Topic: demand the return of walking stairs animations?

[Saner]

yeah anyone miss like in CV1, CV2, etc.  like actually walking up and down the stairs instead of running or sliding up and down stairs like in SOTN and other CV games?  yeah
although walking on stairs kind of makes you stick to the stairs and harder to jump up or jump through the stairs, I think it's still cool.   

it kinda gives the stairs more meaning and immersiveness instead of being these ramps.

[Malus]

Yeah they have more or less become ramps, and their aren't any more walking stairs in the 2d games. I think that the stairs are more realistic than just hopping all over the place. It's sad how we can come up with these ideas yet the guys that make the games are so clueless.

I wonder if any of the members from CV teams come on here and lurk to read our comments?

[crisis]

I don't really miss the sluggish walking animation. A CV game with modern escalators would be sweet.

[Super Waffle]

A CV game with modern escalators would be sweet.

Didn't Portrait have a really obvious glitch in the Dark Academy level that basically made a particular set of stairs look like an escalator?

[A n t r a x x]

Didn't Portrait have a really obvious glitch in the Dark Academy level that basically made a particular set of stairs look like an escalator?

Yeah.... that was a "glitch"... >_>

Idunno... I think the stair-stepping of the old CVs would just seem like tedious unecessary design in today's industry.  I don't really miss it: it had its purpose back then, but they found a more efficient way to pull off the effect and it's also way faster.  You don't have to worry about "hooking" your self to mid-air steps.  And the back dash would prove pretty useless if they weren't ramps.

Lots of times the feet line up with the stairs anyway.

What I do miss is being able to "fall back" through stairs if you want to go back down again.  All the stair/ramps now are solid.  There's few exceptions.

[Xain]

Maybe they should have a combination of both. Might make for some fresh level design in the castleroids....at least it would cut down on jumping through the ceilings to go places.

[Super Waffle]

Yeah.... that was a "glitch"... >_>

Was it intentional?

[Profbeanburrito]

If they make another classic style Castlevania, and didn't add the stair animation, then it'd bother me, but for the Metroidvania style, I have no problem

[A n t r a x x]

Was it intentional?

[Clara E. Leet]

In Reply To #8

Yeah I feel the same way.

Although honestly, there aren't a ton of 3d games that use walking stairs animations. Survival Horror games are probably the most prominent examples of 3d games that do use them. It's a shame that in a time of gaming when physical accuracy and movement is emphasized, we still have these lacking animation points.

[X]

Personally I do miss the stair action quite a bit. Back in the day they did serve an important purpose. They helped you ascend to the next vertical level block just as if you passed through a door to enter the next horizontal block. And on top of it all it was way more realistic then the stair look-a-likes that were really ramps in the Castletroid games.

-X

P.S. IGA if you are reading this... GIMMIE BACK MA' STAIRS!!

[DoctaMario]

Stairs increase the challenge a bit. They're something of an enemy in themselves depending on where they're found. Plus, when you take to the stairs in a classicvania, you're committing to something. You have to ascend or descend but you're also something of a sitting duck because your movement options are dramatically reduced. So you're momentarily giving up some of your movement abilities in order to be able to progress through the stage.

Remember the Tower Of Terror level in CV3? All those bone pillars on the sides spitting fire at you as you're trying to get to the top of the tower without taking too much damage. You can't really GO much of anywhere except up or down, and that's done very slowly. Take into account the section before that where Frankenstein is stomping and the screen is moving upwards. Climbing the stairs in that section can get you KILLED if you don't do it right.

The Castleroid games don't emphasize that kind of challenge. You make no commitments to the terrain in those games which is part of the reason why they're so simple. In the classic games, THE TERRAIN ITSELF is your enemy! In the newer games, the terrain is merely the stage on which your battles and explorations take place with a few exceptions, which is why the concept of stairs that affect your movement and attack options almost doesn't even make sense.

[A n t r a x x]

In Reply To #12

I still say the loss of challenge in many of the newer games is more due to having no bottomless pits.

There was annoying drawback to having to be stuck on stairs like you're saying, and yes I remember that CV3 level well.  But do you remember in Vampire Killer and SQ when you couldn't even get up to the next platform because you were getting raped by enemies clogging the exit at the top or hitting you from below while you were still on it.  There's nothing you can do while you're stuck climbing those stairs, and enemies would just respawn and hit you.

(Similar problems with the ropes in Adventure and Legends)

SCvIV must have realized these problems, and the problems with climbing speed as it gave you an option to fall through the stairs.

Putting classic style stairs in the new CVs just wouldn't really fit.  It would slow down the pace, which is already slowed down by item/soul/glyph hunting, and would make retreading areas a pain.

I think they could still work in more stage-based linear CVs, though.  On that same note I wouldn't mind having ropes, even ladders in some form, so long as they were traversed quickly and the enemies didn't respawn around them.

(If anyone's played "Exit" on PSP, they know how ladders can be implemented horribly wrong.) 

[X]

Both you guys forgot to mention the killer stairclimb in SuperCV 4 just prior to the three fiends. Those stairs WERE the enemy...falling out from underneath you. 

-X

[Alutwon]

People use the stairs in metroidvania? I just assumed everyone double jumped and griffin-winged everywhere.