Line #13 YMMV/CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness


1	* AssPull: To some, [[spoiler:Zead/Death]]'s revelation that [[spoiler:only the Devil Forgemasters can suffice as Dracula's host.]] Sure, this is another prime example of how clever a manipulator [[spoiler:Death]] can be [[spoiler:when not under direct orders from Dracula]], but the fact that all info pertaining to the crux of this plan gets dropped literally at the climax of the game (causing yet another [[spoiler:[[HijackedByGanon Hijacked By Dracula]] plot]]) doesn't help in the slightest.
2	-->'''[[spoiler:Zead/Death]]''': Even so... [[spoiler:Devil Forgemasters alone are suffused in my master's magic; thus, only a devil forgemaster can be a vessel for his re-awakening!]]
3	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Plenty, but notably the following:
4	** The one in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAPr9AAKVlY Isaac's first boss fight]] is awesome.
5	** The track that plays in the Cordova Town area is also a standout piece.
6	** To mention the music of this game and not include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX2acO1vch8 A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness]], the first FinalBoss theme!
7	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Fan reception to Isaac has been rather split since the game's release largely due to his appearance and undeniable sexual overtones, and more so with him being replaced in [[WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017 the Netflix series]] by a completely different character with the same name. There are those who enjoyed his appearance in ''Curse of Darkness'' as a RedOniBlueOni {{Foil}} to Hector, felt his unusual design fit the gothic themes of the series, and enjoyed Creator/LiamOBrien's performance as him. Certain fans also [[DracoInLeatherPants adored him for his sexiness]], and neither were happy that he was replaced in the Netflix series. However, Isaac's design and what's perceived to be [[HoYay homoerotic subtext with Hector and Trevor]] was a [[FanDisservice major]] [[FetishRetardant sore spot]] for others, while some believe that making [[DepravedHomosexual such a character a villain]] fell into unpleasant stereotypes and felt he didn't really have that much depth, especially when compared to his animated series replacement.
8	* BestBossEver: The fight with the Wyvern is is pretty darn fun and memorable for such an early fight. There is a reason it popped up so much in trailers.
9	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The Chair Room, and more so as your chair collection grows. The ridiculousness of the chairs themselves notwithstanding, the background music is befitting of a broken down and abandoned carnival, and while the bats with targets on them can be shot down with the cannon, doing so serves no actual purpose. Along with a swing set that changes the stage into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the whole thing feels incredibly out of place, if not disconcerting. Which of course was probably intentional.
10	* BrokenBase: Many fans were upset that, given that the game chronologically takes place right after ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' and his role in it, the series' EnsembleDarkHorse Alucard was nowhere to be seen in the game, not even appearing in a cameo. While his absence didn't bother everyone, there were some who were somewhat glad he didn't appear, who felt he was becoming a bit ''too'' popular and was already [[SpotlightStealingSquad taking the spotlight away from everyone else]].
11	* CargoShip: Hector with chairs. Lampshaded, of all things, by the Woodman's Chair instructing you to "sit carefully, or it may look rather rude."
12	* DemonicSpiders: Pick any Level 75 enemy. Anyone. Ranging from the [[GoddamnBats Fleamen]] to the [[BossInMookClothing Red Ogre]].
13	* DisappointingLastLevel: Dracula's Castle is widely considered to be this when it comes to its stage design and visuals, suffering heavily from CopyAndPasteEnvironments. The area has a much darker theme compared to the varied stages you've been through in the game, and there are times where you have to go through the same floor multiple times, but from different passages. This level also has the most floors among the dungeons, being seven.
14	* DracoInLeatherPants: Isaac (who is literally wearing leather pants) gets a lot of love and fan art from the women in the fandom due to his flamboyant behavior, his {{Stripperiffic}} appearance that nearly exposes a bit too much, and Creator/LiamOBrien suitably giving him the voice of a sex god in the English dub. It's also stated after his first boss fight that he's been [[BrainwashedAndCrazy completely possessed]] by Dracula's curse for some time and ends up being another victim of it, leading some to defend him and argue that he's not the one to blame for Rosaly's death or any of his villainous actions throughout the game (with the honor going to [[spoiler: Death and Dracula]] instead). While many tend to associate Isaac negatively with homosexuality, taking the themes found in Ayami Kojima's other art into consideration, he was actually likely designed to appeal to the female demographic.
15	* GameBreaker: Corpsey's Bone Storm. It deals a lot of damage to the enemies, makes Corpsey invincible while using it, can stunlock some enemies, and is cheap to use too.
16	* GeniusBonus: Ever wonder why Bronze is colored green in this game, even though a freshly-molten bronze has a brown coloration? When aged, bronze takes on a green coloration due to oxidization in the copper atoms in the alloy.
17	* GoddamnBats: There are enemies that qualify as this trope, but oddly enough, there aren't any actual bat enemies in ''Curse of Darkness'' at all, unlike the rest of the series. The closest examples are the Flea Men, who can overpower you in a tight room (i.e. in the Eneomaous Machine Tower elevators) if you cannot deal with them fast enough.
18	* GoodBadBugs: Casting Blade Serpent against the Efreet and Jin enemies makes them float upwards as long as they continuously take damage from the blades... to the point that they will be off-screen touching the room's ceiling. This can be useful if you want to separate one of them from a group of mobs, but may also be frustrating if they somehow were the last enemy required to open a door – you'll have to wait for them to come down if Blade Serpent didn't kill them in the first place.
19	* HarsherInHindsight: One of the chairs you can collect is a pachinko machine. Given how Konami stopped making traditional ''Castlevania'' games in favor of pachislot and pachinko machines, what was funny before isn't... Ok, it actually is still pretty funny. But still.
20	* HilariousInHindsight: In the English dub, Hector was voiced by Creator/CrispinFreeman, known best as the voice of the vampire Alucard (no, not that one) in the animated ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' series, while his bitter rival Isaac was voiced by Creator/LiamOBrien. Several years later, ''Hellsing Ultimate IX'' would see Alucard, [[spoiler: revealed to be Count Dracula himself,]] facing off against [[spoiler: young Walter]], both voiced by Freeman and O'Brien respectively. Some fans of the game certainly got a kick out of this.
21	** Not to mention how Freeman was [[spoiler:Mathias in the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence last game]], otherwise known as ''DRACULA HIMSELF''.]]
22	* HoYay: A metric ton of it, courtesy of Isaac to Hector. And of course there's Isaac to Trevor -- [[ItMakesSenseInContext kissing his hair after impaling him from behind.]] And Hector with Trevor? You ''do'' fight him twice, after all. Sure, why not?
23	* JerkassWoobie: Potentially Isaac when you take his backstory into account. He came to despise humanity because he [[spoiler: and his sister Julia]] were rejected by others because of the unusual dark powers they possessed, and only found purpose under Dracula's employ, who shared a similar disdain of mankind. A far more sentimental and reasoned man back then, he came to respect and looked up to Hector as a role model, although he also became jealous that he was seen as the better devil forgemaster and Dracula's favorite. Once Dracula waged war on humanity and Hector defected (and there's no telling exactly what role Isaac played in Drac's slaughter, although the manga indicates he at least sent monsters to slay the soldiers sent to kill his master), Isaac also felt betrayed by the man he came to trust and was sent to hunt him down, only to be defeated and left for dead while Dracula was slain by Trevor Belmont. Stripped of everything, he grew bitter and increasingly mad as he became possessed by Dracula's curse, leading him to orchestrate Rosaly's death to spite Hector. In the end, as [[spoiler: Julia notes, he was just as much of a victim of the curse as anyone else, and only death could release him from it]].
24	* ObviousJudas: [[spoiler:Zead. [[BitchInSheepsClothing Just why is this pasty, bald head rotten teeth priest in black speaking in an ominous voice even try to help you?]] Something is ''obviously'' wrong about this guy at the first time you see him.]]
25	** [[spoiler:To make it even more obvious, his name literally rhymes with dead.]]
26	* {{Narm}}: The dialogue can get like this, as it tries to sound Shakespearean.
27	* NarmCharm: The dialogue often very entertaining, especially when Hector or St. Germaine [[ChewingTheScenery chew the scenery]].
28	* ScrappyMechanic: Stealing can take a hard left turn into this in some situations, in particular against targets where you need to wait for them to do something specific before you can take your shot instead of being able to open them up yourself, with most bosses falling into this category and often combining it with an extremely narrow window and clumsy collision. Also, some bosses will change their routine after taking a certain amount of damage and stop doing the move that makes them vulnerable, so you can't even wear them down while you wait so that you can finish up quickly after you get what you're after. A special call-out goes to the enemy Gi-Lee, a variant of the Thief enemy who will try to steal equipment instead of consumables, which can be a major problem. What do you need to do to see its Steal window? Let it take something and try to escape. What do you get for stealing from it? 1 Gold. Same as the Thief. If you want to complete your Bestiary, you better save first just in case it gets away with something you can't replace.
29	* ThatOneBoss: Every boss starting with the first encounter with Trevor Belmont. Especially Dullahan, what with his shockwave attack. And the boss before him? Trevor, ''again''. He's even ''worse'' the second time.
30	* ThatOneLevel:
31	** Dracula's Castle is easily among the worst levels in the game. It's not particularly hard, but going through the same few rooms over and over again gets to be a hell of a drag.
32	** The Tower of Evermore. 49 floors of extremely powerful enemies, many of which are at Level 75 on normal difficulty, and Level 95 on Crazy. Thankfully it's [[BonusDungeon optional]], but you'll really need to bring your A-game to this one and can take well over an hour to complete.
33	* ThatOneSidequest: Some of the game's better and... wackier weapons require hard to find items, some of which are boss-only steals. Stealing items requires the enemies to be in a particular frame of motion. Oh, and did you happen to miss a key item from a boss? No worries, you can fight them again! Provided you boss rush through all the bosses in the game that is. Not too bad, until you remember that every boss past the first two are ThatOneBoss. One of them ([[spoiler:Death]]) actually requires you to raise up a fairy with the ability [[MythologyGag Invincibility Jar]] to get to him when he's vulnerable to stealing and time it so that it runs out right when his SphereOfDestruction attack ends (since you can't steal while invincible), or learn how to perfectly block all his hits. [[note]]As for the timing of using the Invincibility Jar, pay attention to his hands. His fingers will go in and out while he's holding the orb, but before he throws it. The first time they go outward, let the jar fly and it'll burn out just as soon as his attack concludes. It's hard to explain, but you'll understand when you see it.[[/note]]
34	** There's a slightly easier way to do the above by turning down the music volume so that you can hear when the attack is about to end and switching [=IDs=] causes the invincibility effect to end instantly, eliminating the exact timing element to a large degree.
35	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot/[[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter Character]]: Trevor Belmont's role in the main story is abruptly cut short towards the end when [[spoiler: he's stabbed by Isaac upon the resurrection of Castlevania. Although Julia saves him from death and is said to be in critical condition]], to the surprise of many, he's not seen or mentioned again for the remainder of the game, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse not even in the ending]]. Although this keeps the story focused on Hector, fans felt Trevor should have at least appeared in the ending to congratulate Hector on [[spoiler: killing Dracula and destroying Castlevania himself]], and/or show him being treated by Sypha in a cameo appearance.
36	** This was also a reaction towards Trevor Mode, which like many games before it, has no story or plot.
37	* UnfortunateCharacterDesign: All of the Innocent Devil types (except for Pumpkin) have crystals protruding out of their body. For whatever reason, the designers decided to have the Fairy types look like they have a (proportionally) huge crystal shoved up their butt.

Context YMMV / CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness