Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: AxeArmor on July 08, 2008, 10:14:09 AM
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I may new to the forums, but I am not new to Castlevania series. I got my first Castlevania game for NES back in x-mas 1988, and I still got the game and NES left.
I still love Castlevania even though they're a different series today. Back when I was a kid, the games were pretty tough. Sending our favorite villain dracula back to hell was no easy feat. I remember being stuck on Death for a long long time :)
I love the old games, but I welcomed the change in SotN. It made Castlevania more about exploration and a longer experience.
Now fast forward to Castlevania PoR (I know OoE is coming), and Konami(IGA) are still making SotN clones.
Am I the only one who thinks that every new Castlevania game since SotN becomes more and more linear though? In PoR it was almost impossible to NOT know where to go next. I miss the bigger free roaming/exploration aspect of SotN. That is my biggest grip with that game along with the ridicilous dialogue.
I still like PoR, but it's the worst SotN clone imo. I even prefer HoD more.
I am looking forward to OoE and I hope it will improve things yet again!
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In Reply To #1
Hi, welcome to the forums. Nice new thread in here.
Enjoy your stay, and feel free to reply to the current hot topics (the Castlevania: Judgment, and the Order of Ecclessia ones), or any that strike your fancy.
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You'll find that many of us will agree with your statement, meanwhile many also disagree.
The 'bigger free roaming/exploration aspect' probably won't ever be executed as well as it did in SotN. Have you played Dracula X Chronicles? There's a game that is reminiscent of the old school games.
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You'll find that many of us will agree with your statement, meanwhile many also disagree.
The 'bigger free roaming/exploration aspect' probably won't ever be executed as well as it did in SotN. Have you played Dracula X Chronicles? There's a game that is reminiscent of the old school games.
Yeah i have played Dracula X Chronicles, the game is okay, but not like wow imo.
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Welcome, AxeArmor. I also agree. SotN had time where I wasn't really sure what to do, and I and the same problem with CotM and HoD. but their successors weren't as complicated. I hope we get less linear and more explore-y stuff, in the future.
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thanks a lot.
My favorite SotN clone is not SotN however, it is circle of the moon. Fantastic game :D
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In Reply To #6
Hi, and welcome to the forums. :)
Circle of the Moon is an excellent game, it's one of my favorites too. My number one favorite Castlevania title is Castlevania Legacy of Darkness for Nintendo 64, though it's not very popular. Have you ever played it?
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In Reply To #6
Indeed, I actually prefer HoD, though. But actually my fave SotN-like game would have to be the original SotN. The castle design in CotM is truly majestic, everywhere from the Chapel Tower to the Catacombs.
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In Reply To #8
Harmony of Dissonance is awesome. ;D
I think it's probably my favorite of the GBA titles. Either that or Aria of Sorrow.
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I don't quite get all the hate for PoR. I thought Charlotte was an alright character. It was a bit linear, but I thought Richter mode was alot of fun. The bosses on hard mode with Richter were more challenging then we have seen in a while, at least for me. I do wish Konami could find the balance between accesibility and challenging game play, similar to Super Metroid or games like that. I feel Rondo and Castlevania 4 were pretty close to that ideal.
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strange how you pick the easiest 2 of the platformers when you say that.
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I still like PoR, but it's the worst SotN clone imo. I even prefer HoD more.
Can't say I agree. The only thing that I really actually liked about HoD was the detail in particular areas of the castle. The castle design itself, in combination with the mostly bland music, terrible sprite animation for Juste and Maxim, and the repetitiveness of the second castle, just really turned me off from the game.
PoR, on the other hand, I found to have excellent gameplay mechanics and music. Many people say that DoS was of higher quality, and though I can understand that, I just have more fun with PoR overall.
All that aside, welcome to the board.
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I also like the detail of HoD, but I think a lot of what you stated as bad is actually good. The music is far from bland: there's always so much going on, not always the right things, but often quite tasteful and genius. I think it's really an acquired taste to like that soundtrack
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Yeh they are the easiest of the old school, excluding Castlevania 2, but still more challenging than the games after SotN. I love the first Castlevania but I don't think it's very accessible to average gamers, the same with 3. Of course the Japanese version of 3 is as easy as 4 or Rondo I think, especially with Grant. Still, the difficulty of the NES games is a bit exaggerated.
I guess I would rather have an old school style game that is easier than the NES games instead of the castleroid games which take multiple play-throughs to get to any challenge, which Dracula X Chronicles may be, but I dont have a psp yet. Or least give the difficulty option from the start, like arrange mode on Chronicles.
I guess my point is if Konami is worried about games being too hard for average players, they have already made great games with a decent but fair challenge in the old school format. I wish they would do it again instead of reiterating the castleroid format to death.
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I also like the detail of HoD, but I think a lot of what you stated as bad is actually good. The music is far from bland: there's always so much going on, not always the right things, but often quite tasteful and genius. I think it's really an acquired taste to like that soundtrack
I also think the music in HoD is pretty decent. The track marble coridoor or something is among my favorite castlevania tunes.
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In Reply To #15
I like that one too. So many people hate "Clock Tower Casualty", but I find it to be a true work of art. Maxim's Theme is actually quite enchanting, it just needs to be re-done. And the theme of the Merchant has an air of foreign mystery around it.
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Wow you guys are selfish, turning this thread into yet another "what's your favorite cv ___" ::)
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I don't understand why so many people don't like Harmony of Dissonance. I liked the plotline a lot, the music was fine, it had some great boss fights, and added many puzzles, which I think Castlevania needs more of. The character design was bad, but that's pretty much the only major negative feature in my opinion. A lot of people complain that it's too long. I beat the game a few days ago in about two hours. Overall, I thought it was a great game.
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if hod's character design was bad, portrait's and dawn's were mostly saturday morning cartoon level trash. :o :P
unless you meant spritework, then i agree. the character sprites were almost legends level ugly and deformed.
the only thing about hod that's annoying me is the color palette though. since i have no gba and only played it on emulator/ds, the brightness of it completely destroys the mood.
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thanks a lot.
My favorite SotN clone is not SotN however, it is circle of the moon. Fantastic game :D
I agree the best game so far that we've gotten after SOTN has been Circle of the moon.
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Welcome to the forums, AxeArmor.
Now fast forward to Castlevania PoR (I know OoE is coming), and Konami(IGA) are still making SotN clones.
You know, I
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In Reply To #1
Hi, welcome to the forums. I would like to say that i agree with you that after Symphony the new games are more linear, something that i don't like. Symphony was having more mysterious atmosphere, non linear stages and good difficulty. I just remember that when i played it for the first time i couldn't make it past the doppleganger and i have stuck for a month, because as much ridiculously it sounds, i couldn't find the bat soul!!
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i'll say one thing, dracula x(snes) has to be the cheapest castlevania in existence. just got through beating it, and you can bet yours, that i cheated mine off at the end.
it's like the development of that game centered around asking the question "how can we **** the player over?"
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One problem I had with PoR is that Jonathan is bad mouthing death and dracula like they're some high school bullies. I almost wanted death to win.
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In Reply To #24
Yeah, I really don't like Jonathan. He's just an overconfident idiot, and Charlotte is just some useless girl who follows him around throwing a fit whenever someone called her a kid.
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In Reply To #24
Yeah, I really don't like Jonathan. He's just an overconfident idiot, and Charlotte is just some useless girl who follows him around throwing a fit whenever someone called her a kid.
worst characters in the castlevania franchise imo
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i'll say one thing, dracula x(snes) has to be the cheapest castlevania in existence. just got through beating it, and you can bet yours, that i cheated mine off at the end.
it's like the development of that game centered around asking the question "how can we **** the player over?"
I know, the only way to beat it w/out cheating that works for me since there are so many random elements that can kick your ass especially on drac form 2 (which in my opinion was completely unnecessary because it takes more skill than the original castlevania with just the whip to beat form 1) is to grab up 99 hearts real fast and make dracula transform at the edge of a room then unload with axes or a few item crashes if you're feelin' risky. Otherwise it's too easy for one the random elements to pop in and knock you off the ledge instantly killing you which I didn't jive with in the first place, it was a stupid concept, an made richter appear weak by dying against dracula so quickly, not even CV 1 dracula can kill you that fast. And for one I don't get why you get knocked back in that game anyway if they were gonna make it so hard, take the hit richter be a man, don't get knocked fifty feet back because a tiny fireball the size of a baseball grazed your finger. Oh my god my fingernail was singed, NOOOOOO!!!!! (falls back and dies)
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In Reply To #26
Yeah, which is unfortunate because Portrait of Ruin wouldn't have been as bad if it weren't for them. It might have actually been a pretty good game. Though, the backround sprites were pretty repetitive, and some of the monsters were really bad ideas, but still, it had some potential.
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In Reply To #28
it is a good game. to avoid those particular set backs, hit the start button at every dialogue scene.
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(e.g. Portrait of Ruin), deposit it all in a bin, pop a lid on, and seal it away for a decade. Imagine the stink when someone breaks in after that!
fermented fine wine doesn't stink.
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Guess I'l comment on some of the random subject floating about.
COTM? My favourite CV game. Like someone said, awsome colour scheme, bossfights, and also just right in the difficulty department imo. Music also excellent.
HoD? Well I like it alot more than most people seem to do, I don't hate the music, a few of the tracks are excellent, but overall, especially with the sound quality, it's quite weak. The thing is however, I hardly dare play it, all that mashing of the shoulder buttons made my DS' left one stop working :(
To the main topic however, even though alot of people have actually been calling for more linear gameplay, perhaps hoping the it would bring back the bottomless pits of yore, I'd rather have the exploring. Though it seems Iga is leaning towards the stage based gameplay with POR portraits, DCX and the differant locations in OOE.
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dracula x chronicles was more about bringing a title that never left japan to the other countries that never got the chance to play it(provided most people in those countries that are castlevania fans know nothing of emulation).
same with casltevania chronciles on the psx. all that's left is a chronicles games for the msx game, which is actually very similar to the style you prefer, but with the elements of the platformers.
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Portrait of Ruin had aawesome enemy death animations.
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same with casltevania chronciles on the psx. all that's left is a chronicles games for the msx game,
Which would would kick major ass and be the greatest chronicles game ever. (as long as iga didn't fuck up simon's look like the first chronicles game) But his new artist seems tight so I doubt that's gonna happen. The game is actually a very fun game with actual defense and offense upgrades, more realistic subweapons which really come in handy. Love the shields.
(ironically the dagger is the best one and can innillate drac really fast) :o The only thing that drags the game down is a lack of a continue option which I think was more of an msx issue that could be fixed in a chronicles game giving gamers for the first time the ability to get great at the game w/out using a cheating device to give themselves infinite lives or going through the
entire game over and over. The key thing really isn't that bad when you don't have to worry about not being able to come back once your 3 lives are up, and is actually quite innovative. I also love the institution of an actual economy in the game and the ability to make things as expensive or inexpensive (to an extent can't make things free, that'd be too good) ;D, and I love the
merchants that reside in the castle and allow you to buy the items that was an awesome concept and negates the need to place items in candle and gives you the option to say yes or no instead of being forced to take the item and canceling out the kickass one you were carrying. And if you've played this game along with the nes original it became apparant to me that simon's
quest actually appears to be a merger of the two types of games, it's action packed and sidescrolling like the nes one but also has merchants that sell you things and a whole money system though there's no way to change the price
unfortuantely at least that I know of w/out cheating and getting everything for free. ;D I would pick this up even if it was 300 bucks, just like if any of the nes games were that expensive because it really is a great game once you get around the 3 lives and your TKO'd obstacle. Those who have a tough with
the nes one and haven't played it will probably be relieved if it comes out as a chronicles game that you can take a tone of hits before you finally go down. Something that not many castlevania games have done but the way VK was programmed it really works, the levels are so tough to navigate through and
locate the keys and "real" keys sometimes that your health still gets eaten up really fast but not like the nes game where 4 hits or 2 if you play vs castlevania and you die. The boss fights also take just as much skill if not more than the nes game (especially the phantom bat) and the dracula fight is on of the hardest ever with only about a 2.5 second window after every attack
to fly to the top of the room and hit his weakspot before the next onslaught starts. (of course if you possess the dagger there is a trick which makes the fight slightly less difficult) ;)