Alright! After two decades, we are tossed a bone from our brother, the Dreamcast! After so long, they released an unfinished E3 demo of the planned and abandoned Castlevania: Resurrection. The irony lies in the fact that this was this game was decidedly not resurrected in any way shape or form. You could make the argument that they resurrected it for us, but they didn’t so much bring it back to life as they did cast a necromancy spell and turn it into the walking dead. So I guess that means it’ll turn into crap in later seasons and kill off all of its likeable characters.
All kidding aside, this game just wreaks of nostalgia, both in the graphics and in the tropes we’ve seen in so many Castlevania games. Sonia was meant to be the next Belmont, but she ended up only being officially featured in the not-so-great Gameboy game. Still, they tried and in the end, she is probably going to be our last hero in the franchise, if you want to look at it that way. Now, when I tell you this game is unfinished, that is no exaggeration. If anything, that is an understatement.
This game starts out humbly enough. You can skip over to a small list of levels that have very few working doors and some of them don’t even have a means to progress in them at all. They’re literally just a room with some monsters, mages, and skeletons throwing bones at you. It just brings you right back to a time period when the franchise didn’t take a dump on the Lord of Shadows runoffs. You’ve got your whip, your dagger for short range and a couple of useable items.
But we’re not stopping there, oh no, dear readers. We’re going to go into a few of these details, as they paint a pretty rough picture of what was in store for this game and just how unfinished it truly was. From the janky graphics to the AI of our dear friends, the minions. It is so horrendously terrible, that it’s a blast to get through these level pieces. It was such a blast, even, that I wanted to share my experiences with all of you! This was some of the most entertaining junk I’ve ever seen in an unfinished demo. Not only are the graphics nostalgic of the Dreamcast era for obvious reasons, but these glitches were too good to keep to myself! I’ll be explaining these things in the categories of their levels. So, let’s begin with the Courtyard!
The Courtyard
We begin with seemingly the most complete level of the entire game demo. You can make the argument that the final level was just as complete but that’s splitting hairs. This one is the most glitch free level I ran into and the only real problems I found were little more than unfinished game nitpicks. It was functional enough as a level, even sporting the cool mechanic of whipping torches and candles, turning them from regular fire into blue fire. Of course, most doors in this game are little more than extensions of the walls, so that doesn’t work out so well. Other than that, though, there’s really not a whole lot to talk about with this one. It took me a moment to notice that there was a walkway up and over the wall, as it did very little to texture itself differently from the rest of the structure.
There are floating popes, ghosts and those annoying bone-throwing skeletons we pretend to love because they’re the minions we remember the most from Symphony of the Night. It’s about what you’d expect from a starting level in Castlevania. They got the tone dead-on. The whip is whippy and the dagger being used for close-range attacks was just such a great idea, it’s really a shame this couldn’t be done in more titles in the series.
It’s not much of a notable level in this demo, but there is one thing I was at a loss for. All of the enemies you face can be whipped into submission well enough and it’s not overly hard or anything. There is, however, one enemy that you cannot kill because you cannot reach him. I looked all around him, even trying to jump from one of the taller walls nearest it. It can’t be done as far as I can tell. Guess which enemy it is. Yeah, it’s a skeleton, and he will remain up there throwing bones until the end of time. So, if nothing else, we can just urge him on. Throw those bones, you brave soul.
The Stairs
Not to be confused with “The Stepstool” this level is much more of a mess. It starts with a tiny little bat running into your head with a small bloody splat. He is ever so eager to be part of this game and jumps right into the scuffle with a kamikaze attack that seemingly takes no HP from your bar. If it does any damage, it is minimal. Sometimes you start off with a blinking, mostly empty life reserve. Does this make the level any harder? Not really, it’s mostly empty of minions and what enemies there are are inconsequential. That’s not to say they can’t kill you, they just seem to be having as much difficulty as you are.
The floating wizard guys float around, sometimes directly in front of the camera, blinding you. Their blue orbs that fire toward you normally go over your head, harmless. You whip them to death and whip the candles to get items! Yes! Items! Amazing that they appear in this demo, I know. They pop up on your screen and then careen over into your item pocket so that you’re able to throw them and spend your hearts that were more or less useless in the first level. Then you have yet another familiar enemy in the stack of dinosaur skulls that fireball you to death if you’re not careful.
Then you go up the stairs. Yes, there are stairs in The Stairs. The obstacles are barbed logs that try to slow you down but you can walk on them all day and get no damage from the spikes. Sometimes, you can just whip the skeletons once and kill them. Sometimes, it takes a few swings to get them to fall into bones. After going through yet another obligatory bat and dino skulls, you run into a few ghosts that come through a door that you, once again, can’t open.
There was more to this level that actually was coded, but you can only catch a glimpse of it when your perspective camera goes through it. There’s a torch with no flame and you can see a wall and a floor in there, but there’s no real way to clip through it. I tried.
The Hall
The Hall is a broken bridge leading to a castle with some pillars. It is also the most broken level of the demo. You can call this a main hall, if you want, but it’s more of just a lobby, if anything. This level is notable for the three firebreathing t-rex totem poles and for the fact that it was the first time the dagger items actually worked. I loved this item, because not only did it sometimes kill each skull in one hit, but it also stuck out of their skulls like you stabbed them and backed up to take a selfie while throwing up a gang sign with the subtext “shanked”. I wasn’t able to get the daggers a second time or else I would have screen capped it as soon as it happened. It was hilarious.
This is capped off by the possibility of dropping into the mote under the broken bridge. If you do, you’d think something down there would instantly kill you but you’d be wrong. I don’t know how you come back up otherwise, but I do know that if you just keep walking, you become part of the floor.
Living up to the name “Castlevania”, you have now become part of the castle. Now you can’t escape the ground and the wizards can’t kill you. So after restarting the level, there’s much more fun to be had.
This level, as a whole, was the most entertaining. Not only did I kill a ton of floating wizards, but sometimes the door at the end of the… hall… would open and sometimes it just wouldn’t. Before I did this review, I didn’t even know it opened at all, but on my third playthrough, there it was! Finally! A door actually opened! It was astounding!
In my other playthroughs, not only did the doors not open, but the floating wizards started to act… strange. One time, a wizard inflated. Yes, when I say inflated, I mean he grew into something of a giant. Then he just stood there, as if growing turned him to stone. All of the other wizards attacked you and he just stared as if he was their general manager and taking notes on their performance while they all died. I couldn’t kill him but dear lord, it was definitely memorable.
Then there was another mishap when I played through. If you’re keeping score, this makes every playthrough I’ve done thus far for The Hall, something very memorable occurred. This time, though, all of the wizards literally halted their attack and began to run into a corner. All of them huddled against the wall and started whispering about me while I was right behind them. I know they’re supposed to be killing me, but this was just plain rude.
Now, on my fifth playthrough, the door finally opened. There were two more ghost minions that came at me and were easily dispatched. Then, once I got to the door, I was treated to a blackout, only for it to come back up as a connection to the next level. Seriously, this demo apparently functions well enough to string two of the levels together. This brings about the question of whether or not if I stood in just the right place in front of each door in each level, would they connect each level together? If they do, they definitely don’t work more often than they do. So, onto the next level!
The Corridor
There is a level called the hall and a level called the corridor. You figure that out. My first impression on this one is that whoever came up with the hand on the ground grabbing your ankle needs to be sent to bed without din din. These things simply grab you and hold you there for some reason. That reason becomes apparent once you make your way half way down the corridor. The far wall opens up and lo and behold, there comes a hydra snake with three heads. I was never actually able to kill it.
I was, however, able to fall into a sudden lava pit that comes seemingly out of nowhere. Then I was able to travel under the floor and through the wall, to grandmother’s house we go. The snake was still able to kill me but not before I jumped up through the ground over and over, trying my best to get back to the chase.
Seriously, like the hall, the corridor was different every single time I played it. One time, I went ahead and ran into the snake as it came after me and was able to push it backward. It went back as I pushed it into the wall from wince it came, then I froze in place while it flailed and the game crashed. Oh, these beautiful glitches.
Try as I might, I couldn’t jump to the platform in the middle of the lava to get to the next part of the… corridor. I kept jumping in where the lava doesn’t hurt you but the snake can still flail and hurt you if you poke your head out even an inch. If you can do this feat, you have my applause. But after 7 attempts, I just kept jumping over the hands perfectly and not even getting a little damage from the snake, only to jump straight back into the pit. I was only able to clip through the floor once, though. Which is a shame, because it was at least a way to view more of the… corridor.
The Chapel
So, here we are, the final level. The chapel with which we are not getting married. Which is a shame, because the prospective mate we’ve chosen is quite the looker. Now, the very first playthrough of this level started off very promising. I jumped over the lava pit that does no damage (once again) and fall straight through the platform. No landing, no substance, just straight through the platform and into the dimensional room of no return.
My only companion was a ghost, but he kept cheating at Uno, so I just restarted the level. On this playthrough, though, two very nostalgic items came about. The first one was the boomerang! Yes! I finally have a boomerang to throw at things and laugh as they die from my Aussie weapon and I play my didgeridoo. The second one was the porkchop! It didn’t actually heal me in any noticeable way, but it appeared, it looked terrible. It was like a ground up organ, but it was there! I was so excited!
The next amazing happening was after I killed all of the enemies and swiped a bunch of candles, the doors at the end of the first environment opened up and welcomed me in! Will wonders never cease?!
Enter: Medusa. Whether she is Medusa or not does not matter. In fact, nothing in it matters because she just runs at you with her hair hissing at you and spits acid at your face. You whip her, she hisses more and you keep whipping her. She stays so still, you’d probably assume she’s enjoying it. Then she bursts into flames. Then she becomes a head. Yes, she becomes a head.
You keep whipping her and then she bursts into flames once again. Sadly, her snake wig doesn’t come to life and continue hissing at you. She just dies and that’s seemingly the end. As I was about to exit the game, I decided, first, to explore the tiny room you fought her in. I discovered that not only does her body keep bleeding, but now there is a small orb on the floor in the middle of the room. Yes, they kept the orb after the boss battle in seemingly the last true Castlevania game we’ll ever play. What happens when you walk over to the orb? What the hell do you think?
The game goes straight back to the ominous Konami Logo, your lifebar and item HUB still visible in the corner of the screen. Then you get the title screen once again and the game starts back at the Courtyard. The End.
Do I recommend this game? If you’re up for some hilarious mechanics and gameplay that works half of the time, then yes. I couldn’t recommend this enough. If you’re a classic Castlevania fan, you will also enjoy this wondrous treasure trove of nostalgic gameplay and atmosphere while enemies with half of an AI come at you with random attacks. If you are a completionist who wants to find all of the glitches, good luck. I’m fairly certain they’re random enough and numerous enough to where some of the levels will play differently every time you make an attempt.
I really hope the devs of other retired and cancelled games take note on how they released this game. I want more experiences just like this. It is a blast to fight your way through the terrible AI, substance-free floors and randomly generated health bars. I couldn’t recommend this enough to Dreamcast fans and playing through this brief bit of gaming joy will unlock those beautiful old school environments we 80’s and 90’s born enjoyed as kids. It’s free to download, and if you need the link to do so, look no further than this Sega Saturn Shiro article right here! Play well, and remember to drink deadly water. Wait, don’t do that.
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