Castlevania General

They capitalized on the atmospherics of that area, but I think they could have been done better.

"Do not tell me you never got sore hands from playing video games for the first time. I had to develop friggin calluses for most of the things i can do out of twitch reflex now. If you don't have the strength to endure all that swinging, you'll get better with time. Or maybe the game's save system will have mercy on you."

Anybody who would get tired from swinging a wiimote needs to spend more time watching porn and build up some arm strength, if you know what I mean.

edited 14th Dec '09 4:36:01 AM by jaimeastorga2000

Oh, Jaime, you cad. Good show.

Nation of Fools is so atmospheric, it's the only area that has to have brand new fitting music in its alternate form, rather than a nice remix of a preexisting track. And considering one of the others has to raid an MSX game for inspiration...

Dude, the MSX music is pretty fucking awesome, in my opinion.

More so than the new track used for the "reverce" Nation of Fools, in my opinion.

edited 14th Dec '09 7:47:15 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Glenn

MSX Wicked Child FTW

Also, since there's a new version of it, here's something every Castlevania fan should play, regardless of which camp you're in.

Castlevania Fighter, what people are probably gonna say "this is what Judgement should've been!" It's MUGEN, but in a way that doesn't really work with regular MUGEN.

I haven't tried the newest version yet, but it's ace. Replicates the control of the Metroidvanias, gives you one hell of a Boss Rush, and this time, Dracula has FOUR forms, and he even pulls the Bishouen Line! I watched the "Nathan's Nightmare" playthrough, and this version has some awesome new details, such as Death's second form transforming the moon in the background into a skull, and Drac does something similar. The character list is missing some main characters like Johnathan Morris, Shanoa, etc, but it's not as bad as older versions - and some of my favourites are here. Whipping the hell out of every boss with Julius and SCV 4 Simon Belmont (who keeps the multidirectional whipping) is just so satisfying.

Though, it does have one of my biggest pet peeves with Symphony, Portrait and Circle, and it's the fighting game-style commands, which really don't work very well in a platformer, even if this is a fighting game of sorts.

Also, Serio seems to utterly hate the MUGEN community. To be fair, some people have been missing the point when they complain about it being non-open source and stuff, but it seems the MUGEN community thinks he's being a bit of dick about it.

But, seriously, download it. It's awesome.

Edit: Okay, there's some nasty graphical bugs (in other words, certain layers are botched) when I play it on my laptop with the new version, but it's playable. SCV 4 Simon is a bosskiller extraordinaire, now. I can use him to fool Richter into doing his aerial trap while also attacking, and my main strategy for Dracula with him is diag-whip the utter shit out of him.

edited 20th Dec '09 5:09:40 AM by Cronosonic

I think I just fangasmed at that lesser demon fight. :D

But being the nitpicker that I am, I can't help but notice a couple weird things.

1.) Richter does not have his fight music from Portrait of Ruin. That is just wrong.

2.) My GOD that is the ugliest creature sprite of all time.

3.) Yoko Fernandez? Charlotte Orlean? Maria Larned?

4.) Dracula's third and fourth forms are incredibly lame.

But other than that, awesome.

Fernandez is probably what Belnades was supposed to be in the first place (heck, we've had Carrie Fernandez), and she does look kinda hispanic if you squint right.

And Charlotte Aulin was originally named Charlotte Orlean. I have no clue why they changed that.

As for Maria, "Larned" is inexcusable. I can accept Renard or Lenard, but Larned is inexcusable.

edited 22nd Dec '09 4:18:06 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Gentlemen...

Rondo of Blood is coming to VC.

OMFG OMFG YES YES YES YES YES!

I'm disappointed that they went with Japanese voices for Brauner and Barlowe. I mean, they sucked half the fun out of the characters right there!

That and I find it difficult to call it a fighting game when there is no guard option and the leading strategy involves abusing moves with invulnerability frames. That said, it still looks like one of the finest boss rushes possible.

I have one complaint after playing.

TOO FLIPPIN' FAST!!!

Everything was going too quickly to develop strategies. At least, the way I usually expect to be able to in a Castlevania game.

I do suppose the Japanese names and voices are mostly there because the maker is probably a "purist". But, yeah, I haven't fought Brauner in Portrait yet, but Barlowe missing his English voice is a shame indeed.

Also, I found yet another S.H.H remix, this time of just Wicked Child. It's officially my favourite remix outside of Travel Demon, because it keeps the original's feel, which a lot of other remixes of it (not to mention almost every remix of Simon's theme) don't succeed in doing even if they try.

Apparently the reason they're using the Japanese voices is because Harmony and the Sorrow games never got English voices, and they're trying to maintain consistency. But yeah, it's a darn shame.

And what do you mean? I've heard plenty of Simon's theme remixes that keep the feel of the original.

I've got a question... How good is Symphony of the Night for a Non-Castlevania fan... I'm thinking of getting it on XBLA.

Well, it's the first of the Metroid-style, non-linear Castlevania games, and it's quite good, although not exactly perfect imo. Go for it! Er, I guess that doesn't actually sound like a very glowing endorsement, but it really is a fantastic game. Expect some Guide Dang It! secrets and weird balance issues but yeah. I'd definitely recommend.

edited 24th Dec '09 1:50:16 PM by Zudak

It has, in my opinion, the most interesting castle of the Metroidvanias. There're a lot of places to visit, a lot of hidden rooms, and a lot of little things like the confessional and the Elevator Of Doom (TM) that give the castle a lot of personality.

Hmm... I suppose it couldn't hurt. I'm planning to get that Konami Classics Vol. 1 disk thing with Castlevania, Super Contra, and Frogger.

edited 24th Dec '09 5:02:37 PM by GameGuruGG

Symphony Of The Night is best for atmosphere, music, and graphics. However, it is rather easy. There are also some guide dang it secrets, but nothing that you need to finish the game.

The voice acting is narm or meh or quite dramatic, depending on your tastes.

Edit: We really need a page for Sot N

edited 25th Dec '09 7:56:30 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

I'll get to it, eventually, Glenn. Can you help me out with the Super Castlevania IV page?

Well, I just added a bunch of stuff—not to that page, but to others.

This includes starting Game/HauntedCastle.

edited 26th Dec '09 1:21:06 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Any particular reason you took out the opening quote, Glenn? I thought it was kind of nice, especially with how close it was to an All Blue Entry. And that particular dialogue is rather well known among quite a few non-Castlevania fans.

edited 26th Dec '09 4:17:51 PM by TriggerLoaded

Oh, I moved it to Symphony Of The Night, since we already had one opening quote.

Ooh, perfect, then.