Topic: Castlevania Month!

[GigaDan]

Hello again. None of you remember me from last time so (since I couldn't remember what my sign-in was) I made a new account. Putting that aside.

I run a site called GigaBoots.com and we're going to do an insane amount of Castlevania Videos in March as a part of our Castlevania Month. We're doing:

- A video a day of different castlevania's (no emulation (except Order)) with me and the GB crew playing, reminescing, and goofing off.
- A video a day of random Castlevania videos on the internet that I (or other members of GB) love and think is hilarious
- 2 in-depth look videos of Rondo of Blood and Curse of Darkness to talk about the differences in the different versions
- A large overarching retrospective series talking about the development and evolution of the series
- A couple Top 8 videos
- A month-long LP of Lords of Shadow AND Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate

I am posting here not only because you people are the only people on the Internet that love Castlevania nearly as much as the members of GB, but because I want suggestions. I want to know what you guys want a video made about or what you think would be a great Top 8. I also want to do a third "Fan-sourced Top 8 Moments in Castlevania" video, so feel free to tell me your favorite moments in the comments below. I spent a good chunk of money procuring the last few Castlevania's and arranging assorted equipment to record all of them. CV Month means a whole lot to me so I want to do as many awesome things as possible. Please help out and join us!

Thanks for reading,
GigaDan from GB

[crisis]

Sounds cool, looking forward to what you guys come up with!
One of my fav moments in Castlevania is prolly the Julius Belmont fight from AoS. That, and the "Bad Ending," where Soma embraces his fate & Julius storms in the throne to "keep his promise," then Soma throws the blood glass at him & prepares for battle, thus, after 1000 years, the cycle starts again. That would've been the perfect end to the series imo since it was an ambiguous epilogue of sorts (until DoS mucked things up plotwise but that's a whole other topic), you don't see the actual battle play out, they leave it up to your imagination; that moment mixed with the great background music was awesome. There are many others but i might list them later

[Thomas Belmont]

Sounds cool, looking forward to what you guys come up with!
One of my fav moments in Castlevania is prolly the Julius Belmont fight from AoS. That, and the "Bad Ending," where Soma embraces his fate & Julius storms in the throne to "keep his promise," then Soma throws the blood glass at him & prepares for battle, thus, after 1000 years, the cycle starts again. That would've been the perfect end to the series imo since it was an ambiguous epilogue of sorts (until DoS mucked things up plotwise but that's a whole other topic), you don't see the actual battle play out, they leave it up to your imagination; that moment mixed with the great background music was awesome. There are many others but i might list them later

Meh. We all know that that's the true ending to AoS. DoS isn't canon. Soma turned evil and Julius kicked his ass.

[Successor The Cruel]

- 2 in-depth look videos of Rondo of Blood and Curse of Darkness to talk about the differences in the different versions

I'm a little confused by this point. Are you saying you're going to compare the differences between Rondo of Blood and Curse of Darkness? If so, that's... interesting. Why pick those two games, though?

As for favorite moments in the series... Hmm... just a weird assortment of things. Quite often it's just traversing certain areas.

I'm not a huge fan of Castlevania 64, but I think the Villa and Hedge Maze areas and what transpires there and how it transpires are a high spot of the series. That area was a good concept. If the rest of the game had that level of interest and depth to it, I think I would have enjoyed it quite a bit.

I think Super Castlevania IV's waterfall area is very profound. Everything there just comes together perfectly. Sometimes I wish it lasted a bit longer, but maybe it's best left just the way it is.

The opening sequence of Curse of Darkness, which can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9418-S9MqO4

It's beautiful and artsy. The elegant fighting in an empty cathedral, the way Isaac nonchalantly looks over his shoulder when Hector lands after killing the Innocent Devil, the way Hector freaks out as he's left standing in the church alone as black feathers fall around him, and to top it off, the great music theme. Cinematic brilliance to me. I wish the actual gameplay experience lived up to this vision.

Going through Harmony of Dissonance's Sky Walkway and Chapel of Dissonance. I still don't know why the devs made such a pleasant day-lit scene in Dracula's Castle, but the discordance of the scene with the rest of the game, and the fact you're fighting viscous monsters in there is supremely awesome. It could have been some shrug of god-like reason like, "Well... we thought it would be easier to see on the GBA's screen," or something like that, but the music also fits the scene perfectly, so I dunno'. It was either a brilliant accident or some incredibly powerful artistic vision. Seeing as how everything in the area fits so perfectly, from the rest of the visuals, to the music, I like to think the latter. Nonetheless, I think it's one of the most powerful moments in the series.

Arriving at Castlevania in Simon's Quest. Not much happens there, but the atmosphere is immense, as it often is in that game.

[GigaDan]

Thomas and Crisis have it totally right. When consumed as an alternative universe theory, Dawn of Sorrow is a much better game! XD

Due to not having the PC Engine original version of Rondo of Blood I've changed my mind on doing that. Maybe I can score enough time with one down the road to do it. Curse of Darkness was on Xbox and PS2 and between the two versions there are a couple feature differences. Progressive Scan, Surround Sound, etc. But visually, I'm sure there are noteworthy differences and load-times are different too (or so I've read.) Maybe it's just me, but I would like for there to be a video series out there somewhere that has really high video quality and shows off the differences between versions of older game ports. I never got to see CoD on the Xbox or Mega Man Legends on the 64 (MM64) so I'd love to make videos detailing the differences for people stuck in my current position. I'm a tech-nerd so...yea. One time we did a video where we locked some guys in a room until they depleted the battery on a Game Gear and it turned out that improvements in battery tech lengthened it's longevity to a grand 7 1/2 hours. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_gear#Battery_life_issues) Without seemingly pointless videos like that there's so much we wouldn't know.

Chapel of Dissonance is amazing. The music is the highlight of the entire soundtrack. I've had it on my various cell phones and assorted mix CD's all throughout the years since. Schnabubula's remix is pretty great too.

[Ahasverus]

Meh. We all know that that's the true ending to AoS. DoS isn't canon. Soma turned evil and Julius kicked his ass.

Ehm, that's Dawn of Sorrow

AoS bad ending is Julius vs Graham.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

What? Ummmm.... no?
There is a bad ending if you get killed by Chaos in the Chaotic Realm.

[Ahasverus]

What? Ummmm.... no?
There is a bad ending if you get killed by Chaos in the Chaotic Realm.

Aah haha yeaah now I remember it. Thanks master jorge. :awfulmemory:

[TheCruelAngel]

An early favorite moment in CV while growing up, and I think is a little tired...but

In SotN, first rolling into the Castle as Alucard. You're fully decked out and you're just making everyone your b**ch. You get the feeling of "yeah, this dude's pretty badass!" and then BAM, Death comes out and is all like "Naaaw dude, you gotta do this legit, no h4x for j00!", steals your stuff and jets. At first you're like "Ok...but I'm so bad I can deal...right?" and go encounter your next enemy, after a million punches later it dies, drops a knife and you're like "WTF OMG GIMME DAT, I SUCK SO HARD NAO"

Such a huge change in emotion and how you perceive yourself and your character, it's always stuck out to me as an awesome moment in CV.

Another sweet CV moment is when...

(click to show/hide)

...in CV64 when Malus reveals he's the master of the Castle/Dracula. Woah! I mean, you knew something was...off with the kid, but being Dracula? Bravo Konami, bravo. I think Renon also turning into a super demon to collect your soul for his services was also super sweet.

[Laina]

Highlight the CV ladies please, particularly Sonia if you could (cuz' of Iga being all, "DO NOT WANT, ERASE FROM TIME" on her, or whatever the reason is that she is no longer cannon). I feel like they don't get the attention they might deserve other than, "Whoa, she is totes hot & knows her way around a sword/whip/spell book/pair of doves/overpowered flying kick." (yes, I do favor Ms. Renard) Which, none of those are bad mind you, just it never really goes more in depth than that.

[Chernabogue]

Looking forward to see this!

[KaZudra]

Highlight the CV ladies please, particularly Sonia if you could (cuz' of Iga being all, "DO NOT WANT, ERASE FROM TIME" on her, or whatever the reason is that she is no longer cannon). I feel like they don't get the attention they might deserve other than, "Whoa, she is totes hot & knows her way around a sword/whip/spell book/pair of doves/overpowered flying kick." (yes, I do favor Ms. Renard) Which, none of those are bad mind you, just it never really goes more in depth than that.

LOL,
Iga was all like "Belmonts can't be related to Dracula, no one will be interested in that!"
Cox was all like "O rly?"

[son_the_vampire]

One of my favorite things undoubtably would be my first shot at Castlevania Adventure. I still don't get how this caveman (I thought he was as a kid) could kill so many things by himself walking! It was mind blowing to me and while everyone had red & blue, I was whipping and falling in holes. From then on, I would eagerly await each new game in hopes to be able to beat them all. A few years ago, I was able to go back and play some from consoles I didn't have growing up thanks to emulation. Now I try to collect every game I can get a hold of! I know something like this is mainly for our generation, I just hope that these titles from the Ps1 era foward (SotN always!) will be talked about 25 years from now!