Topic: Castlevania The Lecarde Chronicles May 2013

[mig3]

Hi everybody !

Thanks for what you said 

I did not thought that the game was HARD . But i cannot be objective , because i know the game by heart ...

 Here some advices :
-Do not forget "upgrade items" in previous areas wich could not be reached at first time because of the lack of a skill .
-Do not hesitate to use ITEM CRASHES they cause lots of damages
-The Whirlwind attack tears  enemies in very few time.If you are hurt by a boss do not hesitate to use that skill while you're invincible ( after the hurt  ) .
-The game is fair there are not monsters or attacks that cannot be avoided .observe carefully enemies's patterns ,( especially Bosses ).


- There are lots of games that can be very difficult regardless your knowledge of them.
I think that in my game , the player can progress little by little . When you know an area , the 2nd time will be easier etc..
I don't wanted a game that could be done in one breath . I wanted a game with challenge but not impossible . The game is possible even if you are not an hardcore gamer It is a promise .


I cannot change the joypad setup    THe game will recognize  the 4 first buttons of it )
But as UZO said there is a wonderful software : JOY2KEY  .It emulates THE KEYBOARD . You can with it , choose the buttons locations on your joypad . Do not forget to "FORCE KEYBOARD" in the OPTIONS of the game .

Exemple : Input that when you push the button 4 of your pad , it's like if you push the G button on the keyboard.

I have spent so much time on this game that i couldn't play another things .
I would like to discover new fan games . If anyone can give me advices of good Castlevania Fangames it would be great ..

Thanks everybody 

[Rugal]

This game is really well done man. You captured the Castlevania atmosphere with this one.

I must say, though simple, I really enjoyed the spider boss in the cave.

[Esco]

All right, after beating the game I now feel that I have a LOT more to say about it:

The good:
*It's a really fun game that makes you want to go back and play it again, just to get better at it
*Mig proved that less can be more; by NOT trying to add 1001 extra moves, and just add in several, VERY useful ones.
*All new/redrawn gfx; nuff said!  This was great to see, and I know that this had to take a TON of time and effort to complete! There were one or two (I.E. the horses) that could have used a bit more work. But overall the game just looks OUTSTANDING!
*Very creative stages, with unique hazards in each of them, that really add to the fun factor of the game
*EXCELLENT MUSIC! Tons of outstanding remakes!
*Challenging, but fair!
*An EXCELLENT length game! It gives you hours of enjoyment!
*Lots of references to other castlevania games! Gives you an excellent feel of nostalgia! You can tell a LOT of love went into this game and hard work.

Now for the bad:
*The ICON USED FOR THE DOUBLE JUMP PICKUP IN GAME IS WRONG! IT HAS THE SLIDE ONE USED FOR IT INSTEAD; IT IS CORRECT ON THE MAP THOUGH (not important; just letting Mig know)
*Up close to enemies/walls the whip totally misses: this is a hugely annoying issue.
*No scoring or ranking system for stage performance: this would have added a HUGE amount more depth too the game, not to mention quite a bit more fun factor too. It's a huge shame that this was not done.
*The last boss: WOW Mig, what were you thinking? You basically created a last boss that you have unlimited attempts to beat, by putting in a 1up right before her. Talk about pointless. As for the battle itself, for the first part you can literally just whip her until her shield shatters, then just use the whip spin to beat her instantly; the food she drops and the fly (WTF?) hives drop ensure you will have 100% health. The 2nd part of the last boss right was a HUGE disappointment. I mean seriously, what the heck man?

(click to show/hide)

She was a giant wasp that just shoots out bland green shots, creates flies (again, what the?) and was VERY annoying and tedious to beat. It was truly disappointing how you came up with so many other VERY creative bosses (puppet master, legion, mirror master) yet dropped the ball on what should have been the ultimate boss fight. After everything else you came up with, I expected the final boss to be some HUGE demonic monstrosity. Not a............. wasp!?  It was truly not a fun fight, and a real shame to close out such a great game like that.

*The typos in the text: holy hell are there a lot of them man! You really should have had someone else proof read them for you. They are everywhere.  This isn't really important though honestly, and it actually gives it a kind of simon's quest feel to it.
*Stairs: they needed MUCH more work; all kinds of stuff happened with them, from it being hard to jump on them, so me falling thru blocks because of them
*Hitboxes: several of them need to be messed with. and corrected. 2 perfect examples: the scarecrows, and the spike traps for puppet master; there were WAY too big to the point where touching blank space around them damaged me. I even got killed by a small white bat when charging forward, when all it looked like I hit was air.
*a FEW Cheap tricks: while I appreciated most of the dirty traps you put in (as I said above; it was challenging but fair) there were 1 or 2 that I felt never should have been put into the game. One perfect example of a very poor one: one of the last stages where you have to drop down, hold right; then drop AGAIN and hold right AFTER going thru a hellish room. Both times falling blindly. If you don't do this: you die and get to go thru a hellish room full of spikes again. Stuff like this is just annoying.
*Crashes: MMF crashed about 3 times while playing it; luckily never in the last few stages. It was at different places, and gave a windows error each time. No idea what caused them, but I know how this goes.
*No way to skip cutscenes: not a big deal since there aren't many.
*No way to pause with the controller without joy2pad: no excuse for this NOT to have been implemented.

Overall, I recommend this game to ANY castlevania fan! It is an EXCELLENT piece of work, with only a few rather minor flaws (though the list of bad things above looks long, it isn't; I just went into great detail)! This game is exactly the type of quality stuff more people in this "community" need to put forth!

On that note: I'm off to beat it again! 

[darkmanx_429]

Not only is this game great but it seems that the majority of the fan-games on your site seem top notch! I am curious to how the engines are coming along for some of the other titles...

[mig3]

Well 

Thanks  Esco for your constructive comment .You have spent time for it and i have respect for that .

I don't come back on good points you gave  . Thanks !

The Bad points ! You are merciless ? No problem i like that 
First i want to say that :

1 I will change things .
2 That game is killing me  I have worked so much that now is a real pain for me to work again on it .Additionally ,i have a lot of work with my regular job .. So i cannot change too many things ,only the most important ones .


1 Double jump icon . Ok , easy to fix .

2 I will increase the Whip's hit box

3 The ranking system . It may be hard for me to settle this 

4 Final battle . Many people say that the game is too hard , and i think they will  give up
before that point . So i don't want to increase difficulty . The battle with the very last boss may be a "mad house" , without a recovered life bar .

(click to show/hide)

Use the HOLY CROSS on the Wasp queen when she is very low in the screen and she will loose almost half life bar

That flies/wasp mess up ? Ok you're right  But ... It is really important ? Anyway if someone draws a wasp to replace the flies i will input it 
The final boss appearance ? I think that is subjective  I wanted to do a reference to another Castlevania's boss .

(click to show/hide)

The moth queen in Castlevania Bloodlines on Genesis

.

5 The typos ?     Well.. English is not my first language . I'm french and my parents come from Spain . Anyway if someone Give me a good version of the texts that have flaws , i will change that .
Simon's quest is a great game 

6 Stairs ? I will try to enhance that.

7 Hit boxes ? Strange because the hit boxes of that monsters are exactly their sprite 
You may have been touched by the bat while it's wings were deployed .

8 I don't see exactly what part of the game it is . Are you speaking of the RIP ROOM ?

9 Crashes ? Ok i see what they cause them . I will change that . fortunately they are very rare . Players . Do not forget to save as many possible.

10 The cut scenes are so shorts  and there are so few .

11 Ok ! I will input a fifth button to pause the game with joypad . You can pause the game even playing with the joypad by pushing SPACE on the keyboard .

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By the way I'm going to make an easier version of the game for those who consider that the game is to much difficult . less monsters, less damages , more food , less traps more powerful weapons etc..

[Belmontoya]

Those who think that the game is too difficult should play through Castlevania 1,3 and Bloodlines. Good games are supposed to be difficult. It's the challenge that makes the victory of beating a good game so sweet. There's little point to playing a game that offers no challenge and just hands a victory over to you. That's just lazy gaming. The Lecarde Chronicles is a hardcore Castlevania. And if you ask me, it feels damn good to be challenged by a Castlevania again.

[SabinFigaro]

Excellent Jeu Mig. Vraiment, un vrai castlevania. Je vais continuer en anglais pour les autres. This game is great. I've reach the castle and just got the spike whip. I must agree with what has been said concerning the difficulty. The game is not for kiddies and this is what makes it great. For castlevania fans of yore, we all know how hard these games could be and yet, this is what made them so fun to play. You actually feel rewarded when you finally beat a tough boss or just progress to the next room. This could have been a professional game for all I'm concerned. Keep up the good work Mig. Looking forward to the updated versions of your other works!

[Phoenix7786]

Welcome to the Dungeon, Sabin! Speaking of him, he was my brother's favorite character while Edgar was mine. Kind of funny that the brothers picked the brothers as their favorite characters.

[Esco]

That game is killing me  I have worked so much that now is a real pain for me to work again on it .Additionally ,i have a lot of work with my regular job .. So i cannot change too many things ,only the most important ones .

I know that feeling for sure! 

3 The ranking system . It may be hard for me to settle this 

Not really; all you need is three more things in game:

1)Assign point value for each enemy (you can make any enemy that spawns infinitely worth just 10 points so it cannot be abused; projectiles should be worth NOTHING)
2) A timer: this way someone can't infinitely stand around in a stage farming points. Just like in the old Castlevanias
3)bonus points for hearts left at end of stage: for those that want more challenge it gives an incentive NOT to waste them. Potential for higher score.

With those 3 things, you would just need to figure out how many points = which rank in each stage. That is if you actually want to put this in. You would need to also save the score each type the player hits a "checkpoint." So if the player dies, the score for that stage goes back to what it was before they died, so that player's don't kill themselves multiple times in a high point region, just to bloat their score. You would also probably want to put in a penalty for each death point wise.

If you end up choosing to do this feel free to write me if you need help figuring out a system that works.

4 Final battle . Many people say that the game is too hard , and i think they will  give up
before that point . So i don't want to increase difficulty . The battle with the very last boss may be a "mad house" , without a recovered life bar .

Giving someone infinite tries to beat the last boss makes it seem pointless; a little less food would be a good idea too. But like I mentioned, I didn't like the 2nd part of the last boss battle as a whole; it was very tedious and boring as a whole. First part would have been good, if it wasn't because I basically can get full life after. But that's just my 2 cents.

Also about having unlimited tries: in stage B, you have it set up at a certain point where you respawn right in front of a 1up, and a minute later, there is another. Yet another area where you have unlimited tries to beat it, and can actually accumulate an extra life each time by suiciding. Which kills the point of disabling continues; just having the 2nd 1up and erasing the first is still a lot.

It might be a good idea to implement something where 1-ups only spawn once per continue, instead of per life so they can't be collected over and over.

5 The typos ?     Well.. English is not my first language . I'm french and my parents come from Spain . Anyway if someone Give me a good version of the texts that have flaws , i will change that .
Simon's quest is a great game 

I could do that if I can find the time this upcoming week.

7 Hit boxes ? Strange because the hit boxes of that monsters are exactly their sprite 
You may have been touched by the bat while it's wings were deployed .

That would be your problem there; if you check other castlevania games you will notice that the player's hitbox is slightly smaller than the actual player. Same for enemies. But for 95% of things it was good; there were just a handful that needed tweaking.

I don't see exactly what part of the game it is . Are you speaking of the RIP ROOM ?

Lol, no (though that RIP ROOM was a NINTENDO STYLE DIRTY TRICK!!! But I LIKE IT!!!!!  ), what I was referring to was in the bugbear room (shattering windows from red blasts room). Though I was just giving a good example of what I meant.

Crashes ? Ok i see what they cause them . I will change that . fortunately they are very rare . Players . Do not forget to save as many possible.

I just got one near the end of STAGE B. I can't tell you how pissed I was. lol

By the way I'm going to make an easier version of the game for those who consider that the game is to much difficult . less monsters, less damages , more food , less traps more powerful weapons etc..

Personally I thought the difficulty level was perfect. People just need to practice more and use some thought and finesse. Rather than trying to charge in and ignore hits like people can do in the metroid vanias and survive.

I really like this game (which is VERY rare for me when it comes to fan works), and the things above were just suggestions and things I noticed that I felt might help make it even better. This is truly impressive work regardless.

[SabinFigaro]

Hi Phoenix! Thanks for the welcome! You and your brother couldn't have picked better characters. They were the best in my opinion. Very touching story between them. Man, do I ever miss these old final fantasys. Anyhow this forum is great. No trolls, just fans and friendly people. Glad to be aboard!

[VladCT]

Anyhow this forum is great. No trolls, just fans and friendly people. Glad to be aboard!

Do note that there is a certain member here who can be a bit mischievous at times, though he's not a complete and outright troll. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy your stay here.

[Phoenix7786]

Alright I sat down to play this and just...wow. The production value for this game is extremely high, and I can feel the blood, sweat, tears, and soul you've poured into this. The sound effects mix all sorts of stuff from Capcom beat'em ups, SNES games like Actraiser, and all sorts of blips and bloops from various Castlevania's (like Bloodlines). Great SNES/Genesis-esque game you made here. You have these great "jump scares" when the terrain unexpectedly changes. You've got scrolling environments in multiple layers (like the background isn't a static scrolling image. Each layer scrolls at a difference pace giving great sense of traveling. You've got false finishes to a stage (like when it starts raining in stage 1 I thought it was over).
My only MINOR issue so far is I did not know your entire control scheme uses the numpad keys, so it took me longer to get Joy2Key configured correctly.

[SabinFigaro]

Don't want to deviate from the subject, but just a quick thanks to VladCt for the welcoming msg. Class act good sir.

[Las]

Though i have not gotten deep in the game only 3 areas so far(damn mermans under bridge). I can confirm it does work on vista 32 os. It hangs with the vsync option though so just use d39. Grantged i have' played through all the way.

But yeah game is friggin' awesome so far. Interesting new style graphics.The most impressive thing so far imho is the landscape and level design. Wow Mig you really nailed it! Everytime i move i'm compelled to see what's beyond the player. Tottally awesome!

[mig3]

Thanks everybody 

SabinFigaro cela fait plaisir de voir un compatriote sur ce forum . Merci pour les compliments .

Well !

I have updated the game in order to change some flaws..THe new file is uploaded an can be downloaded at the same place . You can use the new one it won't affect the previous SAVED DATA  .

Changes :
-Enhanced whip's Hitbox . You can now strike a wall while being very close of it .
-Stairways are easier to get when you jump upon them .
- Game crashes . I have cleared the game of  corrupted  elements that could make the game to crash .( the most important )

I have no time at the moment to change other things .
I have noted what it has been said .I could do some changes other time .
Esco has said some interesting things ( too many lives ,rating system,etc..)
By the way , CONTINUES are available in the last part of the game ! It's the SAVE OPTION which is no longer available .

I tried to put the PAUSE on the default gamepad play . I won't enter into  boring explanations but MMF2 does not allow to QUIT pause with the pad ! the SPACE key must be pushed..
JOY2KEY is a great solution to set PAUSE on the gamepad . It's also allows to set the buttons's usage .
The game allows to choose different keys on the keyboard than the default ones .CONTROLS OPTIONS .


I'm reassured that lots of players say the difficulty is OK 

Anyway I may built an easier , different file game  . The current game will still be the GENUINE one .

I hope you enjoy the game