Topic: Favorite "Unpopular" Vania

[Crying Freeman]

@Freeman Cotm really? I've never heard this, I've only ever heard people praise it. Back in the day when IGN's reviews weren't blockbuster oriented they gave it 9.6

By unpopular I didn't necessarily mean games that were reviewed poorly or are disliked by people, I meant the ones outside of the popular ones like SOTN, sc4, Dracula's Curse, Robdo etc. CotM is an excellent game, hell its my favorite on the GBA, and its like by most fans, but its sort of in the underground area of CV games, overshadowed by other metroidvanias like Aria.

[zangetsu468]

By unpopular I didn't necessarily mean games that were reviewed poorly or are disliked by people, I meant the ones outside of the popular ones like SOTN, sc4, Dracula's Curse, Robdo etc. CotM is an excellent game, hell its my favorite on the GBA, and its like by most fans, but its sort of in the underground area of CV games, overshadowed by other metroidvanias like Aria.

Yeah true as much as I liked it I would say AOS>HOD>Cotm

Cotm captured the feel of the oldschool mixed with the new perfectly imo though

[Jago]

I actually liked the n64 ones a lot they have a nice ambient and scary atmosphere and never had that much of an issue with the camera even when playing it on an emu on the keyboard.

and I love los2 a lot.

[Crying Freeman]

I actually liked the n64 ones a lot they have a nice ambient and scary atmosphere and never had that much of an issue with the camera even when playing it on an emu on the keyboard.

and I love los2 a lot.

Agree completely with C64. People who complain are ppl who heard things but didn't play them. One of the last CV games to go for horror rather than batshit insane anime action.

Can't say I've played LOS2, but I need to at some point.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

CastleVania Legends, and Dracula X on SNES,

SNES Dracula X is much better than Rondo IMO.

[Crying Freeman]

CastleVania Legends, and Dracula X on SNES,

SNES Dracula X is much better than Rondo IMO.

DracX is better. Rondo is great too, but the jumps have more weight and fluidity to them, the backflip is much more useful,  hitting things is much more satisfying because of the sound effect, which is more of a "punch" than a little flick(sounds so weak in Rondo). Plus I like how there are more levels in the castle, though I miss levels like the River and stage 2' from Rondo.

[coinilius]

Dracula X for the SNES definitely - I really enjoyed that game when I played it for the first time recently, after having played Rondo of Blood, and frankly I enjoyed it more than I did RoD (I also enjoyed RoD).  I've been playing through all the Castlevania games in 'chronological' order, putting all games on the timeline regardless of canonicity, and it's the Classicvania's that I've been enjoying the most and Dracula X (Vampire's Kiss) is basically the last gasp for the Classicvania's until I hit Bloodlines.   

I also didn't mind Castlevania: The Adventure,  but Belmont's Revenge is just so much better a game.  I was hoping I would have liked Legends more, because I like Sonia and her being written out of history just raises her profile in my eyes, but I think I enjoyed Legends the least out of the three GBVania's - it's levels just seemed to drag on too much.

Just finished Circle of the Moon and that game was great!  Haven't reached the N64 games yet but am hoping that they will be underdogs that I can get behind as well.

[zangetsu468]

Love that there are some Dracula X/ VK fans here. Looks like I'm not the only one!

[coinilius]

I should also add - I actually didn't mind Haunted Castle once I got past the first level of it.  It actually seems to get easier the further through it you progress, except for some spikes here and there.  Of course, I used save states to cheat to be able to actually progress, but I do think that if the games difficulty had been balanced more and been a little more forgiving, it could have been a much better remembered game.

[zangetsu468]

I should also add - I actually didn't mind Haunted Castle once I got past the first level of it.  It actually seems to get easier the further through it you progress, except for some spikes here and there.  Of course, I used save states to cheat to be able to actually progress, but I do think that if the games difficulty had been balanced more and been a little more forgiving, it could have been a much better remembered game.

I wonder if there are different versions of the game. The first time I played it I got up to the 3rd or 4th stage (I think?) without losing more than 1 life.

The next time I played it I found the first stage really difficult for some reason.

[coinilius]

There are 2 versions of it but both of them are pretty hard, just one is slightly less hard.

[Crying Freeman]

I should also add - I actually didn't mind Haunted Castle once I got past the first level of it.  It actually seems to get easier the further through it you progress, except for some spikes here and there.  Of course, I used save states to cheat to be able to actually progress, but I do think that if the games difficulty had been balanced more and been a little more forgiving, it could have been a much better remembered game.

I enjoy it too, just that difficulty curve. It's like megaman where you have to have a lot of trial and error. I love and hate this kind of difficulty because it's unfair af, but once you learn the game and know everything about it, you feel like a badass playing it. It's a really fun game, graphics and music are great, and it's interesting picking up a sword alongside the whip and morning star. But yeah, more forgiving = better impression on players.

[Crying Freeman]

I wonder if there are different versions of the game. The first time I played it I got up to the 3rd or 4th stage (I think?) without losing more than 1 life.

The next time I played it I found the first stage really difficult for some reason.

There are. I believe version M and B. I don't know which is which, but the easier one gives you like 5 health bars in place of lives and continues. The other version is like 2 hit death but you get lives and continues. The consensus is that the former one makes the game much more playable because you're aloud to actually get hit, but just be careful.

[coinilius]

Version M and K are the different names - and yeah, I think even if it had just given the player more lives and continues and the 5 health bars, it would have been a lot better.  Even if you could just sit there pumping money into it to keep continuing it would have helped, as once you learn where things are and when you're about to get cheap-shotted by a ghost that flies out of an enemy you've just killed straight into your face, you can learn when to duck or jump etc.

[Crying Freeman]

Version M and K are the different names - and yeah, I think even if it had just given the player more lives and continues and the 5 health bars, it would have been a lot better.  Even if you could just sit there pumping money into it to keep continuing it would have helped, as once you learn where things are and when you're about to get cheap-shotted by a ghost that flies out of an enemy you've just killed straight into your face, you can learn when to duck or jump etc.

That's it! I have to say, HC would probably be in my top 3 arcade games but I haven't played it enough. With the right version I'll give it a good play through.