Over the Moon

Castles are always most beautiful during a
sunrise, aren't they? Especially when they're
about to crumble into dust.

It took twenty years (yikes), but thanks to the recently released Castlevania Advance Collection, I've finally beaten Circle of the Moon. What took me so long? Aside from misplacing my copy and a bunch of other Game Boy Advance games in a Detroit airport fifteen years ago, I dunno... I guess I just lost interest. Repeatedly. There's more than one way to play Circle of the Moon, of course, but I found that regardless of the format, I'd get about halfway through the game, tire of grinding for spell cards and items, and move on to something else. I'm fickle like that.

Not THIS time, though! I vowed that I would play the game from beginning to end, and after roughly twelve hours of exploring Casa Del Vania, endlessly whipping Arch Demons for their rarely relinquished bounty and shuffling a handful of magic cards, I finally reached Dracula. A dozen Thunderbird summons later, Vlad went down for another century-long nap, and I could finally move on to something else, without carrying around the residual guilt of unfinished business.

I'm talking like finishing Circle of the Moon was a dreadful obligation, and while that was true some of the time, I honestly enjoyed the overall experience. Is it the best game in the Castlevania series? No, not really. Is it the best game in the subgenre of Metroidvanias? Not that either. Is it the best of the three Metroidvanias on the Game Boy Advance? Er, no... but it sure beats the crap out of the tinny, dayglo nightmare that was Harmony of Dissonance! There, score one for Circle and me not wasting my time.

Anyway, I had a few stray observations after beating Circle of the Moon. The first is this... why are all the health ups in the form of a pitcher of Kool-Aid?

(image from Junk Food Betty)
(Junk Food Betty, wham the bam)

When you put it that way, it makes much more sense. Oh yeah.

Secondly, this game has a big thing for furries. It's not just the Robin Hood-looking Fox Hunters scattered throughout the machine tower, but entire corridors stocked with Hyenas, Werewolves, Were-Panthers, and Were-Bears, offering threats ranging from "eh, that'll heal" to "that frickin' punch took HOW MUCH damage?!" You start to think about halfway through your adventure that Dracula's castle doubles as the hotel for the Romanian branch of Anthrocon.

What else? I recently learned from the game's strategy Wiki (an invaluable resource, by the way) that Konami doesn't even consider Circle of the Moon part of the official Castlevania timeline. That seems a little harsh... sure, it's a little lacking compared to Symphony of the Night or the later Sorrow games, but in the distant, technologically-impaired year of 2001, Circle of the Moon blew minds and melted faces. Listen to that crisp digitized sound! Look at those detailed graphics! Wait wait, let me get this lamp closer to the screen... okay, NOW look at those detailed graphics!

It's hard to overestimate the impact of hearing the title screen music from the cutting edge Symphony of the Night, on a handheld game system, a year after quality-challenged Game Boy Color titles were the depressing norm. Frankly, no portable game system was punching at that weight... not the Wonderswan, not the Neo-Geo Pocket, and not even 16-bit systems turned into handhelds, like the Nomad and TurboExpress. Circle of the Moon has its problems, some stemming from being a freshman effort and others being inherent in the Metroidvania formula, but considering its advancements over past handheld Castlevanias, and the direction it paved for future titles on the GBA and Nintendo DS, it's hard to justify blotting it out of series canon.

Then again, retconning Circle means bitchy-ass Hugh Baldwin never existed, so maybe it's not that bad.