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Amppelix posted:How about some classicvania chat? Namely, Rondo of Blood, which I recently bought on the Wii VC. It's my first time really playing a castlevania game and let me tell you it's one hell of an introduction. Fantastic music, tight level design, and naturally hard as balls. I had to resort to using Maria to beat Dracula but one day I will be back and really learn his patterns with Richter. I'm also still not entirely sure how to do that loving bridge section in level 7 with richter... I like Castlevania games a lot but this one will always be my favorite by far. It took me some time to save up for a while ago but I even got the actual game disk because I play it so drat much. Did you play around with the branching paths? The coolest thing about that game is how it has almost no bottomless pits in it, most of the pitfalls actually lead somewhere which I love. All the CV games have lots of secrets but this one is great with rewarding you poking around everywhere with alternate ways through the level and optional people to rescue. I liked how Maria has two different slides (depending on whether you just press down+jump or down/forward+jump. That game has so much detail in it. When you play later games notice how every 2D Castlevania game after it, even the three on the DS, reuses sprites from Rondo but with less animation. Another detail that's rad as hell is how in Super Castlevania IV and Rondo, EVERY ENEMY has a unique sound effect for when you kill it. Castlevania is soooo good. The classic games all hold up really well compared to most of their contemporaries and clones and I still go back to the GBA/DS games pretty regularly too. Neo Rasa fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 17:50
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And I'm reminded of how crazy fun Order of Ecclesia was. I see Amazon has it for 20 bucks. So...very...tempted.
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Aug 4, 2013 17:52
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Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP has an unlockable version of Symphony of the Night, with a new translation and voice over. It also lets you play as Maria, but I think she has a different moveset and different sprites. It also doesn't have the new areas, but at least you don't have to play with a terrible frame rate or dodgy transparency effects.
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Aug 4, 2013 17:57
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The fact that the Johnathan-Charlotte thread tag no longer exists is literally the worst thing about Castlevania now. Please mods, help us.
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Aug 4, 2013 17:59
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crazkylo posted:Oh, Looking into it a bit it seems it was a Japan only release. And people want $100 for it. I'll stick with my old ps1 copy, or maybe the xbox arcade version I downloaded so I can be lazy and not have to hook up my playstation. I think they added maria in the PSP rerelease, not the other extra crap though.
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Aug 4, 2013 18:10
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Doji Sekushi posted:I think they added maria in the PSP rerelease, not the other extra crap though. I really need to finish that someday. I can't beat Shaft, though.  Oddly enough, the Castlevania game that I want to play the most is Judgement. I've played most of the rest of the games and I really want to play the worst of them just to experience it.
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Aug 4, 2013 18:29
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Random Stranger posted:I really need to finish that someday. You definitely need to do this. The English dubbing of the special moves is pretty bad as a final topping on the awful fighting game cake. It does have one good thing about it though, the music is mostly remixes of classic Castlevania songs which are all very, very well done. Also. Harmony of Discord and Judgement are the only Castlevania games I don't own in some form.
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Aug 4, 2013 18:35
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What's bizarre is how Castlevania for the NES still holds up. 3 is ok but hard as gently caress and 2 seems like an exercise for confused programmers. I love how Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was made. Apparently bunch of guys at Konami were working on a Castlevania game inbetween projects and were experimenting with the PS1. Weird poo poo that most people will never catch like how the fairy will sit on Alucard's shoulders if he doesn't move for a few minutes. Or how you could completely miss a sizeable area of the game if you don't have the Demon equipped. Sitting down in the church, depending on which side you were, on played a little event. Just a metric ton of cool stuff that most would argue is silly since most people playing will never see them. Just unheard of level of detail at the time but they had time to do it due to the juggled schedule of the project. It was almost cancelled too! It also helps that Toru Hagihara, man behind SotN and Rondo of Blood, loved the direction and just went with dumping all of them together into a game.
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Aug 4, 2013 18:44
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Also the thing that plays if you put the SotN disc into a CD player. "This track contains game data. There is no point to playing it. But you won't listen to me anyway."
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Aug 4, 2013 18:50
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Michiru Yamane was the only thing good about Lament of Innocence. I remember waiting intensely for that game to be released and it sucked, but the music owned. Her music always owns. If I could buy a collection of all of her music, I would.
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Aug 4, 2013 18:53
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I think one of the saddest things about Lords of Shadow was watching another Japanese company give up on making games that were distinctly Japanese in style. Like Capcom, Konami has changed a lot of the years and now as a company they're barely recognizable to me. I didn't like Lords of Shadow and I couldn't believe that they failed at making a 2D perspective game so badly that the combat sections are completely separate from the platforming sections, the game has zero flow to it. Here's hoping that Harmony of Despair sold well enough to prove that proper 2D Castlevania has it's market and deserves to be around, I want it on consoles too damnit, but between no 2D Metroid and no 2D Castlevania, I'll take whatever I can get. (but I won't touch stuff like Guacamelee, sorry, it just doesn't appeal to me.) Syfe fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 19:00
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Syfe posted:Here's hoping that Harmony of Dissonance sold well enough to prove that proper 2D Castlevania has it's market and deserves to be around, I want it on consoles too damnit, but between no 2D Metroid and no 2D Castlevania, I'll take whatever I can get. (but I won't touch stuff like Guacamelee, sorry, it just doesn't appeal to me.) You need to try Guacamelee if you haven't already. It's the most metroid-vania-y game in years and absolutely goddamn brilliant.
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Aug 4, 2013 19:01
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Jetfire posted:You need to try Guacamelee if you haven't already. It's the most metroid-vania-y game in years and absolutely goddamn brilliant. Also, those games were never really about complex jumping puzzles, like Guac is.
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Aug 4, 2013 19:04
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Jetfire posted:You need to try Guacamelee if you haven't already. It's the most metroid-vania-y game in years and absolutely goddamn brilliant. I'm not somebody that can be sold on gameplay alone, the atmosphere and general style of the game simply doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. One of the greatest things about Castlevania and Metroid are the fact that those games generally have superb atmosphere. I also watched the video and I don't entirely agree that Metroidvania fits it entirely, it had a lot stuff that looked Mighty Switch Force style game play.
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Aug 4, 2013 19:04
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Syfe posted:Here's hoping that Harmony of Despair sold well enough to prove that proper 2D Castlevania has it's market and deserves to be around Seeing as it has been almost 3 years since it first came out on XBLA and they haven't announced another 2D Castlevania, I wouldn't count on anymore of them.
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Aug 4, 2013 19:07
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Throwing my two cents on top of the countless dollars I have blown on Castlevania and related merch over the years. It was a pretty defining series in a lot of regards, and I am sad to see it join the ranks of Grizzly Guy Tinyhead Hugebody Adventures, as brought to you by alternative rock. I find Lords of Shadow to be the Creed to old Castlevania's Iron Maiden, or even Metroidvania's Yngwie Malmsteen. It was cobbled together by lifting from as many hot topic sources as it could at once: God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Pan's Labyrinth, etc. all without contributing anything of its own. (It really doesn't help that a reboot of an already convoluted series had a crazygonuts retarded story.) I hate hearing all these people who have come in to this new 3D era harp on about how it's "HARD LIKE GOD INTENDED". To me, old school Castlevania is defined not necessarily by its difficulty, as Castlevania IV, one of the easiest, has simultaneously some of the best atmosphere in any game I've played, but also one of the absolute best soundtracks in an already musically gifted series. Those two things I think are most important to the Castlevania identity. I'm not entirely opposed to 3D for the series, either. I'm an apologist for Castlevania 64, which I think was brilliant, if a bit too much a product of its times as an early 3D platformer. Even the PS2 Castlevanias made overtures to the kind of atmosphere which is wholly missing from the Mercury Steam iterations. Even so, it was also chief amongst games for being a bold statement as to the relevance of 2D games in the modern theatre of gaming. Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin may have been some big-eyes small-mouth anime mess, but it also had some gorgeous sprite animations and an attention to detail that simply isn't around in most AAA 3D titles. Ultimately, I was getting my fix off of Metroidvanias, even Harmony of Despair (friends don't let friends grind Ryukotsuki alone). None really hit the sweet spot quite like Symphony of the Night, but Aria of Sorrow came dangerously close. The Wii Castlevania Rebirth was rather slapped together and showed none of the mastery or even consideration for what was done previously in the series. Syfe's not far off the mark that Konami has strayed far off the path - no more Gradius, Suikoden, Contra, heck, there should have been a new Zone of the Enders by this point for how young that series was. Instead, they'll be content to milk those sweet, sweet Metal Gear dollars and try to siphon gas from God of War with the hideously soulless outing that the Mercury Steam series has been. I was glad to buy the AkuDora Best Music Collections Box as my farewell to Castlevania. It was all the soundtracks up to Ecclessia with some bitching Byzantine-style icons of Simon and Dracula as art. I hope that it isn't truly going to be my mausoleum to what has been a rather solid series. Somewhere beating in my breast is a Moai-shaped tumor, and I restrain myself another day from saying "RIP 573". Syrnn fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 19:50
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Did you really find the music in Lords of Shadow to be poor compared to Portrait of Ruin or Ecclesia? It's one area where I felt the game took a definite step up from where the franchise was going. I agree about the N64 games, they really nailed the atmosphere even if the camera made the outdoor platforming areas pretty rough. I do think having the games be somewhat challenging is important though. I know a lot of fans when asked will say their ideal Castlevania game would be something more along the lines of Demon's/Dark Souls than Lords of Shadow. Not that the games are hard for the sake of it so much as that it's part of the atmosphere that you need to kind of take it slow at first. Like Sanders mentioned they have that dour atmosphere where you feel very isolated and on your own. My favorite Castlevania games are all like this where the very first time through there's some challenge but as you master it you can blow through them pretty easily. That atmosphere and sense of wonder stays with them though. I would say a lot of the more recent CV games are "difficult" in that enemies take more hits to kill or that a hallway is a lot longer than it needs to be with just a line of the same stuff over and over again (Ecclesia especially I feel suffered from this) but difficult in that you need to make smart use of your abilities and gear. Lords of Shadow is kind of interesting in that it's SO CLOSE to doing this, but lacks the more open level design and variety of enemies to make use of the pretty impressive list of moves you build up over the game. This was the thing it took from God of War that I disliked the most about it, that you could go through the whole game with just two or three of the same combo forever. Classic CV games have much less in the way of weapons to work with but many of the enemies had to be approached very differently if you didn't want to get hurt. That game had a pretty convoluted production so I was impressed that the final product is as good as it is. Someone mentioned earlier the complications with how Konami was flipping around on whether it was to be a proper Castlevania game or not, and I recall an interview with one of the developers where they apparently weren't allowed to use any classical songs from the franchise (it's why we just get that tiny remix of Vampire Killer in the music box level and nothing else) because Konami wanted a fresh start with just "Belmont," "Dracula," and "chain whip that kills vampires" being all they wanted back. On a side note, those that played Lament of Innocence, was this game originally meant to be played from a sidescrolling perspective? So much of the game feels like they just took a 2D game and made the rooms wider or something. Neo Rasa fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 20:08
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Neo Rasa posted:Did you really find the music in Lords of Shadow to be poor compared to Portrait of Ruin or Ecclesia? It's one area where I felt the game took a definite step up from where the franchise was going. I would say Portrait and Ecclesia are both soundtracks that are rather forgettable, but they don't tread into the wretchedly poor territory that overwhelms the first Lords of Shadow. It is music fit for a movie trailer lasting all of two minutes, not dozens of hours of gameplay. Maybe I am ham-stringed by nearly twenty years of classical training, but to me Oscar Araujo is a poor composer; not for quality of writing but for honest to god laziness. Michiru Yamane hasn't had a truly memorable score since (in my opinion) Lament of Innocence, but she has also not stopped experimenting or at least offering a wider breadth of styles throughout the games' areas. Ruin or Ecclesia may be forgettable, but they are, at best, inoffensive. Lords of Shadow is bombastic, it needs an eighty-man chorus to wring what emotion the writing reaching new lows could not. Something tells me that Gabriel cannot even defecate without a choral accompaniment for how ubiquitous it is throughout the whole game. Honestly, were it any other series, I might not mind, but for a series which I hold to be partially defined by truly excellent music, it is a cardinal sin that accepts no indulgences. I will admit there are a few portions of meditative calm, particularly during platforming sequences early in the game, but by the end I had felt assaulted by the pompous fanfare set to me whipping some Lycans with the same unblockable crap over and over. It was unnecessary and does nothing for me, particularly because this "epic" feel was, and is so overdone in all media that this kind of spectacle that is supposed to create tension and awe of what I'm looking at is more like a cheap hooker, wheeled out for every blockbuster film and HBO special unveiling. Call me jaded, but there is such a thing as subtlety, and Oscar Araujo can be guilty of scarcely making its acquaintance. I wanted to like the whole thing top to bottom. I'm a fan of European studios for the most part, and I think they can bring a lot to games that we tend to not see. Throw in Patrick Stewart and Robert Carlyle, and I was ready for it. Unfortunately, the whole experience was not unlike gruel to me: bland, tasteless, and rather without any real substance. I can't say I've felt nearly as much soul in the DS titles as I did for older Castlevanias, but the ingredients were there, no matter how past their Best By date. I feel bad, because I'm not trying to threadshit or anything of the sort, but as a classical musician I take a special kind of loathing about matters like the soundtrack of Lords of Shadow to heart because of the legacy set before it. It lacks any sort of individuality, and is just stock music that could have been for any other title. The series is known for the kind of heavy metal or progressive rock presentations that helped the series music stand out from its peers. That isn't something you just 'reboot', no matter how retarded the story got in the end.
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Aug 4, 2013 20:53
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I don't think you're threadshitting, it's just that, compared to previous CV games I felt Portrait and Ecclesia had almost hilariously weak soundtracks, with just a few good remixes here and there saving Portrait. Portrait especially is probably one of the blandest games in the series, weakest art, very poor atmosphere, etc. You can tell they addressed this a little bit in Ecclesia, you get more of a sense that "it is on," when you actually enter Dracula's Castle, and it had that structure the more impressive games in the series where there's bit of a tonal shift as you enter the castle grounds proper and the "real" game begins like in the original, Super Castlevania IV, the C64 games, etc. It's music though is even more boring to me. It's weird too because Portait especially they had a bunch of guest composers doing some tracks like Yuzo Koshiro and this was the result. That said, given its more modern day setting, it will be interesting to see what direction they take the music in for Lords of Shadow 2. Mirror of Fate, while the game itself is trash, has a much calmer and more interesting soundtrack overall compared to Lords of Shadow. Nothing compared to, say, 3-2 in Super Castlevania IV but you can tell your and other fans' similar complaints didn't fall on completely deaf ears. Though it would amazing if they said gently caress it and just did a straight up prog rock soundtrack for Lords of Shadow 2, there's of course no way that will really happen.
Neo Rasa fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 21:18
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Why is Lords of Shadow still so expensive? I saw it on a Steam sale a while ago for $25, every other game of its era can be had for <$10. What about it is keeping the price up?
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Aug 4, 2013 21:28
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Samurai Sanders posted:Why is Lords of Shadow still so expensive? I saw it on a Steam sale a while ago for $25, every other game of its era can be had for <$10. What about it is keeping the price up? Well it just came out for PC. Took their sweet time porting it to PC.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:29
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I agree on the fact that I myself didn't like Lords of Shadow's offering of music. It was indeed as he said, very bland to me, and it has always confused me that people readily come to it's defense. For a series that had the likes of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDcKNgoIUcM, where it has ended up is disappointing to me. (yeah I know, it's not an ingame selection, but I can't resist Dracula Perfect or New Classic) I'll also say that Portrait as a game would have been more interesting sans the sisters and wind. Take those two elements out of the game completely and it's not as bad. Also, with a composer like Yuzo Koshiro on board for Portrait, I had really high hopes for it's soundtrack.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:32
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:Well it just came out for PC. Took their sweet time porting it to PC.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:33
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Samurai Sanders posted:Well, it's still $20 used on consoles, so that doesn't fully explain it. People talk about it like it's some dumb GoW ripoff that just happens to have the Castlevania name, but all the others of that kind haven't held their price like that. It's because in this case "people," consists of people on video game forums, gamers in general were pretty happy with the game as reflected in it selling pretty well (wasn't it the best selling CV game ever or something?). Whenever I talk to non-internet folk about it they're pretty happy with it. Personally I think the game is flawed but enjoyed it a lot more than say God of War III or Ascension. I think that's why I generally didn't mind the music either, compared to other third person beat'em up games of this gen (just overall I guess, how much I liked the atmosphere of the game, music, controls, etc.) I mean the tier for me goes: Flawless: Bayonetta/Metal Gear Rising Really Good: Lords of Shadow/NG2/Sigma 2 I spent money on this?: Dante's Inferno/God of War III/Ascension/Devil May Cry 4/Heavenly Sword/etc. Ever listen to the God of War III soundtrack? 
Neo Rasa fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 21:38
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Neo Rasa posted:I don't think you're threadshitting, it's just that, compared to previous CV games I felt Portrait and Ecclesia had almost hilariously weak soundtracks, with just a few good remixes here and there saving Portrait. Portrait especially is probably one of the blandest games in the series, weakest art, very poor atmosphere, etc. You can tell they addressed this a little bit in Ecclesia, you get more of a sense that "it is on," when you actually enter Dracula's Castle, and it had that structure the more impressive games in the series where there's bit of a tonal shift as you enter the castle grounds proper and the "real" game begins like in the original, Super Castlevania IV, the C64 games, etc. It's music though is even more boring to me. It's weird too because Portait especially they had a bunch of guest composers doing some tracks like Yuzo Koshiro and this was the result. Yeah, Portrait of Ruin falls farthest from the tree in design regards above all else. While Dawn of Sorrow had that sense of the series getting its sea-legs on the DS, Portrait really felt a bit more like a cash-grab than not for staying with the wildly simple art direction, and the slurry of gimmicks and anime/pop-culture references. If it were an omelette, it would be black with pepper. I definitely want a Castlevania that has that looking at the castle and whipping the ground moment that became so trademark for a lot of them. Everyone who is whooping and hollering about how Castlevania is for REAL MEN again are missing the point. (Never minding that there was nothing wrong with Ayami Kojima's designs in my book, who handled Castlevania X Chronicles VERY well, taking a page from Akihiro Yamada's Dracula XX stuff. Love it!) The original fantasy-cover Frazetta inspired Belmonts were nice, and of their time, but would be ashamed of this absolute alternative rock lite look that they've got going now. I will admit fully to not having played Mirrors of Fate, but mostly because after the let-down of the first Lords of Shadow, I just wasn't willing to financially support it, even used. It doesn't interest me and never will. The track is more mellow, though, so I do appreciate it. I really hope what I mean about the kind of Hallmark generic quality of Araujo's music communicates something though. The track still suffers the fast tricks for emotional sounding music, high-string crescendos at a largo pace, bells added to spice up the instrumentation. It is why I tend to abhor things that just throw in pipe organ or (ha ha) chorus "for effect", with no regard to how it interacts with the rest of the ensemble. I also forgot the two biggest story-lifting offences of the first Lords of Shadow: Van Helsing, to which it owes a criminal amount of its TWEESTS, and Underworld, though it was carrion to begin with.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:39
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Syrnn posted:I also forgot the two biggest story-lifting offences of the first Lords of Shadow: Van Helsing, to which it owes a criminal amount of its TWEESTS, and Underworld, though it was carrion to begin with. Castlevania taking inspiration from a Universal Studios film and its lesser more lower budget ripoff series? Shocking.  I take the atmosphere in the games pretty seriously too but Castlevania's stories are ALWAYS a pastiche of whatever flicks with rad monsters their immediate creators thought were cool when they were making the games. Lords of Shadow is hardly a perfect game (I actually never thought I'd ever be writing so much about how I like it here), but I have to be honest I never understood the criticisms about using Pan, Ring Wraiths, etc. in it when you were always fighting the Gill Man, Frankenstein's Monster, Mummies, the mechs from Spriggan, Emma/ninja maids, etc. I mean it's only in the the latter half of the franchise's history that they'd even try to visually differentiate these things from how they looked in their original films.[Syrnn" posted:Everyone who is whooping and hollering about how Castlevania is for REAL MEN again are missing the point. (Never minding that there was nothing wrong with Ayami Kojima's designs in my book, who handled Castlevania X Chronicles VERY well, taking a page from Akihiro Yamada's Dracula XX stuff. Love it!) The original fantasy-cover Frazetta inspired Belmonts were nice, and of their time, but would be ashamed of this absolute alternative rock lite look that they've got going now. Was there some kind of drama in the Castlevania community regarding this or something? I never realized people had such issue with the art for the game especially after, well, the first two DS games or Judgement. Neo Rasa fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 21:55
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Neo Rasa posted:It's because in this case "people," consists of people on video game forums, gamers in general were pretty happy with the game as reflected in it selling pretty well (wasn't it the best selling CV game ever or something?). Whenever I talk to non-internet folk about it they're pretty happy with it. Personally I think the game is flawed but enjoyed it a lot more than say God of War III or Ascension. I think that's why I generally didn't mind the music either, compared to other third person beat'em up games of this gen (just overall I guess, how much I liked the atmosphere of the game, music, controls, etc.) I mean the tier for me goes:
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Aug 4, 2013 21:56
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Samurai Sanders posted:I thought NG2 was poo poo compared to 1 so I guess that isn't an argument in favor of me trying it out. I thought it was too to be honest, but when it comes to beat'em ups beggars can't be choosers.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:59
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Neo Rasa posted:I thought it was too to be honest, but when it comes to beat'em ups beggars can't be choosers.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:02
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Samurai Sanders posted:I don't want a beatemup though, I want a Castlevania game. Because it's Castlevania. What did you think of Curse of Darkness? It's another one I kind of like and hate at the same time. Weirdly the game is significantly better when you beat it and unlock being able to play through it as Trevor Belmont. His moveset/specials are totally different and the game plays much faster with him and is way more fun.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:05
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 The best. Beating it is so satisfying and totally worth the hole rendered in my IKEA desk. Egoraptor's perfect review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aip2aIt0ROM
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Aug 4, 2013 22:05
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Neo Rasa posted:Castlevania taking inspiration from a Universal Studios film and its lesser more lower budget ripoff series? Shocking. I'm not one to deny the original Castlevania's origins as something of a Universal Monster Mash, but the difference here is those were all film classics with a minimum of about fifty years between them and the game. VanHelsing is a modern B film, and it knows it. The writing was pretty bad (and frankly I love it), but there's nothing really all that dramatically compelling about the whole "GABRIEEEEL!" "TETSUOOO!" right-hand of God nonsense that they pull. These were not films that had earned their keep, much less anything I think deserves flattery and homage. Whip Dracula in the head every 100 years, it's your duty? I'm on board. Fight Satan because you're Gabriel and you killed your love, now you're suddenly Dracula what a tweest? Nnnot so clean. I mean, I've seen more coherent college films. So, as bad as Castlevania is, the Big Stink that is LoS's story is just too room-clearing for me.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:05
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Neo Rasa posted:Castlevania taking inspiration from a Universal Studios film and its lesser more lower budget ripoff series? Shocking. Well, I think there is a bit of a difference between them partially because Lords of Shadow uses that material in a very, literal rip off way, I always thought that Castlevania in general tended to have homages and even in the credits it's very humour based and open about it. I don't think I've heard the Lords of Shadow guys admit that they completely ripped content off. Again, it's how it's done Serious story vs Fun Homage. On the second point, the fans were generally split, some loved the art style of Kojima, but a lot of people were crying out against it because they considered the style too girly and they wanted real MANLY MEN DAMNIT! UUUGH, considering Simon himself seemed lightly based off of Conan. That said, I prefer Kojima's art myself, but I feel the same way when it came to the Final Fantasy series going away from Amano's art. Largely because both Amano and Kojima actually make great art in my opinion, I feel less so about what is being offered for either series now.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:06
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I had Mirror of Fate because I really liked the story in Lords of Shadow for some reason, and even as a fan of that game I can't justify anyone playing Mirror of Fate. You play as three different characters with no significant differences in play style and it isn't really metroidvania. Sure you can backtrack to get powerups you couldn't reach before once you get new powers, and there are maybe a few powers that you can skip, but there's no sequence breaking and it's pretty linear anyway. The plot is also really pointless, it doesn't answer any questions and just largely sets up one character. Spoilers if you care but you probably don't. Gabriel had a son his wife kept from him cause apparently the Order always knew he would turn evil, and his son Trevor ends up becoming Alucard.. The entire game existed to set that up, nothing else really happened. As for the gameplay itself, the combat was boring and involved usually just one enemy at a time, sometimes two. You could probably count the number of times you have three enemies on screen at once on one hand. To make up for this, even weak enemies do a ton of damage, and you do very little. You'll end up spamming one or two moves because they come out quick while still doing a lot of damage. Movement and combat both feel slow and just responsive enough to not cause a complaint. I really couldn't recommend Mirror of Fate to anyone, not even a hardcore fan.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:10
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crazkylo posted:Did anyone play the Saturn Version of SOTN? I hear it had more content to it, and that you could play as Maria. Or maybe that was just a schoolyard myth. The PSP version adds a new Maria PC that plays like her Rondo original, and it adds the Maria fight where you get the glasses to see Shaft (as opposed to just getting them from her). You also get the two JP-only familiars (the Fairyie whatever and the Nose Demon). The retranslation is pretty great, as is the redub. There are a few emulation bugs; once, I accidentally backdashed into the librarian's shop trigger after leaving it and it wouldn't load the menu, rendering the game unplayable. Dracula X Chronicles is so good.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:11
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I actually didn't like the new dub for Chronicles, it felt just mediocre instead of outright hilarious like the original SotN.Syfe posted:On the second point, the fans were generally split, some loved the art style of Kojima, but a lot of people were crying out against it because they considered the style too girly and they wanted real MANLY MEN DAMNIT! UUUGH, considering Simon himself seemed lightly based off of Conan. That said, I prefer Kojima's art myself, but I feel the same way when it came to the Final Fantasy series going away from Amano's art. Largely because both Amano and Kojima actually make great art in my opinion, I feel less so about what is being offered for either series now. Oh yeah this I lived through, I meant more with the art change with Lords of Shadow. With Kojima being too expensive now or whatever it seems like a good balance between the western fantasy stuff and the more ethereal look Kojima was responsible for. I knew so many people who were like "Why can't we play as a REAL MAN" uuugghh which got more and more hilarious as the series protagonists kept going further and further in the opposite direction from what they wanted. I think the real tragedy of Amano and Kojima not doing it anymore is that with the direction graphics have taken, FF and Castelvania both chose to go for photo realism and cutting edge super realistic 3D graphics as best they can. It's a shame neither will step up and put out a game with some cel-shading trickery or whatever to try to actually imitate the art that was associated with their games for so long. There's no real attempt anymore to make the in-game experience look like the art so not much point in getting the best of the best to design the stuff anymore.
Neo Rasa fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 22:14
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Do you think maybe they go the whole "uuungh big macho man" thing because it's what Japanese marketing thinks that's what a Western demographic is interested in? I always thought the pale skinned, long haired, skinny pretty boy character design was more suiting to the gothic theme almost like an homage to Interview with a vampire.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:34
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ninja edit: ^^^^^ Basically this.Neo Rasa posted:I actually didn't like the new dub for Chronicles, it felt just mediocre instead of outright hilarious like the original SotN. This and double this. I never understood why SotN ended up on things like Audio Atrocities when the issue wasn't at all the voice acting, it was the writing! I too have been dying to see more interesting visual direction in games, and something like Amano or Kojima inspired cel-shading is a dream come true. I have to applaud games like El Shaddai offhandedly for doing something different - it has game play fairly comparable to Lords of Shadow, more of a beat 'em up than a true-blue platformer, but it was so compelling to see realized that I just had to sink my teeth into it. I think the greatest shame is that guys have to be gritty and grizzly above all else. Sure, they had silly haircuts, but Soma and Genya in the art for Aria were stylish as hell, and that feels good too. I'm tired of the boring, hyper-masculine monopoly on male character design of the last generation. I can't honestly say I enjoy anime on principle, but at least they have more than just Bald and Stubble in their stock. Kojima's Simon for Chronicles was muscular, he just wasn't RIPPLING, and that's fine by me. I just don't understand when it became unacceptable for a man to have some sex appeal himself.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:38
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Ronnie posted:Do you think maybe they go the whole "uuungh big macho man" thing because it's what Japanese marketing thinks that's what a Western demographic is interested in? I always thought the pale skinned, long haired, skinny pretty boy character design was more suiting to the gothic theme almost like an homage to Interview with a vampire. Definitely, in fact if you look at the earliest shots of the game he even looks more like the Simon Belmont seen on the Castlevania 1 cover. Apparently after Kojima and Mercury Steam were working together they decided on the red armor and such.
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Aug 4, 2013 22:39
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I'm looking for a certain song from the Castlevania series and I can't find a clean version. Anyone got this version of this one? I could set up dosbox to rip it but wow,  .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM7uZ3imlyo
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Aug 4, 2013 22:42
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