Game:

Castlevania Judgment (2008)

Duration: 16:32

26,810 views

235

Hey! Remember this? I'm back in action and finally going to stop keeping people hanging on this one... I think. This game is hard, man! Hard on the arm! My whipping arm gets all worn out if I get too gung ho about things, right?

I'm at least going to try to tough it out until I reach the end of the roster, but we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, we pick back up with Cornell... and... I don't know if I'm retaining my combat abilities or if it's just Cornell being THAT fast and thus able to beat the AI at its own over-eager offense, but this one was... not trivial, but definitely not hard like I remember some of these being. We'll call it 50/50, huh, buddy? Okay, okay, 70/30 in Cornell's favor. Yikes.

If Golem is the "only" sympathetic character in the game by my estimations, Cornell maybe comes closest to being second... "maybe" because... his storyline completely ignores the basic foundation of his canonical (even though he'd once been declared non-canon and back to canon again later) character... anything! So... besides jumping at the chance to maul people, his story doesn't even reasonably exist, time rift malarkey or not.

Of course, I can't get into much in the way of details, seeing as how I've never had the pleasure (or not, as some people hail it as a terrible game, but I would beg to contest I've played and enjoyed much worse) of getting to play either of the N64 Castlevania games, least of all the second one... which apparently ALSO contains an enhanced remake of the first, so... where's our Virtual Console release, Konami? It's a sure thing, take my money already!

---

Stage 1: Aeon

Please stop, Cornell... a time rift and you being unable to return to human form... how do you figure those two are related?

Anyway, one of the peculiarities I've come to notice about AI responses to Cornell's moves is that they seem to think that he's open to counterattack just as his guard break howl shockwave attack ends... but if they wait that late, they'll miss the opening and leave him time to block. Or in Aeon's case, interrupt his extremely vulnerable Hyper Attack.

In general, howling for no reason is kinda risky... and while it's great at controlling space, it has a lot of startup and recovery lag built in, so any reasonable opponent will probably make you regret it. But the AI is hardly reasonable. A weird side note on it, it doesn't actually knock back radially like it projects... it pushes people towards the direction Cornell's facing, meaning if you manage to hit someone while they're behind you, you'll get the full number of hits without needing to back them against a wall.

---

Stage 4: Sypha Belnades

If anyone deserves the question of whether or not they can match the speed of a wolf, it's probably Sypha. Well, the Golem before that, but Sypha's attacks aren't particularly quick to activate and leave her open for just slightly shorter a period of time than you would think. Just be careful you don't think you're invincibly fast, because you'll run straight into a projectile.

---

Stage 6: Mermen and Iron Gladiator

Cornell's moves are somewhat less effective against non-player enemies, I find... they don't get comboed as effectively and even the mermen don't really flinch in ways that you might have grown accustomed to. Therefore, it's key to use your best space-controlling and hit-and-run tactics.

---

Stage 7: Carmilla

What's with all these stories having reciprocated and mutually exclusive fated encounters? Just to drive home how even though they can't all have happened together, but Aeon keeps gathering Soul Keys, thus making it (somewhat?) clear that we're engaged in some manner of temporal paradox. What on earth is that Aeon up to?

Fast opponents like Carmilla and Grant still have big holes in their playstyles and simply can't keep up offensively with Cornell. Just make sure you don't keep attacking blindly until they finally just guard themselves and actually look for the opening they'll need to get in a hit.

---

Stage 10: Death

Huh, weird question to ask, isn't it, Death? What have you to gain from a lie... followed immediately by what you would gain if your lie would serve to get Cornell to go peaceably with you. Hmm! That's a real puzzler!

As I feel like I mention a lot, Death's strong suit is at mid-to-long range, but the AI players almost invariably try to close the gap and rush down opponents. So, in effect, trying to maintain your distance will only help him out. So... just don't be so careful, okay? Don't let up on the pressure! It's generally a rule for effectively using Cornell anyway, just more so than usual for Death.

---

Clearing Story Mode as Cornell AND the Golem unlocks Trevor's story.

By finishing all the stories progressively emerging from both Simon's and Alucard's stories, we can continue our story mode progress.

Other Statistics