Topic: Favorite portable 'Vania?

[shelverton.]

It's Dawn of Sorrow for me. I do love a lot of those games though (CotM and Belmont's Revenge have recently seen A LOT of playtime here), so it really depends on what mood I'm in. But DoS has a level of polish that I didn't find in either PoR or OoE. The anime art is boring though, and it has my least favorite soundtrack of all the metroidvanias, but the game itself totally makes up for it. It may very well be my favorite DS game ever.

[zangetsu468]

It's Dawn of Sorrow for me. I do love a lot of those games though (CotM and Belmont's Revenge have recently seen A LOT of playtime here), so it really depends on what mood I'm in. But DoS has a level of polish that I didn't find in either PoR or OoE. The anime art is boring though, and it has my least favorite soundtrack of all the metroidvanias, but the game itself totally makes up for it. It may very well be my favorite DS game ever.

Level of polish being Gameplay, Graphics, Castle Design, enemy placement and overall production quality?


I do like Yoko's anime design, because although I love AoS' artwork the proportions of Yoko's bust in the artwork (head, neck and chest) seem out of scale to me. http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/0/01/Yoko.png/revision/latest?cb=20140926045128
She's either got really big low breasts or a very small head, not that there's anything wrong with that. (I once knew a woman like this, she was a size 4 and yes her breasts were natural and bigger than her head)

I admit the anime style of DoS is off-putting, if they'd used Aria's art style the game could surpass AoS imo. Having said this I find the Castle design substantially better and more immersive in AoS.

I would actually say my top 3 DS games have been OoE>DoS>PoR
If I had to say top 5 I might add Phoenix Wright: Justice for All and Zelda: Spirit Tracks

[X]

I do like Yoko's anime design, because although I love AoS' artwork the proportions of Yoko's bust in the artwork (head, neck and chest) seem out of scale to me. http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/0/01/Yoko.png/revision/latest?cb=20140926045128
She's either got really big low breasts or a very small head, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sadly Kojima's art-style, for the past few games, suffers from scale inadequacy. I'd have to say the first time I noticed it was in CoD. Hector's head is too small for his body (on the front box cover), plus you also have the infamous scissor-legs Trevor Belmont. And now that zangetsu468 has pointed out~Yoko's head to body ratio. There should have been another artist there to proof-check her sketches before they were finalized. Kinda like how IGA should have had another writer on board to help proof-check his stories before they were finalized to help greatly lessen the plotholes.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Sadly Kojima's art-style, for the past few games, suffers from scale inadequacy. I'd have to say the first time I noticed it was in CoD. Hector's head is too small for his body (on the front box cover), plus you also have the infamous scissor-legs Trevor Belmont. And now that zangetsu468 has pointed out~Yoko's head to body ratio. There should have been another artist there to proof-check her sketches before they were finalized. Kinda like how IGA should have had another writer on board to help proof-check his stories before they were finalized to help greatly lessen the plotholes.

Goddamn, I agree entirely.

Kojima's art is great and detailed, and defines her era of the series, but seriously started losing all sense of bodily proportions as she went on (even though some of Symphony's art also suffers from it, like Alucard's MONDO giant hand on the cover art). I think Lament of Innocence is kind of her sweet spot as far as art goes.

And IGA really did lose his touch with storywriting later. Let's not forget Dawn and Portrait's incredibly wooden story and writing, and the fact that his final game in the series, Harmony of Despair, didn't even bother with one really and was just a bunch of randomly recycled crap that catered to the lowest common gameplay denominator and had none of the fire of his earlier works (although how much of that can be directly said to be his fault is debatable). The prog-rock covers of Castlevania staple music was pretty good though.

We talk on and on, waxing nostalgic about the good old days when IGA, Yamane, and Kojima were the heart and soul of the series, but we've got some seriously rose-colored glasses on when we do.

Ecclesia aside, a lot of their final works were derivative and paint by numbers and tended to underperform. We, the fans, eviscerated many of his later games for not meeting prior standards ourselves (and were often harsher than we probably should have been).

Looking back, there's a clear reason his Alucard game was passed up in favor of Lords' fresh new take.

[zangetsu468]

Sadly Kojima's art-style, for the past few games, suffers from scale inadequacy. I'd have to say the first time I noticed it was in CoD. Hector's head is too small for his body (on the front box cover), plus you also have the infamous scissor-legs Trevor Belmont. And now that zangetsu468 has pointed out~Yoko's head to body ratio. There should have been another artist there to proof-check her sketches before they were finalized. Kinda like how IGA should have had another writer on board to help proof-check his stories before they were finalized to help greatly lessen the plotholes.

I'm glad someone else sees this. Since the AoS trailer (Japanese) where they showed the full art of each character I always thought "..massive breasts much or does something look off?"
Correct me if I'm wrong but the in-game dialogue boxes only use the head, so maybe they just needed to get the game released and they didn't care.
It is still technically better than DoS' art style, but judging from DoS' art Yoko's actually quite slim, fit and her breasts are supposed to be around a larger B - smaller C cup. AoS' art has her in the DD region.

[EstebanT]

She looks terrible in both but Harmony of Despair Yoko looks fantastic. But so did every singe character. Even Jonathan and Charlotte

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Yeah, the character art was the other really cool thing about Harmony of Despair.

I don't recall definitively hearing whether Kojima "got gud" again or if someone else was brought in who was just really good at imitating her style.

[zangetsu468]

She looks terrible in both but Harmony of Despair Yoko looks fantastic.

Terrible is an overstatement to me, I think there's a huge difference between proportion and quality. If AoS Yoko's bust drawing was in proportion I think she'd look vastly better to HOD and DoS. I really dig AoS' art but it's just the proportions that don't add up.

Yeah, the character art was the other really cool thing about Harmony of Despair.

I don't recall definitively hearing whether Kojima "got gud" again or if someone else was brought in who was just really good at imitating her style.

I'd be shocked, it doesn't look like the same artist to me.

[Crying Freeman]

Am I the only one who prefers Dracula X Chronicles to Rondo of Blood?

You're not. I loved DXC, but when I played Rondo I didn't enjoy it as much. The whip in Rondo lacks the punch that it has in other games, which DXC and DracXX fixed by adding a more punchy sound to your hits.

 I'm also someone who prefers DracXX over Rondo, wish it was included in DXC, but its already a superb package

[Crying Freeman]

So with little time in between class at points quick games were one that I really like and Belmont's revenge fits this need for me. Not only that but I think the soundtrack is severely underrated.

BR is the perfect portable CV. Selectable levels, 2 sub weapons, not super difficult, great in quick bursts but also a good game to give a good playthrough.

And the soundtrack is just too tier, probably the best I've personally heard on GB

[BLOOD MONKEY]

No love for HoD? You guys suck.

[zangetsu468]

No love for HoD? You guys suck.

Well I just played it through so I still have love for it

[DoctaMario]

Gotta go DXC. And as for Rondo vs DXC, they're both so different it's like comparing apples to oranges.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I gotta confess, I'm slightly surprised to see Dawn so well regarded. I thought it played all its really cool cards too soon, and then played its ace (the revamped Julius Mode) too late. The character portraits were silly, the writing was a weaker rehash of Aria, and the touchscreen functions felt forced and unhelpful.

It's not a bad game, it just felt very unremarkable to me (in much the same ways as Portrait of Ruin, too), so I'm kind of puzzled as to its relatively good reputation here.

I'd kind of expected Order of Ecclesia and the GBA trilogy to dominate here (with maybe Belmont's Revenge putting up a decent 5th place), so these results are interesting.

[zangetsu468]

I gotta confess, I'm slightly surprised to see Dawn so well regarded. I thought it played all its really cool cards too soon, and then played its ace (the revamped Julius Mode) too late. The character portraits were silly, the writing was a weaker rehash of Aria, and the touchscreen functions felt forced and unhelpful.

It's not a bad game, it just felt very unremarkable to me (in much the same ways as Portrait of Ruin, too), so I'm kind of puzzled as to its relatively good reputation here.

I'd kind of expected Order of Ecclesia and the GBA trilogy to dominate here (with maybe Belmont's Revenge putting up a decent 5th place), so these results are interesting.

Dawn is up there with Aria for me because of its Julius mode which felt more like an entirely new mode with some effort put into the characters not being overpowered. I thought it was almost as good as Soma mode, but was nice it felt like a new game and some of the ost was different.