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This one might well be my favourite Castlevania (okay, SotN has that je ne sais quoi that's impossible to recapture, but this has much friendlier controls and tighter design) and I'm excited to see you guys experience it.
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Apr 7, 2022 00:05
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 10:03 |
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Honestly, Circle of the Moon is pretty good and I think people underrate it, but it's definitely one of those games that feels flawed in a few ways when you revisit it. (For instance: almost all the equipment, and less forgivably, the cards, are random drops from enemies, and the hidden secrets are all just HP/MP/Heart upgrades; a lot of it just feels kind of empty? And the environments aren't nearly as well designed as most other entries in the series.) Some parts of it feel a bit more like a proof of concept than a full game, but it's a solid enough experience and the different modes gave it a decent amount of replayability, I was really impressed with it when the GBA first came out. I'll put another vote for "get rid of the bestiary popups if it's causing problems", I don't think they add very much unless you're really enjoying doing commentary on the enemy names. Or if you find it helpful for tracking which souls you have, I guess. I enjoy the way you're trying out all the souls and using some unusual ones; it's very easy to get complacent and just use the straightforward ones, but some of the abilities are really out there in neat ways and it's fun to see them. (I don't think I've ever used Killer Fish...)
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Apr 8, 2022 01:40
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In case you don't catch it, "Cutall" is almost certainly a mistranslation of katar. That's why it's such a short-range weapon, it's a punching dagger.
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Apr 19, 2022 00:53
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Hrunting is a sword from Beowulf, though as far as I know it had nothing to do with poison in the myth. Regardless, it's definitely a good weapon, I always end up using it for a while. I'm pretty sure it ends up doing more damage against most enemies than the Estoc despite being a point weaker, thanks to being elemental? Headhunter is arguably the first "real" boss of the game, since all the previous ones come back as normal enemies, like we saw with Creaking Skull. I never tried using the whip sword against it and clearly I should have, that range advantage really neutralised most of the threat (not that it's a particularly hard boss, but the lizardman thing in particular can be a lot more dangerous if you have to get in close). Also re: Headhunter, as was previously mentioned, its ability is the one thing in the game that cares about having multiples of souls. (Not that it's worth grinding for.) Bold of you to post an update in which Soma keeps getting stoned on 04/20.
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Apr 21, 2022 00:09
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Mildly Interesting posted:The Headhunter does attack in its first phase if you get close enough, right? Anything at all? Uh, you take contact damage if you walk into her I guess? I don't think it ever makes actual attacks with the knife or anything, just walks back and forth; I'm pretty sure it's intended to be a gimme phase to lull you into complacency before the real fight starts.
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Apr 22, 2022 03:26
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C-Euro posted:There are two enemies in the Clock Tower that are worth grinding for their Soul drops IMO, but I'll let you figure out which ones they are Honestly I'm shocked in general at what awful luck they're having with soul drops, and I'm tempted to encourage a bit of grinding even though that might mess with the pacing of the LP. That said, I'm having a hard time remembering whether this is closer to the typical experience, because when I play this I'm generally in the habit of grinding a bit here and there as I go, especially for the souls I know are good.
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Apr 24, 2022 15:37
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While the ones in Castlevania tend to be drawn fairly lean, there are an awful lot of fluffy bat species, I'm sure we could find one that matched Soma's coat if we looked enough. I almost always end up defaulting to Lightning Doll once I'm past the Clock Tower. I'm not sure if I ever tried Nightmare, honestly, but it seems pretty good!
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Apr 30, 2022 04:47
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theshim posted:Nightmare is great but I'm still sad we never picked up the Student Witch soul... I'm wondering how many different animal-throwing souls there are now. I'm pretty sure I remember being able to throw birds, too, maybe that was Blue Crow?
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May 1, 2022 03:26
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I will admit, I honestly don't like most of the overhead swinging weapons either (Ascalon in particular I'm not a huge fan of, with how short it is), they just feel awkward to me a lot of the time. There is one I use a fair amount that's a hard mode exclusive (Death's Scythe has a lot of range on it, so it's a bit different), but the weapon I use most in this portion of the game is one they didn't end up finding (Mystletainn, which IIRC is in the clock tower somewhere, has a very similar speed, style, and range to Hrunting but a better element). And then, of course, there's the Claiomh Solais which is so good it's worth using in spite of being an overhead weapon. Balore's kind of a weird boss, the old "head and hands boss" is a huge cliche but this is the only time I can think of Castlevania doing it. It's very claustrophobic and you don't have a lot of room to dodge (honestly, this is definitely one I always end up needing a lot of potions for).
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May 7, 2022 05:07
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Honestly, I never cared for Balmung either, it just feels awkward to use (but then, I also rarely buy Ascalon). I usually end up using Laevateinn for a while, though, that's a good one. I almost never sell old weapons in this game, though, because a lot of them do end up being just situational enough that you want to be able to switch. (In other things, with all the pain you went through in the conveyor room, did you try using the Medusa head soul in there? I often find that helps.)
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May 10, 2022 02:33
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Since I doubt it's going to come up in the LP: there are a few other guns in the game that are more viable damage-wise, but they're awkward to actually use and not available to a normal playthrough. There's the Silver Gun, a Hard Mode exclusive that's a stronger clone of this one. And the ludicrously strong Positron Rifle, which gets added to your file if you beat Boss Rush mode with a good enough time (which is, of course, only possible after completing the game). I think it's only really practical to use firearms in NG+ unfortunately. Edit: oh, forgot to mention. I'm not sure if it came up in the thread before, but the "exchange student" thing was a localisation change. In the Japanese script, Soma is Japanese (Kurusu Souma), which makes the logistics of his childhood friendship with Mina a lot simpler. Although it makes his katana technique even harder to explain... Explopyro fucked around with this message at 16:00 on May 15, 2022 |
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May 15, 2022 14:51
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"Satan's Ring" is another mistranslation, sadly. The Japanese text is something like "Dark Lord's Ring"; it's not hard to see how the localisers ended up on Satan from that, but "Dark Lord" in Castlevania always means Dracula. It's Dracula's ring, the same one that gets used as a McGuffin whenever one of these games decides we need to collect a bunch of relics of Dracula (e.g. in SotN, I know it was also in Castlevania II, maybe a few others? I don't know the whole series). So, on the one hand, it's a neat continuity nod to be finding this again even if it's only a mediocre piece of equipment this time around, and it's a shame to lose that. On the other hand, Satan's Ring is significantly more hardcore. I'm not sure which version I like better.
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May 16, 2022 23:57
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"Tallhammer" is another weird translation, it's supposed to be Mjolnir (I think they wrote 'Thor hammer' and then had an L/R transposition thing happen). Claiomh Solais is completely busted, for most of the reasons you've outlined, but also because it has Holy element on it so it hits weakness damage on nearly everything. They piled so much onto this weapon that you barely even notice it being an overhead swing (and in this case it's even a benefit, the area it covers is ludicrous). Tea, thank you for not being subtle, I suspect Nat's had quite enough frustration in this LP already.
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May 21, 2022 03:55
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One fun little thing is that, with the 3 "correct" souls equipped, you can actually use the Flame Demon ability to shoot fireballs while in bat form (but only with all three, it doesn't work if you swap out Succubus). Also, you can use the Bat soul as a bat. Most people struggle more than this with Julius at first (but, admittedly, I never thought of using Death, it's kind of shocking how well that countered him). He's fast, he hits hard, and his whip outranges most of Soma's melee weapons, so I think the usual strategy is to time your hits to punish him during the recovery animation after he swings. And yes, Julius resists holy, so this is the one fight where Claimh Solais is a bad idea; Kaladbolg is generally considered the best weapon to use against him. Still, this is one of the highlights of this game, both story and gameplay-wise. It's Dracula vs Belmont, but you're playing it in reverse! (Also, Julius has an awesome battle theme.) I also like how, if you read between the lines, this game's story is Alucard trying an outlandish plan to give his father a second chance, and actually succeeding.
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May 24, 2022 02:22
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I'm glad you enjoyed the game in the end; I definitely wasn't sure you'd come away feeling positive, after all that misery. The Chaos fight is very, well, chaotic; it's just that for better or worse the game gives you enough tools to just brute force it. It can be pretty difficult if you don't have the stockpile of potions. One detail you wouldn't have noticed: in the first phase, you lose all of your souls and only get them back by destroying the orb of the corresponding colour (e.g. when you break the red orb, you get back your red souls). I'm a bit disappointed you didn't get to see a hilarious exchange in the ending. I don't think I knew there were multiple versions of that final cutscene, maybe it cares about map completion or soul completion or something? Anyway, I looked up the lines because I don't want you to miss out on them. Aria of Sorrow best ending posted:Mina: I'm so glad your experience didn't change you. Oh, these two.  Bruceski posted:I seriously just realized, Soma's girlfriend is Mina Harkuba. In Bran Stoker's novel, the main female protagonist (and Dracula victim) is Mina Harker. There is also at least one Dracula adaptation in which they made Mina the reincarnation of Dracula's wife (which she isn't in the novel), which raises some interesting questions here. It's a common fan theory that Mina is Lisa but as far as I know the creators have never commented on it.
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May 26, 2022 01:41
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 10:03 |
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I don't think Aria's hard mode changes a whole lot, it's mostly just boosts to enemy damage and HP across the board as far as I know. The biggest change it makes is actually a smattering of exclusive equipment you can find, some of which are pretty fun (let's see... I know there's the Kaiser Knuckles, Silver Gun, Death's Scythe and Death's Robe, are there any others?). I prefer to play on hard because I like those items but it's not that different. You can also do new game plus, which lets you keep all your souls and gear; you can change the difficulty to hard for that if you want. Also, there are some neat rewards for beating the boss rush (though they're mostly novelties). Depending on how quickly you finish, you can get various weapons which will be added to the file you played on. There's Excalibur (which is hilarious, because Soma swings it while it's still stuck in a stone; he's not Arthur to pull it out!), Valmanway (which is a new name for the Crissaegrim from Symphony, though I don't think it's quite as stupidly overpowered here as it was), and Positron Rifle, which is just absurd in every possible way. There is one quirk to Julius mode which I don't think you touched on. Julius doesn't level up (and has no inventory screen, so he can't get equipment), but he does gain substantial stat boosts from the orb things after killing bosses. Some of the bosses will be a lot harder if you go straight to them rather than killing the easier ones first.
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May 28, 2022 16:59
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