The Haunted Hoard: Master of Darkness (Master System)

Video game developers can benefit immensely from looking back on the games that came before theirs to find out what works and what doesn’t, with many of the greatest games built off the backs of the success and failures of other titles. It is through drawing inspiration from older games that we can continue to create more refined titles, and I would never outright condemn the practice of building off of the work of those that came before you. Despite all this, it’s impossible to ignore just how blatant Sega’s imitation of the popular NES title Castlevania is, but this actually ends up working in this game’s favor. By polishing up the gameplay formula of Castlevania and fixing some of its issues, Master of Darkness actually manages to provide what could have been a good sequel to the game instead of a competitor’s clone.

Master of Darkness, known as Vampire: Master of Darkness for the somewhat inferior Game Gear port that has some screen size issues, immediately reveals it has the same basic set-up as Castlevania, with the player tasked with taking down Dracula, but it does do a few things to differentiate it storywise, one of those being the inclusion of a few story scenes that appear over the course of the game. A psychologist named Dr. Social has learned that someone is trying to revive the legendary vampire and sets off to stop them before its too late, trekking across Victorian England and gradually learning more and more about who is behind the ritual. Already there are supernatural forces trying to stand in the way of his goal, with Dr. Social facing a mix of evil wildlife and common horror monsters on his quest to stop the count’s resurrection. Zombies, skeletons, and spirits are joined by bats, dogs, and falcons, with the animals perhaps being the bigger threat oddly enough for their speed and movement patterns. Bats especially can have strange flight patterns that can be predicted despite their seemingly erratic nature, with the falcons proving to be even more dangerous for their speed and shifting attack paths. Most enemies will try to move towards your or fire an attack in your direction when they spot you, their behavior tied to your position, so you can have a good idea of how they will approach you once you’re acquainted with the enemy type and respond appropriately.

 

Working hand in hand with the enemies are the level designs, and Master of Darkness has some pretty detailed environments that play into their level theme. The wax museum has many still figures in the background, some popping out to strike after you pass them by, and the clock tower has rhythmic moving platforms to account for in your climb up to the top. Climbing is actually a fairly common level theme in this game, as there are plenty of areas that are designed as multi-screen ascents. Here we see two improvements from the Castlevania design, the first being that Dr. Social is able to jump off staircases and attack while on them pretty easily, and if he falls down a hole that should logically connect to an area below, he’ll fall down into it, losing progress rather than losing a life. There are some instant death pits he can fall into in areas still, with the levels including other dangers such as spikes to still encourage some careful platforming. Again, we see another improvement here, that being you can control Dr. Social’s jump some after the initial button press commitment, something the game even flaunts in areas that actually require such mid-air movement to progress. Most platforming danger does, as a result, come not from the jumping itself but mostly from the enemies guarding the area you’re heading to with the jump, trying to attack you to drain health or make you fall. Thankfully, they don’t push you backwards too far when a hit lands, so a little bit of error is allowed. The game even has a few rooms that lock you in with repeatedly spawning enemies that aim to challenge your ability to dodge them while fighting back, with a few late game rooms even adding a puzzle of an enemy sequestered off in a safer spot that you need to kill to escape. Perhaps the only area where the level design lets the game down some is the final level, a labyrinth where floors repeat as you move through them, the player needing to find a secret way to break the loop with a level timer ticking down to make it harder than it needs to be. Again, just like its inspiration, Master of Darkness has normal looking walls that can be broken open, although here you can get health from other areas as well and these broken walls can sometimes be the way onward rather than just a secret treat.

To fight your foes in Master of Darkness, you begin with fairly dinky dagger with little range that can only do a tiny bit of damage. However, by destroying floating masks around the levels, you can find three new main weapons to use, those being a slightly stronger rapier with much more reach, a cane that is somehow stronger than the rapier, and the strongest weapon being an axe that has fairly little range with its swing. Interestingly enough, the range and strength differences can lead to the player preferring different weapons for different situations despite there being a clear progression of strength to follow. The cane and rapier are safer for hitting enemies with due to their length, and with many fast-moving foes, it can help to be able to strike at them before they are too close. The axe, however, is the clear strongest, and what might take two strikes to kill with the weaker weapons will be instantly vanquished by a well-placed axe strike. A death will send you back to the start of the level with your default knife again, so sometimes which one you use might just come down to which weapon you can find on your quest, a trait shared with the subweapons you can also find inside masks. Your second weapon slot can carry one of four of these limited use items, with each one having their own perks as well. The gun is a weak projectile weapon but it has a slow and reliable shot, with its commonness excusing the fact that thrown stakes are a straight up strength upgrade to the gun that only appears in the late stages. The boomerangs are a bit stronger but less reliable because of their oddly quick turn back towards their thrower, and the bombs are tossed in an upward arc, so depending on what you find more useful or if you have some foreknowledge of a tricky enemy or boss ahead, you can pick up the weapon you think will aid you most in the level. These are essentially using a similar system to Castlevania’s subweapons, right down to the fact you must hold up when you press attack to fire them, but they run on limited ammo that is replenished through picking up more of it rather than hearts, a system that seems a bit easier to understand for new players.

 

The last object that might help in combat is a room-clearing jewel that sometimes appears, and it had a tendency to crop up in the places with the more annoying enemies like the poltergeists who manifest as tiny and quick knives spinning around the room. While it is a relief to grab these items and clear out pesky enemies, this does tie to perhaps the one thing that Master of Darkness didn’t improve on from Castlevania, and that’s the difficulty, although its issue is that it made the game easier rather than harder. Rigid controls may no longer be an issue, but it also comes with less of a need to approach enemies carefully. You have quite a lot of health to weather foes still, but you have the means to dodge them as well. Being easier doesn’t make Master of Darkness worse by any stretch, but it does effect some things like its boss fights. Master of Darkness has few of these bigger battles and the early ones are almost a bit too simple, but the later fights do manage to get a bit more dangerous as bosses speed up and fire more attacks at the player. It’s possible that the game didn’t want to punish a player who ended up with a weaker weapon in the earlier battles, but since a Game Over only leads to a level reset, it could have gotten away with making these early fights a touch tougher.

THE VERDICT: Master of Darkness doesn’t just wear its Castlevania influence on its sleeve, it wears it proudly across its entire wardrobe. However, by building from the template of the older title, Master of Darkness can make adjustments that fix its issues and emphasize its strengths. Varied level designs can house quick and aggressive enemies because of smooth movement controls, and the main character’s arsenal of weapons isn’t just a straight climb of upgrades but a selection of options that players can pick from to match their play style. At times it is a bit too easy because the player can respond to trouble pretty well, but it can still stand shoulder to shoulder with its more challenging inspiration since its improvements allow for some diverse stage design to shine.

 

And so, I give Master of Darkness for the Sega Master System…

A GREAT rating. Quite fittingly, if you draw from greatness and aim to improve on it, you tend to come out pretty good yourself. While it does remedy some common complaints about the original Castlevania’s design, it’s not the kind of full on evolution of the game that could push it to greater heights, the game losing some of its punch in the process of giving the player more power. Still, the options for what powers you can use and the risks you take in using them can make for some challenging moments, and the levels, despite not often testing you too hard on platforming prowess, do place the enemies precariously to still make moving around them interesting.

 

While it might have sacrificed some individuality by drawing on another game’s design so blatantly, Master of Darkness proves that it had some excellent ideas to justify it. It’s not truly its own unique beast, but a game’s quality is not truly dependent on how fresh or original it is, and even though its roots are obvious, Master of Darkness does bring some new ideas to the formula that allow it to succeed at being enjoyable just like its inspiration.