Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: NicholasDuffy on October 05, 2007, 08:37:36 PM
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A huge dissapointment to me. I like the other two GBA installments but this game was boring. The colors were dark and stale, and they pretty much used the Level 4 track in "Super Castlevania IV" for where Death is in COTM. It was hard at the end, but now it turned boring.
The fun modes were the Magician and the Fighter modes, but the other two seemed nearly immpossible, and the fact that in shooter mode your stats are so low, without the holy water, your hopeless on fighting Cerebus. It is also a good game in the storyline, but I dislike the fact that when using new characters they almost redone the richter/hugh possessed factor (though Hugh was just jealous), and even though each GBA title tries to emulate Symphony, I think that Harmony has done the best job. I like this game, but then hate it aswell..
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The Castlevania Dungeon disowns you for such slander.
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Nice opinion.
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To Mr. Sven ; I only gave my opinion on a game....
To John; Thanks.
I updated the review BTW
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and they pretty much used the Level 4 track in "Super Castlevania IV" for where Death is in COTM.
And that's bad why?
I mean, they constantly overuse beginning, vampire killer, bloody tears and dance of illusions in many of the recent games, but you had to pick on the track that was remixed for the first time instead of vampire killer or dance of illusions, both remixed countless times and in cotm inferior to their original versions. :P
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I do have to agree here. I played Circle of the Moon after Harmony of Dissonance which is a superior game so I was kinda disappointed as well. If I hadn't played either Harmony or Aria before Circle I would probably have a different view.
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Circle of the Moon was better to me than HOD (mostly cause of soundtrack and level design).
BUt I was irked by COTM's controls. HOD definitely felt smoother, but it just wasn't as fun.
ALso, yeah, COTM can be too drab in some areas.
Nathan's also a lot cooler IMO than Juste.
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For the last few years CotM has been too boring for me to play. But lately I've been bored enough that Circle actually seemed like it could be fun! And believe it or not, I've been having a pretty good time playing through it again. It's been so long that I don't remember where most of the save rooms and secret areas are, so that's a little refreshing. I still wish there was more original music...having all but one of the area themes being remakes is way, way over the top.
On the contrary, I've always liked Harmony a great deal more than Circle, but this last time I play through HoD (about a month ago), I actually had to force myself to finish it. It was just...drab, boring. Towards the end at least, where you have to trek back through the alternate version of the early parts of the castle(s).
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I still wish there was more original music...having all but one of the area themes being remakes is way, way over the top.
I think both the Catacombs and the Chapel Tower have original music, though some argue that the Chapel Tower theme is a remix of Tragic Prince, which I absolutely do not agree with. A nod, yes. A remix? no.
Anyway, I kinda like the Machine Tower for its oldschoolness (with the moving platforms and all)
Other than that I have nothing to say about Circle of the Moon... It just hasn't aged particularly well IMO.
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CotM was much more arcade than HoD.
End of opinion.
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I recently won this on ebay, I am enjoying it so far. It's a fun game, I've read before about it being dark. I don't think it is. It's gothic looking. But I am playing on a DS, and I have heard that makes a difference from a GBA.
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I think both the Catacombs and the Chapel Tower have original music
Oops, you're right, I forgot about the Chapel Tower.
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In Reply To #11
Yes, the GBA and the DS light have drastic lighting differences, and when playing even Harmony of the SP, it can seem much darker than it does on the DS.
I have never cared fir Circle of the Moon. I didn't care for the stages, which to me all looked rather... identical, but also because there was no real distinction between what was going on anywhere. Heck the thing used more grey pixels than Curse of Darkness, which alone in itself is...sad, to say the very least.
The card system was terrible. Very glitchy, you had no clue which monster you could get a card from, which monster you HAVE gotten a card from, or anything. Stiff, unpleasant controls. Yes, while it works for the old-school ones, in this one, which was more metroidvania, it just felt out of place, and bad. His sprite looked unpleasantly anorexic, and that was something that many of the sprites suffered from. They felt like they were badly animated, and the music, as many have pointed out was nothing more than repetition of previous music, and certain tracks were overused.
At least Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears and Dance of Illusions were all extremely fun songs, and not rather okay compared to others.
Circle is the only Castlevania aside from Dawn of Sorrow that to me just lacked many things, despite having their own "charm"...at least in Dawn the charm was visible...
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And that's bad why?
I mean, they constantly overuse beginning, vampire killer, bloody tears and dance of illusions in many of the recent games, but you had to pick on the track that was remixed for the first time instead of vampire killer or dance of illusions, both remixed countless times and in cotm inferior to their original versions. :P
now you see, you made a perfect point, i liked it, but it seemed worse on the gba. the vk remix was terrible aswell as the others though.
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I was excited when CotM was announced as one of GBA's launch titles, but now the game is very plain & boring. What was the deal about them trying to make the Hunter Whip akin to Vampire Killer? They should've added Hugh as a playable character, since Nathan was extremely boring to begin with.
The level design of HoD is way better than CotM in my opinion.
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CotM is the best Castlevania since SotN. All I'm saying is CotM was unique pretty much it's own style whereas the other GBA games were Sotn ripoffs no matter how good they were, and the DS games aren't worthy of comparision.
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whereas the other GBA games were Sotn ripoffs no matter how good they were, and the DS games aren't worthy of comparision.
::) Yes, the other GBA games are SotN ripoffs, the same way that metroid prime echoes, and corruption were ripoffs of Metroid Prime, and Castlevania 2, 3, 4, and Chi no Rondo were ripoffs of Castlevania 1...
I do however agree on the DS games being unworthy of comparison, despite trying desperately to prove myself wrong....:(
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As another thing I would like to say, this feels like it has the most dark and gothic feel, out of all of the GBA titles, since HoD (even though it is good), it is like a castle rainbow with 1,000 colors, and then there is AoS (even though this is also good aswell), which has a dance hall with flying mini-replicas of the dancing ghosts of SCV4, this has the most dark feel to it.
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In Reply To #17
HoD IS a SoTN ripoff. There are just WAY too many similarities between the two games for me to believe otherwise. AoS is a very cool original game, but HoD owes so much to SoTN it's not funny.
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In Reply To #17
HoD IS a SoTN ripoff. There are just WAY too many similarities between the two games for me to believe otherwise. AoS is a very cool original game, but HoD owes so much to SoTN it's not funny.
I don't get it. I think AoS plays A LOT more like SotN.
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Yeah, I think AoS is much more SotN-like than Harmony. Although Harmony is closer when it comes to storyline and the dual castle thing, and I suppose with the relics too. It's the overall gameplay though that makes AoS seem more like SotN.
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I beleive that circle is acually fun, and I played through all modes. It was acually pretty much my first CV game as well (but not my very first), as it was the game that got me hooked on the series.
The dracula in this game is ACUALLY hard. Amazing isn't it? Of all the CV games I have ever played, the only one that's even comparable is CV4.
HoD's dracula was a total pushover. Hahaha! Throws a fireball. Repeats until defeated. Then the second form? All you do is slide or use the medicine jar to get behind him, then all challenge at all is lost. Lame.
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I beleive that circle is acually fun, and I played through all modes. It was acually pretty much my first CV game as well (but not my very first), as it was the game that got me hooked on the series.
The dracula in this game is ACUALLY hard. Amazing isn't it? Of all the CV games I have ever played, the only one that's even comparable is CV4.
HoD's dracula was a total pushover. Hahaha! Throws a fireball. Repeats until defeated. Then the second form? All you do is slide or use the medicine jar to get behind him, then all challenge at all is lost. Lame.
Wow you pretty just owned Drac in HoD lol, I used the bolt-cross combo. Boom! He was owned.
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Oops, you're right, I forgot about the Chapel Tower.
Don't forget the awesomeness of the final fight theme, "Proof of Blood", either ;)
Great, original tune. (later remixed into homebrew "Dracula's Shadow" in the main menu).
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The level design of HoD is way better than CotM in my opinion.
explain....
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Maybe he felt CotM was too wide, muddy, and bland, whereas HoD utilized a layout more akin to SotN, with areas being more visible and memorable so exploration isn't so tedious.
*shrug*
I'm not Crisis, so I don't know.
~EDIT~
The edit button is your friend.
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The dracula in this game is ACUALLY hard...
HoD's dracula was a total pushover. Hahaha!
Another point: COTM had a difficulty that consistently raised the bar with each new boss defeat. Soon, older areas were filled with harder baddies, and so backtracking was kept interactive still.
Overall the difficulty was solid.
I'm still impressed with this idea, because IGA still hasn't embraced it in his games -- well, only on occasion.
I really only had problems with the controls, and at first the dark visuals.
Once I got used to them (you never really get used to Nathan's running though), I found COTM a blast to play, and still think so to this day. I think it still holds somewhere on my top ten CVs list.
I also don't mind all the remixes in the soundtrack, 'cause to me they were done well. I even like "Nightmare" better here, though I know there are several here who'll bite my head off for it. "Sinking Old Sanctuary" was better composed than the Bloodlines original, due to a more pleasant chorus sample. I still think COTM had the best version of this song. Also, there was a nice upbeat version of "clockwork".
This is why I was pissed to find the COTM/HOD soundtrack favored HOD's score with longer loops. The music is grating by comparison. COTM still holds the "best quality sound" award for any GBA Castlevania. Even AOS didn't sound as clear.
I find HOD has aged much worse than COTM. It feels unprofessional by comparison. It feels older than it should due to crappy low-end music; repeating room designs and tiles, and a boring difficulty. Even on "hard" I wasn't impressed. The presentation overall is often ugly.
THough in many ways HOD had a more robust graphics engine, it didn't feel well used and most areas were underwhelming.
On a side note, both games have beauftiful chapels. Many visual memories made in those.