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Anatharon posted:Really? I liked it. Beat it but not AoS or CotM. It wasn't the bast by far but it was okay. I'm assuming this is typical goon hyperbole? Yeah, it just has a really bad reception because the music sounds like some bastard-child between the NES and the Genesis/Mega Drive, and the art looks bad because it was designed to be played on an original GBA with its lack of a backlight. It's still good, there are just many better, even on the same system.
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Nov 27, 2013 16:05
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I mean I think it's one of the worst Castlevanias, with only Haunted Castle, that stupid Wii fighting game, Simon's Quest and Gameboy ones ranking below it. And even then I'd argue for Simon's Quest and the Gameboy ones since they have more charm and better music. HoD is a garish, boring mess with a soundtrack that's painful to listen to. It isn't actively broken, but I'd rather play pretty much any other game in the series before it.
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Nov 27, 2013 16:49
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Hakkesshu posted:I mean I think it's one of the worst Castlevanias, with only Haunted Castle, that stupid Wii fighting game, Simon's Quest and Gameboy ones ranking below it. And even then I'd argue for Simon's Quest and the Gameboy ones since they have more charm and better music. I'd put it below Adventure and above CV1, myself. It controls nicely and Juste's really agile even if chaining dashes into jumps is wonky and needs to be REALLY specifically done to have any sort of speed to it.
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Nov 27, 2013 16:51
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Anatharon posted:Really? I liked it. Beat it but not AoS or CotM. It wasn't the bast by far but it was okay. I'm assuming this is typical goon hyperbole? I have a huge soft spot for HoD but it suffers from having two aaaaalmost identical castles that aren't differentiated enough to be very interesting or memorable enough that you remember which castle and where you're supposed to switch to when you get a new power. If the two castles had different layouts almost all of my major complaints would have been solved. That said collecting Dracula's body parts for permanent stat boosts was nifty and Juste's magic abilities were pretty bitchin. Plus the completely useless room you can decorate in Dracula's castle and relax in the chair as a little "yeah, I'm making this my house" to the Caped One.
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Nov 27, 2013 16:54
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It was fun enough that I think I played through it twice. But yeah the other two GBA CVs are way better. I personally liked the two layered castles and that Castle B always seemed a bit more "off" and disturbing than castle A. I also loved that there was a fuckton of bosses which were fun to fight, but pretty easy overall (the whole game is piss-easy, actually). The music wasn't bad per se, it had some good tunes that sounded horrible because of the poo poo audio quality.Hakkesshu posted:Well, that fight has the best music in the whole game, so hopefully you remember that: hell yeah, I was so happy on my first playthrough when I got to that boss: "is that... is that dracula's final form from Dracula's Curse? gently caress YEAH!" Then the dragon zombies beat the poo poo out of me until I had to cheese them.
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Nov 27, 2013 17:19
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Blackheart posted:It was fun enough that I think I played through it twice. But yeah the other two GBA CVs are way better. I personally liked the two layered castles and that Castle B always seemed a bit more "off" and disturbing than castle A. I also loved that there was a fuckton of bosses which were fun to fight, but pretty easy overall (the whole game is piss-easy, actually). The music wasn't bad per se, it had some good tunes that sounded horrible because of the poo poo audio quality. There are so many bosses and so many of them are 100% trivialized by the multi-hit magics that everytime I replay it I feel like I'm fighting some bosses for the first time again oh whoops dead in 5 seconds wonder what its attacks were.
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Nov 27, 2013 17:21
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HoD is the worst of the GBA Castlevanias, but it's still an awesome game. And it's much better than Portrait of Ruin.
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Nov 27, 2013 18:01
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Agreed Portrait of Ruin isn't terrible but it's extremely boring. Boring music, it's like the Quake I of Castlevania games as everything is gray and brown, it has boss sprites reused from Dracula X from 1993 (EVERY game including SotN does this) but with even less animation, and it's tedious that they have separate rooms for teleporting/saving/switching areas/portraits. It and Ecclesia are also the worst offenders of having areas where it's like a straight line and ten of the exact same enemy in a row. Man I'd kill for another game using Shanoa, I'd love to play a Castlevania game with her ability set that has really good level design.
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Nov 27, 2013 18:05
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HoD had a pretty nifty demon form Dracula. I dug fighting this horrible mish-mash of organs and poo poo. It was much better than CotM's "hide up on the ceiling and never actually see one of the demon forms". It was also, you know, playable on my OG GBA, so there's some fondness there.
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Nov 27, 2013 18:09
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I didn't hate PoR at all, I get where you guys are coming from with the repetitive designs and all but it was fun and didn't make me hate myself like trying to play COTM on a non-backlit GBA. Seriously I cannot overstate how terrible that was. It's possible that since I played Portrait first out of the DS games, then went back to Dawn of Sorrow. But that was still a cool game  Speaking of COTM, before the GBA SP came out, I got one of those afterburner GBA light kits. The difference was unbelievable. I actually had fun with the game. On a launch GBA, no backlight, that poo poo shouldn't have passed Nintendo certification.
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Nov 27, 2013 18:10
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Neo Rasa posted:Agreed Portrait of Ruin isn't terrible but it's extremely boring. Boring music, it's like the Quake I of Castlevania games as everything is gray and brown, it has boss sprites reused from Dracula X from 1993 (EVERY game including SotN does this) but with even less animation, and it's tedious that they have separate rooms for teleporting/saving/switching areas/portraits. It and Ecclesia are also the worst offenders of having areas where it's like a straight line and ten of the exact same enemy in a row. Ecclesia's Castlevania was pretty well done, I think. Though of course, smaller then usual.
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Nov 27, 2013 18:11
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MarsDragon posted:It was much better than CotM's "hide up on the ceiling and never actually see one of the demon forms". You sure you aren't just thinking of the glitched speedrun? (spoilers)
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Nov 27, 2013 20:36
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Juste bugged me a lot. Like really, another silver haired dude?
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Nov 27, 2013 23:19
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Social Animal posted:Juste bugged me a lot. Like really, another silver haired dude? HoD is a de-make of Symphony of the Night. That's why Juste is a lot more like Alucard than any other Belmont. More magic, the dash, the corrupted ally, and his own "inverted" castle.
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Nov 28, 2013 02:35
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Psion posted:I didn't hate PoR at all, I get where you guys are coming from with the repetitive designs and all but it was fun and didn't make me hate myself like trying to play COTM on a non-backlit GBA. Seriously I cannot overstate how terrible that was. Nah, I played PoR shortly after Dawn and still enjoyed it a lot. I understand some of the criticism but overall I think it's still an amazing and fun game. I was a bit confused when I found this thread and saw people saying it's a downright bad game. A lot of the music is actually really cool!
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Nov 28, 2013 02:43
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I will never understand what exactly makes Harmony "the worst".
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Nov 28, 2013 02:53
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I still can't find a Dracula piece in that game, I'm pretty sure I have all but one.
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Nov 28, 2013 02:55
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Mirror of Fate is the worst portable Castlevania and I won't hear otherwise. I mean if you 100% the game the only reward you get is the little cinematic of the castle crumbling.
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Nov 28, 2013 03:00
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I don't think anyone cared enough about Mirror of Fate to play it or count it in with the rest of the handheld Castelvanias. Anyway, PoR was about where I got really burned out on Castlevania. I remember having fun with it, at least. (besides selling the nun outfit before that one quest even showed up...) I need to replay it with fresher eyes, see how it actually is. Hopefully my mom can find it, since I had to leave it behind when I moved...
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Nov 28, 2013 03:26
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One part about PoR that I did find a bit silly was the weird use of random 3d effects... Like, when dracula shifts into his true form and his ridiculous polygonal wings pop out, I just couldn't take him seriously. I also chuckled when the heroes are all "wow drac and death doing a combo attack was super radical!  " after beating him.
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Nov 28, 2013 03:35
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Ka0 posted:I will never understand what exactly makes Harmony "the worst". The same thing that makes your [favorite/least favorite] Final Fantasy the best/worst ever.
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Nov 28, 2013 03:38
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I just played through the entirety of Aria of Sorrow today, and managed to get the good ending. I did have to look up a guide though, since I'd forgotten where I'd seen the first of the three books, and I didn't realise that I actually had all three of the souls I needed, after I'd looked up where to grind for them. The only other Metroidvania I've beaten in this series before was Symphony of the Night, and I've done several playthroughs of that, but I though Aria was quite close in quality. The animation and artwork isn't quite as good, but still miles ahead of the 8-bit Castlevanias or Circle of the Moon. The music didn't get repetitive, and some of the areas have really good tracks which make the most of the GBA's audio capabilities. The souls system was a lot of fun to use, although having to swap out specific ones to allow you to walk on water, or walk under water became tedious. The combat wasn't as fluid or varied as Symphony of the Night, which let you equip two things at once, cast spells, have familiars, transform into a wolf, perform hand-to-hand combat, etc. I was going to do all six portable games in order, but I decided to skip straight to Aria. I think I'll go on to Dawn next, but maybe after a break. I haven't played a game so much in a single day since The Last of Us came out, plus my hands are quite tired  E: Actually, the reason why I wanted to play through it was because I was looking up artwork for the game covers thread in PYF, and rediscovered this gallery of Yoshitaka Amano's artwork. Here's some of the ones I really liked: That loving Sned posted:That's by Ayami Kojima, also known for doing the artwork for the Castlevania games. You can find a gallery of her work here. Some of the images do not have the right link. They're all in the right order, but some like the Soma Cruz picture link to 55.jpg rather than 52.jpg, so you can just change the hyperlink in your browser. That Fucking Sned fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Nov 28, 2013 |
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Nov 28, 2013 04:14
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That loving Sned posted:
The contrast between Ayami Kojima's Simon and Obata's (Or whatever the Death Note guy's name was) Simon is really stark. Kojima's Simon is kinda effeminate while still looking like the hulking barbarian dude on the Castlevania box art, and Obata's is, well..
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Nov 30, 2013 00:57
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That loving Sned posted:Big art post Any clue who did the art for Order of Ecclesia? I really love the character portraits and concept art that I've seen.
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Nov 30, 2013 01:12
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Evil Eagle posted:Any clue who did the art for Order of Ecclesia? I really love the character portraits and concept art that I've seen. I had a look on Google, but all I found was this gallery from the same artist. It might have his/her name on the page, but the text is in Japanese.
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Nov 30, 2013 01:28
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Evil Eagle posted:Any clue who did the art for Order of Ecclesia? I really love the character portraits and concept art that I've seen. Masaki Hirooka. Also did work on Xenoblade, Sonic and the Secret Rings and Suikoden Tierkries. He mostly does CCG these days I think. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 03:22
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Is there ever any indication in Ecclesia how old Albus is supposed to be vs Shanoa? Ecclesia is only 3 people and all but Albus is 'head researcher' instead of just 'assistant' or whatever.
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Dec 6, 2013 20:10
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Anatharon posted:Is there ever any indication in Ecclesia how old Albus is supposed to be vs Shanoa? He's 24, she's 20.
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Dec 6, 2013 20:23
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ImpAtom posted:He's 24, she's 20. Huh, where was that ever mentioned? There's something I don't know about OoE, my worldview has been turned upside down. 
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Dec 7, 2013 17:16
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Anatharon posted:Huh, where was that ever mentioned? The website: http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula_ds3/character/shanoa.html http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula_ds3/character/albus.html
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Dec 7, 2013 21:16
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lord funk posted:Been wanting this for years. Castlevania II is my favorite of the series. Wandering around through the forests and underground caverns looking for towns and castles is great. You have to forgive the crappy in-game hints a bit, since it was the era of pushing Nintendo Power magazine sales. There's a rather impressive fangame called Dracula's Shadow that shows the potential for a new Castlevania in the CV2 mold. My one big criticism is that save points are too few and far between—I eventually had the game crash on me and lost over an hour of progress, and couldn't bring myself to go back to it. But if you're prepared for this possibility and really love exploring dangerous, sprawling open-world Castlevania, I recommend giving it a shot. I have no idea what the creator of this is doing now, or if fan patches would be a possibility if the interest were there, but the impression I got while playing this was that it was a few adjustments away from being an official release-quality Castlevania. If there are any other high-quality Castlevania fangames out there, I'd really like to know, as at this point the only CVs left for me are the ones I probably don't want to play at all. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 19:40
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I haven't finished it yet but Order of Ecclesia seems close to a Simon's Quest sequel, what with running all around the countryside and doing poo poo for villagers.
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Dec 8, 2013 23:40
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C-Euro posted:I haven't finished it yet but Order of Ecclesia seems close to a Simon's Quest sequel, what with running all around the countryside and doing poo poo for villagers. Shanoa herself even references the most infamous part of Simon's Quest towards the end.
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Dec 9, 2013 19:13
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Anatharon posted:Shanoa herself even references the most infamous part of Simon's Quest towards the end. Tell me it's the whirlwind thing.
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Dec 9, 2013 21:23
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Takoluka posted:Tell me it's the whirlwind thing. "I am the Morning Sun, come to vanquish this Horrible Night!"
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Dec 9, 2013 21:41
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I binged on Ecclesia pretty hard today and I have to say- that Albus fight was about as awesome as people have hyped it up to me all this time. After I beat it I definitely reset the game and copied my pre-fight save to another slot just so I could do it again sometime (and maybe not waste him so quickly with Vol Umbra next time  )Also if you haven't listened to it lately, listen to the theme again because it flat-out rules- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-lrP9mX4QQ
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Dec 22, 2013 05:48
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C-Euro posted:I binged on Ecclesia pretty hard today and I have to say- that Albus fight was about as awesome as people have hyped it up to me all this time. After I beat it I definitely reset the game and copied my pre-fight save to another slot just so I could do it again sometime (and maybe not waste him so quickly with Vol Umbra next time Ecclesia has my favorite music in the series. I can't actually remember any of LoD's music, now that I think about it. Also, you DO unlock a boss rush after beating the game so you can refight Albus all you want.
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Dec 22, 2013 10:34
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Finally got around to beating Portrait of Ruin. I thought was that was pretty awesome, really. The team mechanic was neat, even if it largely amounted to "Stop getting killed, Charlotte. I need you to spam spells but can't risk you being player 1." Sisters mode was neat too, if about as barebones as all the Castlevania bonus modes. At least it had an ending.
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Jan 21, 2014 03:29
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DeathChicken posted:Finally got around to beating Portrait of Ruin. I thought was that was pretty awesome, really. The team mechanic was neat, even if it largely amounted to "Stop getting killed, Charlotte. I need you to spam spells but can't risk you being player 1." If we ever get another proper CV game, I'd really hope the bonus modes would get some extra effort.
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Jan 21, 2014 03:30
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Has anyone had any luck preordering the special edition for LoS 2 yet? I've tried twice so far, the second time at the beginning of this month, and GameStop didn't have it as an option in their system at all yet.
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Jan 21, 2014 07:27
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