Topic: The first sign rises with the full moon.

[KaZudra]

If you're asking when Bloodstained will release, IGA is shooting for the first half of 2018. There is more information Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuTZMMsUwY4

Soon, I will return.

"soon"
7 Months later...

[VladCT]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/posts/1795308
A couple new enemies, a harpy-type and a wolf-type. Also...

[zangetsu468]

A couple new enemies, a harpy-type and a wolf-type.

The Harpy looks okay. They need to get rid of the SMB 3DS black outline from around the wolf, it's not doing any favours.

[affinity]

You know, you're the first person I have personally encountered to share this viewpoint with me. CVII had flaws of course, but it also had some really great bits that made it stand out among its CV bretheren, even to this day, such as early world building. It felt more engrossing for us to be able to see the people & homes Simon had risked it all to protect. Well, to me anyway. Granted, this wasn't some terribly deep character development, but for 1988, on the NES, it wasn't bad. I was tickled that they revisited this bit with OoE & had more socializing along with the "morning sun vanquishing the horrible night" throwback. The original line from CVII is actually the engraving on the back of my tablet. :3

there's so much they can do with the CVII formula.  and it was totally original.  yea it was ok for SOTN to copy some things from Super Metroid to make it better, though NES really had nothing similiar to CVII.  they totally revolutionized Castlevania in lots of innovative and more immersive ways.

ah if they made a Castlevania like that, they could add character creation like Dark Souls (but with quality Castlevania/Bloodstained character designs and aesthetics), let players primary whip, sword or magic,  and make their own builds and stuff.    yea there's a lot of cool things to improve the formula, but yea CVII really has a lot of exciting things it introduced, way ahead of its time.   if it had a complete IGAvania sized castle filled bosses and secrets, it would be even more epic.

[affinity]

what if Bloodstained alternate plot twist is that it's all an illusion and its really a gothic war between humans and questionable food?     it could be homage to one of the Contra Hard Corps alternate paths. 

Die muffin, you don't belong in the kitchen.
It is not by my hand that I am once again baked fresh.
I was called here by humans who wish to satisfy cravings.
Cravings?!? You steal people's health and make them obese.
Perhaps the same could be said of all desserts.
Your words are as empty as your calories.
People ill needs sustenance such as you.
What is a person?!?
*throws rolling pin*
A miserable little pile of gluten!!
But enough talk, have a bite!!

[Dremn]

I like the harpy and wolf designs a lot

can't believe though it's been like, two years and we still haven't gotten a substantial trailer for the game, if only they didn't run into the roadblock with Inticreates awhile back...

[Claimh Solais]

there's so much they can do with the CVII formula.  and it was totally original.  yea it was ok for SOTN to copy some things from Super Metroid to make it better, though NES really had nothing similiar to CVII.  they totally revolutionized Castlevania in lots of innovative and more immersive ways.

I mean

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was extremely similar.

And overall, just a better game. (though good god some of the later parts were absolute trash)

It's worth mentioning that innovation does not always make a good game. Castlevania II had a LOT of great ideas for its time, but it was too held back by the system's hardware to really deliver it, not to mention the game still played very similarly to the first game, despite being structured completely differently.

I don't totally agree with Egoraptor's Sequelitis on CV2 (particularly, his rants about "durr traveling is dumb") and all that, but he did hit a lot of points on the head with that game. It's open-ended-ness should have provided faster-paced gameplay to accompany the large world to explore. Faster movement, more fluid jump controls, faster attacking, etc., all of which Zelda II provided.

That's not to put Zelda II on a pedastal though. Good game for its time, but man, a lot of the later sections are garbage.

[zangetsu468]

I mean

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was extremely similar.

And overall, just a better game. (though good god some of the later parts were absolute trash)

It's worth mentioning that innovation does not always make a good game. Castlevania II had a LOT of great ideas for its time, but it was too held back by the system's hardware to really deliver it, not to mention the game still played very similarly to the first game, despite being structured completely differently.

The two are similar in the sense that the world is open and you can explore and there's towns(hubs), villagers, both are action/ combat platformers with rpg elements.
But Zelda II's gameplay is horseshit compared to CVII when you compare both games against their predecessors.

CVII's issue was in its direction and flow being hampered by obscurity. If the game was played from the get-go as it was intended, the red crystal warp actually saves a lot of time when traversing the map.

It's also fair to say if either game were remade today, there'd be a warping system, save points and a world map, just like Skyward Sword and OOE had.

That's not to put Zelda II on a pedastal though. Good game for its time, but man, a lot of the later sections are garbage.

Like which sections, the valley of death? It's the later sections that actually give it its challenge. The only more frustrating part of the game imho is when you have to go in and out of the caves, hearing the sfx and music stop start again and again is incredibly relentless and worthy of a migraine.

[X]

Faster movement, more fluid jump controls, faster attacking, etc., all of which Zelda II provided.

Actually Simon's controls were improved in CVII. He is slightly faster, though his jump is still about the same, and his attack is a lot faster. With one single attack in CV I could pull off about two in CV II. If I were jump attacking then I could easily pull off two.

[Claimh Solais]

Actually Simon's controls were improved in CVII. He is slightly faster, though his jump is still about the same, and his attack is a lot faster. With one single attack in CV I could pull off about two in CV II. If I were jump attacking then I could easily pull off two.

Fair enough, I guess I'll chalk it up to me not noticing. CV2 is one of the games I replay the least.
Still, though, I feel the game's mechanics don't really work for the kind of game it was going for. It still played like it was the stilted, stiff, super-hard original game, but it was structured like an adventure game. Simon's movement didn't compliment the level design, and this is especially noticeable in the areas with platforming.

Zelda II also gave you the ability to attack both upwards and downwards, which would have been a nice addition in CV2.

I still think the mansion levels were the best parts of CV2, though I could do without the holy water spam to get through them.

[zangetsu468]

Zelda II also gave you the ability to attack both upwards and downwards, which would have been a nice addition in CV2.

They should have included the axe in CVII, it would've solved a lot of issues, particularly with enemies attacking from above. The subweapons were not what they were in CVI.

I still think the mansion levels were the best parts of CV2, though I could do without the holy water spam to get through them.

Holy water spam was bad, I agree.

[Claimh Solais]

They should have included the axe in CVII, it would've solved a lot of issues, particularly with enemies attacking from above. The subweapons were not what they were in CVI.

Holy water spam was bad, I agree.

Why they removed the axe but gave us three variants of the dagger I'll never know. Like you said, the axe would have fixed a lot of the game's issues.

I thought the holy water spam to find fake blocks was just bad design. If it were the blocks crumbling instead, and you had like a rock to drop on them to break it, that would have been a little better. I know a lot of dungeon crawlers do stuff like that. It's not as much of an issue in those games because once it's broken, it stays broken, so after you fall through, you know where the fake block is/was.

[PFG9000]

I mean

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was extremely similar.

And overall, just a better game. (though good god some of the later parts were absolute trash)

It's worth mentioning that innovation does not always make a good game. Castlevania II had a LOT of great ideas for its time, but it was too held back by the system's hardware to really deliver it, not to mention the game still played very similarly to the first game, despite being structured completely differently.

I don't totally agree with Egoraptor's Sequelitis on CV2 (particularly, his rants about "durr traveling is dumb") and all that, but he did hit a lot of points on the head with that game. It's open-ended-ness should have provided faster-paced gameplay to accompany the large world to explore. Faster movement, more fluid jump controls, faster attacking, etc., all of which Zelda II provided.

That's not to put Zelda II on a pedastal though. Good game for its time, but man, a lot of the later sections are garbage.

I don't think you can really say Zelda II is extremely similar to CV2.  CV2 was one giant interconnected sidescrolling world, just like Metroid.  Zelda II was a series of sidescrolling levels connected by an overworld.  To me, that's a huge difference right there.  Zelda II had magic spells and sidequests, or at least the illusion of sidequests.  Even the basic gameplay is pretty different - Castlevania and the NES Ninja Gaidens feel more similar than Castlevania and Zelda II.  There are similarities, sure.  But to call them extremely similar is a pretty big stretch.

[X]

If it were the blocks crumbling instead, and you had like a rock to drop on them to break it, that would have been a little better.

Or they could have simply kept the whip-smashing like in the rest of the series. But for the sake of CVII's RPG-ing, the game allows you to break blocks only after you get your hands on the chain whip (which is not all that far into the game. I just skip the thorn whip and go straight for the chain whip. Saves time and hearts too).

[zangetsu468]

Why they removed the axe but gave us three variants of the dagger I'll never know. Like you said, the axe would have fixed a lot of the game's issues.

I thought the holy water spam to find fake blocks was just bad design. If it were the blocks crumbling instead, and you had like a rock to drop on them to break it, that would have been a little better. I know a lot of dungeon crawlers do stuff like that. It's not as much of an issue in those games because once it's broken, it stays broken, so after you fall through, you know where the fake block is/was.

It seems to me that pretty much all of CVII's issues were fixed by CVIII, by making it more like CVI. Why Australia never got a PAL release at the time, I'll never know.