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StarTopic Castlevania Appreciation Thread |ST| You Belong In This World!

o.o?

I have to look it up again, but i remeber it being a per game thing
It is per game, but I'm pretty sure Bloodlines has it. Because I changed the default control scheme in the game. And now that I think about it, if most Castlevanias have Bloodines default controls, I feel like most of the games would have it? Because I absolutely hate how they map the jump and attack in Bloodlines lol, completely inversed!
 
As I play more of the series, I want even more show.

SURELY they’re adapting SotN alongside the Rondo arc right? Like how we got COD alongside CV3 in the first show.

They could do a bloodlines/portrait arc, and a Sorrow arc. Both with different settings and themes.

Tons of possibilities
 
It is per game, but I'm pretty sure Bloodlines has it. Because I changed the default control scheme in the game. And now that I think about it, if most Castlevanias have Bloodines default controls, I feel like most of the games would have it? Because I absolutely hate how they map the jump and attack in Bloodlines lol, completely inversed!
Yep, Bloodlines has it (and they didn't remove it on the collection, just took this screenshot):

2021102515575300-29DAC76F23A7892B4AE05C9C1BC67E22.jpg
 
Yep, Bloodlines has it (and they didn't remove it on the collection, just took this screenshot):

2021102515575300-29DAC76F23A7892B4AE05C9C1BC67E22.jpg
But that's on the game, and in the 8bitdo M30 those buttons are mapped to X, A and B, wich isn't ideal for that controller

R.54afb371dd1770461a431ba30cb6ea1d


I just opened the ZL menu on the Anniversary Collection and effectively, there isn't emulator level button mapping, so i can't map C to R, wich is the C button on the M30
 
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But that's on the game, and in the 8botdo M30 those buttons are mapped to X, Y and B, wich isn't ideal for that controller

R.54afb371dd1770461a431ba30cb6ea1d


I just opened the ZL menu on the Anniversary Collection and effectively, there isn't emulator level button mapping, so i can't map C to R, wich is the C button on the M30
Oh, I see. Does that controller not have alternate button layouts maybe? Otherwise you might be able to use the Switch's own remapping options in the settings, though I don't know if it works with third party controllers.
 
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This is one series I really need to dip into as I have only sporadic experience with the games and I think I'd really enjoy playing them all. Growing up in the UK, the NES was not that popular, so my first exposure was Super Castlevania on the SNES. After that, the only other 3 I've played are Castlevania 64, Lament of Innocence on PS2 and the 3DS one. I should probably buy the collections on Switch for starters.
 
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Played and finished Simon's Quest on saturday and sunday. It was the first time I tried to play through the game since it has such a bad reputation and I wasn't really expecting much. But man this game is impressive. The scope and ambition for a 1987 nes game are huge. The soundtrack has maybe 5 different tracks but they're all bangers, worst thing about nightfall is bloody tears disappearing, best thing about sunrise is bloody tears returning! This is a game I want to know inside out even though I used a guide on my first playthrough.

Will definitely play this one again.
 
I started the Netflix show

Wow it sure is violent

Also despite being genocidal, the first episode tries hard to get you to root for Dracula which is weird
Dracula is never outright evil in the show.

Keep going. It's spectacular and I can't wait for the sequel series.
 
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As I play more of the series, I want even more show.

SURELY they’re adapting SotN alongside the Rondo arc right? Like how we got COD alongside CV3 in the first show.

They could do a bloodlines/portrait arc, and a Sorrow arc. Both with different settings and themes.

Tons of possibilities
My big hope is that they eventually do 1999. I know it's one of these things where it could probably never live up to the hype but I want it in some form.
 
My big hope is that they eventually do 1999. I know it's one of these things where it could probably never live up to the hype but I want it in some form.
If they ever do the Sorrow games then I expect at the very least a flashback of 1999.
 
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FCmzyXlVcAMibYU


Beat Aria of Sorrow for the first time just a dozen or so minutes ago! Overall, really liked it. Can't say it made me more of an Igavania fan than a Classicvania fan still, but it was a nice entry into the series. In particular, it has some of my favorite memorable moments in the series in recent memory, like ...

The fight with Death, which is amazingly balanced, is a fair bit challenging though not pace-breaking like in some prior games, and the fight with Julius Belmont is amazing, one of my favorites in the entire series, the fact that the "bad" ending of the "true" ending is a variation on Symphony of the Night's iconic opening, in which in this variation you you become Dracula, is great. And perhaps the biggest surprise, this game is actually VERY non-linear, and what I love about it is you can miss upgrades and still progress pretty far, unlike in say Symphony where you will often get to pretty big roadblocks consistently without upgrades, and this even makes it so that with sequence breaking/unusual sequencing you can make the game harder for yourself by being underleveled, which I did twice and generally didn't mind (generally ..... the arena kind of sucked ass tho, though that was also bad in Symphony)

I'm not head over heels with it or anything, but wow, the highs are VERY high for me. Gonna have to replay Symphony, Circle, and Aria a few months from now and finalize my opinion on them. (Harmony ... not so much haha).
 
Quoted by: Leo
1
FCmzyXlVcAMibYU


Beat Aria of Sorrow for the first time just a dozen or so minutes ago! Overall, really liked it. Can't say it made me more of an Igavania fan than a Classicvania fan still, but it was a nice entry into the series. In particular, it has some of my favorite memorable moments in the series in recent memory, like ...

The fight with Death, which is amazingly balanced, is a fair bit challenging though not pace-breaking like in some prior games, and the fight with Julius Belmont is amazing, one of my favorites in the entire series, the fact that the "bad" ending of the "true" ending is a variation on Symphony of the Night's iconic opening, in which in this variation you you become Dracula, is great. And perhaps the biggest surprise, this game is actually VERY non-linear, and what I love about it is you can miss upgrades and still progress pretty far, unlike in say Symphony where you will often get to pretty big roadblocks consistently without upgrades, and this even makes it so that with sequence breaking/unusual sequencing you can make the game harder for yourself by being underleveled, which I did twice and generally didn't mind (generally ..... the arena kind of sucked ass tho, though that was also bad in Symphony)

I'm not head over heels with it or anything, but wow, the highs are VERY high for me. Gonna have to replay Symphony, Circle, and Aria a few months from now and finalize my opinion on them. (Harmony ... not so much haha).

Might be bias because it was my first, but Aria is my favorite Castlevania. It's perfectly paced and every moment feels amazing, plus the story and characters are the best in the series.
 
Might be bias because it was my first, but Aria is my favorite Castlevania. It's perfectly paced and every moment feels amazing, plus the story and characters are the best in the series.

I'm not too fond of AoS because the particularity of the setting. Igarashi went full anime and gave us a japanese main character, japanese love interest, a japanese Belnades (knowing that Sypha Belnades is one of the few spanish characters in the medium that aren't treated as degenerates, this one HURT), and the castle was sealed in the eclipse thanks to the powers of a japanese family.

The game released during the era where Igarashi tried desesperately to cater to the japanese audience, and it showed a lot here. It always gave me a weird feeling, and used to a series with a cast full of western characters it threw me off.

Also,
Yoko being fridged halfway in the story is total bullshit.
 
Quoted by: Leo
1
I'm not too fond of AoS because the particularity of the setting. Igarashi went full anime and gave us a japanese main character, japanese love interest, a japanese Belnades (knowing that Sypha Belnades is one of the few spanish characters in the medium that aren't treated as degenerates, this one HURT), and the castle was sealed in the eclipse thanks to the powers of a japanese family.

The game released during the era where Igarashi tried desesperately to cater to the japanese audience, and it showed a lot here. It always gave me a weird feeling, and used to a series with a cast full of western characters it threw me off.

Also,
Yoko being fridged halfway in the story is total bullshit.

I would understand this complaint if you were talking about Dawn of Sorrow, that one definitely went full on anime not just on the artstyle, but the story too.

But Aria isn't anime at all, imo, it's just set in Japan. It doesn't even feature japanese imagery except for the opening cutscene. I have no problems with the series changing setting after so many entries being in Europe, in fact, I wish the game had done more with it, because it didn't end up mattering all that much in the end.

I have lmost 0 tolerance for anime in games, but a japanese setting and anime are very different things.
 
Might be bias because it was my first, but Aria is my favorite Castlevania. It's perfectly paced and every moment feels amazing, plus the story and characters are the best in the series.
I can totally see that. Personally I think I'll always be more into Classicvania because I tend to be kind of pretentious with my games and REALLY care about level design, but Aria is definitely a really good entry and I'm glad I like both styles of games because otherwise I'd be missing out on some great titles.

What I will say though is that I actually do somewhat agree with the other commenter, honestly. Aria definitely is "more anime" and I don't mean because of the portraits, the dialogue reminds me A LOT of a TV anime. Sometimes the plot does some really cool stuff like with Julius Belmont, however overall I wasn't too into the way the dialogue was written. I think in general of the GBA games Circle has the best plot, because it's very stereotypical but also nice, simple, and "classic".

Also, took me a while to get used to the visuals, because while Harmony also has a very bright color palette, I feel out of all the GBA games Aria probably captures the horror feel of the series the least.
Which is a bit funny considering how weird and creepy the final area is for the true ending.

Still a really good game, I could see it someday being about equal to SCIV/SOTN for me.
 
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I would understand this complaint if you were talking about Dawn of Sorrow, that one definitely went full on anime not just on the artstyle, but the story too.

But Aria isn't anime at all, imo, it's just set in Japan. It doesn't even feature japanese imagery except for the opening cutscene. I have no problems with the series changing setting after so many entries being in Europe, in fact, I wish the game had done more with it, because it didn't end up mattering all that much in the end.

I have lmost 0 tolerance for anime in games, but a japanese setting and anime are very different things.
It's a japan focused story, with some nonsensical japanese characters (why a japanese Belnades?) Alucard passing as a japanese government agent for some reason, power of friendship trope, main character fighting agaisnt his destiny, a "the chosen one" kind of story and
Dracula reincarnating in some japanese boy
for some reason.

Sorry man, but art style aside the game is shonen as fuck and clearly oriented to attract the japanese audience.

Wich really isn't a bad thing, but honestly it feels pretty blatant for me. I love the game, but story feels pretty meh to me.
 
It's a japan focused story, with some nonsensical japanese characters (why a japanese Belnades?) Alucard passing as a japanese government agent for some reason, power of friendship trope, main character fighting agaisnt his destiny, a "the chosen one" kind of story and
Dracula reincarnating in some japanese boy
for some reason.

Sorry man, but art style aside the game is shonen as fuck and clearly oriented to attract the japanese audience.

Wich really isn't a bad thing, but honestly it feels pretty blatant for me. I love the game, but story feels pretty meh to me.

Well it's been a minute since I last played it, so I don't really remember the dialogue, only the overarching plot, so you might be right. I do remember the dialogue in DoS was very cringey and the whole successor candidates thing with those two dorks was definitely very anime. Luckily the plot doesn't really matter in these games and gameplay wise they're both amazing.
 
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It's a japan focused story, with some nonsensical japanese characters (why a japanese Belnades?) Alucard passing as a japanese government agent for some reason, power of friendship trope, main character fighting agaisnt his destiny, a "the chosen one" kind of story and
Dracula reincarnating in some japanese boy
for some reason.

Sorry man, but art style aside the game is shonen as fuck and clearly oriented to attract the japanese audience.

Wich really isn't a bad thing, but honestly it feels pretty blatant for me. I love the game, but story feels pretty meh to me.
The part where you
randomly get a message from your "friends", including the shopkeeper of all people for some fucking reason, about how they all believe in you before the final boss is really funny and reminded me a lot of the TV ending to Evangelion 😂
 
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I feel like I must be close to the end of Aria. I have all three books, I have all three souls the books hint to, and I just got the Great Bat soul. About how much further do I have to go?
 
I feel like I must be close to the end of Aria. I have all three books, I have all three souls the books hint to, and I just got the Great Bat soul. About how much further do I have to go?
Not long.

Probably at 85% of finishing it.
 
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Alright, finished the Aria of Sorrow! Turns out I was actually really, really close to the “final” boss when I asked how much game was left, haha.

Overall I’d say I really enjoyed it. I’ve never played a 2D Castlevania before, but all my Metroid experience made me feel immediately comfortable and happy here. The souls system is a cool way to mix up the combat, and I also enjoyed the leveling system. I might have enjoyed it a little too much, because I feel like I was over leveled for the endgame! I was level 50 going in to the last few fights, and I feel like I steamrolled my way to the credits.

I’m interested to play the other two GBA games in the collection, even if they’ve got a reputation of being not as good as AoS. And I’d really like to play Symphony of the Night. Where’s the Switch port? 😉
 
So I finished my first Castlevania game tonight! It was the first NES game on the Castlevania Collection. I cheapened out towards the end with save states but I would saw that the final boss is very beatable without having to super cheese your way through it. That long hallway in stage 15 with the flying heads and knights was utter BS. I'm sorry but save states were absolutely necessary.

Gonna take a break since I have a mountain of other games I'm juggling at the moment but I plan on giving Super Castlevania IV another shot (think I stopped on stage 4)

Edit: Out of curiosity how tough is 2 and 3 compared to 1? I vaguely remember hearing that 3 was stupid tough.
 
Alright, finished the Aria of Sorrow! Turns out I was actually really, really close to the “final” boss when I asked how much game was left, haha.

Overall I’d say I really enjoyed it. I’ve never played a 2D Castlevania before, but all my Metroid experience made me feel immediately comfortable and happy here. The souls system is a cool way to mix up the combat, and I also enjoyed the leveling system. I might have enjoyed it a little too much, because I feel like I was over leveled for the endgame! I was level 50 going in to the last few fights, and I feel like I steamrolled my way to the credits.

I’m interested to play the other two GBA games in the collection, even if they’ve got a reputation of being not as good as AoS. And I’d really like to play Symphony of the Night. Where’s the Switch port? 😉
Did you go to the Chaos realm?

If you have a PS4 you can get SotN there.
 
So I finished my first Castlevania game tonight! It was the first NES game on the Castlevania Collection. I cheapened out towards the end with save states but I would saw that the final boss is very beatable without having to super cheese your way through it. That long hallway in stage 15 with the flying heads and knights was utter BS. I'm sorry but save states were absolutely necessary.

Gonna take a break since I have a mountain of other games I'm juggling at the moment but I plan on giving Super Castlevania IV another shot (think I stopped on stage 4)

Edit: Out of curiosity how tough is 2 and 3 compared to 1? I vaguely remember hearing that 3 was stupid tough.

I get the feeling you didn't fully play Aria.

Did you equip the three specific souls? Did the game continue after defeating Graham?
 
Finally going back to Rondo and doing the alternate stages.

Are these supposed to be parallel in difficulty to their main counterparts (I.e. 2 and 2’ are the same difficulty)

Because I just beat 2’ (Bone Golem route) and it wasn’t too bad at all.
 
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Update: Finished all the alternate bosses and got to stage 5’

Yeah Rondo is even better than I remember it. Every stage is memorable - great pixel art, cool moments and what feels like psuedo setpieces, extremely tight level design, fun bosses, and a unique piece of music for every stage and ALL of them slap.

crazy how the requiem pack is the best classicvania and Metroidvania. It’s a fucking great place to start on the series, and I’d recommend anyone with a PS4 get it
 
crazy how the requiem pack is the best classicvania and Metroidvania
Nah, i disagree with that. Personally i find 3 better than Rondo, Rondo feels a little too convoluted for me when it comes to the maidens' rescue.

Regarding Symphony, i find the DS trio to be vastly superior
 
Seeing CV 1 and 3 reminded me so much of Parish's anatomy of games series where he focused on both games in great deal. His analyses made me appreciate the games much more from a creative perspective while I was only enjoying them before in term of entertainment value. Fortunately he continued covering other games on his YouTube channel.
 
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I may end up sharing the same opinion if I ever actually was able to play the DS games

: (

This is one of the cases when i outright suggest to emulate them.

They are ridiculously expensive and hard to find in the second hand market, Konami isn't providing any means to replay them, and we're subject to the possibility of a third collection, wich isn't a certainity.
 
This is one of the cases when i outright suggest to emulate them.

They are ridiculously expensive and hard to find in the second hand market, Konami isn't providing any means to replay them, and we're subject to the possibility of a third collection, wich isn't a certainity.

I wish I could find my Castlevania DS games. Outside of Portrait of Ruin with the 20th anniversary box, the rest are missing. I think they were either misplaced in a move or my roommate took them. :(
 
A bit confused on Aria’s Julius mode. Is there like… no Metroidvania progression here? What’s my goal?
It's like Richter mode in Symphony of the Night. No story whatsoever, just have fun with Julius

I wish I could find my Castlevania DS games. Outside of Portrait of Ruin with the 20th anniversary box, the rest are missing. I think they were either misplaced in a move or my roommate took them. :(

Oh my god that hurts, that hurts a lot :(
 
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I.... I can't get past the freaking clocktower in Castlevania III what is wrong with me I used to be like genius in this game 😭😭😭😭
 
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So has anyone here played Castlevania: Chronicles?

I was enjoying the game last night as a first-time player, until I reached the clocktower level. By that point, I became so frustrated with the game that even fair level design was getting me super salty and triggered.

I have to say this is probably the most unfun Castlevania game I've ever played, which is weird to say because it's just a remake of Castlevania 1, a game I LOVE. A more inviting version for newcomers perhaps, given it's more advanced presentation. In reality, besides maybe Death without the right sub-weapons, nothing in Castlevania 1 is as frustrating as a few selects parts of this game.

Some of its biggest issues are:

-In Arranged Mode, the game has the worst audio mixing I've ever heard in a console game. The select file menu is literally some of the loudest earrape I've experienced in a game. To be fair, that menu in particular is a bit loud in the non-Arranged mode too, but the entire OST is just overly loud, save maybe like the second and third level in Arranged mode. I can only assume this is random loudness wars bullshit.

-The raft sequence makes the player die as soon as the player's feet or lower legs are below the auto scroll, which if I recall correctly is not how games of this era of Castlevania designed their auto scrolling (would have to try Bloodlines's tower stage again to make sure). This means that getting off the raft and platforming out of danger is harder than it should be since even if you're standing on a solid platform, the moment it isn't on the auto-scroll you're instantly dead, instead of the game just acknowledging a platform is there. This is similar to the older games I'm pretty sure, but it's something that should have been smoothed out because whatever auto scrolling there was in those games wasn't nearly as memorable for being bad as this is (in fact I can't even remember if there was auto scrolling, whereas in this game it will be burned into my existence forever). This sequence isn't actually that hard, but it's annoying it even happens like that.

-The game uses the control scheme of the early Castlevanias, and implements the wrong quality of life improvements. For example, your jump direction can be slightly changed in mid-air. Guess what there is almost none of in this game? Deaths from falls. Another example is that in Arranged mode, there is no knockback. Again, guess what there is almost none of in this game? Deaths from falls as stated earlier, and thus deaths from knockback (both versions have pretty generous invincibility frames when hit, so it's not like knockback kills you in that way). Knockback and jump curves weren't even that bad in the NES trilogy, this was something that was meme'd too hard imo and had more to do with learning a level than anything. So the fact that they implemented those changes, but not stuff like being able to jump onto stairs, or being able to change directions on stairs quickly, or jumping while on stairs, etc. is incredibly frustrating.

-I swear the game eats inputs, specifically while on or near stairs (which if I recall correctly, was also something that occasionally happened with 1).

-The music is just generally not that good, with the Arranged mode in particular having though I will admit that a few stages have great songs.

-This is probably a player to player thing, but this is the only Classicvania game I've played where it can generally be hard to tell where to go. There's one part where it looks like you can go left because enemies spawn from there and you can destroy a stalactite. You can't, I think that's just an alternate way to get to the same area. What you actually have to do is go to the right and wait for a raft .................................................. for some reason? There's also another part of the game where an ice floor needs to break, but you don't know how to break it or why it ends up breaking. It just ... eventually does? Leaving you confused as to how to speed up the process or why it works the way it does, and initially, leaving you confused as to where to go. There's even a part where you don't know there's a platform under the current screen because the screen just doesn't scroll down. These are admittedly a bit nitpicky but still, I don't know how you fuck up player directing so bad in a linear sidescroller like this.

This game really deserves a special section of its own just for traps, though:

-The floor spike trap. Why?

-The fleaman trap. Why? One of the worst things in a Classicvania game. It's like a bad version of REmake, where they change things around to fuck with old time players, but it's just unfairly stupid. Luckily in the first stage which is otherwise pretty easy, and easy to avoid once you know it's there, so not too ba, bad, but still awful design.

-I don't know if this is really a "trap" as much as just purposely fucking with the player, but the enemies having an attack that spreads fire across the floor in the second to last level (?), while said floor is already on fire, thus making it hard to see the attack ... well ... it's ... questionable design, to say the least.

-The clock tower level is by far the most unfair thing I've seen in a Castlevania game. It's absolutely insane how bad some of the gear traps are. We're reaching classic Sonic levels of "the traps being above your head is supposed to make you carefully traverse the environment", only in Sonic that excuse is made less bad by how inconsequential losing health is in Sonic, you just get new ring(s). In Castlevania, this is just downright unacceptable. Seriously.

And none of this is even mentioning that the game is on the PS1. That means that you get pretty consistent loading screens that are somewhat long, as well as the slowest map traversal animation between levels for Simon for no apparent reason, and even bosses which effectively freeze the game for 3 seconds while the boss loads.

The sad thing is, the game despite its flaws is probably still a decent game, because it is Castlevania 1 after all. It's hard to make that outright bad. But the clocktower, as well as being assured by a friend that "the game is actually super easy, bro!" when I know for a fact they had a hard ass time with the game the first try, just made me quit it. I wasn't having fun by the end of the Clocktower stage, even when the game wasn't giving me trouble.

Out of curiosity, I checked the non-Arranged mode and got almost as far as I got in Arranged to see the differences, since this friend said the game was "only hard because he was playing on the non-Arranged mode". Turns out, the only difference I can find is the knockback ... which you never die from really, and is only a problem on the raft or the doll stage. After seeing him livestream his first playthrough of the game and seeing how much he raged at non-Arranged mode, I feel like I've been effectively trolled into thinking I'm just bad at the game, when the reality is the game itself is just very bullshit or dumb at times, no matter what mode you pick.

I'll try to pick it up a few months from now and finish it, I'd like to beat it because there are nuggets of good in there, but I'm just disheartened at how disappointing the experience has been. As much grievances as I have with IV, that game is a way better """remake""" of 1.
 
So has anyone here played Castlevania: Chronicles?

I was enjoying the game last night as a first-time player, until I reached the clocktower level. By that point, I became so frustrated with the game that even fair level design was getting me super salty and triggered.

I have to say this is probably the most unfun Castlevania game I've ever played, which is weird to say because it's just a remake of Castlevania 1, a game I LOVE. A more inviting version for newcomers perhaps, given it's more advanced presentation. In reality, besides maybe Death without the right sub-weapons, nothing in Castlevania 1 is as frustrating as a few selects parts of this game.

Some of its biggest issues are:

-In Arranged Mode, the game has the worst audio mixing I've ever heard in a console game. The select file menu is literally some of the loudest earrape I've experienced in a game. To be fair, that menu in particular is a bit loud in the non-Arranged mode too, but the entire OST is just overly loud, save maybe like the second and third level in Arranged mode. I can only assume this is random loudness wars bullshit.

-The raft sequence makes the player die as soon as the player's feet or lower legs are below the auto scroll, which if I recall correctly is not how games of this era of Castlevania designed their auto scrolling (would have to try Bloodlines's tower stage again to make sure). This means that getting off the raft and platforming out of danger is harder than it should be since even if you're standing on a solid platform, the moment it isn't on the auto-scroll you're instantly dead, instead of the game just acknowledging a platform is there. This is similar to the older games I'm pretty sure, but it's something that should have been smoothed out because whatever auto scrolling there was in those games wasn't nearly as memorable for being bad as this is (in fact I can't even remember if there was auto scrolling, whereas in this game it will be burned into my existence forever). This sequence isn't actually that hard, but it's annoying it even happens like that.

-The game uses the control scheme of the early Castlevanias, and implements the wrong quality of life improvements. For example, your jump direction can be slightly changed in mid-air. Guess what there is almost none of in this game? Deaths from falls. Another example is that in Arranged mode, there is no knockback. Again, guess what there is almost none of in this game? Deaths from falls as stated earlier, and thus deaths from knockback (both versions have pretty generous invincibility frames when hit, so it's not like knockback kills you in that way). Knockback and jump curves weren't even that bad in the NES trilogy, this was something that was meme'd too hard imo and had more to do with learning a level than anything. So the fact that they implemented those changes, but not stuff like being able to jump onto stairs, or being able to change directions on stairs quickly, or jumping while on stairs, etc. is incredibly frustrating.

-I swear the game eats inputs, specifically while on or near stairs (which if I recall correctly, was also something that occasionally happened with 1).

-The music is just generally not that good, with the Arranged mode in particular having though I will admit that a few stages have great songs.

-This is probably a player to player thing, but this is the only Classicvania game I've played where it can generally be hard to tell where to go. There's one part where it looks like you can go left because enemies spawn from there and you can destroy a stalactite. You can't, I think that's just an alternate way to get to the same area. What you actually have to do is go to the right and wait for a raft .................................................. for some reason? There's also another part of the game where an ice floor needs to break, but you don't know how to break it or why it ends up breaking. It just ... eventually does? Leaving you confused as to how to speed up the process or why it works the way it does, and initially, leaving you confused as to where to go. There's even a part where you don't know there's a platform under the current screen because the screen just doesn't scroll down. These are admittedly a bit nitpicky but still, I don't know how you fuck up player directing so bad in a linear sidescroller like this.

This game really deserves a special section of its own just for traps, though:

-The floor spike trap. Why?

-The fleaman trap. Why? One of the worst things in a Classicvania game. It's like a bad version of REmake, where they change things around to fuck with old time players, but it's just unfairly stupid. Luckily in the first stage which is otherwise pretty easy, and easy to avoid once you know it's there, so not too ba, bad, but still awful design.

-I don't know if this is really a "trap" as much as just purposely fucking with the player, but the enemies having an attack that spreads fire across the floor in the second to last level (?), while said floor is already on fire, thus making it hard to see the attack ... well ... it's ... questionable design, to say the least.

-The clock tower level is by far the most unfair thing I've seen in a Castlevania game. It's absolutely insane how bad some of the gear traps are. We're reaching classic Sonic levels of "the traps being above your head is supposed to make you carefully traverse the environment", only in Sonic that excuse is made less bad by how inconsequential losing health is in Sonic, you just get new ring(s). In Castlevania, this is just downright unacceptable. Seriously.

And none of this is even mentioning that the game is on the PS1. That means that you get pretty consistent loading screens that are somewhat long, as well as the slowest map traversal animation between levels for Simon for no apparent reason, and even bosses which effectively freeze the game for 3 seconds while the boss loads.

The sad thing is, the game despite its flaws is probably still a decent game, because it is Castlevania 1 after all. It's hard to make that outright bad. But the clocktower, as well as being assured by a friend that "the game is actually super easy, bro!" when I know for a fact they had a hard ass time with the game the first try, just made me quit it. I wasn't having fun by the end of the Clocktower stage, even when the game wasn't giving me trouble.

Out of curiosity, I checked the non-Arranged mode and got almost as far as I got in Arranged to see the differences, since this friend said the game was "only hard because he was playing on the non-Arranged mode". Turns out, the only difference I can find is the knockback ... which you never die from really, and is only a problem on the raft or the doll stage. After seeing him livestream his first playthrough of the game and seeing how much he raged at non-Arranged mode, I feel like I've been effectively trolled into thinking I'm just bad at the game, when the reality is the game itself is just very bullshit or dumb at times, no matter what mode you pick.

I'll try to pick it up a few months from now and finish it, I'd like to beat it because there are nuggets of good in there, but I'm just disheartened at how disappointing the experience has been. As much grievances as I have with IV, that game is a way better """remake""" of 1.
It’s not a great game, I only have it because it’s a pretty rare find and something I managed to pick it up over a decade ago. Your frustrations with it are totally warranted, it didn’t review well either.
 
So has anyone here played Castlevania: Chronicles?

I was enjoying the game last night as a first-time player, until I reached the clocktower level. By that point, I became so frustrated with the game that even fair level design was getting me super salty and triggered.

I have to say this is probably the most unfun Castlevania game I've ever played, which is weird to say because it's just a remake of Castlevania 1, a game I LOVE. A more inviting version for newcomers perhaps, given it's more advanced presentation. In reality, besides maybe Death without the right sub-weapons, nothing in Castlevania 1 is as frustrating as a few selects parts of this game.

Some of its biggest issues are:

-In Arranged Mode, the game has the worst audio mixing I've ever heard in a console game. The select file menu is literally some of the loudest earrape I've experienced in a game. To be fair, that menu in particular is a bit loud in the non-Arranged mode too, but the entire OST is just overly loud, save maybe like the second and third level in Arranged mode. I can only assume this is random loudness wars bullshit.

-The raft sequence makes the player die as soon as the player's feet or lower legs are below the auto scroll, which if I recall correctly is not how games of this era of Castlevania designed their auto scrolling (would have to try Bloodlines's tower stage again to make sure). This means that getting off the raft and platforming out of danger is harder than it should be since even if you're standing on a solid platform, the moment it isn't on the auto-scroll you're instantly dead, instead of the game just acknowledging a platform is there. This is similar to the older games I'm pretty sure, but it's something that should have been smoothed out because whatever auto scrolling there was in those games wasn't nearly as memorable for being bad as this is (in fact I can't even remember if there was auto scrolling, whereas in this game it will be burned into my existence forever). This sequence isn't actually that hard, but it's annoying it even happens like that.

-The game uses the control scheme of the early Castlevanias, and implements the wrong quality of life improvements. For example, your jump direction can be slightly changed in mid-air. Guess what there is almost none of in this game? Deaths from falls. Another example is that in Arranged mode, there is no knockback. Again, guess what there is almost none of in this game? Deaths from falls as stated earlier, and thus deaths from knockback (both versions have pretty generous invincibility frames when hit, so it's not like knockback kills you in that way). Knockback and jump curves weren't even that bad in the NES trilogy, this was something that was meme'd too hard imo and had more to do with learning a level than anything. So the fact that they implemented those changes, but not stuff like being able to jump onto stairs, or being able to change directions on stairs quickly, or jumping while on stairs, etc. is incredibly frustrating.

-I swear the game eats inputs, specifically while on or near stairs (which if I recall correctly, was also something that occasionally happened with 1).

-The music is just generally not that good, with the Arranged mode in particular having though I will admit that a few stages have great songs.

-This is probably a player to player thing, but this is the only Classicvania game I've played where it can generally be hard to tell where to go. There's one part where it looks like you can go left because enemies spawn from there and you can destroy a stalactite. You can't, I think that's just an alternate way to get to the same area. What you actually have to do is go to the right and wait for a raft .................................................. for some reason? There's also another part of the game where an ice floor needs to break, but you don't know how to break it or why it ends up breaking. It just ... eventually does? Leaving you confused as to how to speed up the process or why it works the way it does, and initially, leaving you confused as to where to go. There's even a part where you don't know there's a platform under the current screen because the screen just doesn't scroll down. These are admittedly a bit nitpicky but still, I don't know how you fuck up player directing so bad in a linear sidescroller like this.

This game really deserves a special section of its own just for traps, though:

-The floor spike trap. Why?

-The fleaman trap. Why? One of the worst things in a Classicvania game. It's like a bad version of REmake, where they change things around to fuck with old time players, but it's just unfairly stupid. Luckily in the first stage which is otherwise pretty easy, and easy to avoid once you know it's there, so not too ba, bad, but still awful design.

-I don't know if this is really a "trap" as much as just purposely fucking with the player, but the enemies having an attack that spreads fire across the floor in the second to last level (?), while said floor is already on fire, thus making it hard to see the attack ... well ... it's ... questionable design, to say the least.

-The clock tower level is by far the most unfair thing I've seen in a Castlevania game. It's absolutely insane how bad some of the gear traps are. We're reaching classic Sonic levels of "the traps being above your head is supposed to make you carefully traverse the environment", only in Sonic that excuse is made less bad by how inconsequential losing health is in Sonic, you just get new ring(s). In Castlevania, this is just downright unacceptable. Seriously.

And none of this is even mentioning that the game is on the PS1. That means that you get pretty consistent loading screens that are somewhat long, as well as the slowest map traversal animation between levels for Simon for no apparent reason, and even bosses which effectively freeze the game for 3 seconds while the boss loads.

The sad thing is, the game despite its flaws is probably still a decent game, because it is Castlevania 1 after all. It's hard to make that outright bad. But the clocktower, as well as being assured by a friend that "the game is actually super easy, bro!" when I know for a fact they had a hard ass time with the game the first try, just made me quit it. I wasn't having fun by the end of the Clocktower stage, even when the game wasn't giving me trouble.

Out of curiosity, I checked the non-Arranged mode and got almost as far as I got in Arranged to see the differences, since this friend said the game was "only hard because he was playing on the non-Arranged mode". Turns out, the only difference I can find is the knockback ... which you never die from really, and is only a problem on the raft or the doll stage. After seeing him livestream his first playthrough of the game and seeing how much he raged at non-Arranged mode, I feel like I've been effectively trolled into thinking I'm just bad at the game, when the reality is the game itself is just very bullshit or dumb at times, no matter what mode you pick.

I'll try to pick it up a few months from now and finish it, I'd like to beat it because there are nuggets of good in there, but I'm just disheartened at how disappointing the experience has been. As much grievances as I have with IV, that game is a way better """remake""" of 1.

Never been a fan of Chronicles

It was a good way of bringing a lost Castlevania to the west, but it really is a frustrating experience. Soundtrack doesn't feel good overall for me, and it's harder just because.

In fact, sometimes it made me feel like the game is mocking the player (like that point on the first level where there should be a wall chicken, but breaking the wall summons a group of fleamen instead) and i fucking hate that.

And yeah, the arrange version is badly thought
 
Man, I always feel bad when I die in SOTN because the internet always says it’s easy.

But y’all this game has some moments! A couple times where I died and my last save was like a while ago, feels bad.
 
Started Castlevania 3.

Went with the Japanese version after looking into it, seems like the concensus on the way to go right? Better music and more balanced difficulty both sound amazing to me

Yep, it's basically the director's cut (wich is ironic since it's the first version of the game). West version can be brutal at times, and since it doesn't use the same mapper as the japanese version, music is a big step down and graphics are worse in some areas.
 
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Yep, it's basically the director's cut (wich is ironic since it's the first version of the game). West version can be brutal at times, and since it doesn't use the same mapper as the japanese version, music is a big step down and graphics are worse in some areas.
it's definitely the definitive version of the game.
Don’t know what I was expecting but I actually really like the controls for this game, feels very snappy. Music is great too, just saved Sypha (didn’t realize grant would be ditched but oh well). Also not having too much trouble difficulty-wise yet though I’m aware I took what’s regarded as the easier path. Also thank god for no limited continues like Bloodlines, makes me less inclined to rely on save states

You know, I started these classicvanias because I’m still in a mood for the series yet don’t have a way to play the DS Metroidvanias, but they’re actually way more fun than I thought they’d be. The difficulty is what initially scared me off but they’re still manageable in that aspect
 
Don’t know what I was expecting but I actually really like the controls for this game, feels very snappy. Music is great too, just saved Sypha (didn’t realize grant would be ditched but oh well). Also not having too much trouble difficulty-wise yet though I’m aware I took what’s regarded as the easier path. Also thank god for no limited continues like Bloodlines, makes me less inclined to rely on save states

You know, I started these classicvanias because I’m still in a mood for the series yet don’t have a way to play the DS Metroidvanias, but they’re actually way more fun than I thought they’d be. The difficulty is what initially scared me off but they’re still manageable in that aspect

The difficulty has a pretty big spike and you'll know it when you come across it lol It's closer to the end however.
 
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It’s not a great game, I only have it because it’s a pretty rare find and something I managed to pick it up over a decade ago. Your frustrations with it are totally warranted, it didn’t review well either.

Never been a fan of Chronicles

It was a good way of bringing a lost Castlevania to the west, but it really is a frustrating experience. Soundtrack doesn't feel good overall for me, and it's harder just because.

In fact, sometimes it made me feel like the game is mocking the player (like that point on the first level where there should be a wall chicken, but breaking the wall summons a group of fleamen instead) and i fucking hate that.

And yeah, the arrange version is badly thought

Oh man ... thank you all SO MUCH for reassuring me I'm not crazy! :-D I love classic Castlevanias and a good challenge so I was feeling real bad about putting the game down (at least temporarily), but now I know I'm not the only one that at least has some serious issues with the game!

Man, I always feel bad when I die in SOTN because the internet always says it’s easy.

But y’all this game has some moments! A couple times where I died and my last save was like a while ago, feels bad.
Don't feel too bad about it. Symphony of the Night is a bit easier when you know some of the secrets of the game, but they are secrets, so. Also, it's one of the only Castlevania games I've played where dying from knockback was a reoccurring issue, weirdly enough, because the knockback is really huge in Symphony of the Night, with no/almost no invincibility frames, so you'll often knockback into another enemy. All of this is to say, it's understandable why you'd find the game challenging at times and there's no reason to feel bad.
Started Castlevania 3.

Went with the Japanese version after looking into it, seems like the concensus on the way to go right? Better music and more balanced difficulty both sound amazing to me
There's also gameplay differences between the two versions that are significant. Like from what I remember, a friend who first played American Castlevania III and hated it was SHOCKED to find out Grant's knife actually traveled across the screen. Yes - you heard that right, from what I remember being told, Grant's knife in the original American release of Castlevania III doesn't act like a normal knife. It literally just stabs enemies close to you, so a worse whip lmao.

Castlevania III's Japanese version is honestly super fair, the issue to me is just that the last few levels are poorly balanced. They get to a point where they are so long and contain a lot of devious enemy placements, that they become more monotonous without using save states. It's the kind of distinction that's hard to make - it's never really "unfair", just a bit annoying towards the end. Still, it's a really great game and I'd even say that the difficulty in the first half or so is the best difficulty balancing in a Castlevania.

Also in the other route you didn't take, there's apparently a bullshit falling block part reminiscent of Tetris. I haven't played that route, either, so I can't attest to how bullshit it is, but I imagine it's bullshit in both versions from what I get.
 


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