Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: AxeArmor on November 02, 2008, 06:49:37 AM
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Where to start? I am so disappointed. Well the glyph system is nothing more than a Soulsystem, only with less glyphs. And because of its magic use, it feels very secondary. Yeah wtf, it feels like there is no primary weapon system in this game.
Sword glyph > Better Sword glyph > Even Better Sword glyph
Damn, it is so laughable.
Then the level design. More simon's quest esque? Not really! It has one tiny village which can be accessed at any time. The world map is so pointless, they might as well crammed everything in the usual castle like they did with the 2nd half of the game.
And dont get me started on the music. Castlevania is one of my favorite franchises ever when it comes to music. I have almost loved every installation for its awesome soundtrack. I expected no different with OoE, especially since it was 2 years since PoR was released.
But wtf happend here? The music is so uninspired that it's in fact worse then HoD. HoD had horrible sound quality, but atleast it had some catchy melodies. (marble gallery etc)
I cant really hum one single track when I am not playing this game, and the music in dracula's castle in particular is barferific.
so is there something good with this game? The artwork, some of the bosses and an upped difficulty are all on the plus side, but it doesn't make up for all the mistakes.
Seriously, what happend with this game? There is no doubt that it is
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Worse than PoR? lolwut
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Worse than PoR? lolwut
I believe so yes
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Couldn't disagree more. The music is great. You may not have rhythm or something, but I did plenty of humming while playing this game. The level design isn't amazing but it's perfectly functional and a step up from POR. You also failed to mention the slew of new enemies and how much variety we got in the areas.
The world map, I'll agree, wasn't the best idea since all of the areas are so damn small besides a token few. But it doesn't disrupt gameplay THAT much, and I really like how you're outside of the castle this time.
This is the best of the Metroidvanias in my opinion. I don't see why you hate it so much- I got a blast out of playing this game.
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In Reply To #1
Wow.. I think the music is fantastic in this game, probably better than either of the other DS games (and I really liked the music in both, especially PoR. Shame about the actual game though). There are only maybe 3 or 4 songs I don't care for, but the rest is excellent IMO. I don't like how they arranged "Riddle" though. The original is much better.
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In Reply To #1
Wow, you may be the only person to not like this game!
Harmony of Dissonance is better!? That's is probably the only Castlevania game I don't like...
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Yes I am sadly not satiesfied with this game, sorry. I also think that the items and equipment were seriously lacking. Most of the rings are useless.
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In Reply To #3
You're silly. That's like saying CotM is better than AoS.
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In Reply To #3
You're silly. That's like saying CotM is better than AoS.
I think it is.
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Explain why.
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if ooe is mediocre, portrait is a pure shitstain. ;D
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if ooe is mediocre, portrait is a pure shitstain. ;D
the characters, artwork and story is horrible in PoR, but the gameplay isnt any worse than OoE, that's for sure. I liked the "regular" equipment system, and the dual spells you could do over the glyphs. Believe it or not, but I liked PoR's music and draculas castle better also.
Then again, DoS is better than both.
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if ooe is mediocre, portrait is a pure shitstain. ;D
PoR is a shitstain in any case.
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actually the only good point i liked in this game was shanoa, and dracula's design, rather then that i felt the levels were to small, the music was ok but could have been better since i know the ds has larger game carts avalable to it, so the excuses are minimal, and yes i said before ti was a DOS expansion with POR elements, and that is essentially what it was, not to mention the POR team was the ones who made it. i domnt know its ok but it jsut doesn;t seem to fit, i'd love it if i could assign the cv1 songs to dracs castle at least :p
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One flaw I see is that there is little incentive to return to earlier locations. For one thing, enemies don't drop anything that's worth collecting, and for another, there aren't any serious secrets to find in older spots. As a result, OoE is much more linear.
Personally, I think the length is fine. Just when you think the game is over, they keep giving you more places to explore. But it would have been nice to have more than one town and another mansion (including a Dwelling of Doom mix). Difficulty was also fine, though some people complained. Those people need to play the old games again :)
I think the music is good overall, but there are a couple tracks I don't like (mountain and misty ridge). Also didn't like that a few of the tracks were reused in a couple levels (though Emerald Mist is one of my favorites). And then the voice acting of the enemies gets kind of annoying.
Ultimately, it doesn't add too much to the series. There's really not much differentiating this from PoR or DoS. But most people seem to like playing the games, so because it's a SotN-style game, and it's Castlevania, most fans probably decided to buy it anyway. The series IS getting rather worn though. Not as much as the Mega Man formula though...
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In Reply To #17
Wow, there was someone saying the music sucked in one of the other threads too. Screw you guys who hate the music, it's fucking great.
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There's really not much differentiating this from PoR or DoS.
What?! Oh my...
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quoted for great justice
each quote will add more power to the fact that PoR is horseshit.
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I would hardly say the music sucks, though I like PoR's sound track better. I still quite enjoyed the game overall, even if it might have lacked a little in some areas (it's hard to top the final battle of PoR). I liked the characters and artwork.
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each quote will add more power to the fact that PoR is horseshit.
PoR is one of the greatest games ever made.
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In Reply To #23
bizarro much?
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it's hard to top the final battle of PoR
I keep hearing that from people, and it makes me wonder if I even played the same PoR as them? The final battle in my PoR took place in a cramped room with Dracula and Death coming at me at the same time. It was a mess, it lacked focus, and didn't feel epic at all. I was waiting for the REAL DEAL, but it never happened.
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In Reply To #23
That signature just made me like PoR a little bit more
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Wow. Two years later and apparently we still can't stop talking about Portrait of Ruin. I still like the game, for what it's worth, warts and all.
As for OOE, it's a mixed bag. Clearly Iga or someone at Konami was listening to the fans' criticisms, for much was fixed this time out. We ditched the tiresome anime artwork, the difficulty was leveled up noticeably (at least in the beginning, more on that later), we got a boatload of new enemy sprites, some of them pretty damn good (the lorelei [sp?] is a particular favorite), the background artwork, at least in the castle, is some of the best in the series, and all remnant of juvenile humor was gutted from the storytelling (no more obnoxious rivalry between Jonathan and Charlotte or nauseating flirting between Hammer and Yoko to have to stomach).
That all works and is a welcome change. Now what didn't work: Yes, the early reviews were right, just like Portrait of Ruin almost half of the areas outside the Castle are copy/paste. We have two ocean levels (Kalidus Channel and Somnus Reef), two mountain road levels (Oblivion Ridge and Misty Forest Road), two dilapidated mansion levels (Giant's Dwelling and Mystery Manor), and two mountain levels (Tristis pass and Tymeo Mountains); all of them entirely similar in both layout and backgrounds. The only thing that changes is the enemies. This isn't a deal-breaker for me, but enough people complained about lividly with Portrait that I'm a little surprised it gets a pass here.
As I mentioned earlier, I have reservations about the difficulty level. The beginning levels of the game are pretty damn challenging, it's really not uncommon to find yourself getting killed by common or 'lesser' enemies if you don't watch your health and make some careless strategic mistakes, and some of the bosses are downright hard: Goliath, the Crab, and the water sprite all made me die at least a few times while I memorized the nuances and exact timing of their patterns. And once you do get their patterns down to a science, you have to keep up your patterns more or less exactingly for a considerable amount of time while you use your often narrow attack windows to whittle down
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am I the only one who think that there is a serious shortage of equipment?
I mean, you can get shanoas best armor and leggings about 40% into the game! Ridiculous.
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PoR is one of the greatest games ever made.
PoR = Pork
Pork = Portrait of Rotting Krap >:(
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We have two ocean levels (Kalidus Channel and Somnus Reef), two mountain road levels (Oblivion Ridge and Misty Forest Road), two dilapidated mansion levels (Giant's Dwelling and Mystery Manor), and two mountain levels (Tristis pass and Tymeo Mountains);
I'm going to add to this that some rooms, particularly the big rooms in the mountain stages, are more or less exact copies of other rooms you just went into. I found this really annoying as it's the kind of thing you only really expect to see in an NES game. There really needed to be more variety in those levels.
I disagree with the music though. Overall I'm pretty impressed by it. While I don't think it's the best the DS can do, there are a few tracks in there I really enjoy (An Empty Tome, Rhapsody of the Fallen, Wandering the Crystal Blue, Hard Won Nobility) and some I really don't like (Tragedy's Pulse). I've also found the music seems to sound better when I play it back on my speakers than through headphones :)
Regarding difficulty, I had problems on later bosses, but it's definitely pattern-based. If you know the pattern, you can win; figuring that out and perfecting it is what covers the try/try again part (I'm personally satisfied with the technique I discovered to kill Death in less than 30 seconds without getting hit :P). I can see your character becoming incredibly maxed out if you beat the two challenge stages first, but if you didn't, Dracula can still beat you around.
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i never head about simon's quest esque or whatever the hell that is... but for me yeah some other parts of OoE is stupid, and obtaining medals and putting them on the "Use Items" list is also stupid, how come they would put the medals just like that? it seems like the medals we're just picked up, also the status screen above seemed less cool, no level completion, pictures, not even a little cool thing about it, just writings and bestiary of what you killed...
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I don't understand why people don't like the music. Most of it reminds me of ambient SNES game melodies, especially Tymeo Mountains (Jaws of a Scorched Earth) and Kalidus Channel (A Clashing of Waves). It's not necessarily actions beats, but then again it doesn't need to be.
As for people complaining it to be the worst "Metroidvania": I like the return to the more linear (and action focused) Castlevania format. I agree the item management is particularly cumbersome and gets in the way of the old-school "Classicvania" feel.
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i guess this are the probable reason why the game went "mediocre best"
Where to start? I am so disappointed. Well the glyph system is nothing more than a Soulsystem, only with less glyphs. And because of its magic use, it feels very secondary. Yeah wtf, it feels like there is no primary weapon system in this game.
Sword glyph > Better Sword glyph > Even Better Sword glyph
1. when you play/played castlevania SOTN Alucard already had skills of his own, the only left of him is to collect weapons around the castle, the probable reason for this is because of Soma becoming the new INCARNATION of dracula, he is able to absorb souls from enemies in his castle, the glyph system is the same, but if it were to look like SOTN (where you use swords) it might as well end up as PoR which rather PURELY UGLY :-X the Glyph system enables us to use 2 combos and union, soma isn't able to do that so beating up bad guys are 2x harder than shanoa :)
Then the level design. More simon's quest esque? Not really! It has one tiny village which can be accessed at any time. The world map is so pointless, they might as well crammed everything in the usual castle like they did with the 2nd half of the game.
2. remember that they called it Order of Ecclesia? pretty weird from where they came from, but if albus weren't to betray Barlowe and Ecclesia then Shanoa could've head up the dracula's castle and started finishing the game already XD the point about the world map is for shanoa to follow albus and to find the rest of [Dominus] and her memories as well, or if albus ddn't betray them, somebody else had to take away shanoa's powers just like what happened to alucard at SOTN (taken by death :D)
And dont get me started on the music. Castlevania is one of my favorite franchises ever when it comes to music. I have almost loved every installation for its awesome soundtrack. I expected no different with OoE, especially since it was 2 years since PoR was released.
3. Yeah when im at tymeo mountains i had to use RECORD 5 to get rid of the music, i guess some of the BGM didn't went well, but at some parts of OoE the BGM are fine :) (for some players)
the other things i found out stupid was obtaining medals that are put at USED ITEMS list.. what's that? no medal case? it'd really weird if it happened to be a trophy XD..
in addition to the village thing, i guess the reason why enemies doesn't drop anything much it's because shanoa is going to be a blacksmith or something, people in the village are assigned to give shanoa quest for recipes and items needed.. then if your done, you're given a reward for your hard work! :D i remmber i killed the Bone Dragon on PoR several times because im tardy playing it, suddenly it dropped Zweihander the German 2 sword XD 40 dmg all and all but super slow, packs a punch thou :)
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i never head about simon's quest esque or whatever the hell that is...
Don't tell me you're one of those folk who only started playing Castlevania since SOTN...
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Don't tell me you're one of those folk who only started playing Castlevania since SOTN...
I AM!!! I didn't even play it on the original PSX...XBL rocks. Yeah.
I win something right?!
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No?
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It shouldn't matter when a fan has started with a series, as long as we all share the same love & respect for CV :-*
your avatar is seizure-worthy!
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It shouldn't matter when a fan has started with a series, as long as we all share the same love & respect for all CV
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In Reply To #37
[whine]The older Castlevania's were too linear and had some cheesy guy with a whip as a main character...[/whine]
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In all seriousness, the only thing that really bugs me about the older games is the lack of jump control and the lack of a down-time after being hit by an enemy.
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Being hit by an enemy attack and bouncing back only (or sometimes even off the screen, resetting what you just cleared) to uncontrollably fall on another enemy's head then being knocked back again only to fall off an edge and die.
I love how people like to complain about this yet it's very(very very very...) unlikely to happen. I've never seen it happen before, and I'm not even sure it can happen unless it's done on purpose, or you're just very foolish and reckless.
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In Reply To #39
Its not a slight against the series, that's just how they were set up and you either avoid it (by playing "better") or you learn to deal with it when it happens.
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You shouldn't really take anything against how the older games play. The level design and enemy placement revolves around the character's limitations. If anything goes wrong, it's your fault, because that's exactly how the games work. If you memorize the levels, enemy placements, and boss patterns very well, you might not even get hit. It's pretty sad to see that the older games are much more strategic than the RPG-like games(are the hemorrhoidvanias even strategic? I'm pretty sure they were meant to be).
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In Reply To #41
Everyone has their own tastes I suppose.
I've been slowly beating my way through the classic games but its taking a while.
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I've never seen it happen before, and I'm not even sure it can happen unless it's done on purpose, or you're just very foolish and reckless.
I've been knocked back into bottomless pits and death traps before (and juggled by enemies). I can't recall both happening at the same time, but the individual instances occur.
The level design and enemy placement revolves around the character's limitations. If anything goes wrong, it's your fault, because that's exactly how the games work.
Yup, and they're very good designs based on this concept of movement limitation. However, it limits appeal from players who desire more flexible controls (say Super Mario World). A study was done (which I've never been able to find sadly, merely a reference to it on Gamasutra) that stated something about how the most highly rated games had jump times within a particular range of micro-seconds. I'm pretty sure most pre-SotN Castlevanias fall outside of that realm.
If you memorize the levels, enemy placements, and boss patterns very well, you might not even get hit.
OoE follows this same logic to an extent. Bosses are HEAVILY pattern-based, but in such a way that it takes time to memorize (and Contra 4 is like this throughout). That's why they give you medals if you beat them without getting hit.
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I've been knocked back into bottomless pits and death traps before (and juggled by enemies). I can't recall both happening at the same time, but the individual instances occur.
Of course the individual instances might occur from time to time, but one after another right away is very unlikely to happen. Even being juggled by enemies is unlikely. You have one or two seconds of invincibility, so unless you're surrounded by enemies, I doubt it will happen.
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@sfried
actually i've heard of castlevania ever since my aunt and uncle bought their selves family computer, i saw cartridges of castlevania in every store, and i don't know much of it. i found out about castlevania when we rented a cartridge called castlevania bloodlines then came to CotM and then HoD then SOTN my ways of learning about castlevania is already advanced, that's why im interested at this site to learn more about Belmonts and How dracula LIVE AND DIE in the SERIES ;D and also the REASON why i played SOTN and FINISHED it completely is because i found at from the internet that Alucard is Dracula's Son, :-X so i was inspired to know why the rebellion started and also knowing that Richter became hypnotized and took over the castle :D other reasons is because alucard weirdly transforms to a dragon when turns into stone and can perform a lot abilites like his father :D haha
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The final battle in my PoR took place in a cramped room with Dracula and Death coming at me at the same time. It was a mess, it lacked focus, and didn't feel epic at all.
Bad taste and no skills
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but he's right, that battle was pretty lame and didn't feel epic at all. if something it cheapened dracula completely.
i mean, he fought every belmont all by himself, but here he needs death to fight a bunch of kids who combined were weaker than even the weakest belmont to exist.
and he's also way too easy ;D
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Dracula's demonic, monstrous final forms have a "been there, done that" feel for me. But am I the only one who thinks it's awesome that Dracula is now walking up to the hero and giving him/her a swift punt in the rear?
This is the next generation of final boss fights in CV, folks. Dracula chases you throughout the entire castle, trying to literally kick your ass. In the meantime, Yakety Sax is playing in the background.
That would be my favorite Castlevania ever.
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Dracula's demonic, monstrous final forms have a "been there, done that" feel for me.