Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Classic Castlevania Threads => Topic started by: Ratty on July 04, 2012, 02:36:29 PM
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What it says on the tin.
PS- D'Oh, meant the last option to say "Specify N64, IGA or Cox era."
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Classic all the way :) I am kind of full right now so I can't say why right now to much food gotta jog soon and work it off :-[
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While I will enjoy a good metroidvania whenever I get the craving, my mind will always go back to the Classicvanias.
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I Love Classic.
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While I do love the classic games a lot, I have to admit the act of exploring is something I enjoy the most.
I do however feel that the RPG elements could be toned down, and end up ruining any sort of classic challenge the games could have.
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Hard choices but I went with both.
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Depends on the mood, really. Plummeting to your pixellated doom is a different animal from grinding wargs for souls. Do I prefer chocolate meringue pie, or steak? YES.
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I like them both as long as it keeps the castlevania mood and surroundings.
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Both. They're both great game genres.
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Both, and even 3D games (N64, IGA, LoS).
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I like the branching paths style of classicvania best. I find it to be the most fun and with a few collectables thrown in like in DXC it hella fun.
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Classic, easily. The Metroidvania games are fun, and I always replay them, but they don't quite have the lasting appeal of the Classicvania games for me. Also, I like how the storylines were more concise in the classic games.
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I love them both, but I have very little time to get invested in lengthy games lately, so right now I prefer the "pick-up-and-play" style of the classics
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SOTN belongs up there with the best, but beyond that...the Classicvanias win, hands-down.
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I really do enjoy both of them equally... There's a reason I enjoying playing Castlevania... it's not because it's centered around hunting Dracula, the most powerful and pimp of all vampires, or that you're playing as a manly man in a leather skirt using a whip, or that it constantly references Tolkien and a lot of religious legends, though these do help... It's because it's so ridiculously fun.
The Classicvanias offer the one thing I want in a video game: a very fun challenge. I haven't beaten a single one yet except Dracula X Chronicles, yet I keep going back and playing them... when I play a classic action game, I want to die a lot, I wish to game over constantly, just so that beating the game actually feels like an accomplishment.
Metroidvanias aren't as challenging, no, but the same extremely fun gameplay is still there. Yet they do something else for me: they add variety to the gameplay... And when you get extremely powerful leveling up, they do something else for me: they make me feel powerful. I enjoy working my butt off to get the most powerful weapon just to use it and feel very accomplished while using it. It pays off. Yeah, you have to grind in Metroidvanias, but to me, destroying undead never gets old. And if I feel I need a challenge out of the game, I can just play as the hidden character or an alternate mode, which in every Metroidvania I played, is always awesome and badass when you're playing it, but you also almost always die in about 5-8 hits, which it then starts to test your very skill at the game, which I enjoy so much.
I've also played Curse of Darkness, which I enjoyed it about as much and for the same reason I enjoy the Metroidvanias, so I won't go on much there.
The other 3Dvania I played was Lords of Shadow, and I couldn't find much fun with the game because the combat system wasn't that good IMO... It just wasn't as fun; My whip's power never got stronger, so it was challeging... but when I'm practically spending a minute or two just to kill one minor enemy, and then they swarm you, the challenge doesn't feel fun... That was really my main problem with that game, and for right now that's all I'll say about it...
Lord of Shadow aside, for every Castlevania game I play, if I'm not haven't fun while playing it, then I must be doing something wrong.
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when I play a classic action game, I want to die a lot, I wish to game over constantly
LOL! Is this why you haven't finished them yet?
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ClassicVania forever.
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....A little bit of both.
I would rather the games have a decent balance between classic style and IgaVania. IE the contols are actually smooth and not so stiff, but the game progresses stage-by-stage without the need of leveling. OoE and COTM were the closest things we had to getting that balance. Sadly, COTM was even more stiff than the Classicvania's and OoE had no whip-using characters to spare.
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I would rather the games have a decent balance between classic style and IgaVania. IE the contols are actually smooth and not so stiff, but the game progresses stage-by-stage without the need of leveling.
I would have to say that SCV4 is the contender for this decryption.
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I enjoy it all. I really don't care as to format.
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Both. They're both great game genres.
This.
If the gameplay is different, then the atmosphere better hold true.
If the atmosphere is already holding true then being more experimental with the atmosphere is more acceptable.
In either case, if they somehow made a Castleroid with the difficulty of the Classicroids it would be a beautiful sight.
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In either case, if they somehow made a Castleroid with the difficulty of the Classicroids it would be a beautiful sight.
Like a CotM with pits of doom? lol
On topic: Both, but a mix between the two like Havatchu said would be pretty cool and nostalgic.
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Like a CotM with pits of doom? lol
On topic: Both, but a mix between the two like Havatchu said would be pretty cool and nostalgic.
I had Circle of the Moon, but I found it lacking, the backgrounds were dull, it was dark as shit, even with a GBA SP, and the platform ascension was god awful.
Best thing about it was DSS, and the game didn't even explain how to activate it properly, I didn't have a manual.
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I had Circle of the Moon, but I found it lacking, the backgrounds were dull, it was dark as shit, even with a GBA SP, and the platform ascension was god awful.
Best thing about it was DSS, and the game didn't even explain how to activate it properly, I didn't have a manual.
Yeah, but Im not talking about the graphics, I mentioned it because of the difficulty.
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I didn't find it that hard. Only the arena was a PitA.
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I didn't find it that hard. Only the arena was a PitA.
But it still harder than any MetroidVania, atleast to me (I dont have played OoE yet).
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I didn't find it that hard. Only the arena was a PitA.
Same deal for me. I have to grind just to even stand a chance going through there. But you do get the best armor in the game as a reward so it's worth it.
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I had Circle of the Moon, but I found it lacking, the backgrounds were dull, it was dark as shit, even with a GBA SP, and the platform ascension was god awful.
Best thing about it was DSS, and the game didn't even explain how to activate it properly, I didn't have a manual.
I have to disagree. I'd say it rivals AoS at times to be the best of the bunch. It's a great balance of classic difficulty with metroidvania exploration, plus its soundtrack is like a remixed "best of" for the entire series. I played it on the original GBA (my SP was lost for several years*) and it's true that you have to play it in actual direct sunlight. But the color scheme is fitting and they went way way overboard trying to "fix" this problem in dissonance.
I've since tried it on the GCN GB player and the detailing is fine I think, the only real problem as far as graphics goes imo is the somewhat limited frames of character animation, but as a launch title that's understandable.
*Well more like I continually found the adapter then lost the unit, then found the unit after having lost the adapter.
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As for the lack of animated frames, I believe the likely cause was that they did not use on the fly transferred memory for sprites.
Basically what this means is, all the frames of animation were loaded into vram for Nathan's standard moves, and his currently selected DSS configuration. Vram is limited, so they could not do many frames, especially with all the enemies and other stage entities along with it per each room.
This is contrary to say, Aria of Sorrow. In Aria, the way they did it was by real time transference. Essentially, they reserved a small space in ram for Soma's currently displaying frame of animation. That space in vram was overwritten with the new current frame of animation, whenever it would change. This makes the frames of animation virtually unlimited (save for cart space). This also saves a lot fo vram space. The downside is that it takes ROM loading time, and isnt ideal to use multiple of. Enemies are still loaded all at once mode like Nathan from CotM.
Harmony of Dissonance took a middle road, in where it loaded all the frames needed for the current playing animation (generally) and swapped out when the next animation would start.
AoS and HoD employ a vram management technique that goes back a long time. I noticed Megaman 5 uses a similar technique to HoD. Oddly though Megaman 6 went back to the standard all frames loaded at once.
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I chose both. The classics had a higher difficulty, while the Metroid-style games had more exploration imo. Both have a good amount of replayability to me.
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I like both, but I usually fall on the side of Classicvania. Part of this is because I feel the Metroidvanias failed to evolve much. Where most of the Classicvanias tried something fresh with each new outing- Simon's Quest experimented with RPG elements and open exploration, Dracula's Curse had 3 characters and branching paths, etc, Symphony was kind of the zenith of the Metroidvania style, and the later ones tended to be (while still good) rather pale imitations aiming to ape its success.
As for 3D 'Vanias...I like the N64 games, even though they have their flaws. I enjoyed playing LoI. Never played CoD, and didn't really enjoy LoS.
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grab a whip and go style works for me so im going to say classic!
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inverteddungeon.com%2Fthecvattic%2FMy%2520Documents%2FMy%2520Pictures%2Fcv-heroes.jpg&hash=fc3f33f5200db50de51f6da1d4932359)
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Any vania as long as it is not 3d.
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The Metroidvanias had some fun enemies (excluding Simon's Quest). But I guess maybe that falls under Igavania. The first time I saw a Skeleton Waiter I died laughing. And after a while Student Witch grew on me. And who can forget using Persephone's soul power on herself? :P
But god, they're so damned boring and repetitive and usually pretty damned easy.
So still loving the Classicvania.
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I've always preferred Classicvania; I have SotN and the GBA trilogy but none of them have seen much play at all. I guess a lot of it is down to nostalgia. The image of Simon Belmont thrashing the hell out of haunted suits of armour and dodging those infernal Medusa heads in CV1 will forever be burned into my brain. I will always see Belmonts as badass barbarian-type warriors - I personally hate the anime-style artwork in the Metroidvanias, although the gameplay can be just as much fun as Classicvania games, I will admit, I can't seem to get past the reVamped (see what I did there?) art style because to me Castlevania has always been about more than just gameplay - what drew me to the series first and foremost was the atmosphere (especially in the first three games) and that's what makes CV so special to me.
I do acknowledge that the series most probably did need to evolve in order to survive this long, but I will always be waiting with baited breath for the next Castlevania to be the one that recaptures that atmosphere of the first three. I had high hopes for Lords Of Shadow, and although it was an awesome game in it's own right, there were only a precious few hints that I was actually playing a Castlevania game (the best of which was hearing "Vampire Killer" in the music box level).
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I do acknowledge that the series most probably did need to evolve in order to survive this long, but I will always be waiting with baited breath for the next Castlevania to be the one that recaptures that atmosphere of the first three. I had high hopes for Lords Of Shadow, and although it was an awesome game in it's own right, there were only a precious few hints that I was actually playing a Castlevania game (the best of which was hearing "Vampire Killer" in the music box level).
I love both styles, the goofiness of the old art has a special place in my heart, but Ayami Kojima's work is hauntingly beautiful. Sadly I don't think we're likely to see another series game in the vein of the first 3 or Kojima style again. :(
But particularly when it comes to the first 3, the atmosphere and art of those those games is so much a product of the time. Back when horror movies from the 30s and 40s were still relevant to the popular culture at large* and long haired 80's style barbarians weren't such a thing of the past. I think at this point the best chance to see games with this same feel would be to watch the Indie game scene.
*Largely thanks to the TV tradition of playing these old movies late at night from the 50s to the late 80s, something that basically died with the rise of infomercials. At least this is how these films stayed widely viewed and relevant in America. Whether a similar setup was the case in Japan, with the popularity of the Hammer remakes reigniting interest in the originals, or simply the monster mash movies continued relevance in the states "rubbing off" on Japanese culture I couldn't say.
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I can't say for sure.. I like almost all Castlevanias for many different reasons. My all-time favorites are Simon's Quest and Order of Ecclesia. But I wouldn't call SQ "MetroidVania". The game is unique in the series. Neither classic, nor metroid-like (but, of course, it has elements of both). The same goes for "Vampire Killer" (MSX).
My choice is "I really enjoy them both equally.". Also 3dVanias. Especially Legacy of Darkness on Nintendo 64. 4 different scenarios! Dracula who can easily destroy your mind, using all of his attacks at once. And who can forget the "Nitro level"?! There is only one word to describe this madness - awesome! :)
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I said both since there wasn't an option for Classicvania and N64-vania. :P Though a nice Metroidvania is good on the side as well.
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I love both styles, the goofiness of the old art has a special place in my heart, but Ayami Kojima's work is hauntingly beautiful. Sadly I don't think we're likely to see another series game in the vein of the first 3 or Kojima style again. :(
But particularly when it comes to the first 3, the atmosphere and art of those those games is so much a product of the time. Back when horror movies from the 30s and 40s were still relevant to the popular culture at large* and long haired 80's style barbarians weren't such a thing of the past. I think at this point the best chance to see games with this same feel would be to watch the Indie game scene.
*Largely thanks to the TV tradition of playing these old movies late at night from the 50s to the late 80s, something that basically died with the rise of infomercials. At least this is how these films stayed widely viewed and relevant in America. Whether a similar setup was the case in Japan, with the popularity of the Hammer remakes reigniting interest in the originals, or simply the monster mash movies continued relevance in the states "rubbing off" on Japanese culture I couldn't say.
I think that, sadly, you are right. I also doubt whether we will ever see anything in the style of CV 1-3 (I'd include IV as well) - it really is wishful thinking on my part :)
I would say that artwork-wise, Lords Of Shadow was a huge step in the "right" (in my opinion) direction. It looks a lot more like the Castlevania I grew up obsessing about (i.e. it doesn't look like Manga) but doesn't feel like much like Castlevania.
I am kind of stuck in the 80's though, all of my favourite music is 80's Metal, so maybe that explains it...haha
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Though I enjoy all the games from CV1 to OoE, I'll go with MetroidVania, since it defines everything I love in a game or in general.
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I like all of them, prefering a 2D gameplay. I like the 3D ones too, but I didnt played them too much.
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Lords of shadows.