![]() These secret rooms aren't new areas, mind you, but are the rooms hidden behind breakable walls that would normally have health or heart max upgrades some of those items were removed and the cards were placed at those locations instead. What "Card Mode" does is it swaps the cards out as random drops from enemies, instead placing these items around the castle in (generally) secret areas the players have to find. Meanwhile, with the Card Mode hack created by Dev Anj, the issue with the cards has been all but eliminated, allowing players to proper enjoy all the cards in the game without having to go digging for them on enemies in their first play-through. Played on a TV or monitor, Circle of the Moon looks as lush and fabulous as Konami intended. Thanks to the power of emulation, the first issue with the game - the lack of a back-light on the hardware making the graphics look muddy - has already been solved. Some of those enemies were hard to find or get to, like the special candle enemies that would only appear in two boss chambers long after you've left those areas and progressed the story, or two other cards being locked as drops on enemies only found in the Battle Arena, forcing you to fight through the whole area simply in hopes of getting a drop. To get the cards you'd not only have to figure out which enemies had the cards (which, good luck knowing that without a guide already open in front of you) but you'd then have to spend a lot of time grinding those enemies hoping for the elusive cards. The downside was that all the cards were tied to enemies in the game as random drops (in most cases very rare random drops). As a primary mechanic of the game, the card provided a lot of variety and interesting things you could do in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. Thus, the dark and lush graphics of Circle were absolutely hard to see when played on original hardware (which is why the next two games in the series erred on pastel colors to make the games easier to see, to the detriment of the art itself). The earliest models of the Game Boy Advance didn't have the right lighting, lacking a back-light that could illuminate the game and make it easier to play. For one, when played on original hardware, the game is a tad dark and muddy. ![]() ![]() That said (and while those of us at The Inverted Dungeon still absolutely love the title), Circle of the Moon does have a number of issues that do hurt its legacy. Anyone that missed out on the PlayStation title, or were simply looking for a "proper" sequel to that title, could sate their desires with this Game Boy adventure. Being the first big Metroidvania title to come out after Symphony of the Night, and with the aura, allure, and luster of that game only growing since its initial release, Circle of the Moon benefited by comparison to Symphony. What happened to shift opinion of the game so drastically? Probably a lot of it has to do with the timing of the game when it came out coupled with a lot of nagging issues with the title that have only seemed to stand out even more as further games in the series released. While other games didn't have the sales numbers to match Circle they are better regarded among fans of the series. ![]() While Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was a huge success upon its release (reportedly giving Konami their much deserved "million seller" after the much more muted response to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), the game hasn't remained at the top of just about any fan-curated list of "the best of Castlevania".
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