Topic: Castlevania Marathon by Sumac

[Sumac]

Something about your writing is far more interesting compared to other walkthrough texts.

Thanks.
I hope it's not abundance of mistakes...English is not my native language.

And LOL at people who "voted down" on my response about reviews. Those guys just confirmed my suspicions.
"Fanboys, fanboys,  what you gonna do when they come for you?" 

[pattamus]

I'm now following too. I hope you do a lot of them. 

[Sumac]

I'm now following too. I hope you do a lot of them. 

Thanks.

(click to show/hide)

Fanboys are funny. And it seems not smart enough to do anything besides pressing the button. If this people have some beef with me I want them to talk to me and tell me it in the face like mature people, not act like little cowardly children. C'mon. My PM is waiting. 

[uzo]

Holy shit you have a -27. You're tanking faster than Ahasverus.

How I have above 0 is still a mystery to me.

[Sumac]

Give a nice idea of how "open minded" this fandom is. LOL. 
However, enough of talking about worthless things.

[thernz]

I actually agree with your general sentiment on CV3. Woah woah woah.

Not the Ninja Gaiden part. Or the crouch-whip part. More so just the long-windedness of it. Though I appreciate it isn't a mimicry of CVI in intent.

[KaZudra]

whao, what's with the really light grey post? I've never seen anything like that on these boards before

[GuyStarwind]

That makes two of us. Pray tell, what does the light grey post mean?

Btw how does the respect system work?

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

Holy shit you have a -27. You're tanking faster than Ahasverus.

How I have above 0 is still a mystery to me.

weirdly enough, its gone from being -43 all the way back to 0........

and it was such a fast change...

[Sumac]

As I promised two weeks ago - here's my closing thoughts about six games, that I played so far.

Castlevania.
Graphics: interesting and unique style.
Music: brilliant soundtrack.
Gameplay: it could be hard to adjust to game physics, but after some time you will eventually learn how to play the game. It is not really THAT hard.
Level design: very good. Game have everything in right proportions. There are plenty of areas for action and plenty of areas for platforming.
Difficulty: medium. It is not really a hard game to conquer. You just need a lot of patience and practice.
Total: one of the best games in the series and on the NES.

Vampire Killer.
Graphics: bright and clean, but without stylish fleur of CV1 graphics.
Music: while the soundtrack is the same as in CV1, it sounds a bit more shallow.
Gameplay: the game have two major porblem: controls and keys placement. The problem with the controls could be solved by using joypad. However, it's better to use some guide to find all the keys in the game. Otherwise it could very hard to figure it out on your own.
Level design: all over the place. Levels designed as mazes and there is not really much thought put into them as actual locations, except for few instances.
Difficulty: low. If you pick up as much upgrades and subweapon as possible, this game would be a breeze.
Total: VK offer some interesting ideas, but they are quite unpolished. And there certain problems with awkward controls.

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest.
Graphics: it looks different from CV1, but convey the very similar disturbing and sometimes eerie atmosphere.
Music: as in case with the first game, soundtrack is beautiful.
Gameplay: controls are good and inventory is very easy to use.
Level design: simple, but not bad. Most of the locations are linear and action oriented with bits of platforming here and there. Mansions are especially platforming heavy.
Difficulty: medium. While enemies are easy to defeat and bosses pose little to no challenge, game offers very little in terms of solutions to the Dracula's Riddle. Without guide you most likely end wandering around without any real goal or understanding what exatly you need to do to beat the game.
Total: CV2 is a good game with a nice atmosphere, but with certain problems, when it comes to its "Quest" part.

Haunted Castle.
Graphics: beautiful, approximately on the level of the Sega Genesis.
Music: as almost always in CV games - awesome. Arrangment is a bit jarring though.
Gameplay: controls are nice.
Level design: simple and linear. There are some places with platforming. The last level is too simple.
Difficulty: beyond insane. Crazy hitboxes and random enemies that spawn in different spots of the screen make this game one of the hardest entries in the series. And kill any desire to complete it.
Total: HC could have been a very good game, if not for insane difficulty and strange hijinks with lives.

Castlevania: The Adventure.
Graphics: good, I think, by Game Boy standarts.
Music: nice, though not as memorable as in previous games.
Gameplay: horrible. Unresponsive controls and constant slowdown make playing  into a chore and nightmare.
Level design: creative and interesting, but doesn't work well with the engine and controls.
Difficulty: very very high. Thanks to problem with controls and game engine mentioned above.
Total: it could an interesting game, if you'll be able to work out the problems with controls and slowdown. But in general this game is not very good.

Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse.
Graphics: game tries to heavily imitate CV1 style, without understanding of what it made work in the first place. Most of the time CV3 feels limited by said CV1 style without a good reason. Most of the new palettes are horrendous.
Gameplay: physics become lighter and Belmont is more agile than before. Ability to play as different characters, makes this game much more interesting.
Music: average. Since there are so many tracks in the game, some of them bound to be not very impressive. Some of them downright boring. However there are few good melodies, but they are ruined by boring arrangement.
Level design: some of the levels seemingly designed just to fill the place. They are boring, disconnected and mostly consist from various platforms. Some levels are nice, but there too long and eventually comes off as uninpired. There is one particular sequence that can make players hate this game.
Difficulty: very high. While the bosses are generally easy to defeat, levels design is quite inforgiving. In order to make it easier, players must use advantages of various playbale characters.
Total: CV3 is interesting game, with very high replayability, but generic level design, not very impressive soundtrack and lacking atmosphere. In general it is "gameplay" vs "design" thing.

That is all with the first six games un the series. I wanted to make a special video as tribute to those titles, but I couldn't do it. Maybe I will do it later.

On the next week CVM will be continued. More Castlevania and challenge ahead!!

[Sumac]

CVM continues.
And the first game, that will be reviewed is the Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge AKA CVA2.

[Sumac]

Castlevania Video Marathon: Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy) (One life run)

My little project, in which I try to review every single (available for me) Castlevania game is finally continued. And the the first game that I will review at the second part of the project, is the second Castlevania entry on the Game Boy - Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge (AKA CVA2). For the first time I learned about this game at the very same time I have learnt about its predecessor: in the internet-club, which I regularly visited somewhere in 2003. I have played in this game back then without sound and wasn't very impressed. I played it once again on my old computer in 2005 and again I wasn't very impressed with it. My mind was mostly focused at upcoming Metal Gear and Metal Gear playthrough that I've planned at the time. So I didn't want pay serious attention to "some portable games". So, back then, I didn't had some really detailed opinion about this game, except that it was much better than original CVA. Of course after playthrough, which ended several minutes ago, I can say that CVA2 is very impressive game.

Graphics are very impressive. Backgrounds look much more detailed than in the first CVA. Sometimes I really admired the work of the designers. I especially was impressed with different statues in the background of final levels. Also the hall, in which you battle Soleiyu, and Crystal Palace left very strong positive impressions. Sometimes, backgrounds look as, if they were taken from some more powerfull platform and downgraded to fit Game Boy hardware capabilities. Christopher looks a bit bigger, I think, but he doesn't have more animations, than in the first game. Unlike him, most of the enemies have better animations and look pretty detailed. Especially it goes for bosses, except for Dracula, who doesn't look that impressive for whatever reason.

Sound is basically the same as in the first game. It appears occasionaly here and there, but most of the time you will listen to the music. Soundtrack have more tracks than the first game and pretty much every single melody is good. Music was (the only) strong point of the first CVA, so naturally, second game doesn't dissappoint in that regard. Interestingly music that plays in the final level, quite similar to the style of the music that began to appear in the series since Rondo of Blood and Bloodlines. This track (Passpied) is my favorite in this game along side with melody that plays during the battle with Dracula. I honestly didn't expected to hear something so similar to the SOTN soundtrack in this game.

And what about gameplay? Well, Konami made very impressive work on every single thing that made original CVA horrendous. First of, the made new (or upgraded old) engine for the game, so there are virtually no slowdowns, that were the reason behind most of the deaths in the CVA. Even when you have a lot of animated stuff on the screen, framerate runs smoothly, without a single hassle. Second, they made Christopher slightly faster. He is still not as fast as say, Trevor in CV3, but walking, climbing and jumping now is much easier. Third, controls of the game is very responsive. In the first CVA, game sometimes didn't recognized what button was pressed. In CVA2 there  is no such problem whatsoever. Also, developers amended one of the biggest problems of the previous CVA - inability to strike when you was hanging on the rope. In this game, you can climb at the rope and strike enemies at your leasure. Besides, to make gameplay more dynamic and closer to the "big" series entries, developers added subweapon in this game and Wall Meat. Though, there are only two subweapons out of traditional five: Axe (Cross-boumerang in the Japanese version) and Holy Water. Hearts serve as ammo for the subweapon, as per Castlevania tradition. Coins from the first game, returns in CVA2 and once again give player some scores. Hidden rooms made they comeback in this game, but now they contain only upgrade and big heart. Though some of them could contain 1UPs and Wall Meat. Besides, 1UPs now hidden in random walls throughout the game, just like the Wall Meat. Another big mistake, that developers corrected, is that Chris doesn't lose his whip upgrades after hit. He lose upgrades (one after each hit) only after being hit by Panaguchi's projectile. However, even if you lost upgraded whip, don't worry. Once again developers thought about this, so in CVA2 you can find upgrades practically in every room on the level, if neccessary. One of the gameplay innovations introduced in this game, is that Chris now can slide on the ropes. If you want to get to the end of the rope as fast as possible, just press and hold "Down + A" and Chris will slide the rope all the way to the end. It is very useful ability, since it allows to quickly "slide" through some rooms in the level. There are, also, several sequences in the game, that based around this ability.

Level design, much like in the first game, is still based around platforming. Though some sections in the levels are closer to the traditional actiont-oriented Castlevania level design. There are totally 7 levels in this game. Just like in Megaman, player can choose on which level, out of the 4 he will start the game. It works only for 4 initial levels. After player complete them, game will give you 3 next levels, which set in the Dracula's castle one after the other. Before each level, set in the Dracula's Castle, game will display the map, that closely resemble maps from CV1 and CV3. The last level is not much a separate level, but just a small bridge with impressive statues and Dracula's boss room. The order in which you choose first levels doesn't affect anything. And there are not special benefits for completing castles in some specific order. Level design itself is still brimming with creativity, but this time player can actually it, since his experience is not hampered by multiple gameplay related problems. There are no sequences in which Chris chased by some spiked walls, but there are many others interesting obstacles and rooms. There are two rooms in the game, in which Chris must ride on the chains of the giant clockwork-like  mechanism. There is, also, interesting sequence in which player must slide the rope periodically hiding from spiked wall in the small corridors. The bridges with rolling eyeballs that destroy its parts, after being hit, make they return, thought his time they much more easier to navigate, thanks to the lighter physics. In general levels are very diverse and interesting. All levels in this game quite long, but has checkpoints in the middle, so ultimately they are not very hard to complete. Like in CV1 and CV3, levels separated into several segments by doors. Interestingly enough, some areas in the Crystal Castle look like underwater city from CV3 and Atlantis level from Bloodlines.

While gameplay become easier, the game itself become harder. Taking few lessons from CV games on the other platforms, designers made some clever decisions about enemy placement. Some of the signature enemies returned from the first CVA, like annoying demons Panaguchi, whose projectiles become much slower, so there are not that annoying this time, mudmen, rolling eyeballs and, surprisingly, Undermoles, who were the bosses of the second level in CVA. In this game they were demoted to the simple enemies in the Ground Castle level. Zeldos (guys with boomerangs from CVA) also made they return, however they received completely new design, however they tactic is still similar to what they've used in the first game. Also, Fishmen make brief apperance in this game. And there is new, very dangerous enemy - Knife Lizard. He jumps around the room, similatenously throwing knives. If you don't prepared for this encounter, you can lose big amount of life, before you'll figure out how to defeat him. Spiders, who previously appeared in CV2 and CV3, returned in this game as well. However now they web could be used as ropes, even when spider is still alive. In some rooms, spider's web is the only way to navigate through it to the exit. Though there are some instances, when killing spider before he create web, mean that you will not be able to progress any further in the level, until you kill Chris and start the whole segment form the begining. Before each boss, there is small part of the level, where you can power up and mentally prepare yourself to the upcoming challenge. There are not devoid of enemies, but there are not much of them.

As in the first game, assortment of bosses is unique and Reaper nowhere to be found. Though new Zeldos look fairly similar to him. Almost all bosses in this game are quite easy and use some interesting and creative tactics. Wizard Dark Side, from Crystal Palace, summons a big cloud from which he summons lightning bolts to attack you. He is very easy to defeat and reminds me about wizard-boss from Bloodlines, who flood the level. Angel Mummy doesn't look nothing like angels or mummies, since it consists from the two heads on long necks, that stick from the wall. They throw fireballs and sometimes, they own ribs to stop Chris. Iron Doll have two forms - first is the bulky and slow knight, similar to Golbanz in the CVA, and second form - is a very nimble ugly creature, which jumps around the room and throw energy waves. Kumulo and Nimbler are pair of statues with big tridents, that spew three directional fireballs. Happily, they share lifebar, so it doesn't matter which one you attack. They somewhat remind me about another boss from Bloodlines - evil column from Versaille. Bosses in the Dracula's castle are Bone Dragon King and Soleiyu-Demon. Bone Dragon King is unusual boss - you fight him in the narrow moving corridor while BDK appears through the holes in the ceiling and floor. Essentially, he is not directly attacking Chris, but serves as mere dynamic obstacle. Soleiyu-demon battle is probably based on the Doppelganger battle from CV3. Like Trevor's accursed double, demonic Belmont is fairly unpredictable, but he is much slower and could be easily dispatched, if player had Axe subweapon. Dracula has only one form in this game, but his attack is probably on of the most dangerous, that he had in the series. He summons multiple flying projectiles, that whirl around him for several second, and then he throw them around the room. Then he appears in different spot in the room and repeat this attack. The main strategy in this battle is to find a savespot for each of his attacks. Also, you can strike him only once before he surround himself with projectiles. After he summons them, he become invincible.

In general, CVA2 is very creative game, just like the original CVA, but without it's flaws. Gameplay much more faster and dynamic without slowdowns, controls are responsive and there are traditional subweapons and Wall Meat. The difficulty of this game is in clever enemy postion and rooms with different and interesting challenges. Overall this is very very impressive game, especially if you think how bad the first CVA was. CVA2 is the prime example of how developers could make a work on their mistakes. The game have creativity of the first CVA, but none of its mistakes. And it's combined with some ideas form CV1 and CV3, makes CVA2 a really solid and fairly unique entry in the series.

[Sumac]

The next game that would be reviewed is Super Castlevania 4. Its review probably will be different from the others, since for whatever reason my "writer's block" activates, when I try to write about it.

[Sumac]

My "writer's block" has finally dissappeared, so I wrote first draft of my SCV4 review. If anyone cares about this. 

[Puwexil]

I read 'em. I don't necessarily agree with everything presented, but a collected opinion piece spanning the total breadth of the series is a concept I can get behind. Especially in the case of games like Belmont's Revenge that don't get talked about nearly enough for how excellent they really are.