Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe Publisher: Konami

Released: December 8, 1999 Rated: T 7/10

Nearly a year after its initial release, Castlevania for the N64 would see the release of what we would now consider its “complete edition,” featuring new characters and content originally cut from the initial release to get it out earlier. In other words, the other half of the game that would have been released as DLC on top of the already full-priced game. In spite of this, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness at least manages to deliver a good amount of new content, some minor but welcome gameplay tweaks, and an overall package that certainly feels like considerable bang for your buck, even considering the fact that players may have already paid for about half the included content.

The key selling point is, naturally, the inclusion of two new characters and their corresponding campaigns: our new cover boy, Cornell the werewolf, and a glock-brandishing knight named Henry, whose story begins in the prequel campaign when Cornell rescues him from the castle as a child. Cornell’s is the only campaign available from the start, as the more fleshed-out and complete-feeling of the two. His tale serves as a prequel, set in 1844, as he attempts to rescue his sister from being used as a sacrifice in resurrecting Dracula. During his mission, he encounters the Oldrey family, who own the castle’s surrounding estate, and lends a hand to rescue their son, Henry, and lead him to safety. This effectively puts Henry’s campaign into motion eight years later. Henry’s campaign becomes available after completing Cornell’s, where we control him, clad in his suit of armor, as he infiltrates the castle to rescue six kidnapped children from Dracula’s clutches.

A lakeside battle against an aquatic serpent-like creature is a good way to kick off the new campaign without doing any retreads just yet.

As you might imagine, it’s Cornell’s campaign that’s the biggest selling point, as it takes place in the most heavily tweaked versions of the original’s levels, and his combat and abilities are the most different. His additional power in combat from being able to transform into his wolf version adds a little bit of extra depth in that realm, and interesting new enemies like his foil lycanthrope Ortega make for a campaign that stands well on its own and is worth trying if you liked what you got out of Reinhardt and Carrie’s adventures. Henry’s story may come off a bit like an afterthought, by comparison, seeing as he doesn’t interact with any of the game’s NPCs or have a particularly dynamic plotline, but the openness of his campaign can be a nice change. With its time limit (seven in-game days to find the six children) and freely-explorable set of areas, it’s a bit like Resident Evil 4’s Assignment Ada, where the game just sort of drops you in and lets you loose from your starting point, and in that way it’s a nice little bonus game to contrast the story-focused nature of the other three.

Gameplay and presentation-wise, there aren’t a whole lot of changes to be found, though the addition of Expansion Pak support is both expected and welcome to give the graphics an overall bump in resolution. Such is the nature of this release – it’s all about the content here, and convincing players at the time that this was worth the additional purchase. That doesn’t mean, though, that there are absolutely no differences borne of previous criticisms towards the first release. The camera is still wonky, but overall it feels like KCEK added in just enough to make a game with a lot of frustrating elements at least a little more forgiving than it was the first time. More save points, more healing items, and enemies don’t hit quite as hard, even on normal difficulty. It’s not the ideal way to fix gameplay problems, but it was something doable in the short term, it’s noticeable, and it’s certainly appreciated.

Cornell will be the only selectable character in a new game, then Henry, and finally Reinhardt and Carrie together. By the time you get to the content you’d have played already, you’ll have had your time with each of the new characters.

The biggest thing working against Legacy of Darkness is the same now as it was back in 1999, which is the main reason why this makes for circumstances to discuss price point, a topic I usually avoid for anything but the most extreme cases. Legacy of Darkness sold poorly a year after the first game’s release, partly because it wasn’t a completely new game, and partly because the response to the first game was good, but not great. Reviewers weren’t particularly excited about this release, and nowadays most aren’t even aware of Legacy of Darkness at all. This has made it one of the higher rarity titles on the system, going for well over $100 cartridge only, and easily $100 over what the first game sells for. It begs the question of whether or not it’s worth it for non-collectors, but if you have the means to play either Castlevania title for the N64, Legacy of Darkness is clearly the better choice to cover the full package that the series has to offer.

Continuing Legacy

Castlevania as a series in 2025 is somehow, someway, still effectively dead as far as new games are concerned. As a legacy series, though, its status is practically unmatched outside of Nintendo’s first party properties. Collections cover just about every title in the series at this point – that is, every 2D title. Castlevania’s 3D offerings, from the 64 to the PS2’s pair of entries, and even the immensely successful Lords of Shadow duology, the first of which was the series’ best-selling title, have yet to see any port or re-release.