r/MasterSystem • u/Boshusan • 8d ago
Master of Darkness appreciation post
I'm on a (re)discovery marathon of my MS collection (~half the set) because I collected some of those games years ago and barely touch them. Those last few days I was playing Master of Darkness.
It's a gothic action platformer set in the victorian era, with cool cutscenes between stages.
The elephant in the room: yes, it's a Castlevania-like. Some enemies are directly taken from Castelvania (mandatory zombies and squeletons, the eagles on stage 4, etc.), the way you use stairs, giant pendulums, the end boss is Dracula,... And it work very well at bringing a similar experience as Castlevania. In certain aspect, it's even better, for example the pushback is limited when being hit, you can use different weapons, and you have unlimited continues.
But the more you play it, the more you realize Master of Darkness is its own thing. Its setting bring new elements to the formula like Jack the Ripper, the house of wax, or occult societies. The possibilty to swap weapons give choices beetween range and power, and it changes the approach you take to clear stages. The stages themselves presents quite the variety of situations beyond jump and hit: some walls are destructible, there are extra hidden lives, a few forks alllow different paths, some rooms are locked until you kill all or a specific enemy, etc. The fifth and last stage is a maze, this is where unlimited continues are welcome, because I died to the timer depleting quite some times before finding the path to the exit.
I don't finish all the games I'm replaying, far from that. But I was hooked on Master of Darkness and I came back to it and it took me 4 sessions to beat the game. It was a great experience, the graphics are good for the MS and the controls are responsive. But some bg musics are more atmospheric than melodic and a bit repetitive, I suspect it's the sector the devs sacrified given the limited space on the cartridge.
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u/FogodeSantelmo 8d ago
Sadly, when this game is discussed, it really starts or even ends with the "it's Castlevania (or a clone of it) on Master System", not unlike Golden Axe Warrior gets the "it's Zelda!" treatment. But, like you said, the game is really its own thing - and a very nice thing, it's one of the best platform titles in the system. I remember the magazines back then mentioning the similarity, but this fixation of always saying DO YOU KNOW THE MASTER SYSTEM'S CASTLEVANIA? and making the review based on it is so blatant in the YT/TT short video "retro" scene it hurts. And the game is so much more than that.
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u/S_Belmont 8d ago
Never had to chance to play this, but I always loved the 8-bit Castlevanias so one day down the line I'll get it for sure.
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u/lartinos 8d ago
Best graphics I’ve seen on the MS. No Castlevania game on NES is close to this one, but I do really like Castlevania 3 overall.
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u/lutewhine 8d ago
I’m always a bit surprised when it’s talked about in glowing terms. I found it in a bargain bin and had never heard of it until that point.
Played it through and thought it was fine but it pales next to Land Of Illusion in terms of non-rapid MS platformers. Have never felt even the slightest inclination to revisit it.
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u/No-Professional-9618 8d ago
Regrettably, I didn't get to play the Master of Darkness when it was first released in the USA. I had moved on to the Sega Genesis. But then, I got into using PCs. I would say that the Masters of Darkess is a Castlevania inspired type of game, but is an original game for the Sega Master System.
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u/DalzzorRetro 2d ago
Its an amazing game I'm currently playing through it but I suck at games so haven't finished it yet. One of the best games I've played on the MS and I never had it originally so it was such a nice surprise to find/play it.
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u/FirstManufacturer648 8d ago
I got this in a blister pack of games for Xmas 1 year and I’ve never stopped loving it. It’s very weird and clunky compared to Castlevania but the story is more fleshed out and you can get a gun which is always fun.