Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, known in Japan as , and simply as Castlevania in Europe, is an action-adventure platform game released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2001. The game was the first Castlevania game for the system. It was the last game in the franchise to bear the classic "Akumajō Dracula" title in Japan until Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was released. Subsequent entries also adopted the "Castlevania" moniker.
==Plot==
The year is 1830. At an old Austrian castle, the worshipers of Chaos attempted to revive the Lord of Darkness, Count Dracula. Vampire Hunter Morris Baldwin and his apprentices, Nathan Graves and Hugh Baldwin, heard of this and headed to Castlevania to stop Count Dracula's resurrection and restoration of power. However, they arrived a few seconds too late and Camilla, a minion of Count Dracula, started the rite to revive her master.
In order for Dracula to regain his former power, he would need to wait until the full moon ritual was completed. Before the group could fight Dracula and reseal him, Dracula destroyed the floor under Nathan and Hugh, causing them to plummet down a long shaft, leaving Morris alone with Dracula and Camilla. Fortunately, Nathan and Hugh survived the fall. Hugh ran off to save his father after telling Nathan to leave the castle. Nathan decided not to, as he too wanted to ensure that his master was safe. He then explored the large castle, fighting Dracula's minions along the way.
After fighting Camilla, Nathan learned that Hugh was possessed by Dracula after the vampire exploited his desire to become more powerful than Nathan. He wanted to prove that he was superior to Nathan so Morris would bestow the Hunter Whip to him instead of Nathan. When Nathan defeated him, Hugh came to his senses and leaves to find Morris.
Nathan arrived at the ceremonial room to vanquish Dracula and save his teacher from being sacrificed in the full moon ritual. While he fought Dracula, Hugh freed Morris and together they escaped the castle, leaving Nathan to finish vanquishing Dracula. He succeeds in beating Dracula's ultimate form. Before he was sealed, Dracula stated "It is a wasted effort. I will never be truly gone. So long as there is darkness and desire in the soul of man, I will continue to be revived". Nathan replied, "And we will be there to stop you. You can bet on that". Dracula dies and the castle crumbles. Nathan then leaves to continue his training with Morris and Hugh.
:Note: The storyline from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon has been retroactively removed from the official Castlevania timeline by Koji Igarashi. Many claim it has been reinstated after the release of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin because it can be found in the timeline that accompanied the pre-order bundle for that game in America; however, the game's article in the Konami Magazine Volume 20 defines the game as taking place in an "different timeline from the Belmont and Morris family" stating that it was never intended to be canon.
==Characters==
==Gameplay==
The gameplay in Circle of the Moon is similar to that of other post-Symphony of the Night Castlevania titles, in which the player must explore a gigantic castle filled with undead enemies and evil aberrations in a non-linear fashion. Generic enemies defeated by the player drop useful items and equipment, and also provide Experience points which increase the player character's power. Boss enemies provide plot progression, and their defeat allows the player to acquire new abilities such as a double-jump with which to progress further in the game, the only downside in boss battles is that Magic Crystals do not appear to replenish the player's HP and MP after the fight.
The game is based around the classic Castlevania action style. The main character, Nathan, uses a whip to attack the enemies, alongside the classic side weapons: Axe, Cross, Holy Water, Knife and Stopwatch. One of these sub-weapons may be carried at any time by the player, draining a supply of "Hearts" when used. In addition, the player may boost their character's statistics through equipping items such as armor. These statistics are Strength, which determines physical attack power, Defense, which determines resilience to damage, Intelligence, which determines potency of magic and the Magic Point (MP) recovery speed, and Luck, which modifies the frequency with which items are dropped by enemies.
Unique to this game is its DSS (Dual Set-Up System) for magic, based around magic cards. This gameplay mechanic allows the player to unleash dozens of interesting abilities via combinations of two different magic cards: one Action card and one Attribute card. For example, the player can combine the "Mercury Card" (Action card with the power of whip enhancement) with the "Salamander Card" (Attribute card with the power of fire), obtaining a fire elemental whip attack as a result. Each of these cards is dropped by certain enemies, with a probability based on the player character's "luck" statistic, thus adding another search element. Use of DSS cards drains the player's supply of MP.
Compared to the other Metroidvania-styled games with RPG mechanics, Circle of the Moon does not feature a shop. Therefore, the player cannot sell any of the acquired equipment, nor be able to accumulate gold. There is also no in-game bestiary.
This is also the only game wherein the player's base statistics (STR, CON, INT, LCK) are set to three digits (100 each) from the start.
===Alternate modes===
:Note: No alternate mode codes will work unless the prior mode has first been completed.
*Magician Mode: Once the game has been completed, the player will receive a code that can be entered as their name when starting a new game: FIREBALL. This code will start the game in Magician Mode, where the player starts with all 20 DSS cards, and high magical ability, at the expense of reduced strength (including damage of magic), defense and health.
*Fighter Mode: By completing Magician Mode, another code is received: GRADIUS, which lets the player start the game in Fighter Mode. In this mode, no DSS cards can be obtained or used, but physical power is drastically increased.
*Shooter Mode: In turn, completing Fighter Mode unlocks the code for Shooter Mode: CROSSBOW. This mode places an emphasis on combat using the sub-weapons, giving the player a very high maximum of Hearts to use them with (as well as halving the amount of hearts each sub-weapon uses), but giving a penalty to strength, defense and HP. Shooter Mode also has an unique sub-weapon, the Homing Dagger, which is only usable in this mode.
*Thief Mode: Completing Shooter Mode unlocks the code for Thief Mode: DAGGER. This last alternate mode reduces all of the player's stats except Luck, which is boosted by an enormous amount. The idea in Thief Mode is to survive on whatever items and equipment the enemies drop, with greater Luck increasing the odds of getting items from each kill.
===Battle Arena===
The Battle Arena is an optional bonus area in the castle, consisting of 17 rooms. Each room contains a selection of standard enemies which must be defeated for the player to exit; however, the Dual Set-Up System (DSS) is unavailable, with the player's MP dropping to zero as soon as they enter the Arena (although it's possible to use magic in small bursts by constantly using MP recovery items). Each room usually contains a tougher selection of enemies than the last. While completing the Arena as a whole is a stiff challenge, the player can leave the Arena between certain rooms, making the area ideal for gaining Experience.
Completing the entire battle arena grants the player 291,582 experience points in total from enemies defeated, and the Shinning Armor, an armor plate that significantly increases the player's DEF, with minor upgrades to STR, INT and LCK.
There are also two DSS cards which can only be obtained from enemies in the arena: the Black Dog and the Unicorn cards.
==Dialogue==
==Music==
The music of this game consists of numerous remixes of tracks from earlier games, such as "Vampire Killer", "Aquarius" (from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse), and "The Trick Manor" a.k.a. "Clockwork Mansion" (derived from combining "Rotating Room" and "Spinning Tale" of Super Castlevania IV). Also included are some original pieces such as "Fate to Despair", "Awake", and "Proof of Blood". The soundtrack was prepared by Sotaro Tojima.
==Easter eggs==
While there are no extra characters to play as, it's possible to change into a cartoon bear in Circle of the Moon. The bear, known as BearTank, comes from a Nintendo 64 Konami fighting game called Rakugakids. To transform into BearTank, you will need a Bear Ring, dropped by the Skeleton Medalist enemy. The Skeleton Medalist is found in a secret room found by breaking a wall on the left side of the shaft Nathan falls down at the beginning of the game, and then another wall on the ceiling of that room. To transform into BearTank, equip a Bear Ring while using the Pluto + Black Dog spell. Unfortunately, the BearTank morph still has all the vulnerabilities of the Skeleton morph. It has a slightly different moveset from Nathan, however. While pressing B normally fires a missile in an arc toward the enemy, pressing UP + B fires a missile on a higher arc instead of a sub-weapon, and DOWN + B causes the bear to drop a bomb similar to Skeleton Bombers that causes double the damage of missile attacks, damage equal to Nathan's whip.Let's Play Castlevania Circle of the Moon: Bear Ring Bonus on YouTube by SteamBoy27.
==Trivia==
*This is the only Game Boy Advance installment in the series where Dracula physically appears (not counting his reincarnation Soma Cruz or the Classic NES Series port for the original Castlevania).
*This is also the only Castlevania GBA game whose Japanese title doesn't have any relationship with music.
*The Dual Set-Up System contains a glitch that can be exploited to make use of cards not yet possessed by the player: When activating a card combination, the player must pause the game, go to the DSS screen, and switch to any desired cards. The player will then be able to cast the magical effects from the cards that should have been on the selected positions on the deck.
*Unlike other "metroidvania" series, the INT value only affects MP regeneration rate, but not magical damage, which is only scaled with STR value.
*There is a known sequence break in this game which allows the player to visit an advanced area they were not supposed to visit yet. After beating Adramelech, it is possible to go straight to the Underground Waterway, even before the water has been cleansed. On regular mode, it is possible to survive the Underground Waterway through judicious use of dash and double-jump, spending as little time in the water as possible and dodging every enemy. On Magician mode, this can be accomplished with assistance of the Pluto + Unicorn DSS cards; and on other modes, the Jupiter + Thunderbird combination can be used to reduce water damage. The main benefit from completing this area early is that the player will be able to obtain the Roc Wing near the end, which pretty much allows to explore all the remaining areas of the castle.
**Some players have unknowingly done this, assuming that the Waterway was just a particularly difficult part of the game.
*All English versions require roughly 20% more EXP to gain levels, compared to the Japanese version.
==See also==
*Circle of the Moon Bestiary
*Circle of the Moon Inventory
*Circle of the Moon Locations
*Dual Set-Up System
*Circle of the Moon Walkthrough
===Related games===
*Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness - The previous game made by KCEK, made for the Nintendo 64.
*Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - The next game made for the Game Boy Advance.
*Castlevania Advance Collection - A compilation containing all three Game Boy Advance games and Dracula X released on 2021.
===Related music albums===
*Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Original Soundtrack
*Akumajō Dracula Best Music Collections BOX - Contains music from this game on Disc 8.
*Castlevania: Circle of the Moon OST 1XLP - Vinyl soundtrack for this game.
*Music from Akumajo Dracula Kuro - Contains music from this game on Disc 11.
===Related guides===
*Nintendo Power Advance Circle of the Moon Guide - Contains an official guide to this game.
*NTT Pub Akumajō Dracula: Circle of the Moon Official Guide - A Japanese official guide to this game.
*Shinkigensha Akumajō Dracula: Circle of the Moon Official Guide - Another Japanese official guide to this game.
==References==
==External links==
*Castlevania Dungeon
*Castlevania Realm
*GameFAQs
*Speed runs at Speed Demos Archive
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