Castlevania seems to have turned into a sort of Metroid clone since Castlevania IV. Not that I’m complaining, since I really enjoyed Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission, and this kind of fills the hole that their completion has left. In may ways it is better too. You get more freedom over where you’re supposed to go, and there is less hand-holding. There is still all the exploration and upgrades, but there are so many upgrades to find, choose, use, and combine that you can play the same section over and over tackling the baddies in a different way each time.
So I spent a while getting more money from the $200 knuckles + zombie soul = $3000 cestus method, and went exploring again. I found a boss at the top of a tower, and at first glance, he looked a little like a giant Mouser from the original Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles cartoon. Only he was made of rotting flesh.
A couple of attempts were required to kill him (his death involved us both crashing through all the floors of the tower too), and I gained his soul – a giant laser beam thing.
Some more exploration, and I met up with Julius Belmont a couple of times more (he told me I really should go home) and the evil baddie woman whose name I have forgotten, who told me Dario has been made more powerful. It seems Dmitrii might not actually be dead, either.
I then went and had a crack at the zombie eel worm water snake thing, and found it much easier than last time. Killed that, and gained the ability to move underwater, which opened up a huge new area of the map. I then went and explored the new bit for awhile, until my battery ran low, so saved and quit.
Addendum: 51.5% complete.
