Castlevania Judgment

[Arcade_Ness]

I got the game on release and having a lot of fun with it. It reminds me of a Soul Calibur meets Power Stone type of gameplay. Every character plays differently. The combat is simple enough, at least by using the GC controller. I hear it's fun to play online. Castlevania fans will definetly get more out of this than casuals. It's quite amusing to see characters interact with each other from other parts of the series.

My only gripes are that the combat system could've been deeper ie more moves, or at least more than one Finisher per character. The camera is a bit wonky, not bad enough to be a dealbreaker. The character design I didn't like at first, but has grown on me. Otherwise a lot of fun if you're willing to give it a chance.

[poloplayr]

How is the music? Is it a list of new songs or (remixed?) Castlevania classics?

[MrSparkle]

BWAAAAAAHHHH???castlevania game that plays like a weapons based fighter mixed with an arcade brawler you say?!! *googles*

[Sotenga]

I've been hearing a LOT of bad about this game so far, but it's good to see a positive opinion for it. I'm still oddly intrigued with playing the game, but I'm not sure if I want to end up owning it. I'll make it a rental and decide for myself. Though, I hate to be shallow, but I highly disagree with the character designs. In particular, what they did to Eric Lecarde is unacceptable... but enough superficiality. I guess what really matters is if the game is fun or not.

I would like to hear as many opinions about this game as possible. As a permanent CV fan, I'm interested to listen to comments regarding the final product of this admittedly odd venture.

[Arcade_Ness]

Yeah it's all remixes, and done pretty well. What really got me take this game seriously was IGN's review, which was oddly postive. If you have Order of Ecclesia you can link it to the Wii to unlock Shanoa and Aeon right off the bat. It gives you a black wing and skull spider accessory lol. She's currently my favorite character to use. She has the best character design imo.

[demen999]

Sounds good. I didn't know it had online. How does it work out?

[Rob2600]

So far, three review scores have been published:

IGN - 7.5 (above average)
Nintendo Power - 7.0 (above average)
1UP - D- (below average)

Any thoughts regarding the huge gap in scores so far?

[demen999]

I never trust 1-Up reviews. I think they are always waaaay to harsh on games. Kinda snobbish I guess.
7's arent bad, and It looks good to me (gameplay and graphics), so I might get this.

[Arcade_Ness]

From what I could gather the 1UP review was that they couldn't go over the camera issues and character design. Honestly the camera isn't that bad. Could it of been better? Sure, though you can live with it. I lol when they said that the top three characters Simon, Alucard, and Maria had the best appearance. Alucard is decent, Simon is alright, but Maria looks terrible. They were entirely too harsh on the game, and I doubt they played it very long.

[demen999]

Yeah they suck. Would you recommend it for purchase?

[GrandAmChandler]

I never trust 1-Up reviews. I think they are always waaaay to harsh on games. Kinda snobbish I guess.
7's arent bad, and It looks good to me (gameplay and graphics), so I might get this.

I agree with you, especially considering they gave Wii Music an A-:

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3170709&p=44&sec=REVIEWS

Idiots.
-GAC-

[le geek]

It does seem like with 1up, for better or worse, you are getting the reviewer's opinion of the game with little guidance from any editors...

[Arcade_Ness]

Yeah they suck. Would you recommend it for purchase?

Well ultimately this game is fun, once you get the hang of it. The online seems to work the same way as Brawl. I'd recommend it for a purchase.

[Famidrive-16]

I'm really enjoying it. Bit difficult to get used to at first and some of the finishers go on for way too long but I'm loving it. Still haven't played online.

[Kid Fenris]

It's quite amusing to see characters interact with each other from other parts of the series.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTPWAavALg

[Famidrive-16]

"These things only get in the way"

Online was pretty good, not much lag on my end. It sucks that you can only gain points in Rank Mode though, and not Normal. Everytime I played Rank I always went up against the same guy again.

[Rob2600]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTPWAavALg

That was very strange.

The graphics look much better than I had anticipated. It seems like Konami did a pretty good job overall.

[joshnickerson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTPWAavALg

Yep. That was beyond odd and into disturbing.
Good ol' fashioned nightmare fuel.

[Neil Koch]

I never trust 1-Up reviews. I think they are always waaaay to harsh on games. Kinda snobbish I guess.


Kind of ironic that the most recent 1UP Yours podcast talked about this very thing. Garnett Lee and John Davidson (who are 1UP's better hosts IMO) took the stance that a lot of reviews (including theirs) can be too harsh.

Of course, then Box Quote Bettenhausen said something to the effect of "fuckity fuck fuck, if a game sucks, it sucks blah blah blah". God, he annoys me - it's obvious he's trying way too hard to be the "monster heel" of the 1UP podcats and the schtick is annoying.

Back on topic, this game does actually look interesting, both as a Castlevania and fighting game fan. But with so much AAA stuff out right now, if I'm gonna spend $50 on a new game, it'd go to something like Fallout 3. I'll hold off on picking up this until I can find it cheap.

[klausien]

I gotta be honest. I'm a huge Castlevania devotee - BUT - I CAN'T support this at $49.99.

I'm waiting for at least $29.99 (then I will DEFINITELY buy it). Order of Ecclesia was EXCELLENT (bought it day & date, and would've paid more), but this BS is TOTALLY UNNECESSARY. More of a "Japan Only" kind of title. Why do they give us this CRAP and deny us things like Policenauts?

WTF?

[The 1 2 P]

Although the concept seems interesting the box art is horrible.

[Famidrive-16]

More of a "Japan Only" kind of title. Why do they give us this CRAP and deny us things like Policenauts?

Yeah, why do they continually deny us a 14-year old game. :(

[Sotenga]

Yeah, why do they continually deny us a 14-year old game. :(

Sorry to jaunt off-topic, but I agree, even if Policenauts is more Kojima's territory. It's my hopes that now the Metal Gear Solid saga is supposedly concluded, he'll focus more on Policenauts and perhaps Snatcher... and if it's fourteen years old and next year would be its fifteenth anniversary, I see that as a good opening for an international re-release! :D

I digress. To focus: I've yet to play Judgment, but I have heard from many of my pals that it bites hard gravel. I may be tempted to rent it at least out of grim curiosity (and I can't say I've played every CV game to ever exist if I didn't do it, a proud little geeky honor for me), but my expectations are currently sucking the algae off of the ocean floor. After the fattening steak of Order of Ecclesia, I guess I'll have to eat some bitter herbs alongside it.

[Famidrive-16]

Sorry to jaunt off-topic, but I agree, even if Policenauts is more Kojima's territory. It's my hopes that now the Metal Gear Solid saga is supposedly concluded, he'll focus more on Policenauts and perhaps Snatcher... and if it's fourteen years old and next year would be its fifteenth anniversary, I see that as a good opening for an international re-release! :D


I was probably rushing that reply a bit. It just seemed a bit random to say though. Like "Ugh, why are we getting this game? You know what great game we were denied? Nuts and Milk."

[Richter Belmount]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTPWAavALg

(BUYS)

[Famidrive-16]

I hate the Time Reaper. So much.

[Gabriel]

I picked it up. I kinda like it.

I have issues with the graphics. This does not stem from the character designs. I find the character designs well done and the overall visual design of the game to be very good. No, the problem is the graphics suffer from extreme pixelization and pixel shimmer. Stages also tend to be very dark and hard to see anything in, so all that character and stage design detail is lost for lack of enough light to see it. There's a smoothing option, but it just makes the game look like you've put wax paper over the screen and turned the brightness all the way down. Otherwise, it's more or less in the same visual range as Soul Calibur II for the GameCube.

The camera is just as bad as the professional reviews say. It tends to set itself on views which obscure the proceedings. The AI seems to be programmed to take advantage of this too, because it seems to go to great lengths to move to a camera obscured position before launching an offensive. It's also extremely difficult to judge your position on the battlefield as well as your relative spacing between your opponent. Add in the pixel shimmer and some of the poor camera angles and it becomes difficult to even tell which direction you're facing.

I expected a very light fighter with a Soul Caliburesque sheen, and that's what I got. I expected the "anime neo-gothic" look and that's what I got. I expected a fighting game, and that's not really what I got. For me, C:J has proven itself more as a single player experience. It's fun for a few button mash sessions against a friend, but It's more unfulfilling than satisfying in that role, more frustrating than fun. However, against the AI, it's just kind of cool to kick back and soak up the pseudo-horror style world for a while. And thanks to the hardcore fighting game fans who complain everything is "too easy" unless they have AIs which block and counter perfectly when they're not whipping off 100% damage 97 hit combos on you, any fighting style game where the AI doesn't have these traits is welcome.

Since I got the game because I'm a closet Castlevania fan and wanted to bask in the Castlevania aura for a while, I chalked that up as a win.