Topic: Sega Saturn SotN compared to PSX SotN?

[X]

I don't mind the DXC version of Maria, but I think her attacks should have been somewhat on par with Richter's at least. Not enough to take away the challenge but not making it too terrible easy either. As it currently stands I've only ever used Maria once and I found it a bit of a tough scrape. She was definitely stronger in Rondo and I feel her strength should have been kept in SotN as well.

Richter should have been given his SotN outfit rather then wearing his Rondo look which we've all seen before many times. Just a little something to keep in line with the game's artstyle.

I also feel that the missing stages featured in NitM should have been restored and also expanded on just so they're not too short. But as for the new enemies, replace them with something that is more a kin to Castlevania then what we've already seen. The new music I have no real problems with and still listen to them on occasion.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

To be honest, while some of you may enjoy the OP-ness of Saturn Maria, I felt that she had reached Mary-Sue levels of game-breaking and unbalancedness compared to the other two playable characters, enough to turn me off. The game was already easy enough with Alucard and Richter, why turn Maria into an "anything you guys can do, I can do way better" character? At least DXC-SotN Maria felt balanced compared to Saturn Maria, even if DXC-SotN Maria was more-or-less a carbon copy of RoB Maria save for a few differences.
Why yes, blatant unbalancedness is one of my pet peeves. Kinda implies creator favoritism, you know?

**blasts you with Gekku-Tiger Multi-Fireball of DOOM**

Also, relevant (Maria destroying the game with her uber-ness xD):
Castlevania SOTN Maria Speed Run in 8:31 min

Notices:
-The worst thing about the game are the load times.  It's 7 extra seconds past the CD Chambers.  There are also additional load times at the Castle Keep's Door and at the Chapel's Sky Corridors.
-There are no translucent effects.  There are, instead, colorswapping effects combined with dithering.  Check them out behind Maria's Shadows as she dashes through the castle.  Also shown upon certain death animations from enemies (Axe Knights).  Fire effects are also done solid, not translucent (including enemy death fire)
-Maria's Forward Kick is not only an awesome attack move, but propels you through Dracula's Castle incredibly fast.
-Maria's Gekku-Tiger Fireball decimates bosses.  If it doesn't decimate a boss, her downjump kick and forward kick will.
-Maria has an invincibility move (shown at the beginning of the video), which uses MP but lasts quite a long while.  It's not only invincibility, but it takes out enemies.  She might as well have Super Mario Star Power.

None of these are game-breaking, though.  The load-time is the worst of the things weird about the game by far (and if you're a patient person, it's not nearly as 'horrible' as people make it out to be).
I love that about this version of the game though.  I just rampage through it.  RAWR KAMEHAMEHASHINKUHADOKEN!

[Neobelmont]

**blasts you with Gekku-Tiger Multi-Fireball of DOOM**

Also, relevant (Maria destroying the game with her uber-ness xD):
Castlevania SOTN Maria Speed Run in 8:31 min

Notices:
-The worst thing about the game are the load times.  It's 7 extra seconds past the CD Chambers.  There are also additional load times at the Castle Keep's Door and at the Chapel's Sky Corridors.
-There are no translucent effects.  There are, instead, colorswapping effects combined with dithering.  Check them out behind Maria's Shadows as she dashes through the castle.  Also shown upon certain death animations from enemies (Axe Knights).  Fire effects are also done solid, not translucent (including enemy death fire)
-Maria's Forward Kick is not only an awesome attack move, but propels you through Dracula's Castle incredibly fast.
-Maria's Gekku-Tiger Fireball decimates bosses.  If it doesn't decimate a boss, her downjump kick and forward kick will.
-Maria has an invincibility move (shown at the beginning of the video), which uses MP but lasts quite a long while.  It's not only invincibility, but it takes out enemies.  She might as well have Super Mario Star Power.

None of these are game-breaking, though.  The load-time is the worst of the things weird about the game by far (and if you're a patient person, it's not nearly as 'horrible' as people make it out to be).
I love that about this version of the game though.  I just rampage through it.  RAWR KAMEHAMEHASHINKUHADOKEN!

hmmm.. interesting makes me want the saturn version now.

[thernz]

the best part of the port is honestly jinmenju

[crisis]

Castlevania SOTN Maria Speed Run in 8:31 min

damn i miss metroivania

[uzo]

DXC feels like a band-aid to me. IGA made it to appease the fans who wanted to experience Saturn features, but it fell way short IMO.

I wouldn't say that's entirely accurate. Recall that Maria was indeed planned for the initial design, but was cut due to time factors from the PSX version. IGA simply finished off the cut feature for the DXC version.

[Dark Nemesis]

To be honest, while some of you may enjoy the OP-ness of Saturn Maria, I felt that she had reached Mary-Sue levels of game-breaking and unbalancedness compared to the other two playable characters, enough to turn me off. The game was already easy enough with Alucard and Richter, why turn Maria into an "anything you guys can do, I can do way better" character? At least DXC-SotN Maria felt balanced compared to Saturn Maria, even if DXC-SotN Maria was more-or-less a carbon copy of RoB Maria save for a few differences.
Why yes, blatant unbalancedness is one of my pet peeves. Kinda implies creator favoritism, you know?

I can't say that i disagree, but with DXC version, they went the opposite, since she was fairly weak, beating Galamoth was taking forever, i have been bored to death pressing the attack button, until he would die.

[X]

I can't say that i disagree, but with DXC version, they went the opposite, since she was fairly weak, beating Galamoth was taking forever, i have been bored to death pressing the attack button, until he would die.

Never bothered going to Galamoth with Maria as I knew I wouldn't be able to kill him without having my ass handed to me. Maria's just too weak for the job. But by attacking Galamoth's head you can kill him faster then attacking any other part of his body.

[Phoenix7786]

Yeah I once spent about 30m straight killing ol' Gally as Richter. I did so by learning how to manipulate him into doing his lightning attack, then dagger upper-cutting through the arm for 167 or however much it did. Even with spammed Hydro-storms it still took me like 30.

When I did it as Richter on the DXC port, I said "fuck it. I killed him legit a looooong ass time ago) and dashed through his head. After that, I fired about 1,000 daggers at his head, killing him in under 10s flat.

[SerenityinFire]

What I used to do as Alucard against Galamoth is I'd get really close to him, face away, and let him hit me with his lightning - knocking me toward him and between his legs where I couldn't get hit.  I'd then just fire away with First of Tulkas.

[Claimh Solais]

Maria was indeed planned for the initial design, but was cut due to time factors from the PSX version.

I didn't know this.

I learn a lot of new things every day here.

[crisis]

hohoho what i love most about symphony (any version), was the fact that it felt like i was looking through a window through time back in the 18th century

[MathUser]

I really enjoyed the Saturn port. Some of the new enemies were good like the willow wisp and the living tree.  The new music was awesome and Maria was fun. The graphic flaws can be overlooked but the loading sucked. Especially if you had to use the map. I played through Alucards game just to try out the Godspeed boots. It helps a bit. Any dedicated SOTN fan really should play through the Saturn version at least once.

[muteKi]

There are a few things I really like about the Saturn version of SOTN:

1. Playable Maria!
2. Running shoes!
3. Remixes of Beginning and Vampire Killer!
4. Maria boss battle!
5. Norio fucking Wakamoto (though he was of course in the Japanese PS1 version as well)

There are several things I do not like about it, however:
1. The game engine wasn't retooled for the Saturn, and lots of stuff can look stretched out poorly
2. Slowdown from too much stuff on screen happens at a lower threshhold
3. The loading procedures were poorly implemented. Oops.
4. A lot of transparency effects don't work, so, say, the Mana Prism use sequence ends up fading in from black
5. Other transparency is faked with dithering

Now, if you run this on an emulator, you can get around 2, 3, and 5 (protip: enable a feature on SSF called "mesh translucent" under the program 4 tab in the options box), so my remaining beefs with the Saturn version are pretty minor. If I'm going to play a copy of the game it's likely to end up being that one, though I do have the PS1 version already installed on my PS3 from the guy who owned it last.

[knightmere]

I have a new laptop, and can't get SSF to run NiTM at fullspeed on it...  My old desktop PC was much less powerful and ran NiTM perfectly, so this is quite frustrating.  I really want to play it again, as it is my favorite version... I lost my JP Saturn Console and Game disc a few years back due to some asshole.