Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: sirius_black on December 26, 2008, 07:56:26 PM
-
I have a micro and just received a gameshark for christmas...so I've been entering codes and playing all day.
I've only played 2 of the castlevania games: Circle of the Moon (GBA) and the remake of the first game(online). I just beat CotM today and started playing in magician mode....anyway I was just wandering what is the best castlevania game for the GBA?
-
Aria of Sorrow is the most balanced, but if you just care about challenge, then CotM.
-
To me, CotM embodies a good mix between the IGA era and the old-school-CV era. The difficulty is solid (even if the controls are not so much), the music quality is top notch (although most are remixes), and the DSS card system offers lots of flexibility. While the graphics aren't quite as polished as AoS', they're decidedly darker and moodier. People have made many comparisons with Super Castlevania 4, and CotM's soundtrack conisists of as much.
IMO, it's the best GBA experience.
While AoS was a cleaner, more balanced production, it also had some boring level design, or at least off-putting layouts. The music is much better than HoD, but most songs aren't as memorable as CotM's. And though the soul system was its crowning jewel, the act of trying to get them all would unbalance the game as you'd level too fast.
HoD was mostly a mess. The magic book system and dual-world was cool, but the level design made no sense (maybe on purpose), repeated too often, and the difficulty was low. One of the worse things about it is its presentation: the sprite design and animation sucks, even if there is some nice technical effects here and there in the backgrounds. The music is almost entirely forgettable. Despite that I give it credit for being unique and dark, it mostly grated on the ears and made levels feel too long and tedious. There's a couple of good tracks, but no standouts here.
CotM FTW.
-
In Reply To #1
Aria of Sorrow was the best in my opinion. HOD definitely comes in second. Plus, if you're ever looking into buying a DS, Soma's story continues in Dawn of Sorrow. However, Aria isn't all that difficult. It definitely has the best music tracks of the three, and maybe the best graphics. The soul system is great and the structures are nice.
-
Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance. Aria has great level design and the nice little soul system. Harmony has a great feeling and fantastic atmosphere.
-
I have looked at Aria of Sorrow, but can't find it anywhere except online. Harmony looks good but I have heard mixed reviews of it.
-
In Reply To #1
Aria of Sorrow remains the best Castlevania since SotN IMO.
-
Harmony has a few stellar points, but then a few really bad flaws that push it down on the list. Horrible character sprites. Horribly animated. Stupid neon 'glow' that is ALWAYS on. Super bright and faded colors. Low quality music samples. Etc. On the plus side the background art was excellent. Great mood. Great level design. By all means don't skip it, but its got some big annoyances.
Circle is an all around good game. Great difficulty balance. A little too much enemy reuse. Like armor enemies. There are a lot of different forms, such as Light, Dark, Axe, Forest, Fire, Ice, etc etc. They all look the same, but have a different color. Some backgrounds are very repetitive and dull, but it was a GBA near launch title, so that is forgivable. The card system is nice, but you likely wont find all the cards on the first run. Because they are super rare drops, you wont be able to get them easily. That was a huge pain.
Aria is the best of the GBA trilogy. Its good points are all balanced very high. There are very few complaints about the game.
-
I'm just going to be weird and recommend Lydie of Dissonance.
-
Aria of Sorrow, it has Julius Belmont!
-
Harmony has a few stellar points, but then a few really bad flaws that push it down on the list. Horrible character sprites. Horribly animated. Stupid neon 'glow' that is ALWAYS on. Super bright and faded colors. Low quality music samples. Etc. On the plus side the background art was excellent. Great mood. Great level design. By all means don't skip it, but its got some big annoyances.
Circle is an all around good game. Great difficulty balance. A little too much enemy reuse. Like armor enemies. There are a lot of different forms, such as Light, Dark, Axe, Forest, Fire, Ice, etc etc. They all look the same, but have a different color. Some backgrounds are very repetitive and dull, but it was a GBA near launch title, so that is forgivable. The card system is nice, but you likely wont find all the cards on the first run. Because they are super rare drops, you wont be able to get them easily. That was a huge pain.
Aria is the best of the GBA trilogy. Its good points are all balanced very high. There are very few complaints about the game.
How hypocritical. You excuse CotM's repetitive and dull backgrounds because it was a launch title yet you don't excuse HoD's low quality music because the cartridge couldn't take anymore?
-
You excuse CotM's repetitive and dull backgrounds because it was a launch title yet you don't excuse HoD's low quality music because the cartridge couldn't take anymore?
Hod's music was bad bro especially when compared to the other 2 games. That's something I couldn't forgive either, I would have gladly accepted a shorter game if space was an issue over a longer one with bad sound.
My fav. gba game would have to be AOS because I like the new plot twists and the addition of other characters that help you out and give you info along the way. Gave it a sort of simon's quest feel.
-
Aria of Sorrow is the most balanced, but if you just care about challenge, then CotM.
He has a Gameshark, I doubt he/she is looking for challenge. ;)
-
In Reply To #1
Harmony of Dissonance, hands down. It's odd and unpredictable and feels a bit random, almost unfinished at times, but I LOVE the atmosphere and the level design and the attention to detail. People who hate on it are flat out wrong. ;D And contrary to popular belief the game has a rockin' soundtrack! It's the sound quality that is somewhat off, but I like the NES feeling of it all.
Aria of Sorrow is arguably the most polished and complete game of the three and the soul system is actually one of the best things to happen to the franchise (though after DoS I've had enough of it) but that doesn't necessarily make it more enjoyable. I prefer the chaotic nature of HoD :) Some areas in AoS are kinda boring, like the inner quarters and the ballroom. The music is very underrated though.
Circle of the Moon is a great game, but it's my least favourite on the system. Nathan is stiff and poorly animated and some of the level design is not especially interesting. The music in the Chapel Tower is incredible though, and IMO it has the best version of Vampire Killer ever.
-
In Reply To #11
Computer technology learning time. Today's subject: Cart space does not equal RAM!
OK kids, gather around.
RAM (the random access memory) is not affiliated with the storage space of a game cart. RAM is what they ran out of with HoD (due to all the graphics data), thus having to make the samples lower quality. RAM is a good thing, because unlike Windows, when a GBA runs out of RAM, you run out of fun. It will completely crash.
In this case, they decided to do this. They made the decision to sacrifice sound RAM for graphics RAM. They had the option to fix it, or to plan the game better and balance it more.
-
Hod's music was bad bro especially when compared to the other 2 games. That's something I couldn't forgive either, I would have gladly accepted a shorter game if space was an issue over a longer one with bad sound.
Bad quality ≠ Bad music.
HoD has some of the best composed music in the series.
CotM had pretty bad music, IMO. Most of its music was remixes[bad remixes, mind you(except for Clockwork Mansion)], and the synths were weird.
In Reply To #11
Computer technology learning time. Today's subject: Cart space does not equal RAM!
OK kids, gather around.
RAM (the random access memory) is not affiliated with the storage space of a game cart. RAM is what they ran out of with HoD (due to all the graphics data), thus having to make the samples lower quality. RAM is a good thing, because unlike Windows, when a GBA runs out of RAM, you run out of fun. It will completely crash.
In this case, they decided to do this. They made the decision to sacrifice sound RAM for graphics RAM. They had the option to fix it, or to plan the game better and balance it more.
Well excuuuuse me, princess!
-
HoD has some of the best composed music in the series.
You sir speak the truth.
-
AoS hands down.
-
Some backgrounds are very repetitive and dull, but it was a GBA near launch title, so that is forgivable
not really. a bad designer is a bad designer no matter the hardware he designs the levels for.
i mean, if a design sucks on the paper it won't magically get better depending from a console's life. poorly designed repetitive rooms will stay that way no matter what technology you use while putting those designs from the paper into the game.
proof? cod and pork. they both had a game before it (dos was nearly a launch title, its jp numbering didn't even go beyond 100), and yet they both managed to butch the level design up even more than the previous one. :o
-
Background art doesn't equal level design.
-
That doesn't mean it doesn't have bad level design. :P
-
I didn't comment on the level design at all. Not for any of the three titles.
-
I know. I'm just saying...
-
I think HoD is an unpolished diamond. If they were to make a remake for say.. DS, and would have more time to finish it, I'm sure they could make HoD and amazing game. Don't get me wrong, I love HoD, but I can understand how most people feel it's not entirely complete - mostly because of the sprites and the music.
-
In Reply To #28
Cotm is great. I played through every single different mode in that game, that's how much fun I think it is.
HoD I consider to be horrible, but some people here seem to like it, so I'll just leave it at that.
AoS is good, but I like its sequel more, even though this is a GBA discussion.
-
In Reply To #28
I agree with this entirely. Of course a ROM hack fixing the sprites would be good enough for me.
-
In Reply To #20
so a bad background artist then. "launch title" is still not an excuse for drawing like shit and lack of imagination. ;D
-
In Reply To #27
Those sometimes NES looking blocks are easy to overlook when you're having one of the best metroidvania experiences since SOTN. I think the Clock Tower in that game had a pretty badass background if I remember correctly, and the area where you fight nathan.
-
In Reply To #27
It is if you are inexperienced with a console. The same reason the last major titles on a console look way better than the first. The company develops better ways of storing, and drawing image data. This leads to more complex backgrounds and effects.
Similarly, when I first made the engine for my Castlevania game, you remember the drawing was slower, and we needed more layer restrictions. Now we have less. And a lot more drawing options for objects and backgrounds. The same applies to commercial games :P
-
In Reply To #27
Those sometimes NES looking blocks are easy to overlook when you're having one of the best metroidvania experiences since SOTN.
No. Effing. Way.
-
In Reply To #30
Which of the metroidvania's do you enjoy almost as much as SOTN? Only Cotm OoE and DoS come any close for me.
-
In Reply To #31
I don't even like SotN. But what came close to my first time with it were AoS and OoE.
-
In Reply To #29
we're talking about kcek here though. you're comparing the work of two completely separate companies, with different teams and directors. blocky repetitive layers with boring layouts aren't exactly influenced by code, but by the designer's imagination. the layers were limited to 16 colors in both cotm and the other two, all of them were limited to 4 layers etc.
about the only thing i could blame on it being the "launch title" is the lack of transparencies/blending effects.
and somehow despite those "launch title" problems cotm managed to get a better quality sound than both hod and aos. they obviously did know enough about the hardware, but just lacked creative imagination to do something interesting with it.
tl;dr
bricks everywhere
also as far as i remember back when you did the code for layers i created that merman room place, and it's still there. it might have gained more fps, but its design didn't change at all. it's still full of alpha blending layers that simulate shadows as it was before.
-
I think Aria was the best GBA title. Very polished, great level design, and just the most fun overall. Second favorite was Circle, I thought it was a nice mix of classic CV and Metroidvania, and it was very challenging. Least favorite was Harmony... it was a good game and all, but I just liked the other two better.
-
Well yes, you cant lay all blame to the launch title, as we see some experiences should have prepared designers for low ram situations. For example Castlevania 4, had beautiful environments with little tile count to speak of. Though there is no doubt inexperience with a console can hamper development. Compare Castlevania 1, to 3(j), graphically.
Anyway, about the merman room in my engine, if I were not able to increase the performance of the engine (due to project schedule, inexperience, etc), that room would have to be down sized graphically. Thus the 'new to the console' idea. That was the reason for that example.
I hope we can produce something better than Circle of the Moon though :P
-
Well yes, you cant lay all blame to the launch title, as we see some experiences should have prepared designers for low ram situations.
I agree, I don't even take the fact that it was a launch title into consideration personally. I don't think it should be a reason to excuse bad games. Look at SMB launch title and one of the greatest games of all time.