A Casual Castlevania Fan's Retrospective of Judgment
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- čas přidán 9. 02. 2024
- Ahh yes, we're finally covering Castlevania: Judgment! Released exclusively on the Wii in 2008 and developed by legendary studio Eighting, a fighting game based on the Castlevania IP should have been a slam-dunk, but I personally think otherwise.
Upon release, Judgment was trashed in reviews from many professional video game media outlets, and this interested me. A respected studio developing a fighting game based on a beloved IP sounds like a recipe for success, and I wanted to play the game for the very first time to see if I personally found the game to be enjoyable...
Spoiler Alert: I didn't, but I see why people like it and think it's amazing that they can get enjoyment out of Judgment.
Music:
Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab - Castlevania: Judgment OST
Mad Forest - Castlevania: Judgment OST
The Wolf Revealed - Castlevania: Judgment OST
An Empty Tome - Castlevania: Judgment OST
Evil's Symphonic Poem (Death's Theme) - Castlevania Judgment OST
The Tower of Dolls - Castlevania Judgment OST - Hry
After properly learning the subweapon cancel and jump cancel mechanics, I think grinding out matches in this game is a hell of a good time.
Also btw doing an unblockable doesn't take away the opponent's meter. Depleting their guard gauge does, which is different.
Not a bad review, but there's quite a few things you didn't comment on. What do you think of the games music and voice acting for example? The voices in particular actually aren't bad from what I've heard of them. You also didn't go into detail about any of the games different modes. Like the story mode, or castle mode.
I prefer the chacter disigns over normal Castlevania for a lot of the cast.
Wish it was cel shaded rather than this low resolution semirealistic Wii texture style.
Say what you will about the poor choice in art direction and the character redesigns, but you can't say it wasn't visually striking when all of the reviews criticized the art direction. It wasn't the art style fans wanted for a Castlevania game, but it definitely had a personality it was going for. I love how this game looks, every bit of it is dripping with early 2000s goth aesthetic, it didn't play very well though, that's true.
In my opinion, this game's direction of art and it's depictions of the classic Castlevania characters would have been best served as a spinoff or alternate take to the original series that could sit beside the classics instead of trying to represent them. It's a shame, it could have been a more wild, over the top, and overdramatic series of spinoff games based on the original games.
Also the soundtrack is one of the best in the series.
As a fan of both the Nintendo Wii and fighting games, this is naturally one I hope to add to my collection someday. It's an... interesting take on Castlevania as well, from what I know of Castlevania.
0:38 - A bit ironic that Konami would have 8ing make a fighting game based on one of their IPs, given Konami would later own the rights to 8ing's Hudson Soft fighting game series, Bloody Roar.
2:10 - I always thought it was a 3D fighter, but the sheer amount of freedom of movement makes it an arena fighter. I love the amount of stuff managing to occur in the stage. They've utilised their greater space well with the plentiful hazards.
3:43 - That... makes for a surprising amount of sense. The alternative would have been a traditional Castlevania with shorter sections (perhaps more level/area types to make up for it).
4:40 - If I hear anything about Castlevania Judgement these days, it's about the artstyle. It gives the entry a memorable look but I can also see how it would negatively impact the series draw appeal with many of the characters looking so different (Simon especially).
7:04 - This is the series that would eventually have a 'erotic violence' pachinko machine, so not completely out of place.
9:11 - Holy heck though; the environments are amazing. I thought the blue hue of the moon spread across the stage was cool but then you've got these intricate stained glass windows an stone wall carvings. Really nice.
9:46 - Having just placed through a Wii remote beat em up with Wii remote swinging to attack, I'm loving the combat your'e describing.
12:54 - Technically not a 3D fighter, it's an Arena fighter; there's a difference. This is more in the ballpark of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm than Dead or Alive (though I adore both games).
13:29 - I... really didn't like Street Fighter 4 (or pretty much any Street Fighter for that matter) so I could easily see myself coming away with a similar feeling. I won't know til I get my hands on Castlevanina Judgement though and I'm still looking forward to it despite the... negativity here. Thanks for giving it a fiar shake though and being honest with your opinion.
I remember this game being really fun, and the Dracula fight was hard as balls! xD
8ing didn't sleep back then. Great shumps, great fighting games... To be on topic, Castlevania Judgement has a similar control scheme to the Naruto Wii games which fortunately maintained most of the strong mechanics from Naruto Clash of Ninja (which themselves were borrowed from Bloody Roar by the same developer).
It is a shame but Judgement would have been in a bit spot if it flipped its control philosophy to make motions optional or at most, required for sub weapons or supers.
I understand that throwing every whip swing sounds cool but a 2006 GameCube to Wii launch title shouldn't be your role model. Also, a fighting game match is short but they did not think about how many matches people may play in arcade mode or if it ended up getting competitive.
On the note of other motion controls for fighting games or unnecessary inputs... Yeah, stun is still silly and I probably tolerated worse with spinning analog sticks or shaking controls for power struggles in Dragon Ball games besides Naruto Wii games (though they did support GC controllers that I had plenty of).
This game is nowhere near as bad as some of the gaming press painted it but it is still a 5/10. Can be kinda fun to play around with for short bursts and listening to the tracks and seeing the gimmicks of each character. But then you get to the balance and the game just dies there, and the writing and character interactions could have been way more interesting specially with that weebshit brainrot you have with Maria Renard.
Personally I don't mind the idea of giving redesigns to the Castlevania cast for a fighting game but Takeshi Obata's redesigns are either missing most the charm of the original design or just don't feel like fighting game characters. Like I wouldn't mind seeing plenty of these designs in a manga or JRPG but they just don't do it for me if we compare it to other fighting game characters.
Also Carmilla isn't that horny, I think the Succubus from SOTN was way more horny in terms of design lmao.
the reviews sounds like a bunch of complaining 30 year olds tbh.
they found the gothic outfits [which castlevania is already Goth] too sexualized and low stamina for motion controls, you can literally just flick it a bit and it registers a swing but still it had pro control support so idk.
as a child i found the game pretty fun and cool because it did remind me alot of soul calibur.