Topic: Made-up Castlevania Challenges

[Galathan]

Hi! I'm new here.

I suppose many of you know the "Naked Alucard" challenge fort Symphony of the Night. There is an extensive guide about how to beat the game with no equipment at all.

Now, I have Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow. I beat the two games years ago, but now I want to play them again. The thing is, they were easy, too easy. I've been looking around, and so far, I haven't found anything I really like.

Portrait of Ruin does have some  in-game challenges:

- Old Axe Armor Mode (in Hard mode and level cap at 1)
- Richter & Maria and Sisters modes (again, in harder difficulties, etc).

But none of this modes above consist on having your main characters(Charlotte and Jonathan) beating the whole game under some self imposed limitations, like in the naked alucard mode. There is, of course, the challenge of beating the Nest of Evil without saving, but that's all
I mean, I guess you can export the idea to this and try to beat the game naked (and in harder difficulty, and level cap 1, of course...), but maybe somebody knows another kind of fun challenges to beat. There is time attack, but I don't find time challenges fun. And I don't remember the game that well, so I cannot think of any challenge because I wouldn't be able to decide if it's doable or not....

It's the same with Dawn of Sorrow, I haven't found any made-up challenges so far.

I've been thinking of a "Wizard Challenge", which would be beating DoS without any equipment but being allowed to use magic (without a ring of chaos and without carrying souls from a previous cleard game. I guess that in hard mode it could be fairly challenging, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

So, basically, I'm hungry for fun, made-up challenges. Any ideas? I'm asking mainly for these two games, but if you come up with made-up challenges for other games, I'm sure we all can get some benefit from this!

(It would be fun to hear of an Order of Ecclesia challenge, since I found the game pretty challenging alone, which I'm grateful for)

[Reinhart77]

i'm always playing "challenges" games.  one type (that I made up) is "no saves".  in this mode, it is "illegal" to save the game except for at the "home" save near the beginning of the game where the merchants are.  using items you find in the game are fine, but it is illegal to purchase potions or food from a merchant.  essentially, you try to get as far into the castle as you can.  when things are looking bleak, you have the choice to turn back, use a magical ticket to get to the home save, use a food item, let yourself die, or press forward "hoping" you won't die.

[bucky]

I should try and start over with another naked run for Alucard. I think I got to the inverted Castle, but not much further. I recall getting my ass kicked by Olrox, over and over. That was intense.

The only CV game I really pushed myself on was the original. My two greatest accomplishments were beating the game without getting hit, and beating the game twice in a row without dying (it's in a harder mode the second time around). I also once beat the game without using holy water, without dying. My backup was the triple cross.

[uzo]

Wouldn't using the red rust be more challenging? Doesn't it do less damage than bare handed, is way slower, double handed, and sometimes the attack fails? I find bare handed to be actually very effective. You can attack very quickly dealing a lot of damage.

[bucky]

Yeah, that would even be harder, but less fun.

Has anyone played around with the idea of doing least map coverage possible? For all the endings? I wonder what that would take (without glitching)...

[Galathan]

I started to play DoS again and I came up with something I actually was trying to do in an old save I found:

* THE KUNG FU MASTER CHALLENGE *
For Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

The idea behind this challenge is to have a funnier Naked Challenge. Naked Challenges are not challenging only because you can't equip anything, but because simply having your punch and slide and kick may get boring in the end.

The KUNG FU MASTER Challenge aims to follow the spirit of the Naked formula: even if you may equip Soma with some souls or weapons, he will look and act "naked", showing no weapons or magic of any kind. Therefore Soma will be your average badass kung fu hero.

For instance, you will not be able to equip Soma with the Brass Knuckes. Why? Because they're visible. You can equip, though, the Kaiser Knuckes and the Match Punch because, well, you don't see the weapon, just a cool- non magical effect showing Soma's lighting speed with his deadly fists. Same goes for souls. A kung fu hero won't throw bones at you, but he will dash towards you (werewolf soul).

RULES

- The only weapons and accesories you are allowed to equip are Mach Punch, Kaiser Knuckes and Mina's Talisman (in order to get the good ending).
- The only Souls you are allowed to equip are: Slaughterer Soul, Hell Boar Soul, Dead Warrior Soul, Werewolf Soul, and the ability souls Malphas Soul and Doppleganger Soul.
- You can only use the souls not listed above when there's no other way to advance the game towards the best ending, and only then (So for example you can use Paranoia Soul and Rahab Soul and Hippogriph Soul to access the next part of the castle, but there's no room for Procel Soul, sorry); if that means not being able to explore some areas, so be it; you want to be a badass street fighter, not Indiana Jones.

TWEAKS

- DIFFICULTY: Just for fun, playing this mode in normal difficulty is the best option. If it's a real challenge you're after, there's always the hard mode with level caps, of course.
- PROGRESSIVE MODE: Instead of setting your souls and weapons from the beggining for kicking ass, you can choose to just equip them as you find them in your journey.
- LI MU BAI MODE: If you're visioning this as a kind of "Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger" kung fu action hero; use the Black Panther Soul instead of the Werewolf's.

[X]

Wouldn't using the red rust be more challenging? Doesn't it do less damage than bare handed, is way slower, double handed, and sometimes the attack fails? I find bare handed to be actually very effective. You can attack very quickly dealing a lot of damage.

You don't ever miss with 'Red Rust' but yes it's a weak-ass, slow, two handed weapon. There is another weapon that is weak too and is also cursed, preventing you from attacking at times or missing. I can't remember which. 'Morgal' I think it's called. You find it in the castle keep of the first castle. Play through the game with that weapon and see how it goes.

-X

[thernz]

I think it's Tyring, actually. Just tryin' to boost my Norse cred.

[crisis]

There's Mormegil & Tyrfing, the former being more capable.

[Super Waffle]

ULTIMATE CHALLENGE:  Create a modern Castlevania game that has clear links to previous games while not being a total graphical rehash.

[Profbeanburrito]

ULTIMATE CHALLENGE:  Create a modern Castlevania game that has clear links to previous games while not being a total graphical rehash.

Get ready for more drama...

[X]

I'm still waiting on the Castlevania online fangame to be made. The same one that Anapan was providing sprites for on his now defunct website.......was a good website for the longest while....got some good stuff from it too

-X

[uzo]

Sorry to say, the project fell apart. Anapan has also been MIA for a long time I believe.

[X]

That would explain the lack of a website that he was planning to transfer all the stuff to. Well it's no big worry now that there is a lot more sites out there with sprites then there was back in 2000.

-X

[DoctaMario]

I played thru PoR using Rich(i)ter only. No Maria at all. It was actually quite a lot of fun being able to play through the game and not have to worry about exploring every square inch of each map. I got stuck on Ultimate Dracula though. Never managed to beat him!

What about some challenges for the old school games? Like maybe a "no subweapons" run or something like that.