My quest to beat Castlevania

[toptenmaterial]

And yeah, Austin, what the hell? HoD is pretty solid. I mean, its SotN again, but it's fun.

Austin you're worse that Hitler!!!

 

Speaking for him, I bet that it's the lack of combat challenge that gets his goat. For me, it was the first CV that I ever got into, so it was good training wheels so to speak.

[Austin]

What do you guys think of Kid Icarus? I played it yesterday and it reminded me of an old DOS game. Seems hard.

Fun but tough game. I used to play it all the time when I was younger and could demolish it without fail, but get wrecked when I play it now because I am well out of practice. There are a lot of mechanics that take some getting used to, like falling through certain platforms when you duck. The checkpoints are brutal too. I want to sink more time into it and try to do a playthrough on YT eventually.

 

Also, opinion of Castlevania Rebirth? Seems awesome!

 

I enjoy this one. I thought it was just average at first, but the more I have run through it the more I appreciate the stage and boss design. It's a challenge, especially when you go back and play it on hard mode. The soundtrack was a low point for me at one time, but the more I think about it I am glad they just regurgitated some Bloodlines tunes. So.. at least the music is still good, haha. It just came off as lazy when the game was new.

 

I recommend the two other ReBirth games as well (Contra and Gradius). Although, play Castlevania first, it's probably the best of the three.

 

And Austin, why do you dislike Harmony of Dissonance?

 

And yeah, Austin, what the hell? HoD is pretty solid. I mean, its SotN again, but it's fun.

Man, you guys are really trying to open a can of worms here, haha..

 

There was a thread a few years back where I said my thoughts about it, but the short of it is:

 

- Super lackluster soundtrack that grates on my ears. Horribly.

- The most cryptic Castlevania gameplay since Part II. Walk through a wall or super jump above the ceiling in a SAVE room for required items? Yes, these are things that are actually needed of you in this game. This sort of thing could have flown in 1988, but HoD was released in 2002.

- Extremely mundane room layouts. Dash left 20 times, jump to the next level. Dash right 20 times, jump to the next level. Dash left 20 times, jump to the next level. Dash right 20 times, jump to the next level. Seeing a pattern here? This type of room design makes up the majority of the castle.

- Castle layout doesn't make a lot of sense. In my first playthrough I found myself running around aimlessly after a certain point, and as a result, Aria of Sorrow and even Circle of the Moon run circles around this game from a flow perspective. HoD's mirror castle mechanic and constantly switching between the two just made the issue worse. It would have been much more focused (and enjoyable) with a single, more fleshed out castle map.

- Combat felt slow and clunky to me. I like the book mechanic, but there aren't enough other combat options to give the player a lot of worthwhile variety.

[toptenmaterial]

Awesome speed run that someone did. He exploits a ton of glitches.

 

[Austin]

That's kmac, he's one of the best out there.

[StanJr]

That's a crazy run, but can someone explain the exploits on the Bat, the Mummies, and Drac's first form? He's dealing out way more damage than should be possible.

 

Love the glitch in the cavern. Much safer!

[Austin]

That's a crazy run, but can someone explain the exploits on the Bat, the Mummies, and Drac's first form? He's dealing out way more damage than should be possible.

 

Love the glitch in the cavern. Much safer!

 

There's an exploit where if you take a hit and land an attack at the same time, it will do a form of critical damage. I've tried to do it but can't get it to work consistently enough. Very hard to do.

[toptenmaterial]

Do you guys do the bat jump in 1-2? I routinely do the medusa jump in the second world but that's it.

[Austin]

Yeah, I always try the bat damage boost, but it usually takes me to the second try to get it right.

[StanJr]

No, I don't find that it saves enough time/trouble versus just playing the level straight, plus I don't like to take unnecessary damage.

 

Austin, that's interesting about the critical hit. Never knew that! Thanks

 

[Austin]

No, I don't find that it saves enough time/trouble versus just playing the level straight, plus I don't like to take unnecessary damage.

 

Austin, that's interesting about the critical hit. Never knew that! Thanks

 

 

Yeah, they are tricks meant mainly for speedrunning where every second counts. I personally do them because they look cool and/or are tricky to pull off, so even if it doesn't save time for me, they are still fun to do.

[toptenmaterial]

 

Yeah, they are tricks meant mainly for speedrunning where every second counts. I personally do them because they look cool and/or are tricky to pull off, so even if it doesn't save time for me, they are still fun to do.

The medusa one is useful as it spares you from the possibly of a cheap death in a spot where the game begins to show its true colors. I'll take a look at the bat in the cavern. Not sure if I have the chops to pull it off, it looked like some fancy footwork for a lead footed Belmont. But I'll give it a shot.

[toptenmaterial]

Austin, I am currently watching your playthrough of Dracula X. I've just put it on my drive for some play on the Wii, I've never touched it before. Do you (also Stan and others) feel that it was put out as an afterthought? Kind of like, we need an SNES Castlevania so let's use all the Rondo stuff?

[Austin]

I'm not sure what the story is with the SNES Dracula X. I mean, it makes sense to use the Rondo assets, but I'm not entirely sure why the game turned out the way it did.

[StanJr]

Yeah, it's a watered down sequel (for some reason) to the PC Dracula X: Rondo, which was, as I understand, absolutely incredible. Playing SotN made me very eager to find and play PC Dracula X, but I never could track it down. Playing the SNES Dracula X was fun, and very hard, but not overly exciting. Due to the difficulty it might be my favorite of the SNES titles, though.

[toptenmaterial]

I played Dracula X for the first time tonight. Certainly harder than it appears on Austin's playthroughs! My thoughts: it's a poor man's Rondo for sure! It is tough and the frustration level is supreme. Also, my set has lag, and lag is not a friend of the Belmonts. I'm gonna hook up my old tube set tomorrow and hopefully that takes care of that.

 

Controls felt odd, kind of hard to explain. It's difficult to control Richter's jumps and I made a couple of suicide dives. I'm gonna have to play it some more. In any event it kicked my ass and now I'm out for blood!

 

Stan: get yourself a PSP and get Dracula X Chronicles. It has the remake and original Rondo, plus a version of SOTN where they tried to make the voice acting less silly. Or get a Wii for cheap and grab it off the VC (Rondo).

Edited April 6, 2017 by toptenmaterial

[Austin]

In the SNES one, Richter moves like he's got steel toed boots on or something. Not as fluid as Rondo. It takes some getting used to.

 

As far as the difficulty, it's a lot of simple footwork. It never gets intense like the original Castlevania does. Some of the bosses can be tricky though, and Drac is one of the most annoying in the whole series.

 

Oh yeah, remember that if you take a hit while ducking, there's no knockback. Really important to know for the moving platform sections later in the game.

[toptenmaterial]

So I finally hooked my Wii up to the tiny Panasonic CTR I've had in my trunk forever, and holy shit, what a difference. Emu has zero perceptible lag. Of course I feel like my eyes are going to hemorrhage but finally everything is totally playable!

[toptenmaterial]

I've got the Castlevania bug again and wanted to revive this thread. So far I've been playing 1, 3 and 4.

 

I've never played 4 all that much. The difficulty is far more forgiving, that's for sure. The only deaths I've taken so far are from suicide jumps. I don't have the best emu setup so the ledges are a bit blurry when obscured by waterfalls. As a game, it's fun as hell. It just feels right. It's intuative, and it's easy to get into the groove while playing it.

 

I never beat 3, as I've discussed en nauseum on this thread. I'm taking the underground path, which feels more like the first Castlevania to me in terms of being able to go slow and scout the little enemy setups that they throw at you. Picking up the wrong weapon is a pain in the ass. I don't know the game cold like the first one. But that doesn't matter so much because you can't cheese the game with water or crosses like in the first one. Bosses are way easier, but the length of the levels wears you down through attrition. I seem to get fairly far in the game before taking a death.

 

1 is so rad. Looking back, the pacing and structure of the game are perfect. A brilliantly executed game. That being said, I got rusty quick! I took a few lousy deaths in level 5, tonight I got my first continue on Drac's second form.

 

I'm looking forward to IGA's unofficial release. It was slated for Wii U so it stands to reason that it will arrive on the Switch.

[Austin]

Bumping this thread! I put together a tutorial covering various boss strategies for the original Castlevania. This should be helpful for anyone that needs a visualization for this sort of thing: