When you hear "Castlevania...

[brunoafh]

edit: Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth is definitely worth mentioning. It's a WiiWare title. If you liked CV1 and Bloodlines, then you should definitely check it out.

Good call on this one. I always forget about this game for some reason, probably because I've never beaten it. It was really good though.

You guys see Harmony of Despair might come to PSN? I haven't played it yet but I thought it looked interesting. Any opinions on that one? I heard negative things.

[Xeogred]

You guys see Harmony of Despair might come to PSN? I haven't played it yet but I thought it looked interesting. Any opinions on that one? I heard negative things.

Terrible. Felt like a multiplayer gimmick at best. The zoomed out camera was horrible as well. It felt like some weird timed boss rush mode and wasn't like the other Metroidvania games at all.

Here's a good video:


Chances are there will be a demo you can check out. I was turned off instantly when I played it, lol. And devastated thinking we were getting a legit Metroidvania game on XBLA.

[brunoafh]

Hmm, it doesn't look downright terrible or anything to me. Good selection of characters and sweet music too. The voice acting is awful (as expected) though. The level design doesn't seem very imaginative either. Why the hell is he using a gun?

[Xeogred]

Just remember on the actual TV it's going to look 10x smaller than that. I dunno you'd just have to play a demo, I pretty much hated what I was playing just a few minutes in.

[SwooshBear]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'm going to get SoTN/Rondo of Blood for Psp for sure, and I'll check out the GBA ones mentioned. SCV IV is also up there, but I've never seen it in person. The NES ones are fairly cheap in my area so I'll check those out too. I think I'll start on Rondo of Blood/SoTN first though, and if I like it then I can join the hunt for a ps1 copy of SoTN

[Ziggy]

Yeah, Dracula X Chronicles for PSP is definitely a good buy (3 games). It's worth it alone for Rondo, being that's the ONLY English version we ever got. The version of SotN is pretty good too. I miss the voice acting from the PS1 version, but that's probably only because it's what I'm use to. But I do like that the voice acting in Rondo and SotN match. The 2.5D remake of Rondo is pretty good too. I enjoyed it.

edit: Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth is definitely worth mentioning. It's a WiiWare title. If you liked CV1 and Bloodlines, then you should definitely check it out.

Good call on this one. I always forget about this game for some reason, probably because I've never beaten it. It was really good though.

You guys see Harmony of Despair might come to PSN? I haven't played it yet but I thought it looked interesting. Any opinions on that one? I heard negative things.

Lol, yeah, I forgot it myself. Probably because it's a damn digital only game. I got through the entire game and beat it before I found out about the easy level select feature. Would have made it a little easy to beat the first time around.

I'm not much for the Metroidvanias. I loved SotN, but never got into any of the other ones. I watched that YouTube link, the zoomed out thing looks kinda annoying. If PSN gets a demo for it, I'll definitely check it out though.

[BurningDoom]

Yeah, Dracula X Chronicles for PSP is definitely a good buy (3 games). It's worth it alone for Rondo, being that's the ONLY English version we ever got. The version of SotN is pretty good too. I miss the voice acting from the PS1 version, but that's probably only because it's what I'm use to. But I do like that the voice acting in Rondo and SotN match. The 2.5D remake of Rondo is pretty good too. I enjoyed it.

edit: Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth is definitely worth mentioning. It's a WiiWare title. If you liked CV1 and Bloodlines, then you should definitely check it out.

Good call on this one. I always forget about this game for some reason, probably because I've never beaten it. It was really good though.

You guys see Harmony of Despair might come to PSN? I haven't played it yet but I thought it looked interesting. Any opinions on that one? I heard negative things.

Lol, yeah, I forgot it myself. Probably because it's a damn digital only game. I got through the entire game and beat it before I found out about the easy level select feature. Would have made it a little easy to beat the first time around.

I'm not much for the Metroidvanias. I loved SotN, but never got into any of the other ones. I watched that YouTube link, the zoomed out thing looks kinda annoying. If PSN gets a demo for it, I'll definitely check it out though.

The time-limits killed it for me. It's set-up like Castlevania: SotN, so you want to go around and explore for items. But there's also a set time-limit to kill each boss, so it penalizes you for such behavior.

[Gamerforlife]

Yeah, Dracula X Chronicles for PSP is definitely a good buy (3 games). It's worth it alone for Rondo, being that's the ONLY English version we ever got. The version of SotN is pretty good too. I miss the voice acting from the PS1 version, but that's probably only because it's what I'm use to. But I do like that the voice acting in Rondo and SotN match. The 2.5D remake of Rondo is pretty good too. I enjoyed it.

I was very impressed with the Rondo remake. It actually plays better, but this may simply be me saying that because Maria's special is easy to pull off on the PSP d-pad in the remake but nearly impossibly in the original emulated Rondo. The new graphics are slick and the soundtrack remix is great, though you can play the original tracks if you want(I think you have to unlock them first though)

I think the version of SOTN on this one is the best. Maria is not so broken, the script was improved, the Japanese familiars are included, the better ending theme from the 360 version is included, the abusable money glitch was fixed, voice over for the prologue and the option to play with the new english dub or the original Japanese. I consider it definitive and so does Koji Igarashi

[Xeogred]

Cool to hear, I just might have to get that sometime myself.

Since you seem to know a lot on SOTN, aside from that one extra area in the Saturn version are there any other noticeable differences between that version and others? Always been pretty curious about it.

[brunoafh]

I'm not much for the Metroidvanias. I loved SotN, but never got into any of the other ones. I watched that YouTube link, the zoomed out thing looks kinda annoying. If PSN gets a demo for it, I'll definitely check it out though.

To be honest I'm not much on the Metroidvanias either. SOTN is absolute gold of course, but after that the games were kind of eh. Aria of Sorrow is a stand-out, but that's it really. The other ones are okay, but they didn't hook me. I've never had the urge to replay them. I was particularly disappointed with Dawn of Sorrow.

Order of Ecclesia is an absolute must-play though, top 3 Castlevania games for me. I say this as a pretty old school fan. It's not a Metroidvania really, it's actually level based, but there are definitely RPG elements involved. Everything about it is top notch too, the music, the bosses, the level design, the gameplay, it's a really great game. Also, it's the first of the handhelds to finally bring some difficulty to the series. Being that there's RPG elements you can become overpowered towards the end of the game of course (but Dracula is as brutal as ever, don't worry), but the challenge level is fairly high. The bosses are very tough and the levels can be nasty.