Topic: Castlevania Confessions

[GuyStarwind]

Misfortune?

[BushidoViking]

Dissonance isn't viewed as a shitty game. True, it's typically held as the most meh of the GBA series, but that doesn't mean the game itself sucks.
What killed Diss for me was the graphics at the expense of the gameplay, the rip-off of SotN (from the similar graphical style, similar looking protagonists, the 2 nearly-identical castles bull-crap to the "buddy is possessed and I need to free him" thing), and the more-or-less lack of any real dialogue or plot once you start exploring the second castle. I almost felt like Diss would have been better without the whole (almost) mirror-image castle and just the first castle. It was neat when SotN did this stuff; it was redundant when Diss repeated the same exact stuff that had come before it.
And I don't get what was so bad about the sound. I saw it as an homage to the 8-bit era, the glory years of Castlevania's humble beginnings (and that of the NES itself).

Well Said my Friend!

[Hellhammer]

lucky you, i had the misfortune of playing with the real CV board game ):

Man, I never knew those existed - really nice collector's piece!!! I've been feeling really tempted to start a proper CV collection but I have so many expensive hobbies already..haha

[X]

And I don't get what was so bad about the sound. I saw it as an homage to the 8-bit era, the glory years of Castlevania's humble beginnings (and that of the NES itself).

It wasn't to pay homage to the 8-bit games. The sound quality had to take the hit due to the limited cartage space at the time as it was almost jam-packed. One of the reasons I think that lead to the music's forced lack of quality was the over-use of sprite vectoring. Another reason why might be due to the game already using high-quality sound effects that were better then CotM. I could be wrong as there might be another explanation. uzo might know the answer.

[Flame]

I HAD to look up the SoTN Hentai out of sheer curiosity, and found it with no trouble. dunno if you are allowed to mention hentai sites by name on here so I wont, but a hint, use the author name. It helps.

I found it kind of... Boring, actually. Mainly cuz the art isnt much to write home about and I cant damn read Japanese, which might have at least gotten me to stick around and read it. So I went "meh" and didnt finish it. The content itself is pretty damn tame too, though I didnt entirely finish it. Im pretty sure I can find much better CV related pr0n easily lol.

[beingthehero]

It wasn't to pay homage to the 8-bit games. The sound quality had to take the hit due to the limited cartage space at the time as it was almost jam-packed. One of the reasons I think that lead to the music's forced lack of quality was the over-use of sprite vectoring. Another reason why might be due to the game already using high-quality sound effects that were better then CotM. I could be wrong as there might be another explanation. uzo might know the answer.

Yeah, the graphics killed the sound. I think Jorge mentioned the gradius title for the GBA had the same deal too, so it was a Konami thing during that time. The backgrounds technically look even better than Aria's, since they almost always have some sort of animation. Combine that with all the well-animated enemies at the same time, and you have a recipe for some m a j o r   s l  o  w    d     o     w        n. Sacrificing sound quality freed up more space. This was to avoid what happened with CV Adventure: amazing graphics (for its time!) but nearly unplayable because playing the game was like playing CV1 in slow motion.

The director, Takeda Takashi, said in the CotM/HoD OST linear notes that this was his decision. Considering how he also directed Lament (which was a beautiful game back in 2003 and still holds up well graphically), he definitely wanted Castlevania to look the best. On the other hand, he also directed CoD, which wasn't exactly cutting edge in terms of graphics.

[Phoenix7786]

It wasn't to pay homage to the 8-bit games. The sound quality had to take the hit due to the limited cartage space at the time as it was almost jam-packed. One of the reasons I think that lead to the music's forced lack of quality was the over-use of sprite vectoring. Another reason why might be due to the game already using high-quality sound effects that were better then CotM. I could be wrong as there might be another explanation. uzo might know the answer.

Oh I get the degraded sound was due to the graphical achievements; I just likened the sound they had to settle with as NES-esque quality.

[beingthehero]

It probably would've been better if Soshiro Hokkai went with a traditional route in regards to scoring the music. But then again, it just wouldn't be HoD without the experimental soundtrack.

[Pfil]

This is a little embarrasing... but I think some characters from this series are... may I say hot?
Very beautiful. I once had a crush even, when I was younger.

[beingthehero]

It's ok, we've all had crushes on Simon Belmont.

[Gecko]

It's ok, we've all had crushes on Simon Belmont.

True dat.

[Reinhart77]

hmm, as for having unpopular opinions, i guess i've never been one to complain about all the things everyone else seems to complain about.  i generally try to appreciate each game or product for what they're worth.  so, things like Pachislot Castlevania, Castlevania Puzzle, a future animation or live action movie, Harmony of Despair, Tolkein stuff in Lords of Shadow etc don't seem like an anathema to me.

[SiFi270]

It's ok, we've all had crushes on Simon Belmont.

But I am Simon Belmont! What, do you think my portrayal in Captain N is accurate?



I'm really more like you see me in the Worlds of Power novelization. Except not as dumb.

[PyramidHead]

I don't think that Castlevania 64's (or LoD's) controls are bad. Yes, you need some time to adjust yourself to it, but it works. I had much more problems with Soul Reaver, for example (but I still had a lot of fun with it).

I don't like Alucard that much.. He's too classic, nothing special about him. Just a normal epic vampire from some old movies. But Genia Aricado was a nice touch to his portrait. And I like the design of his in Aria of Sorrow. 

[Ahasverus]

It's ok, we've all had crushes on Simon Belmont.

Pretty much

New Simon is fuuuuugly

(click to show/hide)

But being so makes Trevor -I-melt-the-floor-when-walking- Belmont shine even more