Topic: is Castlevania: OoE possibly better than Symphony?

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #91

"And if anything, you were the one to call ME to task for my opinions first. You came in here rattling off your assumptions about those of us not drinking the OoE kool aid, that our opinions are based on nostalgia, that we can't admit to liking another game better, blah blah woof woof. Check yourself."

What are you talking about? I suggest you don't get drunk before writing posts. Please have the make sense and somewhat understandable.

"My man, you JUST got here. You don't know SQUAT about "the type of person" I am. You're some guy who got butthurt because I asked you to qualify your position, which is the point of a message board."

So you must feel your more deserving here than I. Well if that's the case, why don't you show your fellow members some respect to this board by responding like an intelligent human being, not some drama queen.

You did come at me aggressively, deny it or not. Your accusations are false. I even said my self I am a victim of nostalgia and I really didn't even get into it all that much so you need a new argument. I think your just mad because I gave it back to you.

This was the kind of of response I was expecting unfortunately. I'm sure your next responses will fulfill my expectations as well. Let's see.   

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #94

I also liked how post 92 says:

"Those of you who think OoE sucked... I'd like to see you try and explain why, since that seems absolutely ridiculious to me. It was a great game."

Hmm sounds like he wants reasons too.

This is your response:
"OoE isn't a bad game, but it's not a great game either. It's more of the same of what we've been getting for years, and that's why I dislike it as much as I do."

Now you go off on me for not explaining "things" but then you go off and do exactly what accuse me of. Damn man....I think you need to be Patient Mario.

[DoctaMario]

In Reply to # 94 & 95

I'll show you respect when you do me the same courtesy. But you don't do that when you boil all the opinions contrary to yours down to "Oh, you're just blinded by nostalgia playing boring games" and getting defensive when someone asks you to share your opinions about the topic.

I show people respect here. I rarely ever even post here, and when I do I try to post intelligently. But when folks like you come up in here and think they know it all and don't have to add anything, and then drag ME into stuff like this, I get annoyed. I don't like getting into arguments like this. I know you want to paint me as some flamer, but looking at the rest of my posts here, I don't think you'll find many if any instances of that. Because that's not what I do. But this is probably the response you expected, because you know me so well, with your post count of...wait, oh yeah, TEN!

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #96

Well I am proud of you for finally writing with some intelligence so I can't fault you on your last post. I did not come here to start fights but just let you know because I'm new here I won't be pushed around. In the future I can start from scratch and show you respect as long it's a 2 way road. Just remember when you get a snappy in your posts, someone might bite back. You may not like what comes from it but use this experience to avoid making a situation thats sort of heated into an explosion (by manipulaing conversation) and I will do the same. I have no hurt feelings, the message board doesn't really affect my life all that much so it's not a big deal lol.

I do know how a message board works, but I will stand up for myself. But when friendly to me I can be good conversation to add about our favorite series.

[Algernon]

Well, OoE is Castlevania, so it makes sense that it would be a Castlevania-like experience. But personally I had a rather unique experience playing the game, mostly due to difficulty. It was incredibly hard, and I appreciated the challenge. It didn't feel like PoR at all, more like Contra 4. (well, maybe easier)

I always appreciate some improvements to. The art style is awesome. Some of the best, in fact. It's funny how these great character designs clash so vividly with the absolutely godawful designs in Judgement.

Otherwise though, you're right, it's not too different, but that's not really a reason to hate a game. That's rather like going to Burger King and getting annoyed that you're getting fast food. If you want a different game, play a different series.

Developers too often try to innovate to create a different experience anyway.

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #98

I agree completly. And yes, a lot of post SotN games so have that SotN influence. But I think that's because LoI and CoD didn't get such rave reviews so they stuck with what the fans wanted. They are changing the series but I think if they changed it too much (the 2d games) the fans may not be too pleased. If they do make another DS game I like to see them expand on OoE just as OoE expanded on PoR.

I have a lot of high hopes for the DS games. They showed us that each game they are trying to expand and perfect the formula rather than the GBA which seemed to be more interested in recreating SotN.

What would be really cool, next game they remake Chris Belmont's adventure. Not the games but the concept. Have the game start off as Chris going to Castlevania to fight Drac, run around a Sotn castle doing the Castleroid thing - Kill drac and then lead 15 years later into the story of Belmont's revenge where it's similar to OoE going around Translyvania looking for clues to your son's disapearing until you reveal a new castlevania where you have to fight your son and Drac. Add some interesting characters and plot devices, a refined but farmilar battle system for Chris. If done right it would be a good retelling of Chris's adventures since him being on old gameboy has forced him backstage. Plus we need a main belmont charcter again.

[DoctaMario]

In Reply To #97

O_o Anyway, moving on....I'm done.


I definitely agree that the DS games tried to expand the Castleroid thing more than the GBA games did. The only thing is, the fanbase has been bitching about things like level design for YEARS! Why is it that IGA can make the game more challenging, put in a female lead character, and pair down the arsenal but he can't make a game with convincing level design?

I like OoE's take on making some of the levels more straightforward and some more castleroid like, but the fact remains that the overall design of these levels was pretty crummy. Still too much copypasta.

And LoI and CoD would have been fine games had it not been for the poor level design. I hate to harp on this, but it's a fact that the design of the later games has not been very good.

[Munchy]

What would be really cool, next game they remake Chris Belmont's adventure. Not the games but the concept. Have the game start off as Chris going to Castlevania to fight Drac, run around a Sotn castle doing the Castleroid thing - Kill drac and then lead 15 years later into the story of Belmont's revenge where it's similar to OoE going around Translyvania looking for clues to your son's disapearing until you reveal a new castlevania where you have to fight your son and Drac. Add some interesting characters and plot devices, a refined but farmilar battle system for Chris. If done right it would be a good retelling of Chris's adventures since him being on old gameboy has forced him backstage. Plus we need a main belmont charcter again.

Yes, dammit! Dracula Densetsu Chronicles for the DS! It would be awesome! I'd like it to still be an old-school CV; alas, who knows how likely that is. Dracula X Chronicles sold enough to warrant a Greatest Hits version, though, so maybe it's possible we'll see an old-style one sometime soon.

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #100

I feel if there is any true bad level design it's the PS2 games. Those games really felt like you were just walking down the same hallway over and over again. I never felt that with the 2D games. The copy and paste issue is something most 2D games suffer from. Even SotN with it's IC and very much Castlevania 2 which not only is the level copy and pasted but the music as well. OoE did some copy and pasting but the action was pretty fast and crazy so you really don't think about it unless you plan on staring at the backround all day, lol. It's very normal I feel for a 2D game to reuse certain backrounds as long as they at least attempt to make it a tad different. Castlevania 3 even reused many pillar and graphics from one board to another, sometimes only recoloring it but it worked.

I feel PoR and OoE actually improved level design by finally doing what should been done a long time ago. Get out of the Castle for a bit. After Castlevania 1 every castlevania tried thinking of new ways for Castlevania to be not just in the castle. After SotN all the games were always JUST the castle until PoR. And thank GOD, cause even though I love DoS I was like god, cause the new ideas for inside castle levels were getting old. A lot of people would like to see a unique background every screen but I think that's something you should expect from a 3D game not a 2D one. I think IGA and his team are in the right direction and for the level design to feel fresher it needs new locations.

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #101

"Yes, dammit! Dracula Densetsu Chronicles for the DS! It would be awesome! I'd like it to still be an old-school CV; alas, who knows how likely that is. Dracula X Chronicles sold enough to warrant a Greatest Hits version, though, so maybe it's possible we'll see an old-style one sometime soon."

Yeah I love to see an old style castlevania again too...But I dunno, doesn't seem like it would happen. We know now that IGA isn't afraid to give a hard game so doing a old style game with some RPG elements wouldn't be hard. But then peeps would complain that the hero is too slow and clumsy.  But I do enjoy the Castleroids very much and that style of gameplay I feel is as much Castlevania now as the old style. What the Castleroids do need now is for them to stop being side stories and Make a MAIN belmont adventure like Chris's tale into a Castleroid.

[DoctaMario]

In Reply To #102

Symphony's castle (the first one) was very well designed. There were very few instances of copypasta and even if there were, you barely noticed them (or I barely noticed them) because they were so rare.

Fast forward to the DS games, there is LOADS of copypasta. And it's really noticeable. It's a shame too because some of the material for the castle in OoE is some of the best we've seen, but they copied the hell out of it and wore it out. I appreciate that PoR and OoE got us out of the castle, and I thnk that was a step that definitely needed to be taken, but they still copied too many level pieces. And sure, CV3 may have copied pieces of a background, but never the whole room. There's a big difference there.

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #104

Well the copy paste issue has never bothered me. We just have different taste. I was always more interested in the game play and locations which in the DS games I thought were done very well. It was never to the degree of the PS2 games or CV2 plus all the backgrounds that were reused looked great anyway so I never saw the big deal.

I agree, SotN's castle was the best designed. Well it was the first in this formula so it had a lot of freedom to do what it wanted. Too bad the inverted castle fucked the pace of the game. They should of just added a few more areas to the first castle and just have the game in ONE castle. And to me, I rather have a few rooms that look the same in a game than the whole game repeated and upside down (not to mention horribly repetitive music and some goofy ass bosses like the Creature, Mummy and Death...who was as strong as a zombie. At least we had the CV3 trio fight.)

[Alutwon]

Bosses were far more entertaining this time around

[DoctaMario]

In Reply To #105

Wait, so the copypaste bothers you in the PS2 games but not in the 2d games? We got remixed portraits in PoR, entire levels that were pretty much copy pasted in OoE and that isn't as bad as some rooms in the PS2 games?

I read somewhere that originally they wanted to do more in SoTN but ran out of time (story of pretty much EVER CV game since) The Inverted Castle wasn't part of the original plan, it was just tacked on becasue they didn't have time to do anything else. 

[Super Waffle]

In all honestly, the reused repainted background sprites doesn't bother me that much.  It's Ecclesia's collection of worlds that are literally a straight line with one or two levels of elevation that kills me.