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Post by RichterB on May 28, 2019 16:12:16 GMT -6
RichterB thanks for the tips and yeah the one I'm referring to is by the same company (Mondo) that's been doing vinyl releases for a bunch of the Castlevania games No prob. I haven't gotten into vinyl, personally--the size of the record compared to a CD trips me up--but I can see its appeal, and I think it's neat that it's being done. (Then again, these days, most people just go for MP3-only...)
...I thought I’d post this here, given the recent conversations. A while back, I did a really rough video experiment to compare Dracula X and Rondo of Blood for roughly 1 ½ levels. I never posted it before, because I never finished it and the video capture didn’t go smoothly overall, but oh well. (The posting compression on the video made it a bit worse, too.) It’s not intended to be comprehensive, though I wish I’d done a bit more, like at least item crashes and such. But regardless, I was basically trying to determine the difference in gameplay flow, screen scene to screen scene, in terms of level design and how the character moves. Like, what is the difference in the Belmont strut, jumping, back flips, etc., because those things are often brought up in the fandom. One thing I found was that Dracula X’s Richter takes more steps in his strut than Rondo Richter, yet both cover the same amount of ground therein. Also, it seems like the level design of Dracula X has more platforming, while Rondo has more of a hallway structure. In addition, the back flip is indeed slower in Dracula X, but still useful and capable of the same functionality as in Rondo (as I show with the back flip/whip combo in both games early on.) Oh, and the daggers appear for longer and with seemingly more detail on screen in Dracula X...
Here are maps for comparison:
By the way, a warning about Dracula X...the Dracula fight is one of the most strategic and challenging in the series...
P.S. I'm realizing some of CVIII: Dracula's Curse's levels are as hard or harder than The Adventure's on Game Boy.  But a lot of it is just getting in the right mindset, I've found. For example, that super-long level with the falling blocks, you just need to stay in one roughly three-block area and match the pattern; you don't need to be moving and jumping all over the place to dodge the falling blocks. By the way...is it officially Castlevania: The Adventure OR The Castlevania Adventure? I think it was supposed to be the latter, but over time, with the WiiWare remake, it's morphed into the former.
Anyway, just a heads up, I've got a lot of stuff I really need to be doing, so I don't know if I'll be posting as long or as often, overall. So if I don't reply right away to stuff, it just means I'm busy. This collection has struck me quite significantly, and it's kind of been overly distracting... 
With that in mind, as promised, I'll say this about Bloodlines to get it out of the way: It's a remarkable game that easily fits into the top tier of Castlevania games. It's a must play, and you really can't understand the whole series' trajectory (or potential trajectory) without it. My previous, brief experiences with it, while telling me it was good, failed to convey just how good. It is a game that can actually rival my years of positive experiences with Dracula X SNES in my personal top three. While before I tied Bloodlines together with SCV4, I think it actually is better understood as a response to Rondo of Blood. It incorporated some of the more excessive, anime-esque abilities and visual eccentricities of Rondo into a more balanced action-platforming experience that would be a compromise between SCV4 and Rondo. (Knowing this, in a sense, you could say that Dracula X, coming afterward, was a further compromise, now between Bloodlines and Rondo.)
I love Bloodlines' eccentric and exotic take on the franchise. It's so cool how you get to travel to iconic and/or mythological sites across Europe, and the clever Mode-7-esque effects are delightful. It's notable that this game has so many diverse castle-type stages built into it. That you get to start at the ruins of Dracula's castle is a nice reversal and wrinkle in and of itself. The game has a really good action flow, and it's amazing how you can connect to basically any ceiling with John's whip. (It may not have been used extensively, but it's used just enough, and it offers the possibility for players to integrate it as much or little as they like.) I haven't played too much with Eric yet, but his extra move set and alternate paths are intriguing. It almost seems to give it more of the SCV4 directional controls. I must say, John's downward whip wasn't very useful, and I think it should have been a diagonal down whip, like in Chronicles/X68000. The jumping diagonal-up whip attack is a nice compromise for those who thought that SCV4's 8 directions were too much.
As an aside, with the E.Bartley fight, I didn't know her floating orbs wouldn't hurt you, so I tried to avoid them at first, making the fight a lot tougher than it actually is. Still, her fight, and the buildup to Dracula, even if there is some reusing of assets in the background, is very cool. I especially like how the music switches to Simon's Theme from SCV4. The Death fight is unique and fun. The switch in subweapons is fascinating, but the boomerang really trumps everything overall, I've found. The use of mini item crashes or the super whip power-up adds extra wrinkles of strategy that I think are brilliant; it's a good compromise between the excess of power of Rondo/Dracula X that can break certain parts of those games. The music is great, and the sound effects, while a little cheesy at times, are all in all charming to me. It is worth noting that the game has a structure reminiscent of later Contra titles by Konami in how it's one set piece after another, with mini-bosses sprinkled in, sometimes one on top of the other. That is enjoyable, but it does make some of the levels feel a little more chopped up and the action a little more segmented, which depending on one's mood and/or tastes, could dock it a few points. But I think it's just balanced enough in straight action-platforming vs. boss encounters that it walks that line effectively overall. I think it's clever how some of the enemies are distributed, though, like Frankenstein's monster in a munitions factory, and some of the boss ideas are really unique--again, the Gear Golem...or the Pillar Defense System thing. Finding the "weak spots" for bosses is something Castlevaia games need to revisit.
I already mentioned the special effects, but some of them are super creative, like the confusing mirror room in the last level. I don't fully get the medusa blast section in the beginning of that last level, though, and the rotating platforms near the end of Stage 5 almost don't work, gameplay-wise. I believe this is the first time the stone Golem had that red-orb heart, something IGA would latch onto in his later games. I'm jumping all over here, but there's a lot to say about this game... It has an effective and attractive atmosphere, though I don't think it's as iconic as what SCV4 brings to the table. I beat SCV4 recently, and the way it builds and builds, especially near the journey's end, is downright epic and haunting. (By the way, that falling stairs section is harder than I recalled, though it functioned just like it did on the SNES.) As another aside, I know there's a dislike for the alternate title The New Generation, but I don't think that was inappropriate to call it that, too. So yeah, two thumbs up for Bloodlines. I'll be returning to it a lot. Right now the painterly intrigue of some of the visuals, the consequential way of finding the right path/requirements to the best ending, and the more traditional flow of some of the level design still give Dracula X SNES (my #3 game) a slight edge on it for me, but they're neck and neck, and I wouldn't even have any issue with someone saying it's their favorite game in the franchise. It's probably a more balanced game than Dracula X, I'll admit. Again, it makes me wish there wasn't so much concern about the Castlevania timeline versus just getting on with creative, engaging adventures. CV64's Reinhardt Schneider and CotM's Nathan Graves and are some of my favorite Belmont-types, and like John Morris or Eric Lecarde, they're not exactly mainline.
P.P.S. I've only read pieces of the bonus ebook so far, as I've mostly been playing the games, but I was really struck by how many good ideas were left on the table, especially with Super Castlevania IV. It looks like some of these concepts were absorbed into Rondo of Blood (burning city, canoe ride) and some were put into Bloodlines (rotating tower you climb), but there's still more left, like the levee bridges. And some of these ideas, like the canoe ride, seemed more involved than what Rondo did with it. Plus, interesting that you originally could wrap the whip around some enemies and toss them aside! The creativity and passion oozing from these documents is amazing. It wasn't about just making "another" Castlevania; it seems each time it was about pushing the limits of innovation and appropriateness for whatever hardware a given game was to come out on. Curiously, though, the Super Castlevania IV document ideas do seem to resonate with Super Ghouls N Ghosts' concepts with the tower and water levels. Also, we learned that the spinning room is actually a mechanized chamber created by Dracula, and not some illusion.
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Post by tav7623 on May 28, 2019 16:56:12 GMT -6
RichterB thanks for the tips and yeah the one I'm referring to is by the same company (Mondo) that's been doing vinyl releases for a bunch of the Castlevania games No prob. I haven't gotten into vinyl, personally--the size of the record compared to a CD trips me up--but I can see its appeal, and I think it's neat that it's being done. (Then again, these days, most people just go for MP3-only...)
...I thought I’d post this here, given the recent conversations. A while back, I did a really rough video experiment to compare Dracula X and Rondo of Blood for roughly 1 ½ levels. I never posted it before, because I never finished it and the video capture didn’t go smoothly overall, but oh well. (The posting compression on the video made it a bit worse, too.) It’s not intended to be comprehensive, though I wish I’d done a bit more, like at least item crashes and such. But regardless, I was basically trying to determine the difference in gameplay flow, screen scene to screen scene, in terms of level design and how the character moves. Like, what is the difference in the Belmont strut, jumping, back flips, etc., because those things are often brought up in the fandom. One thing I found was that Dracula X’s Richter takes more steps in his strut than Rondo Richter, yet both cover the same amount of ground therein. Also, it seems like the level design of Dracula X has more platforming, while Rondo has more of a hallway structure. In addition, the back flip is indeed slower in Dracula X, but still useful and capable of the same functionality as in Rondo (as I show with the back flip/whip combo in both games early on.) Oh, and the daggers appear for longer and with seemingly more detail on screen in Dracula X...
Here are maps for comparison:
By the way, a warning about Dracula X...the Dracula fight is one of the most strategic and challenging in the series...
P.S. I'm realizing some of CVIII: Dracula's Curse's levels are as hard or harder than The Adventure's on Game Boy. But a lot of it is just getting in the right mindset, I've found. For example, that super-long level with the falling blocks, you just need to stay in one roughly three-block area and match the pattern; you don't need to be moving and jumping all over the place to dodge the falling blocks. By the way...is it officially Castlevania: The Adventure OR The Castlevania Adventure? I think it was supposed to be the latter, but over time, with the WiiWare remake, it's morphed into the former.
Anyway, just a heads up, I've got a lot of stuff I really need to be doing, so I don't know if I'll be posting as long or as often, overall. So if I don't reply right away to stuff, it just means I'm busy. This collection has struck me quite significantly, and it's kind of been overly distracting...
With that in mind, as promised, I'll say this about Bloodlines to get it out of the way: It's a remarkable game that easily fits into the top tier of Castlevania games. It's a must play, and you really can't understand the whole series' trajectory (or potential trajectory) without it. My previous, brief experiences with it, while telling me it was good, failed to convey just how good. It is a game that can actually rival my years of positive experiences with Dracula X SNES in my personal top three. While before I tied Bloodlines together with SCV4, I think it actually is better understood as a response to Rondo of Blood. It incorporated some of the more excessive, anime-esque abilities and visual eccentricities of Rondo into a more balanced action-platforming experience that would be a compromise between SCV4 and Rondo. (Knowing this, in a sense, you could say that Dracula X, coming afterward, was a further compromise, now between Bloodlines and Rondo.)
I love Bloodlines' eccentric and exotic take on the franchise. It's so cool how you get to travel to iconic and/or mythological sites across Europe, and the clever Mode-7-esque effects are delightful. It's notable that this game has so many diverse castle-type stages built into it. That you get to start at the ruins of Dracula's castle is a nice reversal and wrinkle in and of itself. The game has a really good action flow, and it's amazing how you can connect to basically any ceiling with John's whip. (It may not have been used extensively, but it's used just enough, and it offers the possibility for players to integrate it as much or little as they like.) I haven't played too much with Eric yet, but his extra move set and alternate paths are intriguing. It almost seems to give it more of the SCV4 directional controls. I must say, John's downward whip wasn't very useful, and I think it should have been a diagonal down whip, like in Chronicles/X68000. The jumping diagonal-up whip attack is a nice compromise for those who thought that SCV4's 8 directions were too much.
As an aside, with the E.Bartley fight, I didn't know her floating orbs wouldn't hurt you, so I tried to avoid them at first, making the fight a lot tougher than it actually is. Still, her fight, and the buildup to Dracula, even if there is some reusing of assets in the background, is very cool. I especially like how the music switches the Simon's Theme from SCV4. The Death fight is unique and fun. The switch in subweapons is fascinating, but the boomerang really trumps everything overall, I've found. The use of mini item crashes or the super whip power-up adds extra wrinkles of strategy that I think are brilliant; it's a good compromise between the excess power of Rondo/Dracula X that can break certain parts of those games. The music is great, and the sound effects, while a little cheesy at times, are all in all charming to me. It is worth noting that the game has a structure reminiscent of later Contra titles by Konami in how it's one set piece after another, with mini-bosses sprinkled in, sometimes one on top of the other. That is enjoyable, but it does make some of the levels feel a little more chopped up and the action a little more segmented, which depending on one's mood and/or tastes, could dock it a few points. But I think it's just balanced enough in straight action-platforming vs. boss encounters that it walks that line effectively overall. I think it's clever how some of the enemies are distributed, though, like Frankenstein's monster in a munitions factory, and some of the boss ideas are really unique--again, the Gear Golem...or the Pillar Defense System thing. Finding the "weak spots" for bosses is something Castlevaia games need to revisit.
I already mentioned the special effects, but some of them are super creative, like the mirror room in the last level. I don't fully get the medusa blast section in the beginning of that last level, though, and the rotating platforms near the end of Stage 5 almost don't work, gameplay-wise. I believe this is the first time the stone Golem had that red-orb heart, something IGA would latch onto in his later games. I'm jumping all over here, but there's a lot to say about this game. It has an effective and attractive atmosphere, though I don't think it's as iconic as what SCV4 brings to the table. I beat SCV4 recently, and the way it builds and builds, especially near the journey's end, is downright epic and haunting. (By the way, that falling stairs section is harder than I recalled, though it functioned just like it did on the SNES.) As an aside, I know there's a dislike for the alternate title The New Generation, but I don't think that was inappropriate to call it that, too. So yeah, two thumbs up for Bloodlines. I'll be returning to it a lot. Right now the painterly intrigue of some of the visuals, the consequential way of finding the right path/requirements to the best ending, and the more traditional flow of some of the level design still give Dracula X SNES a slight edge on it for me, but they're neck and neck, and I wouldn't have any issue with someone saying it's their favorite game in the franchise. Again, it makes me wish there wasn't so much concern about the Castlevania timeline versus just getting on with creative, engaging adventures. CV64's Reinhardt Schneider and CotM's Nathan Graves and are some of my favorite Belmont-types, and like John Morris or Eric Lecarde, they're not exactly mainline.
P.P.S. I've only read pieces of the bonus ebook so far, as I've mostly been playing the games, but I was really struck by how many good ideas were left on the table, especially with Super Castlevania IV. It looks like some of these concepts were absorbed into Rondo of Blood (burning city, canoe ride) and some were put into Bloodlines (rotating tower you climb), but there's still more left, like the levee bridges. And some of these ideas, like the canoe ride, seemed more involved than what Rondo did with it. Plus, interesting that you originally could wrap the whip around some enemies and toss them aside! The creativity and passion oozing from these documents is amazing. It wasn't about just making "another" Castlevania; it seems each time it was about pushing the limits of innovation and appropriateness for whatever hardware a given game was to come out on. Curiously, though, the Super Castlevania IV document ideas do seem to resonate with Super Ghouls N Ghosts' concepts with the tower and water levels. Also, we learned that the spinning room is actually a mechanized chamber created by Dracula, and not some illusion.
A few years ago I got into vinyl mostly for the retro video game soundtracks (one of my first record purchases was the soundtrack for Battletoads) and then strayed into horror movie soundtracks (my collection is currently at about 60 records) and at first it tripped me up, but I've now gotten used to it (I posted a brief video of the Dracula X soundtrack being played under the "what are you listening to now" thread, but the quality kinda sucks).
I always though it was Castlevania Adventure for the GB games and Castlevania: The Adventure for the WiiWare game.
I knew going in the CV III was gonna be hard (it's why I went for the Trevor only run right off the bat), but I was surprised at how effective Alucard's powered up attack and Sypha's fire spell were against bosses ( the last couple of times I'd beaten the game I went with Trevor & Grant and hadn't mess with either Sypha or Alucard) especially against Dracula.
In regards to the video comparison one thing I noticed/just realized while watching it is that the part of the town at the beginning of Rondo is almost a dead ringer for the one of the towns found in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
I've always had a soft spot for Bloodlines (it was the first Castlevania game I played & beat) even after playing through both SC IV and Rondo of Blood and a big reason for that was the art style (I first saw some of the art for the game in issue 17 of Sega Visions magazine and used to pour over the article on the game all the time...until I lost the magazine that is), music, and the (Imo) memorable opening sequence in stage one that culminates with the undead wolf/warg mid stage boss fight (when I first played through the opening sequence of SotN it instantly reminded me of that sequence in Bloodlines)
In regards to the artbook/ebook I've also just browsed it, but I do intend to give it a full read down the road.
P.S. I finally got past the Bat boss (but I unfortunately had to "cheese" the save state feature in order to do it cause I was getting super pissed about that long hallway with the spear guys, I was finally able to make it through that hallway with out losing any health), I then made it through the stage 3 area with all the columns without falling (I recall hearing that in this game falling down in that area was one of the ways to get the bad ending) and found a key right before the boss. I managed to hold onto it far enough into stage 4 (thanks to "cheesing" the save states:P) to save Maria, I then used the key to exit to Stage 5 which is where I'm currently at in the game.
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Post by RichterB on May 28, 2019 23:19:01 GMT -6
I always though it was Castlevania Adventure for the GB games and Castlevania: The Adventure for the WiiWare game.
I knew going in the CV III was gonna be hard (it's why I went for the Trevor only run right off the bat), but I was surprised at how effective Alucard's powered up attack and Sypha's fire spell were against bosses ( the last couple of times I'd beaten the game I went with Trevor & Grant and hadn't mess with either Sypha or Alucard) especially against Dracula.
In regards to the video comparison one thing I noticed/just realized while watching it is that the part of the town at the beginning of Rondo is almost a dead ringer for the one of the towns found in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
I've always had a soft spot for Bloodlines (it was the first Castlevania game I played & beat) even after playing through both SC IV and Rondo of Blood and a big reason for that was the art style (I first saw some of the art for the game in issue 17 of Sega Visions magazine and used to pour over the article on the game all the time...until I lost the magazine that is), music, and the (Imo) memorable opening sequence in stage one that culminates with the undead wolf/warg mid stage boss fight (when I first played through the opening sequence of SotN it instantly reminded me of that sequence in Bloodlines)
In regards to the artbook/ebook I've also just browsed it, but I do intend to give it a full read down the road.
P.S. I finally got past the Bat boss (but I unfortunately had to "cheese" the save state feature in order to do it cause I was getting super pissed about that long hallway with the spear guys, I was finally able to make it through that hallway with out losing any health), I then made it through the stage 3 area with all the columns without falling (I recall hearing that in this game falling down in that area was one of the ways to get the bad ending) and found a key right before the boss. I managed to hold onto it far enough into stage 4 (thanks to "cheesing" the save states:P) to save Maria, I then used the key to exit to Stage 5 which is where I'm currently at in the game.
-The spear guys can be a pain, but that's where various strategies with subweapons, item crashes, and back flips come into play. It's a learning curve, for sure. (By the way, there is hidden meat right before the bat boss!) Over time, this has become my sort of go-to, pick-up-and-play Castlevania game, so I can vouch that once learned, it really does flow without constant deaths of frustration. (Not to say it doesn't happen, but it's not any more so than other entries, really.)
-I've beaten CVIII on the NES with all character combinations in the past, just not on this collection yet. I've never had much luck with Alucard offensively. Interesting. Maybe I need to experiment more...
-Rondo's town is definitely based on Simon's Quest's towns. I think the sign in town even matches the first town from Simon's Quest. I believe Dracula X is referencing Castlevania III's town. (By the way, you likely knew this, but the Cerberus boss for stage 1 was all-new for Dracula X.)
-I totally understand the importance of individual experiences with the franchise, and the awesomeness of old game magazines. My general exposure to Castlevania was approximately 1-4, Dracula X, Legends, The Adventure, Castlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness, Circle of the Moon, Symphony of the Night (I'd only played a little bit of it at a friend's before Circle of the Moon came out), and then the rest is pretty much in chronological order, with a few exceptions: Belmont's Revenge I got around the time of Lament of Innocence or just after, I believe. And also, that's about the time I first played Bloodlines for any decent duration (beyond a few minutes), but this collection is the first time I've really been able to sink my teeth into it at length. Rondo I first experienced hands-on via the PSP release, way after its heyday. Some of these games I actually experienced more intensively later than earlier--like, Castlevania 1, I really only seriously played it starting in about 2004, despite being exposed to it early on; same with #2 and #3, which I seriously dug into sometime in the mid-to-late '90s, despite playing them a decent amount around their original releases--but that was my general exposure to the series overall. Oh, I forgot Chronicles/X68000, which I first experienced late, like after Lords of Shadow 1 and Adventure Rebirth, I think. Needless to say, the period of games from '87-'99 were the most impactful for me, followed by the period of '01-'03. But after that...Castlevania just wasn't the same for me, all in all.
-Congrats on getting past the pillars (that is indeed the right thing to do) and getting to Stage 5 (Atlantis-type), which might be my favorite level in the game, the way the music and visuals and enemies mesh together. (It is completely unique to Dracula X, with no real parallel in Rondo. Rondo decided to do a pirate ship level instead.) It's impressive you were able to do the pillars in one go. (People complain about that section, but there is a segment like it in Rondo in the chapel area, IIRC, where you can get tossed onto an alternate path, just the stakes are a little different, obviously.) Though I must say, there are still interesting things to see on the paths that give you the worse endings. And before I knew about such things, I was just happy to keep advancing through the game and see new things. I actually thought, the first time playing, that I had found a good secret path by being knocked off those pillars. Haha.
-As you continue on, especially after stage 5, how would you describe this game? It's often described as a botched port, but I don't think that was really the intention. They wouldn't have changed levels and redone all the backgrounds and changed the art direction of characters like Maria and Annette if it was supposed to simply be a port, would they? But what do you feel? Is it a new game that just happens to have similarities and some assets from Rondo, or just a port, a remake, or what?
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Post by tav7623 on May 29, 2019 8:24:21 GMT -6
RichterB thanks, now having beaten the game with the good ending (thank god for save states and to quote the AVGN " see I can cheat too you rotten bastard" ....but seriously I want to murder the asshole who thought it was a good idea to have the final boss fight over open pits) I feel that Dracula X is more of a remake of Rondo than just a straight port and the reason I feel that way is because 1. it uses Richter's sprite from Rondo, 2. it has a few of the bosses and enemies from Rondo but they are in different locations and some require a slightly different strategy, 3. it has some alternate stages though not as many as in Rondo, 4. it requires you to find a key to rescue people and depending on who/how many you save you get different endings, 5. they share some music, but there are also a few different songs between the two, 5. the opening intro "cinematic" is different between the 2 (I also find the artwork in Dracula X's intro cinematic to be kinda garish, but that may have to do with the fact that I was watching it/playing the game on a small screen so it may look better on a bigger screen).
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Post by RichterB on May 29, 2019 14:31:42 GMT -6
RichterB thanks, now having beaten the game with the good ending (thank god for save states and to quote the AVGN " see I can cheat too you rotten bastard" ....but seriously I want to murder the asshole who thought it was a good idea to have the final boss fight over open pits) I feel that Dracula X is more of a remake of Rondo than just a straight port and the reason I feel that way is because 1. it uses Richter's sprite from Rondo, 2. it has a few of the bosses and enemies from Rondo but they are in different locations and some require a slightly different strategy, 3. it has some alternate stages though not as many as in Rondo, 4. it requires you to find a key to rescue people and depending on who/how many you save you get different endings, 5. they share some music, but there are also a few different songs between the two, 5. the opening intro "cinematic" is different between the 2 (I also find the artwork in Dracula X's intro cinematic to be kinda garish, but that may have to do with the fact that I was watching it/playing the game on a small screen so it may look better on a bigger screen). -Seems a fair assessment. I think I agree. Kinda wish people would stop calling it a port, as it's confusing. Remake or reimagining makes sense. On top of everything else, Maria and Annette are sisters in this game's story, which they weren't in Rondo. Dracula X Chronicles on PSP reincorporated the Atlantis-type stage idea, Annette's blonde-haired/green-dress look, Maria's more face-framing hair, and the in-game consequences to not rescuing Annette from Dracula X into Rondo. (You have to fight a cursed Annette as a boss, though the two fights are different.) -The pillar fight is totally crazy...but I kind of like how different and challenging it is. It does have some shades of the Dracula fight in The Adventure, Belmont's Revenge, and CVIII in terms of the need to platform and not fall into hazards. (The strategy piece of having meat on hand in the far-left corner makes for some extra thinking, too.) Also, I think Dracula's new final form is interesting-looking. But yeah, it can be extremely frustrating.
-The intro cinema is semi-garish. It's meant to exude the look of the new art direction for this game. (SEE BELOW) But the sprites don't do the best job conveying it. Still, I like that it tried something different, and some parts of it are better than others.
-Did you find the clock tower background sprites impressive? I think the little moving parts there are amazing.
-The Atlantis song remix of the pirate ship song sounds a lot better to me in Dracula X, conveying the sounds of sparkling water with its almost xylophone sounds, and the way the water skulls and flowing-water backgrounds mix together is really attractive, I feel.
-There's still some unique stages and bosses to see on the alternate paths, if you want. (The all-new necromancer is very cool.) -For the record, the stopwatch subweapon has been redesigned in this game, and its item crash is a really cool shield now.
-It's ironic, but my affinity for Richter comes from this game rather than Rondo of Blood. 
-Congrats on clearing it! (But will it make a future collection, or be skipped over, or simply have Rondo substitute exclusively for it?)
-EDIT: I don't expect you liked it as much as Bloodlines or SCV4, but how about Chronicles/X68000? And do you feel it could grow on you at all with time or that it left any impression in relation to other games in the franchise?
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Post by tav7623 on May 29, 2019 19:02:20 GMT -6
RichterB thanks I'm currently going through it a second time (to see some of the stuff I missed my first time through), but this time I'm severely limiting my save state usage to only when I am about to shut the game off/turn off the system. At the moment I'm currently on track for the bad ending as I missed rescuing both Maria & Annette (I almost made it through the pillar section in stage 3 then I got hit by a Medusa Head while trying to correctly position myself for the Bone Pillar enemies, but I did get to see that Necromancer boss you were talking about, he kind of looks like he was suppose to be the Dark Priest Shaft) and am currently back at the beginning of Stage 6 (I got to the evil/possessed Annette boss fight that replaces the boss fight with Death only to lose my last life and use a continue) - Yeah I definitely enjoyed both Super Castlevania IV & Bloodlines more than I did Dracula X, but it's not a horrible game overall it just has it's own unique form of BS......that really pisses me off at times ( ) due to it's cheapness (one thing I forgot to mention in my post was also how pissed I was to see that the Bone Pillars in this game had arcing fireball attacks, which led to a few cheap hits) and I feel that a big reason why I enjoy them more has to do with when I first played them as well as the fact that I played the original game (Rondo of Blood) before playing this game. - Yeah I found out the hard way that they had changed the way stopwatch worked, I managed to pick it up after hitting a candle before beginning to traverse a series of platforms over open pits when saw some flying enemies coming at me so I hit the button to use the stopwatch (only I hit the Item Crash button by mistake) right before I started my jump. Well about halfway through my jump animation I realized that the enemies hadn't stopped in place like they were suppose to and that there was a large circle of what looked like mirrors forming/circling and then slowly closing in on Richter, before they could reach me an enemy hit me and knocked me into the damn pit. - I actually do enjoy Chronicles/X68000 as it has a soft spot in my heart since it was the first post SotN Castlevania game I played (I actually got lucky and snagged the only copy my local EB Games....this was before they got bought out by Gamestop and turned the store into a Gamestop.....had and I still have that copy), hell I'll occasionally pop it into my PS2/PS3 from time to time when I'm in the mood. Though I will say playing Arranged mode feels kinda weird when you first boot it up because of Simon's pink hair. As for Dracula X the jury is still out, it might be able to grow on me, but I have no idea if it will once I finish it for the second time though I it will probably go into the rotation of 3DS "filler" games (i.e. games I play in small intervals to help kill some time/ fill time between waiting periods, personal example include games such as Tetris, Castlevania, Streets of Rage 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, Revenge of the Gator, Shantae Risky's Revenge, Angry Birds) 
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Post by hyugakojiro on May 29, 2019 19:28:16 GMT -6
RichterB Had some more time to play Dracula X and I'm finally back to the point that I can complete a no continue run without a sweat. Agree that it's not a good point of view to write this game off as a bad port of Rondo by any stretch of the imagination. People doing so are missing out because as much as the game has in common with Rondo it also has at least as much that sets it apart if not more. Anyways took me some time to "git gud" again but it was worth it. This game would have felt right at home on the CV collection; it was playing the collection that made me want to play this game again. Like SCV4 there's a lot of focus on platforming with little room for mistakes and although its not quite as beautiful it makes up for it with its grim art design and higher level of challenge. Also the art work you posted is much appreciated  There's not a lot of art available for the game but the few pieces we do have are excellent. tav7623 Congratulations on getting the good ending. It takes a lot of work to get there. Yeah the Dracula battle is insane but its also very memorable in its own way. Don't want to spoil too much about it but once you spend more time with it you'll find lots of ways to tip the scale to your advantage. One thing I'll mention though is how indispensable the axe sub-weapon is for that fight. Keep in mind that you can get in at least 2-3 consecutive axe hits per close proximity teleport, just time each axe throw about half a second apart. This is also very helpful for Dracula's final form.
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Post by tav7623 on May 29, 2019 20:02:33 GMT -6
hyugakojiro Thanks, but I don't feel too hot about it since I only ended up getting that ending cause I cheesed the 3DS's save state feature for VC games because of how frustrated I was getting with certain aspects/parts of the game. Still I am currently in the middle of a second playthrough (I'm on Stage 6), though this time I'm doing it without cheesing the save state feature (I'm only using it when I am gonna take a break from playing/turn off my 3DS, which has so far only been once) and wasn't able to save Maria & Annette (a Medusa Head knocked me off the pillars while I was trying to position myself to take on the Bone Pillar enemies) this time, but I am seeing parts of the game I didn't see last time (and I kinda prefer that path over the one I ended up taking) so there's that. My strategy for the Dracula fight during my first playthrough was fuck chasing after him and risk accidentally jumping into/getting knocked back into the pits, wait for him to come to me, do my damnedest to memorize his pattern so I can dodge his attacks without taking a hit, if it looked like I was about to get hit then if possible quickly use the cross's item crash to avoid the attack since you are essentially invincible when using it, and if possible try to save the roast for when I had the health for his second form down to at least half.
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Post by hyugakojiro on May 30, 2019 16:14:17 GMT -6
hyugakojiro Thanks, but I don't feel too hot about it since I only ended up getting that ending cause I cheesed the 3DS's save state feature for VC games because of how frustrated I was getting with certain aspects/parts of the game. Still I am currently in the middle of a second playthrough (I'm on Stage 6), though this time I'm doing it without cheesing the save state feature (I'm only using it when I am gonna take a break from playing/turn off my 3DS, which has so far only been once) and wasn't able to save Maria & Annette (a Medusa Head knocked me off the pillars while I was trying to position myself to take on the Bone Pillar enemies) this time, but I am seeing parts of the game I didn't see last time (and I kinda prefer that path over the one I ended up taking) so there's that. My strategy for the Dracula fight during my first playthrough was fuck chasing after him and risk accidentally jumping into/getting knocked back into the pits, wait for him to come to me, do my damnedest to memorize his pattern so I can dodge his attacks without taking a hit, if it looked like I was about to get hit then if possible quickly use the cross's item crash to avoid the attack since you are essentially invincible when using it, and if possible try to save the roast for when I had the health for his second form down to at least half. You're definitely on the right track for Dracula's first phase. Don't chase him, be patient and let him come to you on your terms. Also keep in mind that if you take projectile damage while crouching there won't be any knock back. For the second phase strategic positioning again is key like RichterB said. If you're throwing the axes consecutively you shouldn't have to worry about the descending fireballs attacks (as they'll cancel them out) but nevertheless you want to position yourself to withstand a hit before committing to attacking. Also key for the second phase is avoiding physical contact when he moves in on you. If you're good with the axes and positioning though this phase should be over very quickly.
Feel your pain on navigating those pillars with the Medusa heads in stage 3. More times than not they still get me too. It's just a matter of staying calm and collected and having a little luck.
Also don't sweat the save states. The game creators knew they made a hard game which is why they have a password system in place. Once you're comfortable with the game you won't need them anymore and can play it on your desired terms.
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Post by RichterB on Jun 2, 2019 14:48:14 GMT -6
Couple of quick notes... -The Dracula X dungeon/mine stage where Maria is has its own boss, too, if you don't skip out the door to the Atlantis stage; that's easy to overlook sometimes. -I don't know that I've ever beaten the Dracula X Dracula without axes. That being said, I can see how the stopwatch item crash might be able to finish off his second form if used properly, and the cross boomerang surely could do the job if one is careful. -For all this talk about the challenge of Dracula X...I have to say that the second to last level in Dracula's Curse is plenty dastardly. I've trained up enough to get through all of it with ease and no lives lost, except the last section with the moving water that has both crows/ravens and mermen assaulting you. And that is the last checkpoint before a really demanding Doppelgänger fight. Granted, I discovered multiple ways to neutralize that boss with minimal life over the years-- the one I usually use is morphing between characters constantly and getting in one strike between transformations --but this time around I decided to try to figure out how to fight him fair and square, and boy does that take patience and skill (and a bit of luck). But that will help for a Trevor-only run. -I cleared Dracula's Curse with Alucard and Trevor on the longest route. Aside from a few bat transformation cheats, I didn't find Alucard very useful at all. Any advantage he gives you in range with his attacks is largely sacrificing power. Like, I saw I could easily hit Dracula's third form with him, but it did so little damage, it wasn't worth my time. So, in a sense, I basically cleared it with Trevor. (And now better learned various bosses' attack patterns with just Trevor, like Frankestein's monster.) And to that point, over the years, I've realized that the extra characters are kind of like crutches to learning a game that you really only need Trevor to clear. (I think Sypha's offensive power might be the most useful overall, followed by Grant's agility, and then lastly Alucard's transformation power, but I can see how you might get really skilled with any of these to exploit the game's levels, at least.) -Dracula and his last level are not as hard as I remembered. The North American version of the game moves the checkpoint from the last boss to two or so rooms beforehand, which is an annoyance, but those sections are easier to overcome without losing life than the one in the stage before it with the Doppelgänger. The way the stage begins earlier offers you an extra life and all the tools you need, like the stopwatch, to simplify it. Moreover, the last boss fight itself looks more intimidating than it is. The first form is just about setting up the flame pillars right; the second form is about keeping your distance and either redirecting Dracula upward (which seems to happen when you take out his lower portions, unless I'm just imagining it) or timing your steps beneath his drip attack; and the final form, much like Dracula X, just comes down to watching your footing and spamming axes. The beams only target where you were when they fire and the platforms are entirely optional, I discovered, I think, for the first time. I did fall in a hole once when he had one piece of life left, though, just like a Dracula X moment...ugh. -Second quest/hard mode on Dracula's Curse is pretty intense. Never played it much before. I wanted to go get Sypha and do a run with her on this mode, as I had Alucard. But I learned when I got to her that you can't change helpers!!! Makes sense for if you ran into Alucard with Alucard...but I'm kind of disappointed. I think I might leave off hard mode until another time, as while it's interesting to have Alucard's abilities in levels you usually don't (to get secret bonus score items, no less), it's not really ideal when you're learning this new mode, I feel. The new skull enemies make the medusa heads look easy. -Maybe I'm just learning the game, but Eric Lecarde seems to make Bloodlines easier. I do miss the jump-diagonal attack of John's, which throws me off from time to time, however. I had to stop at level 5, but I haven't given up a continue yet. -Level 4 has a secret spot with an extra life that I could not reach with Eric. I was shocked about that. -It may just be me, but I thought I noticed some extra bat enemies in stage 3 for Eric. -Playing Stage 4, at the end of the stage, there is what looks like a platform and a hole in the ceiling that Eric can reach, but he can't. I have a new theory: Originally, Stage 4 had a branching path, and that was the outlet at the end of the stage. I think it could have occurred somewhere around the piston section. But either Eric or John--likely Eric--would have the two sections shown in the beta version of the game with the blimp and the smelting area. (Then again, the blimp area's layout looks like a section in the completed game with the motorized tracks, so hard to say.) EDIT: Oh, actually they are listed as 4-5 and 4-7, so that tells us the intended locations...It's just a matter of if they were alternate paths, or just one path and cut. See first two images on the left here: tcrf.net/Castlevania:_Bloodlines-Belmont's Revenge's Rock Castle is basically an homage to The Adventure as a whole. Didn't realize that before. It has two of the hidden area tricks from The Adventure (false wall and false ceiling), it has the bats and molemen from The Adventure Stage 2, it has a boss that recalls Stage 1's boss in its first lumbering form with wide attacks, it has the shooting spike platforms from The Adventure Stage 4, it has the destructible screw pillars from Stage 3...the pill bug enemies, etc. -P.S. Still wish Dracula X SNES was on this; would have made it perfect for me, since then it would have all the Castlevania games I like to return to the most. |
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tav7623
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Post by tav7623 on Jun 2, 2019 21:11:53 GMT -6
RichterB - Totally agree about the next to last stage in CV III - Yeah Eric is suppose to be the game's easy mode/beginners mode due to the spear (especially the fully upgraded flaming blue spear) has a longer reach than even a fully upgraded whip plus you can twirl it around to get enemies coming in at you awhile John is suppose to be the normal mode -Congrats on getting that far without surrendering a continue - to my knowledge there's only 1 area (2 rooms) in stage 3 that has bats (right before the rotating platforms that lead up to the stage's final boss) and they continuously respawn if you end up hanging around longer than necessary -Yeah there are a few like that (just like there are some areas you can't go with one character that you can go with the other) and stage 4 (which if I remember correctly is the Munitions Factory in Germany) actually has 2 hidden 1ups, 1 for each character (for Eric's see 22:26 mark in the video , John's is in the next room and instead of going across the top of the conveyor betls you have to whip swing across the bottom of them to get to reach the wall you need to destroy to get it) - Another thing that may surprise you about Bloodlines is that the classic Castlevania song "Bloody Tears" is in the game, go to options set BGM to 05 and SE to 073, exit, start the game, upon fully upgrading your weapon the song will start playing and will keep playing as long as you don't get hit.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2019 9:13:56 GMT -6
I hope people do not mind me asking this question here, but do you think it would be possible for nintendo to put Castlevania OOE, and POR on the Nintendo Switch? For reasons I would rather not discuss, I no longer have the ability to play portable games on those small screens, so I would love to be able to play them on my 55 inch tv.
It would be so awesome if they were.
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Brainiac
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Post by Brainiac on Jun 3, 2019 9:26:39 GMT -6
Can it be done? Certainly.
Does anyone here have the rights to do so? Noooooooooope.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2019 9:28:43 GMT -6
I did not mean us, I mean nintendo themselves putting them up on the switch eshop or on a dual cart.
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Brainiac
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Post by Brainiac on Jun 3, 2019 10:08:47 GMT -6
It's not on Nintendo, either. Konami has to decide to publish. They own the rights.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2019 10:42:34 GMT -6
Well, then I really hope they do in the future. They are with this set, so it would be really nice, imo.
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roguedragon05
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Post by roguedragon05 on Jun 3, 2019 15:21:33 GMT -6
@bloodymiri
I would think it's both Nintendo and Konami's call as I would assume that Nintendo has some sort of exclusivity on those games., (not that I know for sure) but the main issues with putting the DS games on the Switch (or anything else) are the touch screen aspects. In Dawn of Sorrow you have the boss sigils, in Portrait of Ruin you have the Sister's Mode. these parts would have to be taken out or reworked somehow. Can it TECHNICALLY be done? Sure, but is it of enough financial gain motivation for them to do it? I don't think quite yet no.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2019 15:36:07 GMT -6
Darn. Something happened to me a while ago, and I can no longer view small things, so I can't play these great games anymore, sadly.
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Post by RichterB on Jun 3, 2019 15:37:36 GMT -6
tav7623 : -That is so weird about the 1up you showed me with Eric. That's the 1up I get with John by swinging in from the left side, but I could not make the right-to-left jump with Eric. I tried it like two or three times, and so I just assumed it was for John only. -I completed my Eric run on Normal with default lives. Easy to get a little overzealous with Eric, and I ended up in almost the same situation as John--basically, last life, last continue, but beat it. I had a nice break fighting Dracula, because in his third form, during the fire phase, I accidentally found a spot where he can't touch you but you can hurt him with a vertical spear stab in the left-hand corner. -I think you cleared up my confusion about the bats. That was the section I was talking about. I didn't remember them coming from both sides with John. And the revelation of Vampire Killer song being in there is really cool and unexpected. I might have to try that for an Expert run in the future! -You know, I didn't find Eric's unique sections as interesting overall as John's. Probably the laser eyes part in Stage 5 was the most notable. I do think, however, that I messed up the Pisa section, because there were a lot of nooks and crannies there with candles. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hidden 1up in there. -Cleared Belmont's Revenge after that. I had two castles beat and was just going to do two more...but then I got hooked and just decided to finish it. I have to say, I loved this game when I first found it, but began to take it for granted in recent years. Playing it all again, it's really pretty impressive. The four fantasy-style castles are really neat, but what seals it is how it then has a traditional castle to close things off that builds in tension/eeriness to the Soleil and Dracula fights. It really rounds out the experience. I don't like remake ideas much, but this game in a Super Castlevania IV layout/gameplay format would be amazing. Anyway, I had not used a single continue until the Soleil fight...where I lost, like, six lives figuring out his pattern and coming up short one hit many times. I couldn't believe it. I finally figured out the pattern and he wasn't so bad, though. But the "smoke-and-mirrors" the designers put in in terms of how complex his pattern "looks" makes him a very deceptive guy to beat. Lore-wise, I wonder what it means that there are two whips there, one for Soleil and one for Chris. Did one of them become the Hunter's Whip from Circle of the Moon? Makes me think Soleil should have gotten his own game (where you could use his unique dagger subweapon!)
-By the way, the Dracula fight was harder than I remembered. You basically have to have at least 90% of his pattern memorized to even stand a chance. At least they start you right outside the fight, though, because that took a ton of continues to figure out again. @bloodymiri : -There's probably a 50-75% chance that you will eventually get those games on Switch. Konami is in charge in terms of getting games ported, and they've sent out mixed messages over the last few months regarding whether or not the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a "first" collection or the only collection. Regardless of those semantics, considering they have stressed it as a "origins" collection, I do think there will be at least one more collection. According to this source, the collection that was released made it into the top 3 for sales on the Nintendo eShop, so that's a good sign. Konami is going to want to see some good return/interest on games they release, since they've shifted their business focus in recent years. The question is, how will a future collection be broken down? This collection was largely the classic-style games, pre-Metroidvania, with the exception being the important hybrid/proto-Metroidvania, Simon's Quest (IGA has said without it, his games probably wouldn't have gotten company support). However, the current collection didn't finish up the classic era of Castlevania, because it was missing Vampire Killer (MSX2), Chronicles (Sharp X68000), Dracula X (SNES), Legends (GB), and Rondo of Blood (PCE). As a further monkey wrench, it threw in the oddball spinoff, Kid Dracula in this collection instead of some of the aforementioned titles, and if that's the case, the Kid Dracula for Game Boy is still MIA, too, and available for a collection going forward. And if you want to get real technical, the PSP 2.5D DXC remake of Rondo of Blood and the highly-sought-after WiiWare game The Adventure ReBirth were also left off. That makes for a total of eight classic-style Castlevanias available for a future collection... Now, Sony did some kind of special deal where they exclusively got to release a Rondo of Blood/Symphony of the Night two-pack for PS4 last October, so it has to be asked if that will prevent either one or both of those games from appearing on a future collection. (Considering they've been on multiple consoles before, that seems unlikely, but it could have been a timed exclusivity thing.) If we assume those games are available to port to Switch and other platforms, then the scenarios are as follows: METROIDVANIA COLLECTIONRondo of Blood (technically not a Metroidvania, but it is a transition title), Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia ORIGINS CONTINUED COLLECTIONVampire Killer (MSX2), Chronicles (Sharp X68000), Dracula X (SNES), Legends (GB), Rondo of Blood (PCE) Kid Dracula (GB), DXC Rondo of Blood (PSP), The Adventure ReBirth (WiiWare) MIXED COLLECTIONDracula X (SNES), Legends (GB), Rondo of Blood (PCE), Chronicles (Sharp X68000), Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow 3D COLLECTIONCastlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness, Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, Judgment REBIRTH COLLECTION ( a mix of all the WiiWare Konami/M2 games) Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth, Contra ReBirth, Gradius ReBirth ...There are even oddballs like Harmony of Despair and Order of Shadows to consider...and with the decisions Konami made so far, it's anyone's guess. I mean, they put Haunted Castle, a unique Castlevania arcade game onto their Arcade Collection, put the previously unlocalized NES Kid Dracula on the Castlevania Collection, and for the Contra Collection (a Konami series once synonymous with Castlevania), they somewhat sadly put only six unique titles and a whole bunch of regional variants with changed pixel art, cut scenes, and such. So, of course, a future Castlevania collection could be some logical mixture of any of the above. There even could be more than one more collection, as it wouldn't make sense to jump to a 3D-only collection right now. The most obvious/logical route is to center in on the Metroidvanias next, even though I'll be sad they would leaving behind some enjoyable classic-style games. That said, I never got around to Order of Ecclesia, so I, too, hope they'll release that in a future collection. This "first" collection has been great, though, and I'd still recommend Super Castlevania IV, Bloodlines (which is Portrait of Ruin's prequel), and Dracula's Curse (the game Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is based on) to newcomers, for starters. (It kind of pains me that these entries are sometimes treated as less "Castlevania" than the later entries. It'd be like saying that Super Mario World and A Link to the Past are not good Mario and Zelda games.) DS games can definitely be ported to home consoles. The Nintendo Wii U proved that with various eShop DS games (though none of them Castlevanias). However, considering the Switch doesn't have the dual screen option of the Wii U, I imagine there will have to be more gerrymandering with the code to make it function properly. (Wii U had several different settings that allowed the game to be played in different configurations on the TV or Game Pad). That's one reason why the GBA and DS games might theoretically end up split apart from one another, given what current consoles can do. I don't think Nintendo can fully stop Konami, though, considering that the Castlevania GB, NES, and SNES games are now on all platforms, which I would have thought wouldn't have happened. (I don't see why GBA and DS would be different.) Bottom line, it's all anyone's guess, but I wanted to give you a full picture of what's involved in the decision-making process. There's a decent chance it will happen, and I would guess happen within 12 months, but nothing's for sure. The demand is there, though, which helps.
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Post by roguedragon05 on Jun 3, 2019 15:40:37 GMT -6
@bloodymiri
Well I know that you can hook up DS and 3DS to your TV and show them on the screen, I don't know exactly how but it's easy enough to google it, hope that helps.
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But a lot of it is just getting in the right mindset, I've found. For example, that super-long level with the falling blocks, you just need to stay in one roughly three-block area and match the pattern; you don't need to be moving and jumping all over the place to dodge the falling blocks. By the way...is it officially Castlevania: The Adventure OR The Castlevania Adventure? I think it was supposed to be the latter, but over time, with the WiiWare remake, it's morphed into the former.
There's not a lot of art available for the game but the few pieces we do have are excellent.
