Topic: SomaCruz90 plays through "old-school" CVs, watch and laugh at his pain

[SomaCruz90]

Hello all! I'm one of those young whippersnappers who didn't start snapping whips until Castlevania 64. Since then I'd played all the Metroidvanias, and love most of them(SOTN >> PoR > AoS > DoS > CotM > those other two), but I never played any of the pre-SOTN style games. They are held in high regard around here, and I want to find out its all nostaglia or are these classics the real deal. Time to find out! Feel free to laugh as I suck ass!

Oh, and I "acquire" these games through..."other" means. I don't know if mentioning the word emulation is bannable offense, but I'm not posting any ROM links or anything.

Castlevania 1 ahoy!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I don't know if mentioning the word emulation is bannable offense, but I'm not posting any ROM links or anything.

Sounds like you should read that rules thread.
But yeah, talking about emulation is a gray area, but as long as there are no ROM/ISO links, it's ok.

[SomaCruz90]

Castlevania 1:

-I like how Drac just keeps his door open to his castle. "Vampire hunters, please come in!" Speaking of which, its nice to hear where all the 4875 remixs of Vampire Hunter come from.

-Holy shit, Simon Belmont is the stiffest platform character of all-time. Alucard you aint, bub.

-Aw shit, giant bat. Eat Knife, you bastard! And I STILL get a orb that heals me afterwards. What is with that?

-I think I'm seeing a pattern already. Get shitload of hearts, spam them on boss. I'm gonna keep this cross handy.

-ARRRRRRGH FUCKING MEDUSA HEADS

-oh what the fuck I barely touched those damn claw mounding things!

-LOL does Medusa even have an attack? She just sits there and gets destroyed by the whip. Kinda ironic that she's the one being frozen in place here.

-So far this game isn't that bad. Its not that good, but hey! I like this third stage music a bit. This time subweapon is badass.

-Oh man, down to my last bar of health on those mummies. LOL this game is kind a dick, but I I guess that what happens when you have the world's worst platformer protagonist on your hands.

[SomaCruz90]

CV1 continued:

-Wheeeee, you gotta watch out for those falling shafts, Simon!

-LOL Frankenstein being stuck behind a block doing the moonwalk. Maybe the best thing about this game so far.

-Yikes, died twice on ol Frank. Stupid ass fleaman. Stupid ass stiff controls with the worst jump ever.

-Man, this level is hard. Damn bone throwing skeletons being an actual threat.

-Shit, ran out of lives. But I will preserve

-MWAHAHA THE HOLY WATER SPAM IS GLORIOUS! I just totally destroyed Death and the hallway before him with lots of Holy Water. LOL

-Alright, climbing staircase to Dracula time. Well that was short staircase. Nope, not grabbing Cross, this holy water is too good.

-LOL Holy Water spam to the rescue! Thank god I stocked up on hearts just in case 

And...that's it. Castlevania crumbles, I hope Simon got out ok then didn't show him.

Well that wasn't so hard. Or all that good. I guess if you were a kid growing up with NES this game might blew your mind, but I found it archaic and dull by the second half of a pretty damn short game. I don't have any desire to ever revisit it('cept for the remake, SCIV), and really isn't that good of a video game. BUT, it was cool seeing where all these CV traditions like three-fireball Dracula, bone throwing skeletons, Vampire Killer, etc came from.

Let's hope Simon's Quest is better!

[Thunderbrand]

Call me a purist, but IMHO you should never play CV 1-4 (or Bloodlines or DracX for that matter) via emulation.

Play them on their original platforms! Even if you don't have them, they are easy to find and cheap. The games may be a challenge to buy, but worst case scenario you can find them online. Plus, there are tons of other great games for all those systems that make owning them worth it. Emulation is ok, but the original games are the best way to experience them.

[SomaCruz90]

That's cool being a purist, I have a few friends who refuse the emulation route. However, I'm pretty low on money at the moment, and I don't feel like buying a PC-Engine whatever just to play Rondo of Blood.

Plus, Castlevania 1 is not worth spending money on 

Man, I've been watching these SCV4 videos on YouTube, that game looks BADASS and ten times what CV1 is. BUT, I gotta work my way to it!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

LOL CV1 is five bucks on Virtual Console.
Rondo of Blood is like twelve.

[SomaCruz90]

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest

-Oh hey, a town! Neat! I guess I should do my Belmont pimp walk around and impress the 8-bit 2 frames of animation ladies. Thorn whip? Yes please. Holy Water? If its anything like CV1, I'll take it! What the heck is a white crystal? Whatever, give it here.

-I'm digging the non-linear kind of approach to this Castlevania here.

-I don't know how a wood stake is gonna help, but you look like a trusting lady, besides the fact that you are walking back and forward between a pit of spikes for no particular reason.

-Oh, I use the stake here!? WTF!? I guess I should buy shit from random shopkeeps more often. MMM, Dracula's rib. I beat it smells like garlic.

-WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE! LOLOL

-Man, Simon's legs must be killing him. So much stair climbing. No wonder he has a worse vertical leap than most professional sumo wrestlers.

-Oh, THERE'S what I'm looking for, some sacred whatchamacallit. Time to get out cursevile here.

-I'm seeing a pattern here. Talk to people, buy EVERYTHING, use random items on everything, rinse and repeat.

-Ok, I'm stuck. I know I'm not getting through that water and I don't know what blue crystal thing does. To GameFAQS.

-...ok that was just fucking stupid.

[crisis]

That's cool being a purist, I have a few friends who refuse the emulation route. However, I'm pretty low on money at the moment, and I don't feel like buying a PC-Engine whatever just to play Rondo of Blood.

Have you heard of a Retro Duo? It plays both NES & SNES games, plus it's pretty cheap (about $40, but you could prolly find it even cheaper on ebay or some place). Some models even have Genesis support.


Or you can just hack your Wii if you have 1

[Mystic Myotis]

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest

-Ok, I'm stuck. I know I'm not getting through that water and I don't know what blue crystal thing does. To GameFAQS.

-...ok that was just fucking stupid.

I was going to say, beware of the old game issue of having very, VERY vague solutions to things that are more or less impossible to figure out unless you try absolutely everything or you have something (a subscription to Nintendo Power, for example XD) that tells you what to do.  There are a few places in Simon's Quest where you have to kneel with a certain object in your hand and one place where you have to talk to someone with a special item in your hand and a few places where you drop something to trigger something.  And since a bunch of the villagers are lying scumbags...

Oh, one thing you should know about the leveling mechanics... Simon levels up six times, and time doesn't pass in the mansions.  "After gaining levels, hearts gained from enemies in certain locations (mostly easier areas) will no longer give you any experience. A good guideline seems to be to gain one level in each of the Mansions, and two in the final Mansion."
I didn't know about this for a long time...

[RichterB]

Hey, Soma, this thread is great! These older CV aren't the easiest, so it's impressive to see you whip through CV1 so quickly (even if you are using GameFAQs or whatever). Yeah, CVII is the prototype for SotN in some ways, though is more of a true "quest" in the way that you have to sift through lies and obscure puzzles (the red crystal-based one and the garlic-based ones are classic).

I'm a big fan of the old-school Classic-vania. Even so, CV1 is not among my favorites. It's a solid start, but not the most memorable, IMO. Anyway, CVII is when it started to catch my notice, and between the top-notch "CVIII" and "Super Castlevania IV," it basically hit its high points. "Bloodlines" (also known as New Generation) and "Castlevania: Dracula X" (the controversial SNES game, also known as Dracula XX) were both slick, fun, parallel interpretations of Castlevania after IV with nice graphical tricks, though neither quite reached the same consistent heights as IV. Meanwhile, "Rondo of Blood" I've never been quite as fond for (even its polygonal remake), as it seemed a bit more scattered-brained to me despite its nice length and introduction of ideas that I thought were fine-tuned in Castlevania: Dracula X on the SNES. Oh, Castlevania Chronicles for the PS1 (formerly on the Sharp Computer) has a few moments, but isn't nearly as good of a CV1 reimagining/remake as IV was.

You might be interested to try out the Gameboy titles. Part 2, "Belmont's Revenge," is the best/most balanced of them, while Part 3, "Legends" is generic/bland outside of the female Belmont character, and Part 1, "The Adventure," is extremely challenging with tough controls, but interesting. Finally, "The Adventure Rebirth" for Wii Virtual Console (my favorite recent 2D CV) is a total reimagining of the first Gameboy game that is very satisfying when played on Hard Mode (which makes the levels and enemy variety/placement more interesting).

Among the old-school, my tiers generally go as follows:

Tier 1: CVIII: Dracula's Curse, Super CV IV, and CV: Dracula X (SNES)
Tier 2: CVII: Simon's Quest, Bloodlines, Belmont's Revenge, The Adventure, The Adventure Rebirth
Tier 3: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania 1, Legends, CV Chronicles

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Something tells me he's just watching Youtube.  No one gets through Simon's Quest the first time so quickly without knowing a thing or two prior.  Also, he didn't mention the perils of the Castle Ramparts or Clock Tower in CV1, and those usually give you more than a few game overs the first time (then again, he's using emulation so perhaps savestates are being used and abused, here).

Still a great thread, though.

[X]

It took me years just to get through Simon's Quest before the Nintendo Game Atlas fell onto my lap. As for leveling up, I wouldn't bother. You only have a limited amount of time to finish the game in order to get the best ending. But like Crisis said, time doesn't pass by while inside the mansions.

-X

[SomaCruz90]

Something tells me he's just watching Youtube.  No one gets through Simon's Quest the first time so quickly without knowing a thing or two prior.

I'll be honest, GameFAQs helps! I try not to glance at it too much, but that stupid "kneel down once you have blue crystal" was silly. And CV1 isn't THAT hard, its not Contra 4 or Ninja Gaiden Black or anything. Everything has a rhythm, from the arc of the medusa heads, to the fireballs Dracula shoots out. Also, Holy Water is totally broken in that game.

Anyway, with much help from GameFAQs admittingly and some embarrassing deaths(FUCK YOU YOU STUPID CATS ARRRGH), I beat Simon's Quest last night. Sorry I didn't update with moment-to-moment, but it was a rather frustrating experience and I didn't think anyone wanted to hear me curse out their favorite game when I'm slamming my head in my desk trying to figure out Dracula's riddles and randomly whipping walls to find clues. I guess I took too long, since it said Simon died in the ending, even though he's clearly kneeling there by the grave. Whatever.

When its all said and done though, I don't know I like CV2 better than CV1. CV1 gets right down the business, a strictly linear path, some cool little tunes, and doesn't have looking like an idiot whipping random things and kneeling down for no particular reason. For the record though, I don't feel strongly about either one though. I detest the controls and makes the game much more difficult then in should be. OoE is hard, but Shanoa is fast, nimble, can change directions in the air. When I got killed in OoE, I felt it was my fault for not being good enough. When I died in CV1/2, its because Simon Belmont is the most ill-prepared and agility challenged 2d hero since Arthur from Ghosts 'n' Goblins.

I see where the traditions of Castlevania come from though. The Belmont Pimp Walk, the faceless protagonist sprites, the candles full of hearts, the white dragons, the bone throwing skeletons(who are actually a threat now), the whip action, the medusa heads, Death, the staircase to Dracula, the various sub-weapons, Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears(I thought this was gonna be in CV1, but it doesn't show up until Simon's Quest!), three-fireball shooting Dracula and then transformation. I feel Konami had this vision for a really good game in their heads, but the limitations of the NES stop it from ever reaching it.

Well...let's just see how CV3 holds up. Gotta say, I'm not looking forward to it at all if its anything like the last two, and I really just want to move on to SCV4, but I wanted to get through them all so I can say I did it.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

CV3 is one of the best.  If you want better jumping controls, I suggest you take a trip to the Clock Tower of Untimely Death once you're done with the first stage instead of choosing the Mad Forest of Monsters.