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Current update: Chronicles Block 8: Count Dracula's Tower I missed the boat on Castlevania. By the time I could afford to buy my own games, the series had more entries than I could wrap my head around, mostly with titles that meant nothing to me (i.e. variations on "[musical composition] of [something creepy]"). I eventually came to understand that Symphony of the Night was worth checking out, played that and loved it, but it didn't inspire me to try and deduce what other Castlevania games might appeal to me. Recently, two games that I'd never heard of came to my attention and really impressed me, so I wanted to take a deep dive and maybe bring them to the attention of others who missed them. They have no direct correlation besides being released within the same 9 month period, but I'll be going through both of them in this single thread anyway. Use spoiler tags for anything that might spoil upcoming gameplay elements in either game. There's virtually no plot to spoil, but parts of these games make for really cool surprises if you don't see them coming and I'd like to keep them that way. If you want to talk about any larger plot the Castlevania series may feature, use your own judgement if you think it might spoil someone else's experience and try to tag accordingly. Coming Soon (?):  Castlevania Chronicles  This is a 2001 release done in the style of the classic Castlevania series. In fact, it's a remake of the very first Castlevania, originally made in 1993 but never released outside Japan until this Playstation port. The '93 version appears on the disc exactly as it was when first released, but they also added an Arrange Mode with reduced and adjustable difficulty, a different design for the player character, and a new soundtrack, as well as some other minor changes. We'll be focusing on the Arrange Mode for this LP, checking out the most updated release of this surprisingly good-looking and well-designed Castlevania remake. I also recommend you take some time to watch KingEffingFrost's LP of the original Castlevania. It's a quick and highly skilled run that will give you an idea of what inspired the creators of Chronicles, and you might better appreciate the many, many things they changed along the way. Videos: (Playlist)  The Monastery The Underground Aqueduct The Courtyard The Red-Brick Cathedral The Clock Tower The Floating Corridor The Torture Chamber/Laboratory Count Dracula's TowerBonus material: Full soundtrack Illustration Gallery by Ayami Kojima Interview with producer Fiendly fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Mar 15, 2020 |
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Dec 18, 2019 01:55
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Ahahaha, only a few days after I watched SummoningSalt's history of Castlevania Speedruns, I get a pre-christmas present from Fiendly! And, of course, the cover art for the game is done by the very talented Ayami Kojima, who, along with a lot of the Castlevania covers, also did a rendition of several of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Heroes. She's a very cool artist, and I'd recommend looking up her rendition of Elric of Melnibone. Still, Castlevania, man, so much to like, so much to be frustrated about. One of the origins of my most hated foe in videogames, loving BATS (and medusa heads), Simon's power walking (Dude's gotta fill his FitBit quota for the day on his way to slay Dracula), and, of course, Castlevania's very cool monster designs. And gotchas, like the eternal fleaman hole. Looking forward to you power walking through this one, Fiendly!
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Dec 18, 2019 13:06
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I don't think I've ever seen this remake, this should be cool. On the other hand, since it's still Castlevania 1, well... good luck not throwing your controller. e: oh god the music anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Dec 18, 2019 |
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Dec 18, 2019 14:01
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JamieTheD posted:Ahahaha, only a few days after I watched SummoningSalt's history of Castlevania Speedruns, I get a pre-christmas present from Fiendly! And, of course, the cover art for the game is done by the very talented Ayami Kojima, who, along with a lot of the Castlevania covers, also did a rendition of several of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Heroes. She's a very cool artist, and I'd recommend looking up her rendition of Elric of Melnibone. That SummoningSalt video came out after I recorded the first video of this LP (which I later re-recorded to get a 60 fps recording so you can still see my sprite whenever I get hit) and I'd never watched his stuff before, and might never have had I not been in such a Castlevania mood. And Ayami Kojima's artwork is indeed amazing, we'll see a lot of it when I get to the unlockable art gallery, but I love the game cover and was disappointed I couldn't find a higher resolution image. Luckily, I did find a much cleaner scan of the PAL cover where you get to see all the detail in the piece.  anilEhilated posted:I don't think I've ever seen this remake, this should be cool. They fixed it so I can actually beat it, which is not true of the real Castlevania 1 (I tried, even with save states it's too much). They also "fix" the music, there's just the one weird sore thumb of a track (and a few others that don't really nail the CV style, but they're closer)
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Dec 18, 2019 16:19
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Beethoven is SUPER PISSED OFF at these fuckin bats and creatures of the night and hes been working out like a demon to get back at them
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Dec 18, 2019 21:22
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To be fair, they did mock the way he said he was a concert pianist. I think it was the "MWAH! G'night everybody!" that pushed him over the edge.
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Dec 18, 2019 23:25
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Beethoven is SUPER PISSED OFF at these fuckin bats and creatures of the night and hes been working out like a demon to get back at them That's pretty much exactly what they were going for. See, this is the cover of the Japanese version:  The game has two playable characters, and one of them is designed in the bishonen fashion. Americans were aghast that a man of such insufficient masculinity was front and center in their box art, so they commissioned a new cover that you might say overcompensated a bit. They completely cut the co-lead that so offended their sensibilities and made sure everyone knew they'd be playing as a roided-out beast who's gonna kick the rear end of Rick from Splatterhouse the second he's done killing every single monster in the world. Of course, the American cover, done by artist Tom duBois, is excellent, but the story of why it's so  is hilarious.
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Dec 19, 2019 01:48
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It's funny and alot of cover art of the era was similar. My favorite over the top examples are the differences between American box art for the early Breath of Fires and the Japanese. I don't remember the early 90's that well, but evidently Conan the Barbarian was in. 
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Dec 19, 2019 02:16
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Nice, another Fiendly guided tour of a game I'm not super familiar with. I'm super down.
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Dec 19, 2019 03:32
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okay but that remix of vampire killer actually slaps and no i will not be taking commentary on my post at this time
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Dec 19, 2019 23:40
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I dont know posted:My favorite over the top examples are the differences between American box art for the early Breath of Fires and the Japanese. "Can we release this game where almost everyone is a cute animal person?" America: "Cute? Nope, make them all buff and angry" "But sir, one of them is already 99% muscles, he can't be made any more buff!" America: "Then make those muscles rippling and veiny! And I better not see anything short of a scowl on anyone!" SpruceZeus posted:okay but that remix of vampire killer actually slaps and no i will not be taking commentary on my post at this time I'm careful to call the new soundtrack "controversial" because I definitely don't think it's bad, though I've seen many who do. Which version I prefer varies on a track-by-track basis, and in the case of this second level, I don't think there's even a way to compare them. Update: Block 2: The Underground Aqueduct
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Dec 20, 2019 04:44
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hey rad, a Fiendly LP! I’m more familiar with the GBA/DS installments of Castlevania, so these remakes of their predecessors (and their pretty good soundtrack, so far) fascinate me. Glad to see you’re digging it so far!
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Dec 20, 2019 08:24
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I'm excited that you are LPing Castlevania: Bloodlines! My brother and I loved that game to pieces back in the day - we had a Sega Genesis, and that was one of our favorite games. I'm curious what you'll think of it.
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Dec 21, 2019 05:03
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Spoilers: I think Bloodlines is really, really good. Also, I love the Genesis and was looking for a reason to revisit it, so when I was researching Chronicles and a similar game from that console popped up, I immediately added it to the pile. Missing Bloodlines back in the day might have delayed my Castlevania fandom by 25 years because it was the only CV game on Genesis, then I had an N64 and the less said about that console's CV offerings, the better.
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Dec 21, 2019 18:32
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Throw me also in as someone who played Symphony of the Night but never another Castlevania. Well I guess technically I played Lords of Shadow but I'm not sure that counts. Anyways here to see what I missed.
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Dec 26, 2019 10:24
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Update: Block 3: The Courtyard
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Dec 28, 2019 00:58
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Those blue ice skeletons are just loving life. It's still hard to get over that hearts aren't health.
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Dec 29, 2019 03:20
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The soundtracks continue to amaze. I'm fully expecting a reggae version of Bloody Tears to pop up next.
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Dec 29, 2019 10:46
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anilEhilated posted:The soundtracks continue to amaze. I'm fully expecting a reggae version of Bloody Tears to pop up next. Your timing is perfect, though your prediction is a bit off. What they actually did with Bloody Tears is the only thing that could have been surprising at this point. I love how the music in this game is incorrect but still really good, though. Update: The Red-Brick CathedralEDIT: Here's a video showcasing the statue at full bloodiness and the bonus item that I couldn't get for anyone curious. Fiendly fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Jan 2, 2020 |
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Jan 2, 2020 21:05
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Fiendly posted:Your timing is perfect, though your prediction is a bit off. What they actually did with Bloody Tears is the only thing that could have been surprising at this point. I love how the music in this game is incorrect but still really good, though. I don't think it is tear (as in rip) but still tear like Bloody Tears. Because English is dumb
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Jan 2, 2020 21:37
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mateo360 posted:I don't think it is tear (as in rip) but still tear like Bloody Tears. Because English is dumb Speaking of which, in Symphony and the other Metroidvanias where you can see enemy names when you hit them, those "red skeletons" aren't a British comedian, but are actually called "Bloody Skeletons".
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Jan 2, 2020 23:36
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Fiendly posted:I love how the music in this game is incorrect but still really good, though.
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Jan 3, 2020 00:03
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Presumably the original version would eventually stop spawning the skeletons but now I'm curious as to how many that would actually be.
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Jan 4, 2020 03:27
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Surely there must be an upper limit, this game was intended to run on 1993 hardware, but the video I linked depicts a fuckton of the things shuffling around. I think they pull some tricks to despawn them invisibly to save memory, I know they all vanish once you walk a bit away and they probably get rid of ones that walk off the ledges as well. I think it also saves memory when a bunch of them stack up and get in perfect sync so it's as though they are all one, which happens with a lot of them. In case anyone is still worried about that mystery Moai head that I failed to show off, I think I figured it out: my practice run was on Hard, so it must only appear on 2nd+ loops of Original and is one of the touches they borrowed for Hard Arrange. Can't imagine why they'd do this, but nothing else makes sense.
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Jan 4, 2020 04:32
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Update: The Clock Tower Are you ready to face the Scissorman? I hope not because what they've got in store for us is way better.
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Jan 8, 2020 03:28
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I like that the boss literally rips the clock apart in order to fight you from a distance instead of duking it out in melee, like you'd expect.
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Jan 9, 2020 02:28
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Commander Keene posted:I like that the boss literally rips the clock apart in order to fight you from a distance instead of duking it out in melee, like you'd expect. It is a pretty neat effect for such an old game. Don't know if its actually all that complicated but I don't remember anything quite like it from that long ago.
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Jan 11, 2020 05:47
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I feel I need to link some terrible terrible videos, mostly because I don't feel there will be another chance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZ_M0w8xKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brs6-uQMfGU May contain mild spoilers and may lower your IQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ZqSlrCVcE This one has the end of the game and is a silly approximation of a speedrunning of castlevania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuByLoeberM SugarAddict fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Jan 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 10:27
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I've been playing Castlevania since it first came out in the US market in 1986. All of these videos are completely, entirely, 100% correct in every way.
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Jan 11, 2020 17:05
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Commander Keene posted:I like that the boss literally rips the clock apart in order to fight you from a distance instead of duking it out in melee, like you'd expect. Yeah, it's intensely cool, great variety coming off of Medusa who's similar in design but melee focused, and like Kibayasu said, a technical marvel. This is among the most impressive PS1 games out there and it's literally just a port that was 8 years old at the time of release. SugarAddict posted:fan vids That last video got me, the lack of story in this game does make Simon seem like a mindless monster thresher who gives no fucks. With the popularity and legacy of Castlevania, I'm surprised by how underrepresented it is in Let's Plays. There have been plenty of CV LPs on the forums, sure, but only a fraction of the overall series has been attempted, and only a fraction of those attempts have been completed. Gives me, a complete outsider, a chance to fill some gaps, but it still seems like the sort of thing where one could expect to find a near complete history already available in the archives.
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Jan 12, 2020 05:23
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I have to share the a internet classic with y'all: THE WHIP-CRACKIN’, BUTT KICKIN’, SHADOWHUNTIN’, SLAP HAPPY, BURSTIN-AT-THE-SEAMS-WITH-INDIGNANT-ANIT-VAMPIRIC-WRATH, UNNOFFICIAL CASTLEVANIA AKUMAJO DRACULA X68000 WALKTHROUGH https://castlevaniadungeon.net/games/cvx68kfaq.html This thing was for a long time the only resource non-Japanese players had on the game, years and years before Chronicles. And it's a hoot- I imagine it's a part of the hype that led to the eventual porting- it paints a picture of just how brutal the game was, and helped build its reputation as a lost classic. (note, fully spoils game ofc) Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Jan 12, 2020 |
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Jan 12, 2020 06:44
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Fiendly posted:With the popularity and legacy of Castlevania, I'm surprised by how underrepresented it is in Let's Plays. There have been plenty of CV LPs on the forums, sure, but only a fraction of the overall series has been attempted, and only a fraction of those attempts have been completed. Gives me, a complete outsider, a chance to fill some gaps, but it still seems like the sort of thing where one could expect to find a near complete history already available in the archives. I think it's just a very fractured game series. If you (completely baseless example!) wanted to LP all classic Mega Mans, you'd get a NES emulator for the first six, a GB one for five more and only then it's SNES, PS1 and every-console-of-its-generation, or just buy a Legacy Collection. For CV, you have arcade versions, a Japan only computer, then 3 NES titles, a Genesis one, three GBs of extremely varying quality, and go completely off the rails with a genre shift for PS1, garbage 3D outings on N64, some better attempts on PS2, Wii virtual console only semi-remake of the first GB one (???), and so on and so forth. I didn't even know this one existed, and I LP'd said GB games. I wasn't aware of a Genesis CV until I saw a speedrun last year. I have never even seen the PS2 game in motion (or are there two?). I think a lot of the entries are just obscure, limited in scope and reach (what is that strange multiplayer online thing with multiple characters one? The weird art fighting game on Wii?), and also just plain bad. That means a lot of the series is spread extremely thin and hidden under a layer of region-locking, confusing history (of WHICH is this a remake again?* It's not the first! How different to Rondo of Blood is the PSP remake? Wait, is ALL of Symphony on there really...but like, the Saturn version? Some changes?), inscrutable naming schemes and so on. Really, I'm obviously interested in retro games and series evolution but it gives me a right headache. *I'm 90% sure I've seen the original of this game, but I can't recall where, on which system, and how it was called
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Jan 12, 2020 15:46
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And we didn't even talk about Kid Dracula yet...
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Jan 12, 2020 16:35
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I was just looking at a list and lol they released Rondo of Blood and Bloodlines right after another, as well as Order of Darkness and Order of Ecclesia in the same year. Curse of Darkness is the sequel to Lament of Innocence, but NOT the sequel to Legacy of Darkness. And now we're getting de facto 'vanias that are not named that at all, and I keep getting confused between Ritual and Curse of the moon, which are on the same systems, but different genres 
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Jan 12, 2020 17:15
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That Ritual takes place after Curse makes it even more confusing, as, to me at least, you'd think rituals lead to curses. The naming is weird but Curse of the Moon's existence was a stretch goal / 'we're sorry for all the delays' from Ritual of the Moon's Kickstarter, so it makes sense they'd want to keep them linked. Another problem with comprehensively covering the series is that afaik the 3D ones range from 'utter dreck' to 'ok, I guess', mostly towards the lower end of that range, so there's not a lot will/inspiration to cover them. The post-SOTN meteoidvanias get kinda samey, and since every monster has a unique drop they have more content than gameplay which presents structural problems to LPing.
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Jan 12, 2020 17:41
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I hadn't even considered that Rondo of Blood might seem related to Bloodlines because they were released just a few months apart. Mitigating that issue somewhat is that Rondo of Blood was only released in Japan and Bloodlines wasn't called that in Japan. In fact, it wasn't even called castlevania, it was just titled Vampire Killer, the same name as an MSX-exclusive game released back in 1986 that uses all the same assets as the first CV but with totally different gameplay involving finding keys to unlock chests to find items required for progress (similar to CV 2, wildly dissimilar to the 90s Vampire Killer). Researching this series is almost as hard as playing it... Oh yeah, and about Rondo of Blood, it did eventually get a global release, first as a remake called Dracula X on dramatically inferior SNES hardware, then much later as a PSP remake called Dracula X Chronicles that we'll talk more about later as it establishes that "chronicles" in the title means a remake of a Japan-only game (which never comes up again) Fiendly fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Jan 12, 2020 |
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Jan 12, 2020 17:49
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Fiendly posted:Oh yeah, and about Rondo of Blood, it did eventually get a global release, first as a remake called Dracula X on dramatically inferior SNES hardware, Unless you're in Europe, where the SNES version is called Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss instead. The Castlevania name well runs deep indeed.
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Jan 12, 2020 21:12
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Rondo is also on PS4 now in a combo pack with Symphony. I highly recommend it, even if the voice acting in Symphony has been replaced with the inferior/less corny PSP voice work.
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Jan 12, 2020 22:59
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Fiendly posted:I hadn't even considered that Rondo of Blood might seem related to Bloodlines because they were released just a few months apart. Mitigating that issue somewhat is that Rondo of Blood was only released in Japan and Bloodlines wasn't called that in Japan. In fact, it wasn't even called castlevania, it was just titled Vampire Killer, the same name as an MSX-exclusive game released back in 1986 that uses all the same assets as the first CV but with totally different gameplay involving finding keys to unlock chests to find items required for progress (similar to CV 2, wildly dissimilar to the 90s Vampire Killer). quote:Researching this series is almost as hard as playing it... But all of that was just because I randomly got talking videogames with a colleague from Russia, who of course had a jailbroken PSP he lent me, where I could put some games on I was curious about before. I would never have gotten a PSP on my own, and tend to not persevere much with emulated games if they turn out to be hard. And considering how the PSP fared in general...it's a gem of a game [collection], but how many people actually played it? EDIT: please tell me if too much of this is a spoiler which you want to address later, sorry Simply Simon fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Jan 12, 2020 |
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Jan 12, 2020 23:48
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Simply Simon posted:EDIT: please tell me if too much of this is a spoiler which you want to address later, sorry Not at all, glad to see some first-hand experience with Dracula X Chronicles as I have none myself, I'm just gonna cover what I've already said about it again at the end of the LP. I've heard the remake of Rondo is not that great, it was just run at AGDQ and first impressions seemed to be generally negative, and looking at some videos of it myself, I really didn't like the look of it. Since it has the original game included, though, there's no harm if one prefers that over the remake. I've already been asked about doing more Castlevania LPs after the ones planned for this thread, Rondo+Symphony seems like the most obvious place to take things next if I do decide to go that way and Dracula X Chronicles is the perfect way to hit them both, just too bad about it being doomed to a failed console. a cartoon duck posted:Unless you're in Europe, where the SNES version is called Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss instead. The Castlevania name well runs deep indeed. Didn't know about that renaming, although I did know about the fact that Bloodlines/Vampire Killer was called Castlevania: The New Generation in Europe for maximum confusion. Given the thousand or so CV games out there with 2-5 names each, there's all the more reason for a relatively thorough guided tour of the highlights that these forums still fall well short of providing. Speaking of, to go back a few posts... Simply Simon posted:I didn't even know this one existed, and I LP'd said GB games. I was gonna plug these at some point, seems a good time, I watched Simon's LPs of the Game Boy Castlevanias while I was preparing this thread and I really enjoyed them. In stark contrast to my approach, he knows the classic series well enough to tell you what these games are doing right and wrong at any given time. They're a great source for more of the old-school whip-em-up action (albeit slower action than usual), and one of the three Game Boy games is actually good! Castlevania: The Adventure Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge Castlevania Legends
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Jan 13, 2020 00:41
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