Topic: CASTLEVANIA THE LECARDE CHRONICLES II April 2017

[Dracula9]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/480zt6ar9zfs5gh/X68_Glory.wav?dl=0

hi

[Aceearly1993]

I‘ve completed the game for 3 times (900 Max HP is involving glitch/tricks) and want to share some small talk and my very personal way of "review" to you.


Gameplay: 9/10

The control scheme retains 9/10 of ol' great LC1 feelings with several new things.

(click to show/hide)

The Mega Man X3-friendly Double Air Dash! Triple jump! I'm talking about you.

A little shame: There's nothing quicker than the jump>low-air dash combination to move around which means no better mobility when face tough enemy soup area. (most of enemy soup places CAN be countered though, no luck when starting the first clean playthrough)

Rope & ring action is OK, but the grab succeed detection of ring is still inconvenient; And you can't even attack when grabbing a ring? What's wrong with it?

Playstyle: Whip style and Sword style do have their own advantage and disadvantage, I don't have trouble receiving both one but the weapon attack range in LC1 is more reliable

Some complain about Sub weapon:

The Holy Water can't find a better usage in the game (especially Boss Rush).
The hit detection of its hitbox is questionable: The hitbox is not exist for the flame part, is it also intentional?

Stages/Graphics: 8/10

VERY well job for some neat puzzle buried in stages. Sacred fire enlightening candles in Demo game; check the moon/star symbols located near the Death battle to unlock a number lock; Diamond can be thrown in small path to open a switch; etc.

Graphic quirk do exist in the game:

(click to show/hide)

(click to show/hide)

 

But basically one can't notice them as there're no serious issues with gameplay.

Stage design is the rather plain Haunted Castle 3 style but as I overcame HC3 (it's the Hell itself!) there's no significant trouble to me. (Thanks the Internet!)
Detailed thing like traps...there's the point that something didn't feel right for me. Especially some (The one in university, and rope+spike combination in machine tower) But overcame those traps give me VERY accomplishment feelings which is rather difficult to find in another 2D action based game.

Boss Rush is unbalanced (No "orb from the sky" exist after a boss beaten) and no unlockables after beat it; hence it a less meaningful mode as LC1.

Enemy/Boss design: 8.5/10

Some neat idea about enemy design (skeletons throw two bones at the same time, with two shooting angles!) but the stuff as amazing as Puppet Master/Friedrich Mirror Creature in LC1 is nowhere to be found.

Top 3 Good boss design for Illusionlist, Nightmare Plant and Count Servigny; other two Counts are OK but most bosses are in small one-screen room; the lack of phase-changing boss give less epic feelings

Top 3 Good enemy design for the two-shooting arc skeletons mentioned above, skeleton gunner and plants; Gaibon's pattern when flying has so much similarities to Haunted Castle 3 one which looks strange. (And is there stronger counterpart of Gaibon like HC3 one once exist in the developing/WIP process?)

Enemies ＆ bosses have nice connection to those in LC1! Members of V.V Family in LC1 exist as a part of Death's summon attack. So funny to see the body of LC1 final boss spinning around in wasp queen form!


Sound/Music: 9.9/10
 
"One step near perfect" I almost shout out. Background SFX IS perfect. For voice acting and BGM composing I can feel how much sweat and time were dropped in order to master up these stuff and contact those famous voice actors...

Some tracks (Albaret town morning, Servigny district afternoon) I can imagine the style of some South American plus West Europe folk...just cool!

My favourite is Nightmare Plant boss battle theme. I feel a proper reincarnation of official Castlevania and fan work is this theme...

The music box function! Great nostalgia to all Castlevania fans...

...I must repeat I'm very glad to see one of my request is in the game! (the music box)

Replayability: 7.5/10

It's (clearly to see) too long to be played all over again. Though there're useful glitches/tricks that happened to further extend it.

Story: 9.1/10

I'm very easy to be brought into the atmosphere this time. The journey to travel around the whole France is so "hot"!

But when the game is at the WIP progress I once thought the big bad guy would be the Pope in the Rome Church... It's Him who ordered Efrain to travel around and repel evil, as the repelled evil would return at one day and finally consumed all over his body if he loses control in the Castle...

Dracula didn't exist in the game as villain... I can understand it since it's fan made game, but it doesn't fit the "Akumajo Dracula" in the Japanese title you decided.

The Ending gave me a feeling that there would be sequel possibility! Alucard's journey is not finished...

Overall & other stuff: 9.8/10

One point lose is the questionable windowed mode mentioned before:

In the full release Windowed mode is still incomplete. The task bar and window border is still missing. What's wrong with it?
Even using the LC1 one for windowed mode is better than the current status... It gave me some feelings like "It's still a WIP build!"
I can only hope it would be fixed in the (unsure) future...

Another point lose is the inconvenient keyboard adjust which gave my friends very bad First Impression.

I miss the Axe LV2 IC in LC1...! 



Total: 61.8/70



And last! My First Impression:

The upward point

The game caught the Castlevania atmosphere very well, just as the previous game
Great scenario, pretty designed bosses&enemies, almost perfect control scheme, cool voice acting... Everything just interested me.

Almost no repeated scene, cool day-night change added much more variation to enemy species, the time-related opened sky scenario in several places are so beautiful...

Game difficulty is a little bit harder than what I expected but I can take it.

The downward point

Actually I have several doubts about The Aura Blast system, mainly due to its limitation about player character's mobility (being hurt by enemies makes magic charging stops...Not a big loss at charging level 1/2 but if want to launch Holy Cross in boss battle it would be serious problem) Though we still have several counter measures it didn't change the fact that Magic power usage was limited sometimes.

Is there any possible way to further increase player character's mobility at the late half of the game (other than the short air dash succeed from previous game)? I'm wondering...

I also received report of several people (keyboard only user) troubled with keyboard control adjust since I'm used to gamepad I have no idea
Actually I still can't say the control adjust interface is user-friendly. Is there un-counter-able technical problem exist in game program? I did have some doubt.



Despite that, if we Countered the flaw/issues a great all-new Castlevania game awaits all of us kindly!

[theplottwist]

Dracula didn't exist in the game as villain... I can understand it since it's fan made game, but it doesn't fit the "Akumajo Dracula" in the Japanese title you decided.

Hello! I want to comment on that a bit since it was I who decided what the game was going to be called in Japanese.

Before I choose "Akumajo Dracula", I went back on the series' history a bit to understand the mindset of back-and-forths between the name changes. For a time the series was called "Kyassurubania", and this choice was taken by IGA's team to convey exactly the sense you mentioned: There isn't a Dracula nor his Demon Castle -- therefore it makes no sense to name the game "Akumajo Dracula". So, at first, I considered "Kyassurubania".

However, there's more to this.

When "Kyassurubania" was used, there was a certain level of rejection of the name amongst the Japanese fanbase. By what I researched, there happened sort of a "disconnect", and the Japanese fans felt as if they were being alienated from the series. The "Akumajo Dracula" title carries a certain pack of expectations with it, and the Japanese felt that it was the series' signature for them, not embodying just Dracula or his castle, but a whole gameplay recipe. So, IGA returned the series to "Akumajo Dracula", and therefore you get Dawn of Sorrow being called "Akumajo Dracula" even without "Akumajo" or "Dracula".

So, in respect to this mindset and the fact that Mig WAS activelly trying to reach to Japanese audiences, I decided to use "Akumajo Dracula" instead of "Kyassurubania", because the name does better when it ultimatelly embodies a formula, not the plot setting, which is best relegated to the subtitle.

I hope this explanation is satisfactory

[Aceearly1993]

Hello! I want to comment on that a bit since it was I who decided what the game was going to be called in Japanese.

Before I choose "Akumajo Dracula", I went back on the series' history a bit to understand the mindset of back-and-forths between the name changes. For a time the series was called "Kyassurubania", and this choice was taken by IGA's team to convey exactly the sense you mentioned: There isn't a Dracula nor his Demon Castle -- therefore it makes no sense to name the game "Akumajo Dracula". So, at first, I considered "Kyassurubania".

However, there's more to this.

When "Kyassurubania" was used, there was a certain level of rejection of the name amongst the Japanese fanbase. By what I researched, there happened sort of a "disconnect", and the Japanese fans felt as if they were being alienated from the series. The "Akumajo Dracula" title carries a certain pack of expectations with it, and the Japanese felt that it was the series' signature for them, not embodying just Dracula or his castle, but a whole gameplay recipe. So, IGA returned the series to "Akumajo Dracula", and therefore you get Dawn of Sorrow being called "Akumajo Dracula" even without "Akumajo" or "Dracula".

So, in respect to this mindset and the fact that Mig WAS activelly trying to reach to Japanese audiences, I decided to use "Akumajo Dracula" instead of "Kyassurubania", because the name does better when it ultimatelly embodies a formula, not the plot setting, which is best relegated to the subtitle.

I hope this explanation is satisfactory

To keep the gameplay recipe and formula series... Well, got it.

Still, I think without distinguish words like "Gaiden" it would be some sort of confusion with those official games...Just my (very) personal thought

[mgfcortez]

But in the original Castlevania, Dracula is the counterpart to god. The Devil doesn't even exist there. But this game inserted him into it, and since he calls Dracula "Lord" it is clear that Lucifer is subservient to Dracula.

this isn't true at all only thing we know is that the devil hasn't shown himself in past Castlevania games. (i don't even care about the whole LOS 1&2 thing being a reboot) you can not say he doesn't even exist, this is only in your own mind, not being an ass but they is no proof of what you said. and Dracula put himself up to be the counterpart of God cause of his hate, but you really think the devil would care? no he be like cool but i'll be the one to end God in the end when i want to let him do him until then. and as for the devil in LC2 calling him lord Dracula that's just a title and a sign of respect probably because they feel the same about God. and not him saying Dracula is his lord. all this is only your point of looking at it not fact now if they had wrote it into the story i'd agree but the lack of the devil only means they never used him only

[Belmontoya]

Before this turns into a battle over what is and isn't correct in CV lore and LC2 let me say this.

We intentionally tried to use language in the game that could be interpreted different ways. Why did we do this?

Just look at this thread! Everyone has very different head cannon ideas about what's correct and what's not.

We wanted the keep the game as nuteral as possible so people can think of it is as a Rondo prequel if they want, a gaiden, or a fan game that has no connection. It doesn't really matter how you interpret it.

The point was to keep it nuteral and focus on atmosphere and the way the game makes you "feel" when you play it.

If you felt isolated, unsure of what would happen next, curious, and vulnerable but increasingly powerful that's what we wanted.

Alucard was meant to be a small cameo originally, but we tried to expand on that. Again, think of him as SOTN's Alucard, LOS Alucard, or whatever you want. It doesn't matter.

As far as Dracula goes. This is The Lecarde Chronicles. If Dracula were the final boss it would be the burden of a Belmont to face him. We didn't make the Belmont Chronicles.

We did our best to tie everything together and it's a fan game after all! So let's not turn the thread into an argument over how an unofficial fan game fits into an official series. Because either way it does not and cannot fit without Konami making that call.

Btw for collectors. It looks like I may have one more extra physical copy to give away this weekend. So follow us on twitter and keep a close watch!

[mgfcortez]

Before this turns into a battle over what is and isn't correct in CV lore and LC2 let me say this.

We intentionally tried to use language in the game that could be interpreted different ways. Why did we do this?

Just look at this thread! Everyone has very different head cannon ideas about what's correct and what's not.

We wanted the keep the game as nuteral as possible so people can think of it is as a Rondo prequel if they want, a gaiden, or a fan game that has no connection. It doesn't really matter how you interpret it.

The point was to keep it nuteral and focus on atmosphere and the way the game makes you "feel" when you play it.

If you felt isolated, unsure of what would happen next, curious, and vulnerable but increasingly powerful that's what we wanted.

Alucard was meant to be a small cameo originally, but we tried to expand on that. Again, think of him as SOTN's Alucard, LOS Alucard, or whatever you want. It doesn't matter.

As far as Dracula goes. This is The Lecarde Chronicles. If Dracula were the final boss it would be the burden of a Belmont to face him. We didn't make the Belmont Chronicles.

We did our best to tie everything together and it's a fan game after all! So let's not turn the thread into an argument over how an unofficial fan game fits into an official series. Because either way it does not and cannot fit without Konami making that call.

Btw for collectors. It looks like I may have one more extra physical copy to give away this weekend. So follow us on twitter and keep a close watch!

not really got anything to do with LC2 IMO other than that one word the devil using lord as a title. my point is we don't know if the devil is part of canon or not could be just cause he never showed up don't matter really just was pointing that out.

now i got a bone to pick with you
you was asking for songs a few months back to put in the music box and i said Dracula's castle but out of all 10 song no Dracula's castle
lol
Grrrrrr.....

[Dracula9]

A dozen other people made suggestions that didn't get in. You don't see them bitching.

Chill the fuck out.

And how is his last post "not really got anything to do with LC2?" He's part of the team that fucking made it.

Here's more or less what we know about Dracula and Satan in the CV canon, and this has all been elaborated on elsewhere in a plottwist thread so you can look for that if you don't believe me or want to keep the argument train going, but take it out of here at least.

-Dracula is Demon Lord
-Demon Lord is a title that anyone can have, but there can only be one Demon Lord
-Demon Lord is not the same as "Devil" or any of the names Satan has had throughout history
-Demon Lord is basically God's antithesis on earth thematically as far as how powerful the person with the title is
-Demon Lord is the supreme, literal incarnation of evil in the series
-If Satan exists or has any role behind the scenes in the continuity (no current indications of this at all outside of LoS), he's still below Dracula on power/threat level
-Doesn't mean Satan "serves" him or kisses his ass. That we never see him (LoS is separate, enemies named "Devil" are not THE Devil and do not count) should say enough on that. It means he's only the second-biggest dog on the street.
-Dracula has the title of Demon Lord, making him a step above Satan since we never see Satan and don't know what the rules about him are
-Satan doesn't show up in classic CV canon because his existence has no major purpose in its confirmation, and it would undermine just how big of a threat Dracula is to the world
-God is also never shown to actually appear or even exist in classic CV lore, either. He gets mentioned a lot, though. Do you know why? Because mentioning but not confirming deities to exist puts more emphasis on the storylines as secular, (mostly) human struggles; those take on a whole different tone and meaning as soon as the story decides "yep, [insert God or other deity here] exists for real and is in the heroes' corner," and that's exactly one of the reasons Konami never outright stated God or Satan or any other major Creator deities to exist or not. They become a literal macguffin and literal deus ex machina the instant they get involved, to one degree or another.

There. That's more or less the gist of it. I'll post the thread I was thinking of if/when I can find it, but there's no need to continue having a canon debate in a thread for something that both is NOT canon and deliberately means to be VAGUE about its hypothetical place IN the canon.

[mgfcortez]

A dozen other people made suggestions that didn't get in. You don't see them bitching.

Chill the fuck out.

And how is his last post "not really got anything to do with LC2?" He's part of the team that fucking made it.

Here's more or less what we know about Dracula and Satan in the CV canon, and this has all been elaborated on elsewhere in a plottwist thread so you can look for that if you don't believe me or want to keep the argument train going, but take it out of here at least.

-Dracula is Demon Lord
-Demon Lord is a title that anyone can have, but there can only be one Demon Lord
-Demon Lord is not the same as "Devil" or any of the names Satan has had throughout history
-Demon Lord is basically God's antithesis on earth thematically as far as how powerful the person with the title is
-Demon Lord is the supreme, literal incarnation of evil in the series
-If Satan exists or has any role behind the scenes in the continuity (no current indications of this at all outside of LoS), he's still below Dracula on power/threat level
-Doesn't mean Satan "serves" him or kisses his ass. That we never see him (LoS is separate, enemies named "Devil" are not THE Devil and do not count) should say enough on that. It means he's only the second-biggest dog on the street.
-Dracula has the title of Demon Lord, making him a step above Satan since we never see Satan and don't know what the rules about him are
-Satan doesn't show up in classic CV canon because his existence has no major purpose in its confirmation, and it would undermine just how big of a threat Dracula is to the world
-God is also never shown to actually appear or even exist in classic CV lore, either. He gets mentioned a lot, though. Do you know why? Because mentioning but not confirming deities to exist puts more emphasis on the storylines as secular, (mostly) human struggles; those take on a whole different tone and meaning as soon as the story decides "yep, [insert God or other deity here] exists for real and is in the heroes' corner," and that's exactly one of the reasons Konami never outright stated God or Satan or any other major Creator deities to exist or not. They become a literal macguffin and literal deus ex machina the instant they get involved, to one degree or another.

There. That's more or less the gist of it. I'll post the thread I was thinking of if/when I can find it, but there's no need to continue having a canon debate in a thread for something that both is NOT canon and deliberately means to be VAGUE about its hypothetical place IN the canon.

i was joking so you Chill the fuck out. i would had like to seen the song but not a big deal was just messing with him anyway

and your whole Demon Lord thing means nothing.
believe me when they made the game they didn't go by no titles to mean he is the biggest bad of them all.
sure Dracula has that roll but they could had changed that on a drop of a dime. and you made my point for me with both the devil and God they are not in the games we know nothing about them in canon. so they is no way Satan plays 2nd to Dracula until they say he does. it's all up in the air maybe a devil may not don't even mater. but just cause Dracula plays such a big roll don't mean someone bigger can't come along if they wanted. that's my point and other than a dead gaming co. no one can say ether way. and i never was talking about LOS in their at all anyway btw

[Dracula9]

That's the beauty of the canon.

It's true whether you believe it or not.

[mgfcortez]

That's the beauty of the canon.

It's true whether you believe it or not.

whats true? it's all up in the air it's not wrote no where drac is over the devil or not thats my point so any clam is just your way of looking at it not a fact but oh well not worth fighting over we both love Castlevania that all that matters 

[DraculaCronqvist]

A dozen other people made suggestions that didn't get in. You don't see them bitching.

Chill the fuck out.

And how is his last post "not really got anything to do with LC2?" He's part of the team that fucking made it.

Here's more or less what we know about Dracula and Satan in the CV canon, and this has all been elaborated on elsewhere in a plottwist thread so you can look for that if you don't believe me or want to keep the argument train going, but take it out of here at least.

-Dracula is Demon Lord
-Demon Lord is a title that anyone can have, but there can only be one Demon Lord
-Demon Lord is not the same as "Devil" or any of the names Satan has had throughout history
-Demon Lord is basically God's antithesis on earth thematically as far as how powerful the person with the title is
-Demon Lord is the supreme, literal incarnation of evil in the series
-If Satan exists or has any role behind the scenes in the continuity (no current indications of this at all outside of LoS), he's still below Dracula on power/threat level
-Doesn't mean Satan "serves" him or kisses his ass. That we never see him (LoS is separate, enemies named "Devil" are not THE Devil and do not count) should say enough on that. It means he's only the second-biggest dog on the street.
-Dracula has the title of Demon Lord, making him a step above Satan since we never see Satan and don't know what the rules about him are
-Satan doesn't show up in classic CV canon because his existence has no major purpose in its confirmation, and it would undermine just how big of a threat Dracula is to the world
-God is also never shown to actually appear or even exist in classic CV lore, either. He gets mentioned a lot, though. Do you know why? Because mentioning but not confirming deities to exist puts more emphasis on the storylines as secular, (mostly) human struggles; those take on a whole different tone and meaning as soon as the story decides "yep, [insert God or other deity here] exists for real and is in the heroes' corner," and that's exactly one of the reasons Konami never outright stated God or Satan or any other major Creator deities to exist or not. They become a literal macguffin and literal deus ex machina the instant they get involved, to one degree or another.

There. That's more or less the gist of it. I'll post the thread I was thinking of if/when I can find it, but there's no need to continue having a canon debate in a thread for something that both is NOT canon and deliberately means to be VAGUE about its hypothetical place IN the canon.

Very beautifully worded. Glad to see that most people do in fact pay attention to the proper canon.

I also second the notion that this discussion leads to nowhere, though. I simply meant to give a review for the purposes of feedback, that's all~

[Dracula9]

whats true? it's all up in the air it's not wrote no where drac is over the devil or not thats my point so any clam is just your way of looking at it not a fact but oh well not worth fighting over we both love Castlevania that all that matters 

It's written plenty of places, and implied in many others. I told you I'd repost links once I tracked them down, if you'd been patient.

Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist.

Here you go:
Entire thread dedicated to EXACTLY this topic. You even weighed in on it then!
Mentions and pretty plausible theories as to origins of the Demon Lord/King title and what it means.

[mgfcortez]

It's written plenty of places, and implied in many others. I told you I'd repost links once I tracked them down, if you'd been patient.

Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist.

Here you go:
Entire thread dedicated to EXACTLY this topic. You even weighed in on it then!
Mentions and pretty plausible theories as to origins of the Demon Lord/King title and what it means.

 this is all just fans saying what they think a few words thrown together proves nothing even if in writing it would put Dracula over Satan. still don't mater because the makers of Castlevania never put that much thinking into it game Co. never do it's the fans like yourself that try to make scents of it. sorry still proves nothing thanks for trying tho it will always be up in the air that's a fact. not saying your 100% wrong or right i'm just saying we will never know. same shit going on right now with fans fighting over the timeline placement of Zelda BOTW but no one knows but they are going nuts and wanting to kill each other while Nintendo can give two shits lol not worth fighting about little things we can agree to disagree 

[Jop]

 never belive Satan exist in the world of Castlevania but if he exist he will be lika Galamoth, Galamoth its a powerful Demon and can be as powerful as Dracula so that can means that if there is something as powerful as Dracula can be a 3rd other creature in the world or 4th with the same power or less or perhaps more but no body knows them yet.