Coming out in 2003, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence was the first Castlevania game released for the PlayStation 2. The story is set in 1094 – making this, chronologically, the first Castlevania game in the series’ timeline – and it focuses on the origins of the Belmont clan and Dracula.

You play as Leon Belmont, a distant relative of the already-well-known Belmonts, and must explore Dracula‘s castle, fighting monsters and avoiding traps, in order to free your captive betrothed.

You explore a fully 3D world, and the camera adjusts itself automatically as you move around.

Leon’s primary weapon is The Whip of Alchemy, which is given to him during the game’s introductory sequence. He can also use secondary weapons that he can switch out when they’re available (a knife, an axe, a cross, a crystal, and holy water). These sub-weapons can also be combined with one of seven different orbs to create special attacks.

A room near the castle’s entrance contains portals to the first five areas, all of which are accessible at the beginning. After defeating each of the bosses at the end of the five areas, a sixth area is unlocked, where you’ll eventually confront Dracula.

As you progress through the game, you’ll receive three new whips – each of which are tied to an elemental force (fire, ice and lightning), and are required under certain circumstances to move the story forward. Oh, and each one of those whips is guarded by a boss, of course…

You also learn various whip techniques, and these can be referred back to in the game’s extensive encyclopedia, if you’re having trouble remembering the button combos.

Towards the end of the game, The Whip of Alchemy changes into… Ah, well… You’ll just have to play the game and find out…

Lament of Innocence is an action/slash ’em up with RPG elements (those being: experience points and levelling; weapons and armour; shops where you can buy health potions or pay to boost your strength or defence stats; and tons of items and magic spells), and is an absorbing game to play overall. It has two unlockable playable characters (Pumpkin and Joachim), and the whip direction system works well enough to make you feel as though you know what you’re doing with it. All the other gubbins, like the ‘live’ item selection, and relic selection, I found to be a little convoluted. You can make your games much more satisfying, though, by learning how to use them properly.

If I had any complaints, it would be that the camera sometimes doesn’t do what you want it to do, and that running around corridors (which you do a lot of) can get a little dull at times. That said: the game has certain places where the enemies constantly spawn, so you can find those if you want to grind a little.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is more of a room-to-room type fighting game, than a slightly more open-ended adventure, like Castlevania on the Nintendo 64.

Every time those portcullis slam behind you in a room… You know you’re in for a fight. A fight that you must win to open those gates again.

More: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence on Wikipedia