THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CLIKC => Topic started by: ScrambledGregs on 03 Mar 2007, 08:37
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I've been a Castlevania fan off and on since Castlevania 2. However it was not until Symphony of the Night, and the slew of GBA/DS offspring, that I truly became crazy for the series. Sure, all the 3D ones have sucked to varying degrees, but man aren't the earlier games and modern handheld versions bad ass??
Which one is your favorite?? If you want to divide the series between the more action oriented, straight ahead games and the Symphony-esque (i.e. Metroidvania's), go ahead.
Personally, I've always liked Bloodlines. It's hard as fuck, in keeping with the Castlevania tradition, but almost sadistically so. Sorta like the Castlevania version of Contra: Hard Corps. in some ways. I never played a great deal of the original four Castlevania's, and I certainly haven't played Rondo of Blood, so maybe that skews my view.
As for the Metroidvania's...I think it's almost unfair to include Symphony of the Night, because that's still the best and deepest of all the Metroidvania's. My 'real' vote goes for Symphony, but otherwise I would have to give it to Dawn of Sorrow. The GBA trilogy isn't terrible, aside from Harmony of Dissonance not aging well and being the weakest of the lot, but none of them clicked for me quite like Dawn of Sorrow. I must say that I am loving Portrait of Ruin, which I just picked up yesterday, so maybe that will eke out a win.
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I don't know if I have a 'favorite' but there are several Castlevanias that I really enjoyed.
I know Simon's Quest hasn't aged well and not a lot of people liked it, but it had some interesting features and a good concept.
Castlevania III was one of the better NES games, really challenging and actually had some replay value.
The 16-bit Castlevanias: IV was decent, the SNES port of Dracula X was both good and bad. DX was fun and challenging but seemed like the gameplay took a step back in some respects. I never played Bloodlines, but it might be a good reason to look into Genesis emulation.
Symphony was a really great game. Some of the weapons were overpowered and took the challenge out of the game, but it was remarkable in a lot of respects. The castle was well designed and fun to explore, even if travelling around took more time than I cared for sometimes.
The GBA games were, as a whole, pretty good. Harmony was definitely the weak link; the other two were both enjoyable if a little short.
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Dawn of Sorrow was actually my first Castlevania game. I like the games, but they're hard. I can't beat the end boss in Portrait of Ruin, I might need to level up more.
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Dracula in Portrait of Ruin is pretty difficult at first, but once you get the pattern down, he's cake. I'm sure I could beat him without getting hit if I try hard enough.
I love the CV games. I'm also a huge Megaman fan. OLD SCHOOL PRIDE.
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I've actually been playing SOTN this past week. It is by far the best castlevania for me.
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
I love this series so much. It's a damn shame that they dropped Ayami Kojima's beautiful hand drawn art style in favour of the sorta crappy anime look.
Because of this, I think the GBA series has an edge on the current DS games.
I haven't played POR yet, but I intend to have it by the end of next week.
Dawn of Sorrow was fantastic, but I felt it was far too short. And as I said, I hated that anime style it had going.
Actually...
They're all too short.
Aria of Sorrow is probably the best. If we're not including symphony.
Did I mention I REALLY hate that anime style? I really really do.
For me it makes DOS half as good as it actually is.
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Other than the box art and character portraits, I don't think the "anime" style ruins the games.
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I saw Ian on Saturday, he had Aria of Sorrow on his DS.
It opened with a topdown scene of Soma walking some stairs. Then some cool shit happened, I was at the castle. The castle looked ridiculously dark and gothic. Darker and more gothic than anything in it's sequel which I beat the hell out of. Then the character portraits showed up, and looked GREAT. Despite being on the GBA, those handrawn character potraits are way more impressive to look at than the anime style in the DS versions.
As I hinted at when I mentioned the castle, the aesthetic of the whole game seems to have changed. Sure, it's still gothic, and a little gruesome, but it's all so...bright. And the soundtrack so much more upbeat. It didn't suit. Although, come to think of it, Circle of the Moon had an awesome upbeat soundtrack that rocked the hell out of my GBA speakers. You can't beat COTM for castlevania soundtracks. It just makes all the other games sound boring.
I got sidetracked there.
Let me gather my thoughts a moment.
Yes. I liked the spookiness from Symphony, Harmony and Aria way too much. I don't have any valid criticisms of the anime style, I just can't stand it personally. Everytime I have to see the characters speak I want to throw my DS to the ground and cry.
Let's compare.
Soma on the cover to Aria of Sorrow.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Cv_aos_agb_rgb.jpg)
Soma (and others) from Dawn of Sorrow:
(http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/images/promoimages/d/dime/trippin/castlevania_dawn_of_sorrow.jpg)
EW!
Then again, while searching for the second image, I found this:
(http://www.vgboxart.com/boxes/DS/1445-t.jpg)
MUCH better than the box art I got. That's the US nintendo seal of quality right? You guys got that cover? I hate you.
I also hate the new look for Julius in the second game.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/Juliusbelmont.jpg/180px-Juliusbelmont.jpg)
(http://www.towerofmist.net/julius/media/dos-julius.jpg)
How can they be so similar, yet have one be so much shittier than the other?
I found it hard to find any of the in-game portraits, which would have been much better side by side comparisons.
I can't be the only person in the world who played Castlevania games for the melodramatic angsty looking artwork? The whole thing likes like a desperate attempt to appeal to more people. Specifically, anime fans. I feel sorta ripped off.
I haven't played POR yet. It looks to be a huge improvement over DOS. The cover art doesn't even make me break down into tears. The castle looks to be a lot darker, but somehow more colourful at the same time. How'd they do that? The characters don't look to have shockingly bad hairstyles like the characters in DOS. In AOS that didn't matter, Ayami Kojima's drawing style hid how bad they were.
I always liked how dark castlevania was. Still is. But the anime style in DOS made the whole thing feel too childlike to me. I don't understand how.
Zone of the Enders, GBA, anime style, loved it. There are a ton of really great anime movies out there, the style can work.
But why didn't it for Castlevania? I guess Castlevania was just something that was never meant to be 'anime'.
So tell me, how's the 'dual characters' thing working out? Is the voice acting as great as it was in Symphony?
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I am so bad at Castlevania.
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The Dual Characters thing in PoR works really, really well. It's never annoying or confusing, but it's also never too easy, either.
The biggest complaint I have about PoR is that the Missions given to you by Wind are vague as hell. I also can't figure out how to get any other ending than "fight the sisters but then Brauner shows up and they all run away and the castle crumbles."
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You have to go find the purification spell (I think it's called Sanctuary?) in the desert painting and use it on the sisters to cure them of the vampirism. That unlocks the scenarios that lead to the longer ending of the game. I'm still stuck on the last boss though.
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*spoilers* much?
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You have to go find the purification spell (I think it's called Sanctuary?) in the desert painting and use it on the sisters to cure them of the vampirism. That unlocks the scenarios that lead to the longer ending of the game. I'm still stuck on the last boss though.
See, this is exactly why I can't stand Castlevania 2. The ridiculous feats and leaps of logic you're expected to jump through to get anywhere. I'm pretty sure I scoured the Desert painting when I was in it, and I don't remember getting or seeing any kind of Purification spell. Is it the spell you get from Wind when you collect all the three Nun items??
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No, it's definitely in the desert painting. I think you might need either the Owl morph spell or the high jump thing to get to it, though.
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You know, I was wondering when I'd get the high jump or "flying animal" morph spell in this fucking game. And I never did. How the hell do you get those?? I assume it's Wind's annoying missions.
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No, definitely not, because I have hardly done any of the Wind missions either. I can't remember for the life of me where they are though, you'd have to look up a FAQ.
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I don't mind the style for the DS Castlevania's. I mean, it's a kids system to nintendo. They have to make it appeal more towards kids, yeah? Blood and gore is cool as long as it looks more cartoony. I liked them. They both were fun, I missed the side scrolling.
Had you heard they are finally releasing Rondo stateside this fall, on the PSP? It will be paired up with SotN, which has me all kinds of thrilled. They really need to port more PSX games to the PSP.
Apologies if this was already mentioned.
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Are you kidding me?? The PSP is being kept alive by PSX ports, and ports in general, and little else. Sure, it's as stupid as complaining about how the GBA got a lot of SNES ports, but still...
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I'm really looking forward to the next Castlevania game, Castlevania: Artistic Term of Scary Phrase.
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Are you kidding me?? The PSP is being kept alive by PSX ports, and ports in general, and little else. Sure, it's as stupid as complaining about how the GBA got a lot of SNES ports, but still...
You think so? I don't know, the only PSP games I ever seem to see sold involve a sport or a GTA plot. I know Japan gets an awful lot of PSX ports, Europe has gotten one or two, but beyond Valkyrie Profile, and now Castlevania: SotN with Rondo announced, I haven't seen many others.
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I'm really looking forward to the next Castlevania game, Castlevania: Artistic Term of Scary Phrase.
Awesome.
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Melody of Prolapse?
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Sculpture of Destruction.
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Symphony of Destruction.
And yes, Dave Mustaine will be a playable character.
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Goddammit, I thought of that like, 5 minutes after leaving for work. Fuck you for posting it first.
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OMG FUCK SPOILERS!!!!!
Sanctuary is in Sandy Grave. You have to use the frog morph to get it. I think it's underneath the big rolly ball.
OH FUCK NO MORE SPOILERS!!!!
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wait, was that a joke? Or was that a real spoiler? If that's a real spoiler then I HAVE to get the new game.
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That's a real spoiler. When you get the Frog Morph, you need to return to Sandy Grave (to the Rolling Ball room). Use the Frog Morph to get underneath the ramp to get Sanctuary.
And on another note about the game, I just beat Castlevania: PoR on Level 1 Hard Mode. Praise me if you wish, but I'd rather you didn't. I'm a man just like you all, except I am a gaming god.
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Cool.
Do it with Old Axe Armor.
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BACK TO CASTLEVANIA TITLES
CASTLEVANIA: PIROUETTE OF MALICE
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Castlevania: Crescendo of Despair.
I sort of like that one, actually.
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Castlevania: Portrait Of Solemnity.
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Castlevania: Tone Poem of Horror.
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Castlevania: Tango Of Dusk.
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two-step of misery
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3 is my favorite, by far.
SOTN and the DS ones are pretty good, but I think it's a huge mistake to have experience levelling in a platformer. And in SOTN it drives me crazy trying to search the entire dungeon looking for what to do next with no real clue as to where to look. They tried to be Super Metroid but it didn't work as well.
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Castlevania: C-c-combo Breaker Of Remorse.
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Castlevania: Polka of Darkness.