Castlevania Appreciation Thread

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Yeah, I got Kid Dracula a while back when I picked up a Famicom. It's pretty fun. And IIRC the translated version works on the PowerPak.

I'm pretty sure it does as well.. Mine is the standalone cart and it works perfectly! I can't imagine the translated file not working on the PowerPak..

[Zing]

I finished playing through Super Castlevania IV tonight and my impression was much improved from the other day. Maybe I was just tired and grumpy after trying to get through stage 8 a dozen times. Everything good that I remembered about this game was there.

The music change during the Dracula battle was great.

I can't remember or detect if the game is more difficult on the second play-through. I seem to recall that it isn't, but I noted my password just in case.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

I can't remember or detect if the game is more difficult on the second play-through. I seem to recall that it isn't, but I noted my password just in case.

Second playthrough is definitely harder! Enemies take an extra hit or two to put down.. I'm not 100% sure, but I think damage taken is increased as well..

The music in Super Castlevania IV is my favorite out of the entire series - and yes, that goes for Yamane's wonderful work on Symphony and Bloodlines as well!

[noiseredux]

just got the Curse of Darkness soundtrack from MechBlue.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Curse of Darkness and Lament of Innocence is Michuru Yamane's best work! It's a shame that critics deride the PS2 3D 'Vania's as they do, because not only were the games actually pretty fun to play, their soundtracks were some of the best among PS2/XBox era gaming!

[Erik_Twice]

I remember I tried several times to like Castlevania. A friend of mine was beating all the DS titles and I decided to give them a go but I never enjoyed them. I wrote off the series as simply not for me.

But alas, that's because I hadn't played the original games. I don't enjoy exploration or raising my stats but I love that tight feeling the NES games have. Every step matters and it's so carefully designed I was blow away. I was getting my ass handed to me but it didn't matter because it was all so much fun, so fair, so great!

You really feel like you are getting into the castle of evil. You don't rush like a cool boy, no, you are skilled and everything is calculated, you are not a spiky haired kid, you are a profesional, a humble one and you will simply keep going until you finish the job.

Now all I need to do is beat it.

[Ziggy]

Yeah, I got Kid Dracula a while back when I picked up a Famicom. It's pretty fun. And IIRC the translated version works on the PowerPak.

I'm pretty sure it does as well.. Mine is the standalone cart and it works perfectly! I can't imagine the translated file not working on the PowerPak..

Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot that RetroZone makes a repro of it now.

I can't remember or detect if the game is more difficult on the second play-through. I seem to recall that it isn't, but I noted my password just in case.

Second playthrough is definitely harder! Enemies take an extra hit or two to put down.. I'm not 100% sure, but I think damage taken is increased as well..

Pretty sure damage taken is increased. I don't recall if enemies take more damage to kill. I think there's extra enemies in some locations though. I remember something different in the stable in the first level, extra enemies I think.

Any of yous play the Super Famicom version? It's kinda neat to check out, since it's pretty cheap on eBay.

http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/games ... reign.html

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Any of yous play the Super Famicom version? It's kinda neat to check out, since it's pretty cheap on eBay.

http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/games ... reign.html

Just as Kurt says in that article, I always found it odd that Konami chose to censor some things rather than others in the US version...

[brunoafh]

Curse of Darkness and Lament of Innocence

I've always meant to check these out but for me Castlevania and 3D has always spelled disaster. What are these like, gameplay wise? Is there Metroidvania/exploration elements? Is it like a hack n slash? I'm totally in the dark with these games. Can always do some quick research but I figured I'd ask you fine chaps.

[Xeogred]

Curse of Darkness and Lament of Innocence

I've always meant to check these out but for me Castlevania and 3D has always spelled disaster. What are these like, gameplay wise? Is there Metroidvania/exploration elements? Is it like a hack n slash? I'm totally in the dark with these games. Can always do some quick research but I figured I'd ask you fine chaps.

Well I played a big chunk of Lament of Innocence myself. It was a decent experience to say the least, and certainly felt far more like "Castlevania" than Lords of Darkness or whatnot.

Never finished it though because I got kind of bored eventually. The game literally takes the Metroidvania formula into 3D, but it's a bit overkill. By this I mean it has the onslaught of hallways like in the 2D games, but in 3D it just feels all the more tedious. Rooms get repeated 10 times over, and the game is a lot more about fighting than exploration, from the chunk I played. The dungeon layouts just didn't feel that great to me and kind of reminded me of Dark Cloud, it almost felt randomly generated, but in a way that the rooms and everything were just so basic and copy/paste repeated constantly (if that makes sense).

The music, atmosphere, and bosses were really good. Story seemed cool as well. But yeah, the simplistic combat and repetitive nature of the game got to me after awhile.

It was interesting and decent enough that I'd certainly recommend it to anyone that's interested though. I hear Curse of Darkness ditches the leveling system I think and has some other weird changes, but I want to give it a shot myself sometime. But yeah, you seem to love the Musou series and whatnot, maybe the repetition wouldn't bother you here so you'd dig it.

In a really weird way and random comparison though I'd say Vagrant Story is what a cool 3D Castlevania would be like to me. Amazing gothic atmosphere, great level design, and everything. Didn't feel repetitive at all.

All that said, I kind of want to replay LoI myself and try to beat it sometime, lol. Maybe it's a "mood" kind of game. But here's a decent video showing it off early on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu6RdGXH40Q

Like I said, amazing music!