“Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness” – A Fun N64 Adventure in 1080p60!
When Castlevania 64 first came out in January 1999, it was met with some mixed reviews. I remember the commercials on TV being pretty cool back then, but the game had some issues with controls, had quite a few bugs, and some felt that it was an overall rushed project. Then, at the end of the year, Konami released Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness for the N64. Some reviews jokingly said things like, “Castlevania 64 was such a great game that Konami just had to rush a sequel out that same year.”
The reality is, though, that Legacy of Darkness is really what the original game was meant to be. Think of it like a director’s cut edition, if you will. Pretty much all the game content from the first release is intact within the second, but the second game presents a much more polished, cleaner, and total experience by comparison. The game starts you out playing as Cornell back in the year 1844 and focuses on his quest to press deep into Dracula’s Castle to rescue his sister Ada and stop those with dark intentions from resurrecting the castle’s evil lord. Yet, when the game is completed, players have the ability to play through as Reinhardt Schneider (from a family related to the Belmonts), Carrie Fernandez, and Henry Oldry (who was a young boy in 1844) eight years after Cornell’s tale. This adds more depth to the experience because each character will see stages and even areas of stages that the others won’t. Plus, beyond all that, a lot within the game just felt more clean and precise.
Anyway, I really liked the game back in the day, and so since it’s the Halloween season, I felt it was the perfect time to showcase a bit of the game in full 1080p60. I had a lot of fun with this, and ultimately, I hope it shows in this video!
