Can you explain to me the Zettai Ryouiki. It’s so alluring, is it magic? It must be if Charlotte and Shanoa both use it.
Yes.
It is the transition from dreams to reality.
That’s why CotM is one of the best castlevanias ever. It doesn’t feel like SotN where you can pretty much guess when/where shit’s gonna happen. For the most part you run around, beat shit up, oh wait that’s a boss…? I guess? meh fuck him up to. On to find better, more OP card combos by using card glitch trial and error.
aw shit now I have so much nostalgia! Shooter mode and magician mode… givin’ bitches mah big ass BONES for MILLIONS OF DAMAGES!!! … brb I’m going to go dig up my VBA because my GBA’s power switch and R button are missing.
I also think PoR is the best DS one.
On that note, does anyone else feel Konami was really lazy with all the Metroidvania’s after SOTN?
There’s really no reason why they skimmed on stuff like character animations, moves (sf inputs were neat) in the portable versions, but everything was really stripped down. Returning characters only had a fraction of their moves, the weapons were largely uninspired, etc etc. Maybe it’s just me, but I was really disappointed as soon as I played COTM and everything after that. While I ejoyed the little gimmicks they incorporated with each game (cards, souls, partner), they all felt significantly more shallow.
When you look at it objectively, SOTN was just brimming with stuff to play with as well as tons little easter eggs and hidden features. I wish the later versions didn’t feel so slapped together in comparison. I don’t even care about recycling sprites, but there was very little wow factor for me as each new game was released (PoR being the closest to bring back that feeling).
I played through them and enjoyed them, but deep down I wished they had tried to top SOTN with each release, but they never did.
^I think it also has to do with the fact that these games were on underpowered hardware. SotN probably had a bigger budget also.
SOTN managed to capture the best aspect of Metroid when aping it’s style and it’s the WOW factor of figuring out how to get to a new area and that new area being impressively cool.
I’m surprised by all this praise of CotM.
I hated that fucking game. Horrible level/castle design, crappy enemies and bosses, and an insipid and completely bugged card system. (You can use any combination of cards without actually possessing them by means of a basic glitch)
Among more minor complaints, it had insane amounts of back-tracking (warp points were few and far between), and certain vital moves required QCF/SRK inputs on a freaking d-pad, which is never fun. Seriously, I’m struggling to think of a single good thing about it.
Hell, I think even HoD (easily the worst of the Iga portable Metroidvanias) blows it out of the water, and that game has a number of problems.
My favorite is PoR. OoE was good; I liked the ability to travel to different locations before the main castle, (a more direct version of what was done in PoR, but still) the two cool bonus dungeons at the end, and the generally excellent level and enemy design.
Still, I’m not sure I would put it ahead of AoS, let alone PoR.
What sets CotM and OoE above the others is simply art style and atmosphere. Both were pretty dark and grim compared to the happy anime worlds of Soma and friends. That alone makes those more desirable to play despite their flaws.
Should I even bother with the new Castlevania? The whole new line where it basically looks like every modern game today just looks dull and uninteresting compared to the side scrolling and SoTN-esque ones.
At first I wasn’t going to give the new 3DS game a chance but after reading more about it and seeing a few videos, I am going to wait to see how the reviews go in regards to how it plays. The multiple character structure of the game might have some potential and I am very interested to see if they can capture classic Castlevania game play.
The underpowered hardware is the reason that the GBA games are what they are, but starting with the DS, the hardware was no longer an excuse and it became more of a budget thing, hence why certain things like animations and enemies are recycled between the portable games.
Yes you should bother. The first game is cheap enough to own and there is a demo to try. At worst you don’t like it and you sell it.
That’s thing that didn’t impress me. The demo. It’s been a while since I played it but it didn’t look, feel or play like anything Castlevania. It played like God of War with a somewhat gothic theme.
Well first thing you need to do which I’m surprised you hadn’t already, is to throw the notion of what you think a Castlevania is out of the window. And I’m sure you know that this game wasn’t originally intended to be a Castlevania game and I feel like early on it’s not. Once you get to a Castle though and there are more Castlevania influences it starts to feel somewhat relatable in that regard. Also the combat separates itself from God Of War about a 1/3 through the game where knowing your full arsenal of techniques and items is necessary to survive. The game is much more demanding than any God of War which gives you a lot of room for error and this game doesn’t. Enemies will fuck your shit up. Winning battles feels more satisfying than Lo since so much is at stakeI. Also there’s more/better platforming than LoD and LoI. Yeah there’s the kinda ho-hum giant battles (of which there are only three) and a lack of Dracula. Yeah there isn’t a huge variety of enemies and the combat is similar to God of War but I enjoyed my time with it anyway. So I think you need to be in it to enjoy the Mercury Steam experience and not a traditional Castlevania experience.
I honestly think that both of the next Mercury Steam games will have a lot more related to the Castlevania experience that we all know and love since the games were built from the start with this universe in mind.
New MoF footage. definitely the prettiest looking CV and this video reaffirms my early prediction that it could be one of the best CV’s. I’m more hype for it then LOS2.
I haven’t played POR or OOE but I loved DOS.I think I might skip POR it doesn’t look that great to me and go straight to OOE, since I love the art and I’ve read it’s really hard.
It’s a reboot (alternate universe whatever). It’s not suppose to be like anything that came before it.
Not insinuating anything here, but this is exactly the kind of thing the DmC people were saying about that game, and well, look at what we got there…
A decent game every fanboi is up in arms about because they changed the look of the protagonist?
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LOL. They did far more than simply swash a black palette on Dante’s hair, but whatever. Reboots can do one of two things: Breathe new life into a stagnant and/or dying franchise, or fail miserably and piss off whatever loyal base you once had.
I’m not saying MercurySteam’s efforts are one or the other; only time will tell on that. Sales are all companies care about anyway.
Art style? CotM was generally ugly, with blocky and muddy sprites. Or are you simply talking about the cutscene graphics, which amount to perhaps a minute in total for CotM?!
That’s a really lame reason to favor CotM over vastly superior game-play installments like PoR, DoS, AoS, and even HoD. Personally, I think level design, interesting bosses and enemies, good mechanics, and systems WITHOUT basic glitches are a much bigger deal than cutscenes that look less “anime”.
If you loved DoS, then you NEED to play PoR. I have yet to talk to anyone who actually liked DoS more than PoR; they all prefer the latter.
So what you’re saying it’s a decent 3-D action game but it’s barely got anything to do with the Castlevania I’ve known and loved for so long?