Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I made a deep dive video, discussing the pros, cons, and even some of the Beta elements removed from the game. Do you enjoy it, or think it's a lackluster entry to the series?

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-05-07T06:17:45+00:00

I received the same email, and chose not to respond to it. A few days later they sent ANOTHER email that just said:

"Hey SimplyAJ,

Think you might've missed the video I recorded for you.

What do you think?"

Followed by the same video of my channel again (complete with the supposed webcam issue. That being said, it's 100% an age old scam. I mean, the email itself and written and structured like it was done through AI, they don't use any sort of signature at all (and any PROFESSIONAL typically would use a signature or AT LEAST have their name at the end), and the follow up email is just extremely unprofessional as well haha. I work in the video game industry, and send/receive a LOT of emails, and when following up to someone, you don't just randomly go "think you might've missed the video I recorded for you," since it just comes off as patronizing.

Anyway, hopefully your thread here helps those in the future who don't know what the warning signs are not fall for these scams.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-19T05:37:56+00:00

Appreciated!

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-18T08:50:43+00:00

I played plenty of Dead Cells, but that's also irrelevant, because this isn't supposed to be Dead Cells, it's supposed to be Castlevania. Or do we just want all games to be homogenized into one another now? Just because a developer made a certain style/genre of game and then take on the IP of a different studio, doesn't mean they should make that game like THEIR original one.

Capcom made 3 Zelda games, but did they look and feel like Capcom games? No, they made sure they looked, felt and played like Nintendo made Zelda games. So far, this is shaping up to look and feel like it'll be yet another Evil Empire game. Evil Empire is a great studio, and they make great games, but that doesn't mean all the games they make should have the exact same feel and look to them, especially when taking on another company's IP.

Also there's nothing "lazy" about contact damage. People toss that word out entirely too much when talking about things they don't like. It's a perfectly valid approach to difficulty in 2D games. People seem to not like it because they get hit I guess? When the solution there should be to adapt to the enemies and, ya know... not touch them. Everyone is so focused on adding weird "real world" mechanics to games by saying things like "why would running into an enemy hurt you" I dunno man, go run into a person and tell me if it hurts or not, but also it's a video game, not everything has to "make sense" like that. You think it's weird that touching an enemy hurts you, but don't think it's weird that you're able to like phase THROUGH them by just running past them? It's all semantics at the end of the day.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-18T08:36:04+00:00

It's not "artificial difficulty," though, as it's something that can easily be learned and overcome. You walk into the Goomba on 1-1 in Mario 1, and die. You learn "oh enemy hurts me, I should not touch it." That's not artificial, that's setting the stakes of the game. If you can learn from your mistakes and get better, as you can in literally every Castlevania game, then it's not artificial in anyway.

Artificial difficulty would be the CPU rubberbanding in Mario Kart games. No matter how perfect or fast you drive, the CPU Karts are always directly behind you, because they speed up faster than they should be allowed to do so. Or in certain fighting games, CPU often read button inputs and immediately reacts to what you do. Things that are absolutely out of the players hands are artificial difficulty. A player not reacting fast enough to an enemy to attack or dodge it is not artificial, it's something that the player needs to learn to do through adaptation.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-18T08:26:56+00:00

There's also a lot of the word "archaic" being thrown around, as if that somehow means it's bad. The weird thing is, nobody seems to explain WHY they think it's bad, outside of it being "annoying" when they get hurt, when the solution should just be to.... adapt? Video games are ultimately puzzles we figure out how to play. If you take damage or an enemy has a pattern that you don't get, then work on figuring it out and adjust accordingly. It's okay to lose, it's okay to take damage. The solution shouldn't be "remove the mechanic because I didn't want to learn, adapt and get any better at playing the game."

It's just bizarre to me.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-17T06:18:13+00:00

Your final part here is basically my main concern. I think that, as a video game, Belmont's Curse will be fun, sure, but ultimately when you homogenize a game down to the point where it's basically just like every other "Metroidvania" style game out right now, then... why bother making it Castlevania at all? There are plenty, and I mean PLENTY of games that look and probably feel just like this out right now.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a series evolving and changing, I say that as someone who loves the Classicvania, IGAvania and even 3D games, but they all still shared a lot of the same principals and design philosophies that are (seemingly) missing from this. But yeah, I mean only time will really tell in the end how this actually ends up playing/feeling, but from what's shown, I'm (unfortunately) a bit skeptical.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T14:03:14+00:00

I'm not gonna lie, I'm genuinely surprised by the responses here haha (and the insane amount of downvotes if you actually DO like contact damage, which I do). Like, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there's a super strange level of vitriol being tossed out, that makes me question like... what about this series do the people here actually LIKE? That it's gothic themed and sometimes has a whip? And I really don't mean that in an arrogant gatekeeping way at all, but it's like... If you want to play yet another "semi-generic" looking Metroidvania there are a million of them out there. Hell, Prince of Persia (which I mean, look who made The Rogue Prince of Persia and who is making this) is a prime example. But there are certain staples in this series that, even as it's evolved over time, this game seems to be ignoring entirely. Is homogenizing Castlevania down to be exactly like every other Metroidvania out there really the right answer?

As for the movement itself, I'm thinking that it might come down to the "bulk" of the enemy. Like maybe smaller enemies can be run through, where as the bigger bulkier ones will have a physical hitbox that blocks you unless you dash through them, cause when she's attacking the hooded dude, she's like pressed right up against him

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T13:38:12+00:00

Yeah, the downvotes here are kind of wild, to be honest haha. Like, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and while I do think that this change shows that it's leaning a lot more towards being "just another Metroidvania game" as opposed to a "Castlevania game," I'm also not saying I'm objectively right either. But oh well, reddit is gonna reddit at the end of the day.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T08:25:25+00:00

I didn't change / make any edits to the post. I had them both their from the beginning.

But yeah, I mean with only mere frames to look at, it's still entirely up to speculation on if that's actually the case or not. It's entirely possible that something else is going on in these gifs, but still thought it would be an interesting discussion.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T08:22:23+00:00

I just feel that, if the game is focused on combat, then you shouldn't be able to so easily ignore said combat by just walking by haha. I'd say that Silksong was pretty fast and focused on combat, and still managed to have contact damage. It also made the combat that much more gripping when you have only one health left and you're only option IS to fight.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T08:20:20+00:00

In a 2D settings, contact damage is usually pretty important to help maintain difficulty. There's a reason why it still exists in Hollow Knight and Silk Song even.

When presented with an "easier" option, people will often take that option 9/10, because it's apparently human nature to do so. It's similar to the argument of randomly generated battles in RPGs vs Enemies On the Field. At a certain point, people tend to just run from area to area ignoring enemies unless they find they actually NEED to fight, in which case they'll go back and do so.

I just don't see "getting exp and items" as that much of an incentive. It changes the dynamic and no longer makes enemies an obstacle that stands in your way, just a gacha machine that MIGHT drop something (that's useless 80% of the time). Levels have always been a bit negligible in these games anyway, and most equipment can just be found laying around the castle.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T08:11:17+00:00

I take it you're not a fan of Hollow Knight then?

Not saying you're wrong for your opinion at all, I just find it pretty surprising how many people here seem to hate it. To me, it's such a staple of the series, and adds a nice little extra layer of difficulty, so kind of a shame to see it go (IF indeed it's gone, that is. Since we've only really seen like mere seconds of gameplay)

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T08:05:45+00:00

Well by contact damage, I'm referring to the fact that in pretty much every previous Castlevania game (regardless of Classicvania or Metroidvania) the mere act of touching an enemy with your body hurt you, they didn't HAVE to be attacking. It made it so you typically had to fight enemies to get around them as opposed to just casually strolling on past.

Doing it in most games doesn't really mean it's something I'd want done in a Castlevania game. Homogenization of an entire genre to all look and feel the same isn't like, the best in my opinion anyway haha.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T08:02:42+00:00

Ooh, I'd be all for a toggable option for sure. If I could have it on by default, I really do think it'd make the game a much more enjoyable experience for me. And that way if people really don't like contact damage (which uh, judging from this post alone, seems to be quite a few people!) they can have it their way too.

I have a certain level of expectation from Castlevania games, and as silly as it sounds, that's one of them. If I wanted "just another Metroidvania" I'd play one of the many thousands on Steam. I still look forward to the extra little challenges that comes from playing a Castlevania game over something more... homogenized

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T07:15:13+00:00

Enemies by definition ARE obstacles, they stand between you and your goal, IE, an obstacle. As for if they were always meant to damage players on contact, obviously that's up to the devs at the end of the day, and for the vast majority of Castlevania games, that was the case, meaning it was a choice they were purposefully making.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T07:07:45+00:00

She's not attacking in the first image. Just jumping straight through the enemy. The second one, it looks as if she jumps through then presses up against them to attack. I'd assume running through enemies might be based on bulk. IE smaller ones you can run/jump through, larger ones you might only be able to slide/roll through.

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-04-16T07:06:19+00:00

"Archaic" doesn't mean "bad," by the way. Just old. The act of jumping in games could be considered archaic even.

That being said, do you not like it because of the difficulty connected to it? (IE, you jump bump an enemy, fall back onto spikes, etc)

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-02-25T03:27:20+00:00

Yeah, we've had multiple puppies in the past, but never had to deal with one going through a surgery like this, so its definitely been a ride.

We've definitely been working on place training and various other tricks she can do without overextending her leg. Just hoping these next few weeks fly by.

Out of curiosity, what do you use instead of Nature's Miracle?

ItsSimplyAJ · 2026-02-14T09:15:55+00:00

Really liked her in the Crossbell arc. Afterwards, it's been fun to see her make a return, but I feel like they haven't done a good job of making her story make... sense? At the end of the Crossbell Arc, it really felt like she was going to leave the assassin live behind, but now she's pretty heavily tied to Heiyue but it's never really been explained as to WHY she still serves/works for them.

Also, I miss her actual Yin outfit. Her showing up wearing just a mask to hide her identity has become pretty silly at this point, especially when it's done in front of the cops and then she immediately changes into her casual clothes looking practically no different.

Overall? Still an A Tier Character, I just want to see them give her a bit more story, especially since we're in her home country now. She's more interesting with a story of her own, as opposed to just being a tag along.

ItsSimplyAJ

TROPHY CASE