Castlevania: Circle of The Moon - Critical Reception and Legacy

Critical Reception and Legacy

Circle of the Moon was positively received, selling a total of one million copies in the month following its North American and European release, 500,000 of which in Japan. It was rated the 108th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, it is the twelfth-highest rated Game Boy Advance title.

Craig Harris of IGN called Circle of the Moon "one of the best playing Castlevania games released", calling the gameplay "very long and extremely challenging without being frustrating or a chore to zip through". However, he noted that due to the dark graphics, the game was "difficult" to see, and that the character animations looked as though "they've been ripped out of a GBC development". GameSpot.com gave it 9.6 out of 10. GamePro rated the game 5.0, their highest rating, stating that it closely mirrored the most highly acclaimed Castlevania game, Symphony of the Night with its rich graphics and branching story. Gaming Target heavily praised the smoothness of the animations, though too cited a lack of replay value and dark graphics. In addition they gave praise to the game's DSS system, describing it as the best new feature of the title. RPGamer also praised the new system, calling it a "breath of fresh air" when combined with the existing ideas from previous entries in the series, though in contrast felt the game had significant replay value due to its various additional modes and the strengths/weaknesses related to each that required new strategies. Despite their criticism of the plot and recycled elements, they summarized the title as "Konami's Second Symphony". GameSpy stated that while the graphics were a problem, they more readily attributed the issue to the Game Boy Advance itself than the game, adding "it's a horror game about Dracula, don't you want ample light around you anyway?" They also praised the game's music and sound effects as appropriate for the title, though criticized the lack of decent artificial intelligence on the part of the enemies.

Despite the game's success, series producer Koji Igarashi, who had not been involved in its production, was highly critical of the game. When developing follow up title Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, he cited in an interview several flaws he felt should have been rectified in Circle of the Moon's design, primarily its control scheme and the dark appearance of the graphics on the Game Boy Advance. He additionally criticized the DSS card system, stating that it "did not match with the world Castlevania had established over a long period of time", though admitted he felt it was a good system. In 2002, Circle of the Moon was removed from the series timeline, a move met with some resistance from fans. Igarashi noted the reason for the removal as not due to his non-involvement with the games, but instead the intention of the game's development team for Circle of the Moon to be a stand-alone title. Some reviewers have argued that his change was unwarranted and his recent installments did not match up to Circle of the Moon.