Topic: The Big Question: ClassicVania or MetroidVania

[X]

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?

[Dremn]

ClassicVania forever.

[NeoLiza]

....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.

[X]

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.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I enjoy it all. I really don't care as to format.

[Havatchu]

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.

[Lelygax]

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.

[Havatchu]

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.

[Lelygax]

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.

[Dalles]

I didn't find it that hard. Only the arena was a PitA.

[Lelygax]

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).

[X]

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.

[Ratty]

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.

[uzo]

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.

[CircleBoi6]

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.