4847 replies to this topic

[Air Luigi]

SCIV is a remake just in story terms. It's a total different game by stages, enemies, bosses, music, art... The only thing in common with C1 is Simon Belmont, really.

Castlevania Chronicles is a way more faithful remake, it's based in the original stages with a lot of surprises. If you can't get into C1, it's the best way to play the original adventure.

Edited by Air Luigi, 16 July 2015 - 10:15 PM.

[HavoX]

Working on Shining Force ATM. Domingo is one of the best (not to mention the coolest) characters in the game, hands down.

 

...That is, until you get Bleu promoted (providing he's at LV. 20). Afterwards, he's an absolute BEAST.

Edited by HavoX, 17 July 2015 - 12:24 PM.

[Moonbread]

Domingo is MVP- great stats, spells, and quickly levels up.  When I was streaming it, he did most of the killing.  As for Bleu... his promoted form is cool, but at that point in the game, I don't really have patience to train him up to Level 20.  It's just so late in the game and he's so weak when he joins the Force.  He's kind of like Arthur...sure I could train up this shittacular Knight into something great, or I could just use Mae and Guntz, who are already great.  I eventually need to do a playthrough where I use the characters I tend to toss aside, though.

 

As for myself, I've been playing a number of games... Nintendo Land and Shovel Knight mainly, and some of Fallout 3 and New Vegas.  I've got plenty of other games I really need to finish, though...

[The Satellite]

Well that's Super Castlevania IV down now, gotten to sooner than I originally planned. I mostly liked it. Controls aren't perfect and sometimes had me annoyed, especially the damn stairs, but they're far, far more serviceable than the NES games. The level design was fine, and, most of the time, fair when it was challenging. I wasn't a fan of stage A though, nor its boss, especially since it hit hard enough already and the bottomless pits shouldn't be there in a game where knockback sends you flying into them. And stage B... specifically B-2... was absolutely atrocious. This is where the controls didn't always cooperate with me, and hiding spikes off screen where you can't see them is a big no. One set requires ridiculous reflexes even when you know they're coming.

 

But these awful segments are almost overshadowed by the rest of the game, which was quite solid, fun, and enjoyable. The only thing I thought was lacking was the soundtrack; Simon's Theme and the ending theme are incredible, but the rest of it was mostly forgettable and nowhere near as catchy as tunes in other games. I wasn't even a big fan of the Vampire Killer remix, which is one of my favorite Castlevania songs, but the Bloody Tears and Beginning remixes were quite good.

 

But yeah, overall solid game, and I'll still be giving Rondo of Blood a shot, but it seems to me that the Metroidvania-style games are going to be the ones for me.

[kurt91]

Rondo of Blood is a bit of a special case. It's sort of the transition point between classic-style and Metroid-style games in the series. Each level has a normal exit and a hidden exit. Each exit leads to an entirely different following level, with different bosses. The fun part to it all is that the file-select screen allows you to start at any opened level, whether they be the standard route or the alternate route.

 

The reason you would want to do this is because Dracula has captured four girls as well as your alternate playable character, Maria. By finding the (gameplay-wise, absolutely useless) Key subweapon hidden in a level, you can find and unlock the cell they're being kept in. Add in this replayability to the already-stellar level design, and you've got a really great game. (I absolutely suck at classic-style Castlevania, but I still love this game!)

 

Now for some follow-up information on the game, if you're interested. There are currently two main versions of the game. The original game for the PC Engine, which is what the Wii version is a port of, and a PSP remake with 3D graphics, and more elaborate and detailed cutscenes. The PC Engine was designed to play games off of a disc, and the original game has a full CD quality soundtrack for everything, written well enough that I actually have most of the music on an MP3 player just to listen to. The PSP version, I believe, uses the same soundtrack rather than remake the music.

 

The original game also did cutscenes by playing a separate audio track alongside the video being played. I'm not sure if there was ever an official English version, but the PC Engine version of the game has a translation patch that will also add in English audio. The fun part to this is that beating the game with Maria instead of Richter uses nearly the same video clip, but a different audio clip with more spacing between lines to keep everything in sync. Considering Maria's dialogue has a few lines that are much shorter than Richter's, the resulting silence between her and Dracula's lines leaves an effect where Dracula seems speechless in humiliation at having not only lost, but having lost to an eight year old little girl.

 

If you don't mind emulators, I would actually recommend the original PC Engine version alongside the translation patch for that very reason!

[The Satellite]

Thanks for the information, though most of it I already knew from Johnny's review of Rondo and watching James (the Angry Video Game Nerd) and Mike play it casually. I've also seen the PSP remake and it looks hideous, to be honest, though then again so do the cutscenes in the original version. I wouldn't need to resort to emulation to play it, though, as I can just grab it off the Wii Virtual Console, strangely enough.

[HavoX]

Domingo is MVP- great stats, spells, and quickly levels up.  When I was streaming it, he did most of the killing.  As for Bleu... his promoted form is cool, but at that point in the game, I don't really have patience to train him up to Level 20.  It's just so late in the game and he's so weak when he joins the Force.  He's kind of like Arthur...sure I could train up this shittacular Knight into something great, or I could just use Mae and Guntz, who are already great.

That is a great point. Guntz is awesome, but he sucks in terms in movement. (Nothing a Turbo Pepper or Mobility Ring can't fix though!)

 

I finished SF last night, and Kokichi turned out to be my MVP. He may be an old geezer, but damn, he's fast. (I still think Domingo's cool though.)

Now I'm working on Shining in the Darkness. The only problem I have with it is that it's so easy to get lost without a map...

Edited by HavoX, 18 July 2015 - 10:37 AM.

[Dawnlight]

I'm playing the PS3 version of Catherine (previously played it on the 360). This time, I'm focusing on the blondie with the boobies on my PS3 run. This will be interesting.

[Haylee]

Currently playing Romancing Saga 3 now, and man, is this game far better than RS1. Better graphics, better music, better characters, a better story, and the plot is a bit easier to find than the first game.

 

I get that the games are hit or miss, and definitely take some getting used to, but I think after playing RS1, and a little bit of RS3 before it, I'm starting to get a hang of things.

[The Satellite]

And now I've completed Circle of the Moon, and I kind of have to agree with the running/walking being kind of annoying. Heck, just a singular movement speed that isn't too fast but also not slow would have been better. Also the physics seemed a little off than what I was used to, but they're not bad, just different. I got used to them and the game went pretty well, it was more difficult than Symphony of the Night, but I was able to skirt by without much grinding. ... that was, until I got to Dracula's final form, which skyrocketed the difficulty and I pretty much had to go find some obscure enemies to grind for cards and armor to even stand a chance. That was annoying, but the rest of the game was fun, good music and gameplay, though the castle didn't flow nearly as well as Symphony of the Night's; that one I always knew where I was and where to go, but in Circle of the Moon I was almost always checking the map to see my location. I dunno. Weird thing.

 

Also the story was really generic and cliche.

 

I actually found the card system really cool, it opened up so many ways to tackle the game and provide alternate fighting methods if one wasn't working out for you. Pretty fun, though I'm aware it doesn't make a return in the main series.

[Nicholas Steel]

And now I've completed Circle of the Moon, and I kind of have to agree with the running/walking being kind of annoying. Heck, just a singular movement speed that isn't too fast but also not slow would have been better. Also the physics seemed a little off than what I was used to, but they're not bad, just different. I got used to them and the game went pretty well, it was more difficult than Symphony of the Night, but I was able to skirt by without much grinding. ... that was, until I got to Dracula's final form, which skyrocketed the difficulty and I pretty much had to go find some obscure enemies to grind for cards and armor to even stand a chance. That was annoying, but the rest of the game was fun, good music and gameplay, though the castle didn't flow nearly as well as Symphony of the Night's; that one I always knew where I was and where to go, but in Circle of the Moon I was almost always checking the map to see my location. I dunno. Weird thing.

Give Aria of Sorrow a shot or Portrait of Ruin if you liked Symphony of the Night. Maybe Harmony of Dissonance, HoD is an okay game, the physics are just uh, well, you have to play it to understand.

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 24 July 2015 - 08:48 AM.

[Eddy]

Picked up Alpha Sapphire again and started to finish what I started quite a while ago, which was to get everyone in my team up to Level 100. So far my highest is 75, so I still got quite a bit to go lol. I also went ahead and started to train up a Snivy you can get from Birch at the end of the game along with Gen 2 starters and the other Gen 5 starters I believe, making it the first Grass type I'm actually using properly (I used a Gloom through the majority of Emerald in the past, though I didn't really bother to use it that much)

[Dark Ice Dragon]

few days ago i started a game for PS3 callled White Knight Chronicles, is a good game but..i had a lot of "deja-vù" while i play...

a guy that look like judge gabranth, another guy that remind Sephiroth and some situation i already see in other games

Edit : i completed it and i cannot hide it disappoint me, too short and too easy

Edited by Dark Ice Dragon, 27 July 2015 - 01:29 PM.

[The Satellite]

Give Aria of Sorrow a shot or Portrait of Ruin if you liked Symphony of the Night. Maybe Harmony of Dissonance, HoD is an okay game, the physics are just uh, well, you have to play it to understand.

Harmony of Dissonance is next for me. Then Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. And Rondo of Blood somewhere in there whenever I feel like it. But I'm gonna try to go back and finish Wind Waker first.

[Air Luigi]

Lol, I could get sick of the series if I play all of those Castlevania in a row xD Those are so redundant...  With SOTN, Circle, Aria and Ecclesia it would be way more than enough. Good luck.

 

After having a blast with the awesome Samurai Shodown II, I'm replaying Blaster Master, so good (and unique) *.*