game. Can't move or dodge and he gets one shot kills too.
Yeah dude what he said...dark souls is fucking murder compared to this...only game that comes close but fails in terms of difficulty is ninja gaiden...that was tough but an excellent game...part 3 was utter bullshit though.
@@MattyStoked That sounds harder than Soulsborne, imo.
honestly i'd still love castlevania lament of innocence even if the double jump was an unlock
I put over 150hours in this game.only thing I hated was all the back tracking and opening doors that 4 sec delay passed me off as a kid
I love this game. I've 100%ed it. Found every item, fully explored the map. I just can't defeat The Nameless One, they're too hard!
Can this be bought digitally? My fav castlevania :)
Apparently it's on PSN if you live in North America..
@@MattyStoked shit man....i live in australia :(
nice review, could've lived without the spoiler at the end though
Do you mean the secret boss? Not much of a spoiler, but sorry all the same. I try to keep all story spoilers out of my videos, I didn't think this counted.
@@MattyStoked yes, the forgotten one. I didn't want to know what it looks like. But no worries. Keep up the good work 👍
Solid review! Now go beat it on crazy mode.
lmao no way! Joachim mode, definitely!
Criminally underrated game. I loved it. The combat is amazing. Its all Bloodborne-y and sweet.
As someone who has barely dipped into Bloodborne, do you think I'd like it (as I love this game so much)?
@@MattyStoked Bloodborne is the greatest game ever made.
@@pingamalinga interesting
@@MattyStoked Type of game you either absolutely love and you do all of it and then keep playing, or you hate it. I know people who gave up after 5 hours then came back 2 years later and now its also their favorite game.
Curse of Darkness is my favorite PS2 Castlevania. The soundtrack is GREAT!
Curse of Darkness is a great game. I'm working toward covering it on the channel, as it's a fascinating game which essentially ended the console franchise.
@@MattyStoked Cool man. I'd like to see it.
My favorite castlevania hands down 🔥🔥🔥🔥
THE BEST
Even though the grapple mechanic is jank and the backgrounds are bland and repetitive I still like this more than SOTN and AOS. There is just more substance challenge wise. I'm not saying those other two games are bad or shouldn't exist. I just like the combat more.
I love this game and can't wait to talk about it more.
Was that last boss Galamoth?
No, that would be wicked! It's called The Forgotten One, they did reboot this boss in Lords of Shadow 2 as well.
Its true. Lament of innocence is not akumajo dracula. Its Kyarusuvania ( Japan castlevania)
Yeah it's just called "Castlevania" here, to make matters more confusing lol
@@MattyStoked yes. Especially for new comers. They think Kyarusuvania is part akumajo dracula.Andv even kanji is different between akumajo and Kyarusuvania
There's a decent amount of Devil May Cry in this. I'm not complaining. It looks like a good twist to the Castlevania series.
Yeah it's clearly very inspired by Devil May Cry. In the best possible way :)
I thought the voice acting was fine most early PS2 titles had bad voice acting. You should have mentioned the Japanese audio option as the cast was more experienced and did really well in conveying their respective characters intentions and emotions.
The voice acting is fine. I can't comment on the Japanese voice acting because I don't speak Japanese. I don't feel qualified to comment on how well someone from a different culture is acting tbh.
@@MattyStoked ID say give it a play through with the Japanese VA, there was more money put into that aspect for sure and the delivery is more believable even if you cant understand there are subtitles and tone and emotion can stilll be felt even if you are not understanding of the language.
@@renereyes2648 I appreciate you coming back to reply a year later
Konami admit they were trying to make proper ( decent )a third person action game. Since metascore about 80 .it success.
Never played it but it looks good! I'll give it a try!
How can I quit of this game in ps2?
N64 castlevania games sucked a lot of fun with the save feature. 30 minutes (+) where wasted if your character unfortunately died. The game was so time consuming making the whole grind in the game more of a tedious chore than a side activity from real whole responsibilities. I personally beat castlevania 64. Loved it for many reasons, hated few (really hated the few reasons)
I've been emulating the N64 games recently, and seriously the experience is 1000x better than on the original hardware.
The Game Is fun isn’t it? The atmosphere stood out and the fantasy given was extremely entertaining. Love you video
My issue with this game is how half baked it feels. It wants to be God of War so bad and it fails because of that. The whip isn't satisfying to use because there's so little combo potential, it's mostly spamming, the platforming doesn't work- especially because of how ass the camera is- and the areas in the castle feel pretty uninspired. I haven't played Curse of Darkness so I hold out hope, but this just feels like ground work for Lords of Shadow
I think half-baked is harsh but fair. It clearly is a game which is trying its best to get the most out of what the dev team was given. It definitely falls down in a few places. But honestly, games which are a little rough, which reach for greatness but fall short; to me are far more exciting than games with mega-budgets which turn out so be super polished but boring.
I like this over Devil May Cry for for ps2
Wait I thought the church was facing pagans?
The game is set in 1094, and it's said that Leon was a crusader before then. If we assume Castlevania-world's history loosely follows our own world's history, this would be set during The First Crusade. The First Crusade saw a large army of West European (white) Christians marching across Europe into Western Asia and Northern Africa. Fighting Turkish Muslims, European Jews and pretty much anyone who wasn't a White European Christian. The manual says Leon was fighting "heretics", and I think today this is generally accepted as a medieval blanket term for any party who doesn't qualify as white christian.
3:05
The Prologue is EPIC don't you dare trash talk it.....
3:20
The cheesy voice acting ties into the feel of it being a PLAY you dear sir hold no taste, *HAVE AT THEE!!!!!*
Amazing game, history was wrong
The times weren’t ready.
Agreed 10000%
Ys VIII is a great Metroidvania.
Love this game
"as usual, holy water is the best"..... uhhhh.... lol
I agree that the voice acting in this game is bad, but nowhere near as bad of the voice acting from the first Resident Evil.
KONAMI!!! let blue point remake this game!!!!
You sound like Trevor's voice actor.
I'll take that as a compliment! Richard Armitage is a legend
Zach hadel: no FAT! no FAT! no FAT! no FAT! no FAT! no FAT!
Inexperienced actors? But…Crispin Freeman is amazing.
He is *now*. Back in 2003 he wasn't the superstar he is now. I will concede that he's pretty wicked in Hellsing.
@@MattyStoked Yeah he’s good in both Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate. But to me he also did a great job as Mathias in Lament of Innocence and Hector in Curse of Darkness.
God o war set the bar high
God of War came out two years later!
@@MattyStoked and buried any future plans that weren’t as good as GOW
@@natemead Case in point: Castlevania Curse of Darkness. Coincidentally my next video
Devil May Cry 2 outselling this game by a mile is just the worst
I would be so happy if Castlevania was the premier horror/action franchise. It's a shame Capcom came along and ate Konami's lunch on that one.
Yeah it looks sort of cheap, Good but not to the standed of games like dmc
Yeah you're dead on. That's was what I was getting at in the review. It is a good game, it's fun to play. It's just a shame that the same year it came out it got battered by two specific games that beat it at its own game. Worth a play though!
Personally I found the combat boring and the repetitive environments super annoying like 70% of the hallways and rooms look copy pasted, the combat could have been so much better and more enemy variety too. Honestly the best part is the music and atmosphere and the fact that it was the first decent 3D Castlevania. Really appreciate your take on everything in the review tho 😄
Fair enough, we can't all agree on everything all the time! You can sort of tell that the investment wasn't there. Not exactly a rare story at Konami at this this point. But I really appreciate the passion and what the team accomplished with what they had.
Best castlevania game I won’t a big fan of curse of darkness the soundtrack sucked😂😂but over all the game was great
Curse of Darkness is a completely different type of game. It's interesting for sure, but yeah the music is super repetetive!
I didn't like COD as much as this...the weapon types, Innocent devils were just retarded...they should of kept it simple like this badassery!
Castlevania should have stayed 2D like Mega Man did! Yes there were also 3D Mega Man games but they were not as successful as the 2D games! Castlevania is not devil may cry or God of War
I'm not sure what you mean when you say Castlevania should have stated 2D like Mega Man did, and then admit that there are indeed 3D Mega Man games. Do you mean Castlevania should go back to making 2D games?
I love how he fights vampires instead of Islam. ^^
I much prefer that