Recommended Soundtracks: Castlevania Judgment

I've been at this "Recommended Soundtracks" feature for a little while, for almost precisely two months, in fact. It's been a lot of fun, and really the only part that proves a challenge is finding the tracks you want to use on Youtube or any other service. But I'm straying from the point here; the point of this seemingly-overwrought introduction is that for the two months I've been at this feature, I haven't featured a single Castlevania soundtrack. Not a one. And as someone who, as you may now, likes the series quite a bit, that's pretty disappointing.

But now is the time to rectify that by featuring one, and it's...a soundtrack to a game I haven't played. But that's probably not a bad thing. Castlevania Judgment has a dubious reputation of being a concept borne of good ideas with pitiful execution. Sure, it's nice that someone went ahead and designed a fighting (or fighting-esque?) game with some of the most popular characters, but that promise is completely shot when the final product is lacking. The character designs don't help either. While Takeshi Obata's designs are fine for his own works, those being Hikaru no Go and Death Note, a fit for Castlevania they certainly aren't. There's nothing like seeing your favorite characters in the franchise in barely recognizable and sometimes egregious form. And yes, that last bit goes for both the males and females.

The soundtrack is the only thing that really stands out about the game. It's incredible, and comes off as a glorified "best of" collection for individual, remixed Castlevania tracks. If you're a longtime Castlevania fan, the entire soundtrack is like a love letter addressed to you; there is a good chance that there's at least one of your favorite tracks here. Konami, and presumably series producer (or former producer?) Koji Igarashi (IGA), gathered some of the best composers they could. Yasushi Asada and Konami Kukeiha Club member Kenichi Matsubara may not be too familiar to Castlevania fans, but Michiru Yamane and Kinuyo Yamashita - who composed the soundtrack for the original NES Castlevania -- should be.

The soundtrack, unsurprisingly, contains remixes of some of the more popular tracks in the series. To be honest, tracks like Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer seriously didn't need another remix. Instead, I'd like to focus on tracks that haven't been remixed to death, either because they're from unpopular games or plain overlooked for some silly reason. This first one here is "The Wolf Revealed" from the mediocre Nintendo 64 Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness:


The second one we have is "Slash," remixed from the original track in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. This was also previously remixed for the remake on PSP, though it's not commonly referred to as one of the greatest tracks in Castlevania's history. That doesn't mean it's not as impressive as them, however:


The last one here is the arranged version of "Darkness of Fear," which is an original track from Judgment. The arranged version is comprised from the music from the opening, and the final boss' theme. It's also pretty great, and I hope it stays around a little longer:


I'm not sure what curse Castlevania has that makes all of its 3D titles misguided efforts, but something else they have in common is that they all have great soundtracks regardless of the composer(s). Judgment will be seen as a blight on the franchise for as long as it sticks around, and it may have been the game to cause Konami to wrestle control of the franchise from IGA. Hopefully his team can still make 2D games, which is where they seem to have their expertise. Anyway, this year's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will have orchestral remixes of Castlevania tracks from older titles, but hopefully it doesn't fall into the aforementioned trope.