Topic: Castlevania II: The Demonic Seal

[SacredSorrow]

Simons Quest was the first game that I played on NES that had a real sense of horror and anxiety and the game had small things that really creeped me out and the music was amazing.

But I wasn't good enough to beat the game til I was 12, and when I finally made it to dracula through shitty battles, annoying day and night messages and an empty last castle.. I was more than disappointed.. Dracula looked like the angel of death in a garbage bag, and the endings were shit too.

Not to mention, the classic five sub weapons were either gone or had little or no effect.

This game holds a lot of nostalgic value, but at the same time.. I have some resentment towards the game for some serious flaws.


<joke>

Dracula sits on the throne.. Richter rambles on about stealing souls and all that jazz and Dracula asks Richter " What is Simons Quest?!! A miserable Pile of shit! But Enough Talk! Have at you!" Richter Nods, and proceeds to attack.

</Joke>



So, I'm remaking Simon's Quest. I liked the game a lot as a kid but at the same time I had my share of complaints too.

So as kind of a fun project, I decided to redo the game minus the flaws. So here's some of my ideas. If you disagree, or have a better idea.. I'm up for suggestions.




Basically, the game play will be the same. All the people and towns and castles will have the same location.

Heres where it hits the fan

-The Mansions will all have bosses. Some bosses will drop items, such as the cross and the golden dagger. But, there will be a damn energy bar for the boss

AND DEATH WILL BEAT YOUR ASS LIKE IN A REAL CV TITLE!
(My tears fell silently to the ground at my disappointment of Death's character/Battle in Simon's Quest.)

ahem.. Anyways. Once you beat the boss, the gate will open and you will find one piece of draculas body.

No, an oak stake will not be required and no strange man will be chilling out in the mansion. (It didn't make sense.. some guy just sets up a ebay store in Laruba mansion.. unharmed.. and Simon gets attacked by everything? "I'm trying to save the world and you're gonna charge me 50$ for this? ASS!!")




The Menu Screen
I'm going to edit the menu screen to be a little better navigated... I had to beat the shit out of my controller to get what I wanted to select. I'll rework the sprites to look a little better, and a little updated.. as updated as 8 bit gets.


Enemy Cast
Say what you want.. I didn't like these..meet the replacements:
-Man Eating Plants < Unes
-The Zombies in the towns <Faster zombies from CV3
-Medusa heads in simons quest< All other CV medusas
-Two-headed Reptile <...not sure yet
-Death< Death From CV3

I'd like to have a more varied range of enemies..maybe import more monsters to break it up some.

I'll change the sprite colors to look a little more natural, and when you hit the enemies, there will be action sprites and living tissue enemies will probably have more modern style deaths( EX: SOTN Bloody Zombie or Gravekeeper) and the skeletons will crash to the ground.

I saw this game as being pretty grim and more realistic than CV1, so I kinda want it to carry a more adult theme.


Supporting Cast]
Towns people will offer legit clues, and other than that, they'll probably talk like someone normally would if the whole world they lived in was under a curse and demons waited outside your town..

(I mean seriously? Meet me at the river at midnight?... )


Items
So heres some real blasphemy... How about bringing back the main 5 sub weapons?.. ok minus the clock.. that one always gets thrown aside.

I didn't care for the garlic, or the diamond or the sacred flame or the silk bag or any of that. It just never really made sense that Simon threw diamonds around... He could buy Dracula's peace with diamonds that big.

So lets just say, we add the Holy Water, Axe, Boomerang and Dagger. Just for giggles, we'll have a pentagram (full screen attack) and a health ration too.

[game mechanics]
-Enemy name displays when you hit them (SOTN style)

-level up first 50 enemies fought then 100, 150..
Thats fair isn't it? The game isn't insanely long.

-Start with Vampire Killer whip, I mean.. he didn't just lose the damn thing! The Flame add on comes later in the game after you get the nail.

-Hearts are for items only.. I don't really wanna have the merchants.. I'd rather just bust up walls and find stuff.
I'd probably have one merchant in the game and just have him say " What'cha Buyin' Stranga!?" for laughs. (Obvious RE4 reference)

-No Fuckin tornadoes.


Random but really important stuff

The Mansions-
I'm pretty much gonna rework the layouts.. I want them to resemble the parts of draculas castle. Not a direct map copy...just some similar parts. I want to keep the bodies on nooses... that was creepy.. maybe have them swaying..
I thought the mansions were shitty looking and thrown together.. kinda like a vomit room.

Music
Mansions-
I like the monster dwelling song, but so many great songs are available.. I might give different themes to each mansion.

Towns-
I like the daylight theme, but I might use something else.

Church-
Requiem for the Gods or File Select music. Hands down.

Boss Battle-
Something off Symphony prob.

these are the only definite ones I'm using so far.

Draculas ressurection -
Maybe walk up to the castle and altar is outside and the body parts are combined and he appears and you hear laughter and he disappears. You basically have to follow him into (whats left of it) his castle and settle the score. Fight through a clocktower stage and wind up find him atop.


So yeah, this is a rough outline of how I'm gonna do it.

My conflicts...

I thought of maybe using sprites from Castlevania Chronicles (PSX) and Rondo of Blood, and going 32-bit sprite.

Or I can just photoshop the CV2 Sprites....

What would you think best for this idea?
Cv2 graphics or a Chronicles/Rondo Mix?

I've got both.

Thanks for reading.

[The Last Belmont]

cool man love hacks. This game is one that I seem to have a hard time finding hacks for though for some reason. The ones I have found are crap. Either way too dark or just a hodgepodge of mixed up graphics.

[Clara E. Leet]

Awesome idea and great topic, but I'ma move it to Fan Stuff where it belongs

[Aridale]

Ive wanted to remake CV2 for a long time. Its my fav game of all time so if you do this thing make sure to do it great honor =V

[SacredSorrow]

In Reply To #2

yeah I hear ya on that, theres so much cool underlying stuff that should've been added

[SacredSorrow]

Ive wanted to remake CV2 for a long time. Its my fav game of all time so if you do this thing make sure to do it great honor =V

Do you think this should be a 8-bit excursion or updated with more modern sprites? I was thinking of using Simon from CHronicles if I used a 32 bit layout.

[Aridale]

In Reply To #6

I think it could be really cool if it were done with the old 8bit style but only visually. Everything else should be based on the more modern games. Only the graphics should be 8bit

[Thomas Belmont]

If you must do it, do it 8-bit.

[X]

You've definitely got something here. What I did notice is that you talked about adding the holy water and dagger into the game however...those two items are already in the game. But if you're talking about giving the holy water its fiery explosiveness back then by all means. And as for the dagger...well there's three of them. the first dagger which is the weakest is obviously like the ones you find in any other CV game. Weak as hell. The second one's not so bad, 'bout as strong as your thorn whip. But the golden dagger...now there's an ass-kicker. In terms of the mansions I would make them more linear like the original CV stages and YES PLEASE add boss fights at the end of them. But If I were to make a suggestion... try to keep Dracula's castle itself as original as possible cause this is what it's supposed to look like after it had collapsed into ruin at the end of the first game. I would definitely be up for some enemy encounters and a slightly longer journey down to the sub-terrainian crypt.

PS add some furnishings inside the towns and go for a classic 8-bit design. You can't lose!

-X

[SacredSorrow]

In Reply To #9

I pretty much wanted to give this game the attention that it initially deserved.. a better introduction, and a better game that has better replay value. It's about 20 years late, but hey I didn't have the technology back then.

As far as the sub weapons go... yes the holy water and daggers are present...if you can really justify how uneffective they are. Again, another disappointment. The subweapons were awful.

There will be blood, lots of it. People will convey how scary it is that the hero is in danger of dying and their fate is pretty much sealed. I want to kinda emphasize on the paranoia and despair. It'll be subtle, but effective.

I wanted to create a story that kinda details how the body parts got scattered, and just some details that would've been nice to have in the game.

I've got all the stages and game sprites, I'm just editing the enemy sprites so that it'll appear more graphic.. not just *BAM!!" I got hit with a whip, now I'll burst into flames"... more like "Oh Fuck! Vampire Killer Straight cut me in half!" or "Decapitated me!"

I'm gonna keep it original as possible and edit and replace all the Lackluster parts. The sound effects are gonna be a little more epic though.

Plus I'm gonna Spell everything right!


I'm gonna put the first stage together and I'll post a video up of how the menu looks and my everso clever day to night transition.

One step at a time.

[X]

here are some other things that i forgot to mention last time I clocked in. I forgot to talk about how the mansions would look more like mansions if they too had some furnishings as well. And to finish this up, how about giving Simon some armor upgrades as well. Like with the whips that change once you get a new one you could have several different sets of armor for Simon to wear. for instance; He would start out with his usual attire; the outfit he wore in the first CV game. Then when he gets a new ste his character sprite outfit changes and not just the color pallete either. I think It would go a long way in terms of replay value And I'll definitely be looking forward to playing this game when you release it. 

-X 

[SacredSorrow]

well, the engine kinda sucks right now, but I've been spending half my time working on the graphical stuff and so heres 2 that I've jpg'd.



This is half the old Joba and other half is how it looks after editing.





this is a death animation for the werewolf.. only not animated.

[SacredSorrow]

so heres some ideas for armor upgrades.

1.Chronicles Armor
2.Whispering Death Armor

[X]

Awesome! Can't wait to see more. in terms of the werewolf..."What a Bloody mess!"

-X

[SacredSorrow]

So, I should have a demo up in a week. This is my first game and some really awesome people have helped me out on it.

In regards to sound effects and what not..

Should I use the original music?
Original sound effects?

I've found some really cool Arrangements and I found some more... realistic sound effects to use.

Any one care to give opinion on this?