Topic: Is there a way to play Castlevania Chronicles' Arrange Mode with original diff?

[Foffy]

I think the topic title got most of it, but I guess I could explain further.

I noticed only recently that in Arrange Mode that there's no knockback. At all. Yet it exists in Original Mode.

Does anyone know if there's a way to play Arrange with the Original Mode's difficulty, such as having knockback? Be it with a difficulty setting in the original game, or even a cheat device? I like the sprites and slightly faster gameplay of Arrange, but feel like I'm cheating with no knockback. I don't like feeling as if I have to choose between these elements, and wish there was a way to merge the two.

I bet and worry this may only be possible with a ROM hack, and I don't know enough about hacking to even do this. D:

[Aceearly1993]

It's not possible without modifying the ROM or cheat device/tool to change the value of one address. I have a happy time with this game for about 3 to 4 years and I've checked to make sure almost everything of the game is in my sight, and I promise the knock back can't be changed by normal method. I'm glad to see other who loved this game and played it!
Actually the difficulty (enemy pacing, amount and behavior, pattern of traps) will go up beyond what's about original mode's maximum difficulty if you set a specific value of one memory address to up to 9 or more (on the emulator, EPSXE I think) but I've yet to check the knock back thing (I didn't get the value tied to it). Won't affect enemy-to-player damage either.

[Foffy]

I am familiar about the difficulty jumping in Original, but I suppose what I was referring to was specifically the knockback, as that makes the game very different in how you get punished.

If there's no way to enable that with Arrange normally, what would be the easiest way of changing this? I assume the start would be to be able to parse the difference in the games code between Original and Arrange when it comes to damage, but I'm almost certain that's more complex than how I'm even assuming it could be done...

[Abnormal Freak]

Guess I never noticed Arrange Mode missing knock-back.

Anyway, the closest you can get to having Original Mode difficulty otherwise is to set it to the hardest setting and with 2 starting lives. This brings in some of the changes to the game introduced when you "loop" Original Mode a number of times, but the difficulty is more balanced.

[Foffy]

Guess I never noticed Arrange Mode missing knock-back.

Anyway, the closest you can get to having Original Mode difficulty otherwise is to set it to the hardest setting and with 2 starting lives. This brings in some of the changes to the game introduced when you "loop" Original Mode a number of times, but the difficulty is more balanced.

I get that, but I was hoping for more of a mechanical change, because for example, the knockback really does change how the player is punished.

I was hoping if there was a method to have the Original Mode difficulty with the Arrange Mode changes, sans knockback.

[Aceearly1993]

It's not possible without external cheat device (in the normal situation that the game should be) as what I know. The "Hard" difficulty in Arrange mode option is the highest possible that is reachable in normal situation.

If want to dig more, use Gameshark code 300592EC 00** for Quest Modifier in order to force the game to load difficulty from more rounds in Original mode
(Set the value to more than 09 will cause the game unbeatable without float cheat)
 

[Foffy]

Does that code force Original Mode difficulty in Arrange, or does that apply only to Original Mode?

[Aceearly1993]

Does that code force Original Mode difficulty in Arrange, or does that apply only to Original Mode?

Works in Arrange mode.
Actually it's interesting to see how fast bats and zombies go when they're on drug!
I personally think it's leftover of an (possible) earlier plan of developers, since no further problem  other than the platforms would drop out of the floor automatically when they're on player's sight at block 5 (If value was set too high).

[Foffy]

Works in Arrange mode.
Actually it's interesting to see how fast bats and zombies go when they're on drug!
I personally think it's leftover of an (possible) earlier plan of developers, since no further problem  other than the platforms would drop out of the floor automatically when they're on player's sight at block 5.

Wow, that sounds cool!

Does it enable what I was talking about earlier with knockback, to give Arrange Mode the "physics" of Original Mode?

And does it change any of the sprites back to what they were?

[Aceearly1993]

Wow, that sounds cool!

Does it enable what I was talking about earlier with knockback, to give Arrange Mode the "physics" of Original Mode?

And does it change any of the sprites back to what they were?

1.not 2.not
The game would work like how Arrange mode works and no sprite and "physic" change

[Foffy]

Ah, so it actually changes Arrange Mode's difficulty to be replaced with Original Mode, but doesn't change the "physics" linked to the Simon sprite.

Hmm. I looked up codes to change this, and I didn't find any, so I can only imagine this would need to be investigated within the game's code.

Unfortunately, this is an old niche game, so I'm probably the only one who cares enough about this problem, but I lack the technical knowhow to even handle it...phooey! ;_;

[Aceearly1993]

I do believe if there were more unused contents/abandoned plans of game designers than what I and other TCRF members had digged from the game.
 https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_Chronicles
They even did a Japanese PSN version in 2014 with some contents being slightly different from all known version that we played. PSN Japanese exclusive Regional difference. After more than 10 years I think. Glorious.

[Crying Freeman]

Annoying we couldn't customize the difficulty with graphics and sound. It'd have been pretty cool to have the freedom to play the original graphics with the new music but easier difficulty or any combo of them