41
Off Topic / I'm a dad
« Last post by Abnormal Freak on May 17, 2025, 04:32:36 PM »...again, lol
Now I've got a girl and a boy.
Now I've got a girl and a boy.
I've heard it's not true that LoS started as something else than Castlevania. It was apparently always going to be Castlevania, but in order to not disrupt Judgment, it was initially announced simply as a new game.
IGA has previously stated showing that trailer publicly was a "mistake", likely because it was a pitch and not a promised upcoming work.
At the time, as fans didn't know there were three pitches for a new Castlevania game (one from each major branch) fans presumed this was a 3D adaptation of the radio drama which was being broadcast at the time, as that also starred Alucard.
My thoughts:
Dawn of Sorrow; I really appreciate it. Soma’s animation sprite is very detailed, down to seeing his cold breath in the winter sections. That attention to detail I appreciate very much. His animations are on par with Alucard in SotN. There are many unique things in the game not found in other Castlevanias which I appreciate it. However Julius’ sprite is just trash. Like c’mon, wtf were they thinking. The 3D parallax backgrounds especially at the end of the game were very well rendered. The Abyss final area was very creepy, but I wish it was larger.
Poetry of Ruin also had the preorder bonus which included the official timeline & a couple other goodies. But as I reminisce, the games include many clues to what IGA was planning on his unmade 1999 game;
- Charlotte is described in her bio that she holds the key to finally destroying Dracula for good. This is odd, since we know it was the Hakuba clan that put the final nail in the coffin, not the Aulin’s.
- The power of Dominus is said to contain the secret to Dracula’s power, and using it against him is extremely effective, perhaps moreso than the Vampire Killer itself.
- Apparently there are other Dark Lord candidates out there, Soma obviously being the strongest, but what happens to his soul after he dies? And why isn’t Death actively seeking to recreate Dracula since he has no dialogue in DoS?
\
- Apparently there are other Dark Lord candidates out there, Soma obviously being the strongest, but what happens to his soul after he dies? And why isn’t Death actively seeking to recreate Dracula since he has no dialogue in DoS?
So I just spent the last four months playing the the Dominus Collection. And after about 15 years since I last played the DS outings, I feel like:
-Dawn of Sorrow isn't as good as I remember
-Portrait of Ruin is actually better than I remember
-Order of Ecclesia is exactly as good as (and a little harder than) I remember
POR is especially interesting to me because I recall hating significant parts of it back in '06 i.e. the anime art style, ho-hum level design, and a general sense of overstuffing. Yet I thoroughly enjoyed it this time and I'm not sure why.
Did anyone else have a similar experience? Do you still regard the DS games exactly as you did all those years ago or have your views changed?
I played them all when they launched, but the only one I like going back to is PoR, definitely my favorite of the DS lineup.
Portrait of Ruin, I enjoy very much, but there’s an underlying feeling of laziness behind it. Many reused enemies & assets, tiny castle, too much anime cliches. The art style was terrible, generic slop.
One questions whether the oldness of the gameplay perhaps shows its armour chinks more so on an upscaled screen/ port, being as aged as it now is.
Dawn of Sorrow is like... I like the aesthetic alot (the muted colors, the greyish/brown palette, I do feel a sense of isolation and mood in that game against PoR's and OoE's colorful presentation, which I think is a nice, different experience to have) but I find the gameplay the inferior of the three.