Topic: is Castlevania: OoE possibly better than Symphony?

[Battler Ushiromiya]

In Reply To #48

Weak bonus modes? Albus Mode blew the socks off every bnus full-game mode since, well, SotN. Hell, Albus Mode is arguably better than SotN's Richter mode. Never mind that the Practice Course 3 was a pretty ingenious bonus course to begin with...

[Giz]

And to be fair, all of the post-SotN castleroids are a knock-off to some degree or another.  But the operative term here is "cheap" which can be chalked up to such things as the copypasta asthetics, cookie-cutter combat glyphs, linear gameplay, weak bonus modes, etc...

Err, post-sotn castleroids? Even SOTN itself is a knockoff of Super Metroid, with RPG elements thrown in.

[cecil-kain]

In Reply To #48

Weak bonus modes? Albus Mode blew the socks off every bnus full-game mode since, well, SotN. Hell, Albus Mode is arguably better than SotN's Richter mode. Never mind that the Practice Course 3 was a pretty ingenious bonus course to begin with...

Nothing tops DoS' Julius mode IMO --Albus wasn't broken but he certainly was --akward.  Hell, I think I enjoyed the PoR's Axe Armor more than Albus.  Speaking of Richter Mode --it's just doesn't feel right to make a Castlevania without a whip wielder.

[cecil-kain]

Err, post-sotn castleroids? Even SOTN itself is a knockoff of Super Metroid, with RPG elements thrown in.

SotN and Super Metroid?  Apples and oranges.  We might go a step further and call 2-d platforming a knock-off of Donkey Kong.  The point here is only that SotN broke a very rigid mold set earlier classics within the series; OoE was forged in the SotN mold --and hardly reinvents the series.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

In Reply To #51

*Spews soda all over laptop screen*

Wait, Julius Mode better than Albus Mode? What? Julius mode sucked, IMO-Julius was pathertic for a Belmont, Alucard was ridiculously weak, and Yoko was an MP whore because her magic was all she was useful for. Albus, on the other hand, had plenty of tricks to use throughout the game, AND was actually fun to use. I personally get a kick out of Albus's Teleport ability and Optical Shot.

I never really unlocked Old Axe Armor mode though, so I don't know how it plays.

[cecil-kain]

In Reply To #51

*Spews soda all over laptop screen*

Wait, Julius Mode better than Albus Mode? What? Julius mode sucked, IMO-Julius was pathertic for a Belmont, Alucard was ridiculously weak, and Yoko was an MP whore because her magic was all she was useful for. Albus, on the other hand, had plenty of tricks to use throughout the game, AND was actually fun to use. I personally get a kick out of Albus's Teleport ability and Optical Shot.

I never really unlocked Old Axe Armor mode though, so I don't know how it plays.

Here's the deal with Julius mode.  All the characters individually were somewhat mediocre --which is why the team element is so important.  As a team there's a great deal more gameplay variety than most of the other alt modes out there --including Albus.  Then you figure that Julius mode actually has a plausible -canon- storyline behind it, and suddenly it becomes something more than simple fanservice.

BTW Albus's teleport ability was alot of fun, but again --akward to use with one thumb over the d-pad and another thumb over the jump/attack buttons.  If I had a third hand to make the most of the teleport during combat, I'd probably be singing the praises.  Come to think of it --I wonder how Albus might have handled on the Wii instead...

[Battler Ushiromiya]

In Reply To #54

The teleport really works best as a quick tap of the thumb near the edge of whatever side of the screen you're trying to teleport to. You don't really need a third hand to use it.

[sonicabid]

In Reply To #55

Julius mode is awesome. I never liked Yoko though, so I never picked her up.

I liked the way Alucard said "Julius!" When you'd swap characters, same for Julius. He'd say it right fast and I don't even think he pronounced the D in Alucard. "Alucar!"

Yeah, the extra mode in DOS is the best. Richter's mode in SOTN is fun, just because of how fast you could be dashes and Street Fighter moves. Those moves seemed strange in POR, I don't even think they added all of his move set in that game.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

In Reply To #56

Eh, I guess... Though I still find it odd that Yoko still calls Alucard "Arikado" after he reveals himself...

[DoctaMario]

In Reply To #53

I own Contra 4 so Albus mode didn't do much for me. I'm not even that keen on J mode in DoS, but I think it's better than Albus mode by a long shot.

In Reply To #46

Docta also sid the actual combat system was better in OoE than SotN. That puts it a bit higher than just "Cheap knockoff".

I never said that.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

In Reply To #58

What? Really? Then... Right, it was Azmodan. Whoops, sorry Docta.

[Donvermicelli]

Worst of the Castleroids, I can agree with.

[cecil-kain]

No way in hell that POR and DOS are above HOD, COTM and OOE.
More realistic would be this:

Sotn = Aos > CotM > OoE = HoD >> Metroid Fusion >> PoR > DoS

only reason Sotn and Aos are at the top is because they both had good level designs with decent gameplay. Aos more gameplay than level design though. CotM is above the others because of it's awesome difficulty. It was brilliant, it still had the dark atmosphere there with a decent combat system despite being a metroidvania. OoE and HoD are equal in my opinion, HoD is underrated because of it's bad audio output and...Unique graphic taste. But the gameplay still kicks ass(forward and backward dashing for example) PoR and DoS are real black sheep in the series. Main reason for this is the anime look, I hate it when applied to castlevania. PoR gets points for being original though, DoS sucked ass for being a recycle and hardly original except maybe for the Soma boss. (intro sucked, 3 random dudes spawning in a city

[True Sorrow]

So, uhhh, you complain about HoD's low music quality and CotM's unoriginal music, but ignore the fact that DoS and PoR have all-around bad OSTs? Personally I feel that HoD has amazing music, some of the best compositions in the series! Although CotM does have slightly lacking music, sure, but compared to DoS and PoR...? :|

Also DoS's and PoR's graphics were often pretty, uhhh, bad. Especially some of the sprites (Julius and Alucard, anyone?)

But eh, I guess it's all opinions...

Mine would probably be like this:
SotN = OoE > HoD > AoS > CotM > Dos > PoR
Or, with dramaticisation:
SotN = OoE > HoD > AoS > CotM > Dos >>>>>>>>>>> PoR

Although there's a very small difference between DoS and CotM. Both are really good, but CotM wins by a small ammount. The only really bad one is PoR

[Battler Ushiromiya]

In Reply To #62

Okay, I don't know what the bashing about PoR's soundtrack is about- I thought it was pretty good for the most part, even if it's 90% reused tracks. There's far worse music in the series.

As for the sprites, I hope you realize that DoS's Alucard is the EXACT SAME Alucard that was used in SotN. Julius... was average. It was better than Maxim's.