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Use the "["youtube"]" "["/youtube"]" (sans the doublequotes), and in between the tags, just add the Youtube Tag. That's the tag that in the Youtube URL shows up after the 'v='. It's usually just a bunch of letters and numbers, but it is sure to work!
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2
Fan Stuff / Re: CASTLEVANIA THE LECARDE CHRONICLES II April 2017
« Last post by Aceearly1993 on April 19, 2025, 08:50:27 PM »important info had been added on readme of the rework project following more maintenances.
https://github.com/katriellucas/lecarde-2/releases/tag/v1.5.7
https://github.com/katriellucas/lecarde-2/releases/tag/v1.5.7
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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: participate in the Castlevania series
« Last post by LuxKiller65 on April 19, 2025, 06:36:49 AM »I dived back into LoS1 (PS3) yesterday in order to finish it 100% (I still miss a lot of trials and hardest difficulty level trophies). It's not the first time I drop it and come back to it later, and it's incredible how the same exact flaws and tediousness come back to me like a wave of liquid excrement with the same exact smell and taste each and every time.
The game is terrible and a miserable experience for so many reasons. Here are some that really stick out every single time I play the thing:
- Fixed camera angles that force you to walk in all directions all the time, especially toward the screen, for no good reason, which make you want to scream "Please make this as short as possible so I can see again where I am going."
- Transitions between camera angles don't adjust the direction where you are going, so you are constantly correcting your stick because every few meters the camera changes and so does the north of the stick.
- Pointless, useless, boring, unintersting and incredibly slow climbing of old building and cliffs up and down, all the darn time. You will not believe how many times you will climb the same exact structure of cliff where you have to make a short L turn behind a waterfall (sometimes without a waterfall), and then jump to your back, and then go behind another short L turn.
- Fantastic key mapping that cannot be customised. For example, L2 that shares blocking and evading. Or climbing controls where you jump UP by pushing the stick up, and you jump down by pressing X. Also while climbing, jumping to your back does not require pushing the stick to the correct direction, but jumping sideways does.
- Collecting orbs to refill your blue/red gauge by pressing down the L3 and R3 stick respectively is a massive annoyance. Yeah they had no choice but to have 2 buttons for this, since orbs are neutral and fill a gauge depending on the button you press. Also, statues that refill your gauges require pressing both buttons and refill at a slow pace. It takes ages, especially when you have the extra gauge unlocked to its fullest potential. And of course checkpoints usually come just before a statue, so you will waste extra time every single time if you die and want to try again.
- QTE all the darn time. No comment. Miss a QTE and 25% of the enemy/boss HP comes back. It's really wonderful and I am sure everybody in the team was so proud of this decision. You can choose between "press any button at the right time" QTE or "mash the specific button as fast as possible" QTE. The QTE sometimes happen several times during battles at basically random moments that are not even aligned with something special going on on screen. It's absolutely miserable when you know that sooner or later, your fighting will be stopped and you will have to keep your eyes peeled for a shitty QTE or several shitty QTE chained together.
- Level design. This is enraging in some levels. You keep wandering like a complete idiot because you're not sure where to go. It happens basically all the time, even if the game is supposed to be straightforward and linear. The levels are littered with useless pieces of buidlings, vegetations, walls, rocks, roads that aren't roads, that you are constantly unsure where the hell to go. The first level in the land of the dead is a perfect example of this. The camera pans, sometimes, hinting you where to go, but there are places that look reachable which are out of bounds, and places where you have to go that sometimes will make you jump all over the place. There's also a 90 degree turn inside a cave with absolutely no hint whatsoever, where I get stuck every single time I play the level again.
- Unintersting combat with always the same few enemies and always the same exact QTE finish for the same type of enemy that feels like you are wasting 3x the time you really should.
- The action is stopped all the fecking time by useless cinematics and camera cues. All the time, all the time, all the time. It makes you want to rip your tongue out. Wanna skip? Sure, press pause, then left to select YES and confirm. There's a slight delay when you do this so most of the time you will end up pressing NO instead of YES. And for some reason, a cinematics that involve one or more QTE cannot be skipped, even when the last QTE has been done.
- The Catlevania theme is artificial, it feels stuck on with old tape that's falling off and lets you see the generic game that's behind. And so you're rollercoasting in this game where it's obviously not Castlevania, but they have to throw as many references as possible to try to satisfy your Castlevania-visuals hunger. Hey look, bats flying around. Hey look, a castle in the snow. Hey look, skeletons. Hey look, drawbridges. Hey look, you stab a vampire with a cross.
I could keep going on and on but hey, I am really sorry
this is a rant that needed to come out. I have spent WAY too much time playing this rubbish game. All my life I had been criticising IGA-made games, but now in 2025, I have no doubts that all the 2d Castlevania up to Order of Ecclesia are the way to go. Forget all the rest. When you're done with the real deal, and you are really itching for more Castlevania, try the others at your own risk (LoS1/2, LoI, CoD, Judgment). CV64 is my favourite entry in the series but I know it has a bad reputation so yeah, whatever.
The game is terrible and a miserable experience for so many reasons. Here are some that really stick out every single time I play the thing:
- Fixed camera angles that force you to walk in all directions all the time, especially toward the screen, for no good reason, which make you want to scream "Please make this as short as possible so I can see again where I am going."
- Transitions between camera angles don't adjust the direction where you are going, so you are constantly correcting your stick because every few meters the camera changes and so does the north of the stick.
- Pointless, useless, boring, unintersting and incredibly slow climbing of old building and cliffs up and down, all the darn time. You will not believe how many times you will climb the same exact structure of cliff where you have to make a short L turn behind a waterfall (sometimes without a waterfall), and then jump to your back, and then go behind another short L turn.
- Fantastic key mapping that cannot be customised. For example, L2 that shares blocking and evading. Or climbing controls where you jump UP by pushing the stick up, and you jump down by pressing X. Also while climbing, jumping to your back does not require pushing the stick to the correct direction, but jumping sideways does.
- Collecting orbs to refill your blue/red gauge by pressing down the L3 and R3 stick respectively is a massive annoyance. Yeah they had no choice but to have 2 buttons for this, since orbs are neutral and fill a gauge depending on the button you press. Also, statues that refill your gauges require pressing both buttons and refill at a slow pace. It takes ages, especially when you have the extra gauge unlocked to its fullest potential. And of course checkpoints usually come just before a statue, so you will waste extra time every single time if you die and want to try again.
- QTE all the darn time. No comment. Miss a QTE and 25% of the enemy/boss HP comes back. It's really wonderful and I am sure everybody in the team was so proud of this decision. You can choose between "press any button at the right time" QTE or "mash the specific button as fast as possible" QTE. The QTE sometimes happen several times during battles at basically random moments that are not even aligned with something special going on on screen. It's absolutely miserable when you know that sooner or later, your fighting will be stopped and you will have to keep your eyes peeled for a shitty QTE or several shitty QTE chained together.
- Level design. This is enraging in some levels. You keep wandering like a complete idiot because you're not sure where to go. It happens basically all the time, even if the game is supposed to be straightforward and linear. The levels are littered with useless pieces of buidlings, vegetations, walls, rocks, roads that aren't roads, that you are constantly unsure where the hell to go. The first level in the land of the dead is a perfect example of this. The camera pans, sometimes, hinting you where to go, but there are places that look reachable which are out of bounds, and places where you have to go that sometimes will make you jump all over the place. There's also a 90 degree turn inside a cave with absolutely no hint whatsoever, where I get stuck every single time I play the level again.
- Unintersting combat with always the same few enemies and always the same exact QTE finish for the same type of enemy that feels like you are wasting 3x the time you really should.
- The action is stopped all the fecking time by useless cinematics and camera cues. All the time, all the time, all the time. It makes you want to rip your tongue out. Wanna skip? Sure, press pause, then left to select YES and confirm. There's a slight delay when you do this so most of the time you will end up pressing NO instead of YES. And for some reason, a cinematics that involve one or more QTE cannot be skipped, even when the last QTE has been done.
- The Catlevania theme is artificial, it feels stuck on with old tape that's falling off and lets you see the generic game that's behind. And so you're rollercoasting in this game where it's obviously not Castlevania, but they have to throw as many references as possible to try to satisfy your Castlevania-visuals hunger. Hey look, bats flying around. Hey look, a castle in the snow. Hey look, skeletons. Hey look, drawbridges. Hey look, you stab a vampire with a cross.
I could keep going on and on but hey, I am really sorry
this is a rant that needed to come out. I have spent WAY too much time playing this rubbish game. All my life I had been criticising IGA-made games, but now in 2025, I have no doubts that all the 2d Castlevania up to Order of Ecclesia are the way to go. Forget all the rest. When you're done with the real deal, and you are really itching for more Castlevania, try the others at your own risk (LoS1/2, LoI, CoD, Judgment). CV64 is my favourite entry in the series but I know it has a bad reputation so yeah, whatever.4
General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Rumor: New AAA Castlevania in Development, Announcement Expected in 2025
« Last post by 13th Street on April 18, 2025, 04:28:46 AM »Part of me is hoping for a Konami/ArtPlay collaboration (a new Igavania sequel would be nice!).
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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: participate in the Castlevania series
« Last post by 13th Street on April 18, 2025, 04:19:56 AM »I want to get into the castlevania franchise and found out about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and i got interested, just wondering if it is worth it as an introduction to what the franchise is about
Forget LoS entirely, and start with Super Castlevania IV.
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General Castlevania Discussion / Dominus has arrived *update*
« Last post by crisis on April 17, 2025, 08:42:31 PM »Small update, but I just received my Dominus medallions & I thought I’d like to share a couple photos:
The books are from the preorder special edition of Order of Ecclesia from the Konamistyle website back in 2008. The smaller softcover version is what was widely released, and the larger hardcover version was an extremely limited release only in Japan. One of the rarer items in my collection.
The books are from the preorder special edition of Order of Ecclesia from the Konamistyle website back in 2008. The smaller softcover version is what was widely released, and the larger hardcover version was an extremely limited release only in Japan. One of the rarer items in my collection.
7
General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Akumajo Dracula PS3/360–still a mystery 17 years later
« Last post by Inccubus on April 17, 2025, 04:53:05 PM »Definitely a missed opportunity.
With this project getting canned leading IGA to ditch the corporation in favor of going indie, then one has to wonder if any it's concepts made it into Bloodstained?
With this project getting canned leading IGA to ditch the corporation in favor of going indie, then one has to wonder if any it's concepts made it into Bloodstained?
8
General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Rumor: New AAA Castlevania in Development, Announcement Expected in 2025
« Last post by Inccubus on April 17, 2025, 04:48:28 PM »Funny thing, earlier I was thinking of posting a question on here to ask what everyone would want in a new 3D Castlevania title.
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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: participate in the Castlevania series
« Last post by Inccubus on April 17, 2025, 04:45:18 PM »If the goal is to see what the franchise is about as a whole, then I'd say that Lords of Shadow is not a good place to start.
mostly this is because the game leans more fantasy than the rest of the series and has someclichéd modern mechanics not present in the rest of the series.
I agree with crisis that Super Castlevania IV is a good jumping off point as it sits in a very comfy spot between the original games difficulty and beginner friendly controls.
Plus it's a reimagining of the original Castlevania
Personally, I think a buffet sampler approach would give you a quick summary of what the series is.
Try doing this:
1) Play the first stage of the original Castlevania for NES. [MAKE SURE TO GET A COPY OF THE MANUAL AND READ IT!]
People nowadays tend to forget that the manual was an important part of the experience back in the day and that old games did not have built in tutorials of any kind for the most part.
And if you're feeling adventurous, you could try out Vampire Killer for MSX2. (My personal favorite.)
2) Play the first stage of Super Castlevania IV. [Also read the manual]
This will give you a sense of just how good old-school, linear CV games can be.
3) Play Symphony of the Night up to the first boss you find. This serves as your introduction to the Metroidvania style of games.
4) Play the first stage of Lament of Innocence for a good intro to 3d Castlevania.
5) Lastly try out the first stage of Lords of Shadow.
BONUS ROUND) Play Bloodborne and imagine what a FromSoft Castlevania could be like.
mostly this is because the game leans more fantasy than the rest of the series and has some
I agree with crisis that Super Castlevania IV is a good jumping off point as it sits in a very comfy spot between the original games difficulty and beginner friendly controls.
Plus it's a reimagining of the original Castlevania
Personally, I think a buffet sampler approach would give you a quick summary of what the series is.
Try doing this:
1) Play the first stage of the original Castlevania for NES. [MAKE SURE TO GET A COPY OF THE MANUAL AND READ IT!]
People nowadays tend to forget that the manual was an important part of the experience back in the day and that old games did not have built in tutorials of any kind for the most part.
And if you're feeling adventurous, you could try out Vampire Killer for MSX2. (My personal favorite.)
2) Play the first stage of Super Castlevania IV. [Also read the manual]
This will give you a sense of just how good old-school, linear CV games can be.
3) Play Symphony of the Night up to the first boss you find. This serves as your introduction to the Metroidvania style of games.
4) Play the first stage of Lament of Innocence for a good intro to 3d Castlevania.
5) Lastly try out the first stage of Lords of Shadow.
BONUS ROUND) Play Bloodborne and imagine what a FromSoft Castlevania could be like.
10
Fan Stuff / Re: CHRONICLES OF THE WOLF
« Last post by slograa on April 16, 2025, 10:49:04 AM »It is available for pre-order on many different sites now like
https://www.play-asia.com/chronicles-of-the-wolf/13/70iccp?srsltid=AfmBOoqXEslaVFAaIj6OmX9082InG6IMy-Qep7DJC9qrugGbinc30oAy
However, you may want to wait to get it from Pixelheart.
Thank you so much! Sorry for the late response!
Can you tell us if it's early summer or late summer ? Either ways it's gonna be terrific.