Topic: Castlevania (NES) map vs. Harmony of Despair R. 10

[Ridureyu]

So, I was looking at the new Harmony of Despair's Round 10, which essentially mashes together all of the original Castlevania for the NES into one big Metroidvania stage:
http://images.wikia.com/castlevania/images/d/d1/Chapter10_Map.jpg - The Castlevania Wiki's image of the Round 10 map
You know, that?

Now, I noticed that they took a few liberties, namely flipping 4-2 around or adding a few transition elements where there were none, or just generally filling in blank space.  So I said to myself, "Why not see how good their map was?"

The sprites for this came from The Spriter's Resource, thanks to Badbatman3's rips.  I absolutely give him credit for the original rips, I just assembled them.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/Ridureyu/screenshots/castlevaniafullgamemapempty.png - 9928x1908, 852 KB

So, there it is.  I barely had to fudge anything to make it fit.  In fact, the only "iffy" segments are:

-Stage 2's stairways do not line up properly.  All of the background, floor, ceiling, and wall tiles do line up flawlessly from vertical screen to vertical screen, but not the stairs.  I fixed this, but that is a flaw.

-The stairways in every other stage lined up perfectly.

-The pit between stages 3 and 4 does not line up with the pit in the boss room.  I gave it a little step down, but I think the idea is that the whole floor collapsed and dropped SImon.  More on that below.

-I had to estimate the drop between stages 3 and 4.  I chose to line up the water level, which ultimately made the ground level between 4-2's courtyard and 1-1's front gate ALMOST equal.  There's something like a tile difference in elevation, but not much.

-The stairs don't actually continue from 4-1 to 4-2.  I added them to line things up, and you do see Simon "stair-walking" up out of the background, so they are there, just not in the foreground like in this pic.

-Stage-ending doors are double doorways, as there is a distinct change in tile patterns between them.

-There is no stage-ending door for 4, nor a stage-opening door for 5.  I put them in just so the transition doesn't seem as strange and sudden.

-I had to estimate the length of Dracula's stairway to his keep.  I lengthened it, with the result being that it doesn't brush up too closely with the Mummy room (the ONLY TIME rooms threatened to clip into each other), and also so that it matches the between-stages map.

-Likewise, the background clocktower face by Dracula's Keep does not line up unless you shorten the staircase below what it is in-game.  Therefore, I manually lined it up with the wall.

Other than that?  Wow.  Just... wow.  The stages do not clip (exception: mummy room and Dracula's keep MIGHT), the whole game matches that between-stages map, and it's even laid out like a Metroidvania, sort of.  I love tiny details like the clocktower and keep being visible in the background of stage 3 (why had I never noticed that before?).  It even shows a little bit of continuity for why Simon jumps down a pit to get to Stage 4.  He had made it almost to Dracula's doorstel (just needed a ladder! Or, if I kept the stairway short, all he had to do was knock a hole in the wall), but the floor collapsed as a trap, and dumped him in the caves.  Iiiinteresting.


And just as a bonus, here's the map with empty spaces "filled in," so to speak:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/Ridureyu/screenshots/castlevaniafullgamemapwithoutenemies.png - a little bigger than the last one.


So, there you go!   Special thanks to TSR and Badbatman3, and I just wanted to show off how well the CV1 map meshed.


Links broken up because I'm not allowed to post links yet, lol.

[Tanatra]

Pretty cool little project you did, here. Crazy how the background shot of the Castle Keep (just before the Mummies) lines up perfectly with the Keep itself once the stages are aligned together.

If you've compared the SotN map with that of CV1, the two share quite a few parallels. The Alchemy Lab is in roughly the same area as the spike traps of Level 2, as well as the Chapel and the room where you fight the Medusa boss with the stained glass windows in the background. Not to mention the long drop into the cave area in both games and of course the Clock Tower/Castle Keep combo.

I think Simon would need a little more than a ladder to reach Drac's Keep from the mummy tower; that clocktower & keep look pretty small in the background.   Keep in mind that this is a two-dimensional interpretation of a three-dimensional castle. The way I see it, when Simon falls into the pit, he turns 90 degrees to his left and heads straight for the clocktower/keep (from our perspective, he'd be marching into the background.)

Speaking of that, a three-dimensional interpretation of the CV1 castle: THAT would be awesome.

[Ridureyu]

Someone get the legos!
Anyway, thanks!  I noticed some similarities with the SOTN map. I've also noticed that the clock tower/keep in SOTN is pretty identical to the Rondo stages, but that's probably common knowledge here.


Also: First-time poster, loooong-ass time lurker (been visiting this site since friggin' 1998).

[Ahasverus]

Man you're awesome thanks a lot! Level designers really cared when drawing the castle layout

[X]

I can't click on the links. You might want to fix them.

-X

[Ridureyu]

I can't post links here yet. You probably need a certain post count to do so.

[Oralox]

http://images.wikia.com/castlevania/images/d/d1/Chapter10_Map.jpg - The Castlevania Wiki's image of the Round 10 map


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/Ridureyu/screenshots/castlevaniafullgamemapempty.png - 9928x1908, 852 KB


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/Ridureyu/screenshots/castlevaniafullgamemapwithoutenemies.png - a little bigger than the last one.

Fixed

[Ridureyu]

Thanks! Also, I now have permission to post links, so i edited the post, too.

[Chernabogue]

Very nice!

[X]

Checked 'em out. Interesting maps though I think Dracs thrownroom tower is a single spire roof rather then a double, but that's just me 

-X

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Speaking of that, a three-dimensional interpretation of the CV1 castle: THAT would be awesome.

I've gone and done that, ask and ye shall receive.



Because I've been tinkering with 3D as of late, I've envisioned and mapped out Dracula's Castle from CV1 as if it were a 3D object.  That is, all the hallways (and they are indeed hallways for the most part) have been aligned.  I've taken a few liberties, though:

1. The door at the end of stage 2 (the Entrance Hall) that leads into the Merman's Lair (Stage 3) is now a door that branches into the lair at a 90 degree angle, rather than straight into it.  If you were to make an adventure game out of this (which is one of my plans eventually), then you could add an area at the Entrance Hall where you could jump out a window and into the outer garden.  In the Merman's Lair you come 'from the background', essentially.

2. The door after the Giant Bat room (the first pink room after the white section) comes into the background of the stairs of Stage 5 (The Chapel).

3. You don't see it from the pic's angle, but Medusa's Room (Pink room in the red section) now opens into the Upper Courtyard also at a 90 degree angle.

With all of the changes I've made, the Castle Keep and the Mummies' Tower end up somewhat Adjacent yet still far apart, while still maintaining the structural integrity of the Castlevania layout.  Plus the whole thing looks like a nice neat Castle now, instead of one hilariously long and wide romp.

[Tanatra]

Holy crap, did you make that in response to this topic?! Or has it just been sitting in a file on your hard drive for a while?

Anywho, I can visualize that layout fitting into the context of an entire castle very well. In fact, the first part of the Abandoned Castle in CoD follows almost exact same layout that you came up with for Stages 2-3.

I've always felt the concept of an upper, elevated courtyard to be odd, but it's appeared in quite a few games in the series (I consider it analogous to Orlox's Quarters in SotN).

[Ridureyu]

Nice, nice, niiiiice work!  I still kept the Courtyard at ground level, though (in my map, it's about one block above the "outside" grownd).  But yeah, nice work!

And I was going to make Dracula's Keep single spire, but then I saw I had nearly run out of vertical space, and didn't want to reposition the whole thing again.  Yes, I did it in MSpaint.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Holy crap, did you make that in response to this topic?! Or has it just been sitting in a file on your hard drive for a while?

A lot of Castlevania-related things and projects are sitting in my hard drive.
Even a certain someone's Villa blueprints.

[Oralox]

Hmm...I might put your 3D castlevania to the test with UDK once I have some castle assets...