I feel like I’m taking forever with Castlevania. I seem to only play one section at a time and that’s because I normally feel queasy after finishing an area. It’s really starting to grate on me. I want to be moving faster. I keep trying to move faster. That’s why I finally pushed myself to complete Chapter V. I had three more sections left so I decided to plow through it. I’m glad I did.
This chapter reveals something really major about Zobek. He’s a jerk. He is quite literally a massive jerk. After he and Gabriel were split up in the library Zobek revealed, during a narrative voiceover, that he knows a secret way to the top of the tower. He left Gabriel alone to scale the outside of the tower. What a stupid jerk! Poor Gabriel is grappling all around this tower and Zobek just takes some stairs.
When we finally reach the top I’m thinking that it’s time for a boss fight. This Abbot has been a lot of trouble and he’s worked hard to guard this sacred relic that Gabriel and Zobek are after, surely he won’t give it up without a fight. Well the Abbot does just that. Sure he whines when Gabriel takes it, but he doesn’t put forth any real effort to keep it.
Turns out the relic was just a flask of Holy Water. I’m not sure how this would prevent vampires from attacking by just sitting there though. It doesn’t stop them from attacking Gabriel. Holy Water is just another thrown item like daggers or fairies. They work pretty well against the undead in combat, but vampires will still attack Gabriel.
With that in tow it’s back to the village. Which is under attack by vampires and they want to face Gabriel alone. So here’s where the boss fight occurs. Sure enough, after beating some basic vampires you get to fight Brauner. He’s a massive vampire who’s name I only learned from a narrative voiceover. Couldn’t Brauner have been, “I am Brauner! I get the privalige of ending your life.” Or some generic bad guy line? That would have been batter then what he did, which was suddenly lean forward and roar. Because that’s never been done before. Brauner can obviously talk since he constantly taunts Gabriel during the fight
The fight is pretty simple. I just kept dodging and whipping. Brauner does this thing where he will throw his weapon at Gabriel and if you can catch it and throw it back it stuns Brauner. I never figured out how to do this. I tried, but I always failed. Brauner went down with very little trouble though. It is cool to watch Gabriel do his opponents in with their own weapons though.
And that is actually one of the points where Castlevania has made me happy. I figured when Gabriel killed the Werewolf Lord Cornell with his own hammer that Gabriel would acquire the hammer. Nope, Gabriel breaks the thing and leaves it to rot. Same here. Gabriel uses Brauner’s weapon to kill him, but Gabriel doesn’t keep the weapon afterwards. No secondary weapons for Gabriel, it’s all about the Combat Cross. This is a concept that I highly approve of. Games like God of War and Devil May Cry give the main character a lot of secondary weapons that I never use or I force myself to use them out of boredom. They are normally not as strong as the main weapon and I’m not as familiar with them. I like the idea of just having one main weapon and calling it good. Heavenly Sword also had a good feature for this. Nariko only had the titular sword, but she could use it in three distinct ways that changed its’ damage output and attack style. This was smart design. So I’m glad Gabriel doesn’t use any other main weapon. I hope this stays true to the end of the game.
Alright, Brauner’s down, it’s time to tackle the last area of the Chapter, The Castle Sewers. The hardest part of the sewers is the skeletons. They can be a pain to fight. I keep wondering where an upgrade is hiding that will up Gabriel’s damage output. Holy Water is a really useful tactic against them and I recommend using it when you get the chance. Especially if they are lying on the ground bouncing around as a pile of bones, Holy Water will finish them off then.
There’s another puzzle that involves a spike trap and daggers. Again, it’s not hard. It’s actually kind of clever. A good puzzle makes you think about what objects you have in your inventory and makes you use them in unique ways. I had never used my daggers to open a door and here that became a requirement. You have to press a button, dash across a one-hit-kill spike trap, turn back around, activate shadow magic, and then throw a dagger, trap complete. Level complete. Chapter complete.
So I made it through three areas in one playthrough. Here’s hoping I can do more next time.
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