Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: darkwzrd4 on February 14, 2011, 07:03:59 PM
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What is your favorite metriodvania aside from SotN? Mine is OoE.
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Depends. If I want a fun challenge, then Circle is my best/favorite. Aria felt the most balanced, so that'd probably be next. Then Ecclesia, etc.
But Symphony will always be King.
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Circle of the Moon. It was a solid game when it came out and it's still one of the better Metroidvania's out there. This is one of the few games that didn't suffer from one of IGA's weak story-telling escapades and even though the half of the music was remixes, they were still good to listen to (absolutely loved the tune 'awakening'). The hunter rivalry that never made it past the 32-X idea which skipped Rondo (or SotN), made it to this game and was the bases for the story itself. A simplistic plot. That's all it had and it worked well.
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Aria of Sorrow all the way.
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I'll go with Harmony of Dissonance, i enjoyed Aria of Sorrow a lot too but... Juste > Soma... The soundtrack is awesome! both are awesome but... Successor of Fate (Juste's Theme) is just... wow, so much epicness...
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HoD for me.
It has a beautiful yet eerie soundtrack(IMO), and a cool graphic style that seems(once again IMO) to blend the feeling of Castlevania IV with SoTN. There are neat pointless details here and there, and I actually like the two Castle thing they did. Plus tons of Castlevania 2 references from collecting Dracula's body parts to secret walls that you can walk through. Hard mode is the best way to play it.
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For me it's Aria, circle and then Ecclesia!!!
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HoD, followed by DoS. I kinda like all of them (yes, even Portrait) but I love HoD.
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I chose CotM because its so solid on every level and because it's the only metroidvania I find difficult. HoD is very a close second because I think the art direction and music are fantastic. Third is PoR because it's fluffy (lots to do) and the ost is one of the best a CV has ever had.
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Dunno if I choose Ecclesia or Ecclesia...
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Aria is hands down the best in my opinion.
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Circle of the Moon, its just very fun with a "different" art direction and some challenging gameplay.
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Successor of Fate (Juste's Theme) is just... wow, so much epicness...
Arranged version is just as catchy too.
Juste Belmont (Arranged Version) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcd3LhT72tE#)
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Too much hard to chose between those great games. A dark priest violated my mind.
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Harmony of Dissonance left the largest impact on me. In many ways, I think Aria of Sorrow was better, but it just didn't say quite as much... or say what it said quite as loudly... if that makes any sense at all. I should go back and play it again. It seems like it's been a while.
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Dawn of Sorrow, for me. The animu artwork sucks, but the game itself and its music as great IMO. So many good memories...
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It's a tie between COTM and OOE.
But I vote for COTM after all, because of the old school flavour and really difficult bosses.
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I'm really surprised how much love CotM and HoD are getting, especially HoD. They deserve it tho ;D
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I also forgot to mention that CotM was and is the only CV Metroidvania out there to support a lot of replay value in terms of the different modes of play; Fighter, Magician, Thief, etc. It's like something out of D&D
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I found CoTM extras to be very boring at all, I've finished the games several times, but never finished the extra modes. =/
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CoTM extras, gives you the opportunity, to play the game from a different view, making it more easy to complete the game or the arena, except from the magiacian mode, which i find it very weak!!! Fighter mode is the best by far for me!!!
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Circle of the Moon holds a special place in my heart. It's the game that actually got me hooked on this series. Everything about it is just awesome. Dawn of Sorrow comes close, though. Especially with its Julius mode which kinda channeled Castlevania III with Julius and his allies. But really, each 'metroid-vania' has been superb.
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Thats another thing I dislike about Dawn of Sorrow.
Julius.
Let my clarify: I like Julius mode itself, but Julius is so watered down compared to how awesome he was in Aria. ESPECIALLY his Grand Cross. in Aria it was fuckoff big and had a vacuum effect that sucked enemies in.
In Dawn, it is average looking, has a watery transparency effect, and just doesnt sound or feel anywhere as awesome. :\
Julius' Moon jump was taken away in favor of giving it to Alucard, and gone is Omni Varitas.
Granted, Aria Julius was broken, but still...
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It's a tie between COTM and OOE.
But I vote for COTM after all, because of the old school flavour and really difficult bosses.
I'd agree with this. Though all the games have their own things that I like about them.
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Circle of the Moon holds a special place in my heart. It's the game that actually got me hooked on this series. Everything about it is just awesome. Dawn of Sorrow comes close, though. Especially with its Julius mode which kinda channeled Castlevania III with Julius and his allies. But really, each 'metroid-vania' has been superb.
I feel this way about Harmony of Dissonance <3 It was the one that got me hooked. Aria of Sorrow was my pick, though -- I have so many good memories attached to the game and it's music. Every time I hear Ruined Castle Corridor, I get all happy. :)
Circle of the Moon was one game that I just could not get into. :/ no idea why, it just never clicked with me. More for you guys, though!
Although I did like Portrait and Dawn a lot too. I loved being able to play as Alucard in the latter.
*still needs to finish Ecclesia, but it has irritated her too much for now >>*
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It's a tie between Aria and OOE. I finally choose Aria because of the story, and because you play as Dracula.I always wanted to play as the main villain :D
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The term metroidvania is new to me.
What exactly does that mean?
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"metroidvania" is a term coined by the community to differentiate between the SotN-style games & the classic, stage-based games.
the metroid part comes from the fact that Symphony borrowed several aspects of its gameplay from Super Metroid (map, exploration, etc.)
(http://www.vgboxart.com/boxes/DS/26589_castletroid.png)
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If I understand you rightly the term is used to differentiate the games in which there is a single, linear path of level advancement over time, and the games in which you can go to any 'level' you want to, and do them in whatever order your good enough to do them in, provided you have some basic items, (in SoTN's case, the cube of zoe, jewel of opening, and others).
Wouldn't Simon's Quest be a metroidvania? You are technically able to run around and do the levels in any order you want.
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there has been some debate whether SQ could be considered a "Metroidvania," but I guess you can classify it somewhere in the middle. However it leans more towards the "classicvania" side, considering the nature of it's development at the time.
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Having played SQ for several hours, ending minutes before making this post, I would say that SQ is the start of the turn towards Metroidvania but is not a metroidvania itself. YOU try running around in the Jam Wasteland with only your chain whip and the two daggers.
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I've only played the first three of these - Circle, Aria and Harmony - and Circle was the only one that kept my interest up throughout the game. By the time I got to Harmony I just felt no desire at all to go out and play more Castlevania games in that style.
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I'd list the games like this:
AoS: best gameplay, smooth controls
HoD: most genuine CV feeling, though the music quality could have been improved, and the whip should have changed it's appearance in accordance to the power you equipped.. Juste looked great though!
COTM: really great, but somehow, not the same feeling for me..the characters were not so cool I think compared to HoD and AoS..
the DS games: good games but the stories were..I don't know...still no Belmonts=/..and DoS was just a copy of AoS..a good game but not as good as AoS..almost like a bad remake, compared to AoS!
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I never understood why Juste has a blue outline. I always felt it looked out of place.
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I never understood why Juste has a blue outline. I always felt it looked out of place.
I think it was to make sure we can see Juste. Remember, A lot of complaints from CotM was that it was hard to see.
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Someone from this forum did a hack of HoD and fixed the juste sprite along with some other graphical improvements. The result was a much more polished game and Juste looked as he should've from the get-go. I personally think the only reason they put in the blue outline for Juste was to, in some way, emulate Alucard. As if Juste's appearence wasn't Alucard enough... :P
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I think it was to make sure we can see Juste. Remember, A lot of complaints from CotM was that it was hard to see.
I still don't understand this. I got CotM day one, and never had a hard time seeing anything on the screen even on the first GBA model.
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My favorite Order of ecclesia.
Very good game.
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I've never imagined harmony was so loved, I thought it was revield based on internet comments =O
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Why would a blue outline suggest something with Alucard?
Alucard never had an outline. They only share after images which I guess just implies they're magical or something. If anything, Soma's mannerisms in DoS's sprite link him more with Alucard since they actually referenced Alucard for some of the animations. Juste is just clumsily animated, but he has the best idle ever like he just doesn't care.
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I've never imagined harmony was so loved, I thought it was revield based on internet comments =O
yes, HoD was somehow special, it had it's genuine castlevania atmospehere..
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yes, HoD was somehow special, it had it's genuine castlevania atmospehere..
To be honest it has my favorite Castle of the series and I loved the tons of easter eggs, the onlñy thing I really don't like is the color palette and of course the characters sprites but I truly feel it's a great game, it's just that lots of people kinda hate it :(
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HoD has my favorite castle as well. That castle compared to the rest in the series is far more eerie and unsettling, especially castle B. It is a demon castle after all so it shouldn't look too normal.
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Thats totally true, HoD had its own aura. Juste is my favourite Belmont, i really liked his spell fusions.
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I do like HoD somewhat, but what really drags the game down for me is the poor musical quality, Juste's animations are too stiff and don't flow very well. His whip looks a cheap, non-inspirational piece of rope and some of the backgrounds that were used are just terrible. One such background is seen in the skeleton cave and its the exact same one as show in SotN's underground caverns. But even though it's the same, it just comes off as being very cheap. There's no depth and the colors are too limited. So all-in-all it's just cheap. But HoD is an interesting game to play at times.
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I can see a few problems:
the whip should have changed it's appearance when it gained different powers(really irritated me)
As mentioned, the sound quality..jorge d fuentes made excellent arrangements for these.
the game was too easy=p but still very entertaining
I never thought of the animations, it didn't bother me..
As you say the copy of the sotn concept was a bit too identical at times..but not a major problem in my opinion
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They should remake HoD for XBLA or something I'm sure the game is truly one that could benefit of updated graphics and sound (its most criticized aspects) that and make Juste blonde or something, white hair is too Alucard-ish (Yeah I know Alucard is "Pale blonde" but its sprite says otherwise =P)
Edit: Yeaah master Hunter baby! 8)
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They should remake HoD for XBLA
Agreed. HoD needs it the most out of the exploration style. I'd buy that in a heart beat. Funny that the backgrounds were excellent but Juste's sprites looked as if they were placeholders. Terrible sprites.
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But Alucard's hair in the sprite is a pale grey-yellow. Juste's sprite has white that hue-shifts to greyish-blue.
Making them yellow would only make them closer to Alucard's lol.
I think I rather have a sequel than a remake. But even still, a remake would be nifty. The backgrounds were the best of the GBA saga, which also means they were better than the DS saga too. They were pretty vibrant and had a great range of color, lots of funky color schemes, architecture, and unique room backgrounds, though it relied on grayscale too much in some areas.