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  Castlevania is a much beloved series from Konami that began in the NES's heyday, beginning life as a series of tough, but generally fair action platformers about a family of vampire hunters and their eternal war against Count Dracula (yes, the same Dracula from the Bram Stoker novel) where caution was rewarded and sloppiness was punished. Over time, the series evolved to encompass another genre: an exploration-based platformer where players had a large map to play around in and discover secrets, but where progress was gated by abilities that the player had to seek out, not unlike a Metroid game. It was never a mega-hit, but it was never a victim of budget or scope creep and made modest returns, with a sizeable following, which made the series' apparent death after 2010 (2014 if we're counting Lords of Shadow 2) sting. Since then, the only "games" to come out of the franchise was a Pachinko machine and I think a mobile Gacha, and the man in charge of the franchise since roughly 1997, Koji Igarashi, was kicked over to Konami's mobile gaming division, and eventually left the company in 2014. In May of 2015, Igarashi unveiled a new project on Kickstarter: an exploration-based game with gothic themes and elements - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It was Castlevania in all but name. It was a project not unlike Keiji Inafune's Mighty Number 9, which had similar origins as a kickstarter "revival" of a franchise left to wither away by its parent company, spearheaded by the leader of said franchise. Riding on a wave of nostalgia, Bloodstained smashed right through its backer goal, so the campaign manager added more and more goals for reaching higher and higher funding milestones. One such goal was a retro-style prequel game. Developed by Inti Creates, of Mega Man Zero, Mega Man 9, and Gunvolt fame, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is the retro game that the backer rewards promised. It's more of a spin-off now than a prequel, as it takes some liberty with the established story of RotN, but it's still a very strong game on its own. As far as Castlevania ties go, CotM leans hard as a successor to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse; it features four playable characters that line up with CV3's cast with the ability to switch between them at will. It's got the benefits of modern design sensibilities too, so it's not nearly as punishing as its inspirations.  This will be a short solo LP where I show off a complete run of the game, then a couple of variations on the experience. This game is very short, and it takes roughly an hour to go through, so each video should cover two stages. I'll be releasing episodes about twice a week, tenatively on Mondays and Thursdays.       
ChaosArgate fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Jul 30, 2018 |
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Jul 13, 2018 00:59
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:50 |
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Reserved
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Jul 13, 2018 00:59
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NGDBSS posted:That autoducking you're using is pretty severe - whenever you talk the game audio drops to nearly nothing. Have you tried reducing its effect? Truth be told these are the same settings I use for Yakuza, which might have a louder base volume in hindsight. I can try to adjust volume for a few episodes further down the line, but I’m currently in the middle of a move so I can’t promise I’ll be able to do so in a timely manner.
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Jul 13, 2018 04:45
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Jul 16, 2018 19:57
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Oblivion4568238 posted:Pretty much all projectiles can be destroyed by any attack, if I recall correctly. The fire shield is so useful defensively because it lasts for so long and completely surrounds your character, leaving contact damage, pits, and fairly rare non-projectile attacks as the only ways to take damage. Your post made me realize a possible combination of powers, though: Alfred's Ice, Zangetsu's Berserk, and Miriam's Axe. I'm gonna have to try that out myself later. For bonus points, throw in Gebel's Bat Ascent just to get some mad air. 
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Jul 19, 2018 22:04
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CAPT. Rainbowbeard posted:There's a traversal question I have for Stage 6, I'll wait till then to ask it. Stage 6 was the back half of last week’s episode, so ask away.
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Jul 23, 2018 00:00
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While this may look like the end of the game, stick around, I've still got two more videos for this LP! Silver Falcon posted:There's a precedent for that, too. The Castlevania game... Rondo of Blood, I think? You can unlock a secondary character who's a little girl in a dress who summons her animal friends to fight for her. There's basically no reason to use Whoever Belmont after you get her because she just outclasses him in every regard. Maria, yes. The game was balanced around a character with traditional movement, so having actual mobility options makes things a shitton easier. Funnily enough, the girl in the dress of this game is the Belmont of this game.
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Jul 23, 2018 16:40
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Wiseblood posted:You can actually get through that one door in stage 7 in normal mode if you freeze the enemy below it and use it as a platform to break the wall with Miriam's axe. Huh, I never thought of that. That makes a lot of sense!
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Jul 23, 2018 17:06
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Silver Falcon posted:Ok yeah that was a really cool final boss. He's no Dracula, but he'll do. I liked the detail of the phase of the moon in his head being a tell for what attacks he does. That'd be Zangetsu's last power up. I forget if I showed it off, but it gives a power boost to your attacks. Just like Alfred's spells, it can be transferred to other characters, so you can get some crazy strong axe swings with it.
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Jul 23, 2018 17:19
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pointy corpse posted:Pretty sure Gremory is female. I must've imagined someone calling Gremory a male then because I'm not sure where I got it from.
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Jul 23, 2018 18:37
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ChaosArgate posted:I must've imagined someone calling Gremory a male then because I'm not sure where I got it from.  Oh hey I know where I got it from now.
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Jul 24, 2018 01:24
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I feel really dumb for not picking up on Gremory and Gemori both being different interpretations of the same being. ChaosArgate fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Jul 26, 2018 |
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Jul 26, 2018 20:23
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:50 |
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And that's it! Thanks for sticking around for the ride, it's been fun! Silver Falcon posted:Holy poo poo that bad ending. Yeah you get different endings if you spare some allies and kill others, or ignore them entirely, but those runs don't unlock anything.
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Jul 30, 2018 17:19
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That's a gut punch, right there.