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 Find out about Chillstopher's first Adventure here!  : gently caress with my son and find out what happens if I get a move on...Hello everybody! It's time for the exciting, action-packed sequel to Chillstopher's slow and steady first Adventure! It's bigger, it's better and it has actual polish to it! Yes, this is from an era in games where getting a sequel could mean a vast improvement. It's obvious that the developers didn't know what to do with the Game Boy's hardware at all, and how could they, it being the first year of the console's existence? Well, it's 1991 now, the cartridge size has doubled, and Chillstopher suddenly knows how to move without having to consider his next action for half a year. He's still kinda slow but hey - it's been 15 years. He's probably got knee problems as an excuse now.  There are again four stages...to choose from at the start! While we won't get a different weapon at the end of each to defeat the next boss quicker, it's a nice thing to see because it means that if you get stuck somewhere, you can just try a different level before you get frustrated. A huge, huge quality of life improvement just for the ability to finish the drat thing is the introduction of a password system, meaning you don't have to beat the entire game in one go. And finally, a very pleasant surprise, mid-level continue points. Should have just dropped the life system entirely then imo but you can't demand that of a game from back then, of course. Hearts are now ammo again so the series superfans don't get confused or something, and health is hidden in walls (boo!). Christopher has now access to two special weapons instead of none. He doesn't instantly lose his whip powerup anymore (!!!), only after taking a certain amount of damage. Bosses still have to be activated by a weird flashing orb, but at least it's a little more dramatic this time. I found the Manual again, but no good scans of it, unfortunately. So I'll leave the link for you if you want to destroy your eyes trying to read it instead of blurry pictures. Check out that terrible pun at the start, though!  I butcher the explanation in the first video a little, so again, taken from the manual and nowhere else because I don't care if it was retconned later: Christopher has a son called Soleiyu (that's a weird choice for someone with a basic-rear end name as him, with a grandfather named "Trevor" and a grandson called "Simon", but I digress), and 15 years after Dracula was "defeated", it's time for Soleiyu's coming of age ceremony. This apparently involves him receiving the mystic Belmont family powers of "able to whip dracula into submission" and after he'll be a proud vampire hunter, which makes little sense because for all they know, Christopher took care of the vampire problem quite nicely not too long ago. But people who watched the credits to the end obviously know he didn't, so it's probably a smart move anyway. The manual claims that Dracula survived the castle's collapse by turning into mist, and that he's now trapped in that form because he lost a lot of his powers. Seeing as he flew away in bat form at the end of Adventure, that's obviously bullshit, but I never claimed the manual's story made sense. Anyway, Drac is pissed with the general situation but senses a chance to revive by using the undefined powers of the Belmonts against them. Employing the last of his strength, he transforms Soleiyu into a demon, who then Belmont-magics Dracula back alive. Drac then builds four castles overnight just because he can. Everyone is rightfully confused about what the gently caress just happened (as am I), but because Christopher was always quite a smart protagonist (seeing as he didn't want to do all of that poo poo in his first game), he figures out what's up immediately. Fueled by the powers of dadass, he takes up the whip again, finds a backpack with an axe and holy water compartment, and goes off to finish the job.  As I have hinted at in the last thread, this game is completely new to me, so I'll take this as an opportunity to do a blind run. Depending on how well I do and how much interest there is, I might do a second set of videos with practiced gameplay and - to emphasize the difference and because I honestly forgot to do this from the get-go - on the Game Boy Color version of the game. First, however, I will complete it fully blind and get feedback from you guys, so hope you don't hate me discovering things too much! If I die too often, I'll of course edit, but I think the first video is an okay amount of replaying and figuring things out. Please complain if you find it boring, though, and I'll try to improve.     Stage thoughts I Stage thoughts II Stage thoughts III Stage thoughts IV   Stage thoughts CV1 Stage thoughts CV2  Final thoughts  Composer Hidehiro Funauchi did an amazing job with the tools he was given. It's rare to hear a Game Boy game utilize the hardware so well; with just a few missteps, there's some very solid basslines and sick harmonies here. Apart from the overall quality, there's also some wonderfully fun standout tracks, my personal favourites being Praying Hands and Psycho Warrior. Definitely a classic, though personally I prefer the crazier melodies of the first game; objectively, these are probably better and more varied composition though. Opening Castle [Password] Journey to Chaos [Stage Select] Castle #2 [Stage Map] Ripe Seeds [Plant Castle] Psycho Warrior [Rock Castle] Praying Hands [Cloud Castle] New Messiah [Crystal Castle] Road of Enemy [Before Boss] Evil Gods [Boss Fight] Original Sin [Dracula's Castle Part 1] Passepied [Dracula's Castle Part 2] Soleiyu's Room Faith [Talking to Soleiyu] Chromatische Phantasie [Soleiyu Battle] Road of Enemy #2 [Before Dracula] Sons of Satan [Dracula Battle] Union [Ending] The End of the Day [Staff Roll] Simply Simon fucked around with this message at 13:38 on Jul 2, 2018 |
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May 14, 2018 08:13
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Free for more (all the fanart of beefcake Christopher I'll get for sure)
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May 14, 2018 08:14
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 Stage Thoughts
Music Opening Journey to Chaos [Stage Select] Ripe Seeds [Plant Castle] Road of Enemy [Before Boss] Evil Gods [Boss Fight]
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May 14, 2018 08:15
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Yesss, was waiting for this. At uni now so will check video later, but Godspeed, Simon. Although it looks like this is unfortunately less of a trainwreck than the first one.
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May 14, 2018 08:54
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This video was cool and I look forward to more in the future.
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May 14, 2018 09:00
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3T0q0gXapQ Feel obligated to post this video. Castlevania has amazing and groovy music, and it's know to (sorta) know why. Always excited to see a new thread from you Simon!
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May 14, 2018 09:48
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The whip is definitely faster than last time. Now we're playing Castlevania! I like what I'm seeing already, the background animation is very cool and makes pretty great use of the gameboy's criminally limited palette. The rope climbing is actually utilized pretty well with those cool jumping skeletons. I also dig the rolling eyeballs on bridges where you need to actively decide whether to whip them or jump over them and plan around the environmental hazards in doing so. The boss is also pretty dynamic and different from what you'd have seen in the NES games. The only boss in those that made use of moving platforms was the very last boss of Castlevania 3 iirc, and that fight was against a still statue that was designed as background tiles rather than a moving sprite. The game still seems to be struggling against the constraints of the tiny Gameboy screen here and there. You can see those eyeballs before the boss getting piled up on each other as you scroll past them because of how the spawning works. Still, I like what i see!
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May 14, 2018 12:14
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I'm very impressed by what they did with the ropes, yeah. It seems that for CV:TA they decided to replace the NES' love of stairs with ropes because a) no horizontal distance covered while traveling up on ropes => level design can be more horizontally constricted in general b) stairs were iffy at best in the NES games, no way they could program solid stair physics (including whipping on them) on the GB, so they threw them out...including the whipping c) easier screen transitions, unless things keep spawning where the rope is, and they just decided to throw their hands in the air on that and put invincibility items in front d) you can actually make more with ropes than stairs, at least compared to the NES games, because those just lock you onto the stairs and that is your life now, so enemies interacting with you being on the stairs will always just be a timing thing. With ropes, you can jump from one to the other, jump off at a certain point, have enemies also be on the ropes... ...of course, CV:TA never did anything really interesting, but this game already makes up for that in spades. Traversal can be super exciting like you're playing Tarzan (or Donkey Kong but let's not set our sights TOO high here), if it's smooth and you can just get going, and lo and behold, you can do that on a Gameboy. Stage 3's left-scrolling abomination in CV:TA almost pulled off that excitement factor but...Chillstopher. Honestly? The stairs in the NES games can go gently caress themselves, I think they're super garbage and absolutely unfun because oh no a skeleton walked into my hair pixels guess I'll lose health with no animation to accompany it. That's super janky. Every other review of CV:TA I read that's not "lol at this garbage" states that it doesn't feel like Castlevania because it has hearts as health and no stairs and get the gently caress out of here with that nonsense. It's thinking like this that leads to every Mega Man having Yoku blocks and quick lasers because "it wouldn't be Mega Man otherwise". Blue Labrador posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3T0q0gXapQ The video is super interesting and now I'm addicted to the channel. It helps that I know how to read sheet music - I learned to play classical piano for 12 years. What does NOT help however is that I am completely inept in actually listening to music; most of the "chords make this neat progression" stuff he talks about is super lost on me because I don't hear the chords, just the main melody. Though it for sure subconsciously influences my impression of the entire thing, so it's great to think about it. And obviously I'm into overanalyzing things, heh.
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May 14, 2018 13:44
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I think the biggest problem with stairs was that they didn't mesh well with the controls for item throwing. You gotta hold up to throw items, but up also makes you go up stairs. If you're standing between two staircases and try to use your subweapon, unless your timing is perfect you'll start going up the stairs. Same if you're already on a staircase. With how important your positioning is in these games, accidental movements like these can easily send you into an enemy projectile and get you killed. Or Richter/Simon will turn around to face up the stairs and your attack will miss. You might also try to crouch and accidentally go down a nearby staircase instead. There are some decent set-ups involving staircases in Castlevania III (a game I absolutely adore) but the way stairs were implemented just adds too much messiness to what is otherwise a solid control scheme. There was probably some kind of coding issue that made it so that they couldn't do vertical screen transitions any other way, that's usually the case with NES games.
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May 14, 2018 14:13
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Simply Simon posted:Christopher has a son called Soleiyu (that's a weird choice for someone with a basic-rear end name as him, with a grandfather named "Trevor" and a grandson called "Simon", but I digress) That's the translators not quite getting what the original writers were going for, it's actually supposed to be "Soleil". Though I guess you could argue that's an odd choice as far as this family goes, too. Maybe Christopher's wife was French?
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May 15, 2018 17:39
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I can dig the new format for the videos. Also liking the massive improvements to this game, it actually looks playable and interesting instead of agonizing. I'll still hold reservations for endgame though.
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May 15, 2018 18:30
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 Why is it so off-centered, and also why is the text closer to the picture than in the Plant Castle intro?? Stage Thoughts
Music Psycho Warrior [Rock Castle] This one's a little more melodic once it gets going, thus I like it more. Also some GOOD energy behind it.
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May 15, 2018 21:05
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Let's have a quick poll y'all while we're here together Who's the Psycho Warrior after which the level track is named?
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May 15, 2018 21:35
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Simply Simon posted:Let's have a quick poll y'all while we're here together Christopher, clearly. Did you not see how the abduction of his son turned him from slow methodical lazy gently caress into some crazy agile motherfucker? That's a psycho warrior for you.
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May 15, 2018 21:45
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Simply Simon posted:The level boss with the moves and such That's the one. Between the candle gimmick and the spider-made ropes, this is already looking like a pretty good CV in its own right - very inventive stuff here.
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May 16, 2018 00:27
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Simply Simon posted:Let's have a quick poll y'all while we're here together Let's consider this carefully. As we all know, a psycho has a number of clearly defined symptoms. 1) Unable to accept the facts as they are presented. 2) Experiencing high levels of stress, such that they are unable to reduce their tension 3) A berth noted for unusually high temperatures, causing insomnia 4) High levels of electrical current. Using these, we can quickly eliminate the rock (being quite able to relax) and it being inside the player, barring unusually shoddy handling of the gameboy's battery case. The boss is also much too accepting of circumstances to seem correct, moving slowly and in a relaxed manner at first. Soleiyu, being mind controlled by a curse, may qualify, but in submitting to it, he clearly acknowledges Dracula's power, accepting the facts as they are. That leaves us with Christopher and, as always, Goku. The game's protagonist may seem like a reasonable choice, despite the fact the status of his bed is unknown, but remember. The game was released during the Namek saga, when Goku 1) Defied Frieza, despite his high status and undefeated record. 2) Saw his closest friend murdered in front of his eyes, making his situation very emotionally stressful. 3) Watched the planet, and all the beds on it, ignite 4) Gained the status of the legendary Super Saiyan, which is known to have lightning effects to indicate its sheer power. It's not a definite conclusion, but from the evidence available, Goku is the most likely answer. chiasaur11 fucked around with this message at 00:57 on May 16, 2018 |
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May 16, 2018 00:47
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I think what was going on with you speeding up as you got near the top of the spider ropes was that the spiders were coming back up at that point, so the rope was coming with them? I know that doesn't make much sense with how spiders actually work, but you gotta allow them some programming limitations.
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May 16, 2018 05:43
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I'm pretty sure the spider ropes let you climb more quickly because the spiders themselves were moving back up. If you'd stayed stationary on their ropes, you would've seen Chillstopher moving upward. I'm also fairly certain that if you killed the eyeballs on the destructable bridges with the holy water, it doesn't destroy the bridge. It's been a long time since I played this one, but I'm sure I remember something like that happening. And I think your whip downgrades when you lose half your health bar. I think that's total, rather than the first time it ticks past 50%, but I was never quite sure back in the day.
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May 16, 2018 12:31
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It's Magneto. He's the Psycho Warrior.
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May 16, 2018 14:26
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I nominate ninja knife dude as the psycho warrior, what with his crazy jumping and such. Also regarding the crushers, i wonder if those midsections are destructable?
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May 18, 2018 00:28
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:And I think your whip downgrades when you lose half your health bar. I think that's total, rather than the first time it ticks past 50%, but I was never quite sure back in the day. The only things that downgrade your whip are death and being hit by punaguchi (who came up with this name anyway?) balls, it isn't tied to spedific health levels at all.
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May 19, 2018 13:28
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Nice to see you jumping on Castlevania II. I had this game and even if it's hard as hell, it was actually fun to play. You know that after this you're going to keep doing more Castlevania LPs 
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May 19, 2018 14:10
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Silent Banana posted:The only things that downgrade your whip are death and being hit by punaguchi (who came up with this name anyway?) balls, it isn't tied to spedific health levels at all. Augus posted:It's Magneto. He's the Psycho Warrior. Choco1980 posted:I nominate ninja knife dude as the psycho warrior, what with his crazy jumping and such. Guillermus posted:Nice to see you jumping on Castlevania II. I had this game and even if it's hard as hell, it was actually fun to play. You know that after this you're going to keep doing more Castlevania LPs
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May 19, 2018 14:59
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 Stage Thoughts
Music Praying Hands [Cloud Castle] After two songs I wasn't super hot about, this one blew me away, it's really good. Just fits my taste for melody, energy and "things happening" perfectly. Maybe not the best fit for a level that can be a little slow due to the moving parts you sometimes have to wait for, but that doesn't matter too much I think. Castle [Password] Just a general trend, though - one thing that's keeping this from being a very enjoyable complete package is the mismatch between stage names, actual obstacles, gimmicks IN the stages, bosses and yes, also music. While very fun to play on a room by room basis, the lack of focus hurts it a little especially in the memorability department (as does the lack of difficulty so far, tbh). Say what you will about the first game, but that was one cavey cave, one castley castle and one Ihateyoufuckoffanddie-y monstrosity. Simply Simon fucked around with this message at 21:24 on May 20, 2018 |
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May 20, 2018 20:50
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I think the Punaguchis are supposed to be acid-spitters or something, they're (briefly) in ReBirth and in that they're green and spit green blobs.
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May 20, 2018 20:54
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Stage thoughts are now up in case you missed them. Also I want to mention that I just recorded the next episode because I couldn't wait to play on, I'm super happy that this game is actually fun!
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May 20, 2018 21:57
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If I had to guess, the flashing outside was supposed to be lightning, but very poorly implemented.
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May 20, 2018 22:25
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I'm wondering if there's an FPS issue and it's actually meant to be a fog effect.
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May 20, 2018 23:18
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The pixels on the Game Boy's screen had a delay turning on and off so it would have looked foggy and indistinct on the original hardware. Doesn't translate well on Super Game Boy or other emulation though, so we just get flicker.
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May 20, 2018 23:28
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Metroid26 posted:The pixels on the Game Boy's screen had a delay turning on and off so it would have looked foggy and indistinct on the original hardware. Doesn't translate well on Super Game Boy or other emulation though, so we just get flicker. I wanted to see if they changed anything for the GB Collection, as that would be on GB Colour hardware, which probably maybe has better pixels than the original brick, but it still flickers like a motherfucker. I also found out that the chosen colours are absolutely heinous and I don't think I can make a straight LP on that version, I'd spend every room marveling at the drugs they took to make this seem an improvement over grayscale. [img]https://lpix.org/3123281/Konami GB Collection Volume 4 (E) [C][!].png[/img] This bade well already. [img]https://lpix.org/3123282/Konami GB Collection Volume 4 (E) [C][!]_000.png[/img] WELL ALRIGHT THEN (the birds are uniformly green) EDIT: [img]https://lpix.org/3123297/Konami GB Collection Volume 4 (E) [C][!]_001.png[/img] many things are green including space it seems Simply Simon fucked around with this message at 00:09 on May 21, 2018 |
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May 21, 2018 00:03
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Wikipedia seems to have at least a partial explanation. Apparently, the original versions only had Super Game Boy support, rather than GBC. It was added in for the European release, along with removing the dating sim references in the menus. So, the people picking the colors probably didn't talk with the people who made the games, and also probably worked in a hurry.
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May 21, 2018 00:34
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I think you were supposed to let that one orb fall on you by being on the next rope over.
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May 21, 2018 00:51
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 The longest stage name, the broadest picture... Stage Thoughts
 . Music New Messiah [Crystal Castle] This is very much "first stage in a Castlevania game", at least at the start. Dunno about the weird-sounding bridge. So, who's the New Messiah? The weirdass crystal wizard? Christopher again? Weird guy called Susej who calls himself the grandson of God? Simply Simon fucked around with this message at 16:37 on May 24, 2018 |
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May 24, 2018 16:33
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Pretty sure those first "ice cubes" are there to introduce you to the gimmick before putting them over bottomless pits. Game design!
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May 24, 2018 19:00
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The Holy Water in Castlevania 1 does more than just stunlock Death. It stunlocks goddamn near everything and is so overpowered it's the only subweapon really worth using regularly.
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May 24, 2018 19:29
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I think those burning guys are supposed to be like spectral knights or possessed armor. The enemy pool is really lacking and not taking advantage of you having to duck.
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May 24, 2018 20:10
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Bellmaker posted:Pretty sure those first "ice cubes" are there to introduce you to the gimmick before putting them over bottomless pits. Game design! Adamant posted:The Holy Water in Castlevania 1 does more than just stunlock Death. It stunlocks goddamn near everything and is so overpowered it's the only subweapon really worth using regularly. Scalding Coffee posted:I think those burning guys are supposed to be like spectral knights or possessed armor. The enemy pool is really lacking and not taking advantage of you having to duck.
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May 24, 2018 23:26
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Simply Simon posted:The cross is loving awesome as well though. I did lowball how broken the Holy Water is, granted.
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May 25, 2018 00:01
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This popped up randomly on my youtube recommendations and I recognized your name from the old mega man Gameboy games. I am enjoying this thoroughly and you made me sign back into SA after a few months of not really being here to tell you that. Keep it up friend.
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May 25, 2018 23:38
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Those conveyors are just 1 and done? I wonder if they were just tested in development and taken out of other places they might have been used.
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May 26, 2018 17:45
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