Topic: Games you're not allowed to like or hate

[Munchy]

being a nad fan

*trying insanely hard to stifle snickers*

Kidding aside I get that feel bro.

[Ahasverus]

Interestingly enough, I think OoE has the weakest level design of all three DSvanias. Though there's less backtracking so you don't have to see the worst levels again and again if you don't want to

This. Has. Too. Much. Sense.

:broken heart:

[Ridureyu]

*trying insanely hard to stifle snickers*

Kidding aside I get that feel bro.

Well, Rondo of Blood showed us that Wolfman does INDEED have nads.



(I was trying to type "bad," but using my iPhone. I wonder what this says about autocorrect)

[Neobelmont]

I don't like Super Castlevania IV and love Lords of Shadow

Replace sciv with sotn and that describes me. Sotn just gets so boring,it's too easy for my taste and I have some form of malice against Alucard(but that's besides the point). And I love legacy of darkness. Revolvers and werewolf powers go!

[The Silverlord]

I find it funny that people can hate PoR but love OoE. Or love DoS but dislike PoR.  These three games are pretty much the exact same games as far as gameplay, level design and graphics go. But still people pretend that they're vastly different. When they're not. Anyone can see that.

That’s a fair point to make if you take any game on its own, on it's own merits.  I think the point is that they're not vastly different.  Having played Aria, Dawn, Portrait one after the other I just found the Castleroid system wearing exceptionally thin (I was losing heart after Dawn to be honest).  The Wind quests were a good change of pace, but not enough to rescue a game which felt dumbed-down, and by this point of time in history (with IGA and his team having such a wealth of experience) having perhaps the worst level design in a Castlevania game (OoE has it's moments too). Of course, if you go back and play the likes of Symphony it feels rather empty and lifeless now that we've come on some in Castleroid terms.

But after Portrait, I just came away with an unshakable feeling the series was going backwards, wasn't learning much new.

But as I've said often: if you come into Portrait of Ruin fresh, you'll probably love it.  But it's horses for courses.

[Flame]

I find it funny that people can hate PoR but love OoE. Or love DoS but dislike PoR.  These three games are pretty much the exact same games as far as gameplay, level design and graphics go. But still people pretend that they're vastly different. When they're not. Anyone can see that.

Some people enjoy Story and Art in castlevania games. And DoS and PoR had the worst of both. Generic looking anime artwork and terrible stories that shit on their predecessors. AoS didnt NEED a sequel, and even if it did, it could have been much much better than what DoS offered. In all departments. And PoR is just an insult to Bloodlines.

OoE though, had an original story, which as we know, is the only kind of storytelling IGA knows how to do very well,  and had a pleasing art direction that I wouldn't mind seeing return.

[crimsonmist]

i think you should be allowed to like any game in the series, but not hate any of the games whatsoever. after all we're all castlevania fans in here and if we hate any one of them we're just going to risk harming the self-respect of the fans of these kinds of games and possible injure our respect for the series as a whole.
moreover there's not as much you can do to control others' preferences and dislikes as you might think, it's all in their minds, not in yours.

[Fofa]

i think you should be allowed to like any game in the series, but not hate any of the games whatsoever. after all we're all castlevania fans in here and if we hate any one of them we're just going to risk harming the self-respect of the fans of these kinds of games and possible injure our respect for the series as a whole.
moreover there's not as much you can do to control others' preferences and dislikes as you might think, it's all in their minds, not in yours.

That's generally my opinion on games too, so it generally makes me want to hit my head against a wall when fanbases exclude members based on something one person said, and especially if the game in question has only been played by a select few.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

In a perfect world, it would be like this.
However, in reality, there are games that get a certain following.

In my list, I was going by the current trends.  Personally, I love ever CV game except the badly coded ones (Commodore Castlevania, I'm looking at you).

[Ridureyu]

I wrote a gigantic post about Portrait of Ruin a while ago, and was pretty complimentary towards it.  I should probably do what I said I'd do and do the same for OoE and SotN. Someday.

[Sumac]

i think you should be allowed to like any game in the series, but not hate any of the games whatsoever. after all we're all castlevania fans in here and if we hate any one of them we're just going to risk harming the self-respect of the fans of these kinds of games and possible injure our respect for the series as a whole.

Well, if you mean collective hatred promoted by some people that stems from such concepts as "true Castlevania is only (2D, 3D e.t.c.)", then I am agree with you. Such behavior should be controled and not promoted as "official position of the True Old Hracore Fans Who knows Better", since it really harm fandom reputation and alienate newcomers who can have their own opinion, not based on the nostalgia and love for the old games.

However, thinking that people who a part of the fandom should unconditionally love all games in the series just because they are part of the franchise, no matter what their actual quality is, is wrong also. It is behavior that leads to the insane fanboism ("series is perfect as is, everyone who things otherwise are wrong / not fans / children e.t.c." mentality) and also obviously alienation of the newcomers. Besides, how could you deny what people opinion just like that?

Everyone have right to have their own opinion on any game in the series. And it is completely normal to dislike some of them, since not every single game in the franchise is perfect. Besides, we all have different tastes. Promoting "no hate for the games of the series because we are fans of this series" is like creating a censorship. It will shatter community even more so than any arguments about on what games should be.

I am sometimes come as person who intolerate other opinions, however it is not exactly like that. I admit that everyone have right to dislike some games in the series. However, the matter is how you put it. You can just say that in specific thread that you dislike that game for some reasons or you can repeat it like a broken record in every thread no matter what actual discussion is about. The second behaviour is what I was talking about earlier: it is essentially can create impression that this said opinion, not just opinion of several individuals, but opinion of the fandom as whole, and that is actually untrue.

So in the end, it is not matter of what you like or dislike, you can like or dislike whatever you want. It will not harm fandom and criticism can be much more useful than blind following. It is the matter of how you put it in words.

[DoctaMario]

Interesting thread. Seems like the community's opinions have shifted a bit.

.You're not allowed to hate:


Order of Ecclesia-Personally, I thought the characters and story of this game were the worst of the DS games (none of which were all that great to begin with) and it was the only CV game to not have a whip wielder of any kind. Not that that's a deal breaker, but to me it would have made the game a lot more fun, even as an extra mode. Level design was better than the other two DS games, but still not great.



You're not allowed to like:
Portrait of Ruin-I thought this was the best of the DS titles because for me it was the most fun. I can't really explain it, but I played this one more than any of the others. The multiple characters mode was great if underutilized and "Richiter" controlled like an expensive sports car, especially in comparison to any of his previous iterations. Flawed, but definitely worthy of the time I spent playing it imo.


Haunted Castle-Not a great game, but I still love it somehow.


Castlevania 64-I like this game better than LoD because the level design is much better and tighter. The only thing LoD has over this is the extra characters and different whip graphics for upgrades.



Dracula X (SNES)-This is a completely different game from Rondo. They share sprites, sure, but other than that, they have nothing in common as far as I can see. The lack of good response in the controls is this game's major flaw other than uneven level design.



No middle ground/flame war ignition:

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest-I'm gonna be honest and admit a bias towards Simon's Quest. This game is the reason I play video games in general and I've been a hardcore CV fan since it came out in 1988. A lot of the things that are now considered "flaws" were acceptable back when it came out. The odd and indecipherable "clues" were merely a way to extend game life in a day and age when games were expensive and not anywhere near as mainstream as they are now. They HAD to give players their money's worth because there wasn't a glut of other games you could really turn to and not many people owned more than one system back then. I'm not saying this excuses these things, but it's a way of explaining them to people who weren't around and playing games back when it came out.

In a way, playing Simon's Quest is kind of like using a typewriter now. The keys aren't as responsive as the keyboard on a nice laptop, it's noisy, if you make a mistake, you have to get out the little white correction tabs or start over (some of you are probably wondering WTF I'm talking about Lol!) But back when they were new, they were state-of-the-art. I may ruffle some feathers by saying this, but I'll go so far as to say that unless you played the game when it was released, you'll never truly be able to appreciate it on its own terms because you'll invariably measure it against the progress that has been made in the interface and design of modern games. 

I see what the people griping about it are saying, but if you play it after you've finished all the more polished Castleroid games that came after it, there's no way it can possibly stand up in your mind.

[Kramgnauh]

but  but... I liked PoR T___T

[X]

In my list, I was going by the current trends.  Personally, I love ever CV game except the badly coded ones (Commodore Castlevania, I'm looking at you).

"Yeah, another thing about the Commodore, it only works when it feels like it!" -AVGN

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

@DoctaMario: With LoD you get improved camera controls with the D-Pad, as well as two new stages.  There are improved controls for when you're hanging on ledges, which is what most people complained about with CV64 because you always would have to press UP on the Control stick to climb a ledge, no matter what angle the camera was viewing you from, thus causing confusion (if the camera is facing the cliff, pressing UP means pressing away from the ledge, while in LoD you press 'towards the direction of the ledge'.
You alwo get subweapon upgrades, which improve their range/intensity.

Having said that, CV64 does have its charms (Simon Belmont and Maria Renard costumes ).