I have created a list of my top ten favorite games of all time. This list is one of the most important lists I will make as it represents much of who I am as a gamer. To me, this is an extremely daunting list to create since, according to my excel spreadsheet, I’ve played an ongoing total of 338 games, having finished 176 of those games. This would mean that out of the 338 games, I would need to choose only ten of them. In order to cut down the number, create a varied list, and best depict what my favorite games of all time are, I will be setting out three rules for this list. Keep in mind, this is a personal list and it does not mean my list is better than anyone else’s.
The first rule is that I must have finished the game. While there are games I’ve played and haven’t finished that I think highly of, I don’t believe I should include them on my list. I feel that for my personal journey with a game to be complete, I need to finish the journey. The exception to this rule is if the game has no ending or is designed to never end.
The second rule is that I can only choose one game per series. This ensures I don’t have the entirety of this list consist of games from one series, mainly that of Final Fantasy and Zelda games. I want to best depict my relationship with the series, showing what is my favorite game of that series and how I view it.
The final rule is that series spin-offs would be considered part of that series if it’s close to its source material. However, if the spin-off is far removed from the main series, that game (or games, if there are multiple) would then be considered its own series of games. This is more of an organizational rule, both combining those spin-offs that are close to their source series and separating the spin-offs that gained their own identity.
Having laid out all the rules, I’d like to begin this series of posts with the tenth game on my list – Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. This is an action-adventure game where the player controls Leon Belmont, the very first Belmont in the main Castlevania timeline. Leon’s goal is to venture into a castle ruled by a vampire and rescue his fiancé, Sara. The game takes you through the events of how the Belmont clan came to have their generational battle against Dracula, how Dracula came to be, and how the legendary whip, the Vampire Killer, was created.
While not the first Castlevania game I played, it was the first that I beat and had gotten me into the series. I was too young to understand the plot, but I was drawn in by the gothic horror themed setting and the castle that housed the trials that Leon would face to save his beloved. I was equally drawn to Leon, the righteous protagonist of the story. He seemed to have no fear in the face of the terrors in the vampire’s castle. In fact, he would face them head on and defeat them all on his own.
The combination of the setting and Leon’s conviction are what made me love this game and all other Castlevania games I’d play afterwards. It’s that there were these horrible monsters of all kinds, from the Medusa to werewolves, from abominations of flesh to demons, and yet Leon would not hesitate to take them on all by himself just to save the love of his life. This fearlessness would carry over into every Belmont after him. The more time I spent with Leon, the more I grew fond of him. I wanted him to defeat the vampire and save Sara. I enjoyed the vistas of the castle and fighting the monsters of the castle. Despite there being very few human-like characters in the game, the castle was the greatest character this game had to offer.
As a game, this played a bit on the simple side. Its combat plays like a hack-and-slash game, except with very little depth. Leon’s primary weapon was a whip, with sub-weapons used as a consumable resource. The sub-weapons could change how they function based off the orbs Leon acquired after defeating the boss of an area within the castle. The game presented non-linear progression, allowing the player to tackle the five areas of the castle in any order they wanted to. Exploration of these areas would be rewarded with magical relics, armor, and elemental based whips. Once the bosses of these areas were defeated, the player could then take on the final area of the castle to face off against the vampire. Despite this being quite an easy and simple game, it proved a challenge to a young inexperienced Malykris.
The plot is extremely simple and minimalistic. You could go through the entirety of this game’s cutscenes in less than an hour. But I see the game’s journey not in its story, but in the experience of facing the trials of the castle – that experience is the story of both Leon and the player. However, there is one part of the game’s plot that is integral to why I love Leon’s story – the creation of the Vampire Killer, the signature weapon of the Belmont clan.
Leon’s story is not one of heroic victory, but of tragedy. In his attempt to save Sara, the vampire had bitten her. She was doomed to turn into a vampire. Wanting to use the last moments of her humanity to do something good, with the assistance of the alchemist Rinaldo, she implored Leon to use her life to create a weapon powerful enough to defeat the vampire, something Leon couldn’t do with his current whip. At the end, Sara’s soul was used to create the Vampire Killer. The very person Leon had saved, that he loved enough to face the hordes of hell, was no more. All that was left was to kill the vampire responsible. As a kid, I was faced with watching the hero fail in his quest for the first time.
One thing I left out of my initial description of the premise is Leon’s best friend Mathias, who was bedridden with depression after the death of his wife and was the one who told Leon about the vampire when Sara was kidnapped. After the defeat of the vampire, death appears and takes the vampire’s soul, offering it to Mathias, who orchestrated everything, from the vampire’s source of power to Sara’s kidnapping, to take revenge on God for taking the life of his wife. Upon taking the vampire’s soul, Mathias becomes a vampire and eventually becomes Dracula. Mathias then offers Leon the chance to join him and become immortal.
Leon’s response to Mathias is what stuck with me the most. There was deep emotion in his response that resonated with me, even to this day. He questioned Mathias’ flawed reasoning for becoming immortal. Mathias then asked if Leon killed the vampire out of hatred, just as Mathias became a vampire with hate in his heart. Leon confirmed that he truly did fight and kill the vampire with hatred. He didn’t hesitate or try to hide it; he accepted the fact that he had the sin of wrath within him. However, it was not hatred that drove him to kill the vampire – it was proving his love to Sara by ensuring no one else goes through what they went through. That was what solidified Leon as my favorite Belmont. This quest he thrust himself on was never about saving the world or ridding the world of evil or doing the right thing. This was about his love for Sara. It was always about Sara, even to the very end of the journey. Leon’s last line in his monologue is what hit the hardest. “An eternity without her would be nothing but emptiness.” Had she lived, maybe he would have answered differently. That sorrow is perfectly encapsulated in Leon’s musical theme.
I can recognize that the simple plot and gameplay of this tenth entry can be seen as enough to call this game mediocre. But to me, this is a game that holds a place in my heart because of Leon’s unending love for Sara and how despite everything, he would always fight for her. Deep down, I wanted to love someone with that same level of love and I admired him for finding someone who he could love with such power. That was the hopeless romantic side of me from back then.
As mentioned in my last post, I said I would indicate what item represents what I’ve taken away with me from a game that’s impacted me. However, I want to add one more part to this. I will be mentioning what I left behind in the game as that’s half of what my philosophy about games is all about.
What I left behind is the idea that the hero will always succeed because they are doing something noble, especially in the case of love. I was shown that, especially in real life, you could fight your hardest for the best things and still fail – that is part of the cruelty of life.
What I took with me and placed inside my metaphorical room is the Vampire Killer. Looking at the Vampire Killer, I think of Leon’s undying love for Sara and the sorrow that’s been inside it for ages. I’m aware that I am capable of loving someone so greatly and because of that, just as capable of the same deep sorrow the whip carries. It can be terrifying to think of such pain. I’d like to believe that the existence of that sorrow is a result of love continuing to persist even past the eternal life of Dracula.