We do.Sarge wrote:Well, we better start calling 'em out then.
Also, your picture is a lie. F-14's are twin seaters.
Games Beaten 2017
Re: Games Beaten 2017
Also, your picture is a lie. F-14's are twin seaters.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2017
Yeah, but T-Rexs are big, so they had to pull out the second seat to accommodate them.MrPopo wrote:We do.Sarge wrote:Well, we better start calling 'em out then.
Also, your picture is a lie. F-14's are twin seaters.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2017
This is a well documented fact; the T-Rex air forced faced a lot of issues keeping enough F-14s operations.Ack wrote:Yeah, but T-Rexs are big, so they had to pull out the second seat to accommodate them.MrPopo wrote:We do.Sarge wrote:Well, we better start calling 'em out then.
Also, your picture is a lie. F-14's are twin seaters.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
Re: Games Beaten 2017
Yeah, this.Ack wrote:Yeah, but T-Rexs are big, so they had to pull out the second seat to accommodate them.MrPopo wrote:We do.Sarge wrote:Well, we better start calling 'em out then.
Also, your picture is a lie. F-14's are twin seaters.
Plus, I'm absolutely sure that everything in Calvin & Hobbes was truthful and factual.
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laurenhiya21
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1115
- Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 11:20 pm
- Location: Wash-a-ton
Re: Games Beaten 2017
Previously beaten:
*NEW*
7/16: Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (Vita)
7/16: Gardens Inc: From Rakes to Riches (Steam)
7/20: Mystic Inn (BigFish Games)
Total: 16 games
Gah, I really quickly wrote these so they might be a little bad
Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception
It always makes me happy when I see that a good looking visual novel is getting an English release. It’s even more exciting when said visual novel is very well known or from a very well-known series. That’s why when I saw that Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception was being localized, I knew that I HAD to play it as soon as I could. Was it worth the excitement? To put it simply, YES! Very much so!
Unfortunately, I can’t really talk about too much of the plot without going too spoliery, since it’s very slow to reveal a lot of major plot points. I can say that it starts out very similarly to the original Utawarerumono. Guy with amnesia is found (who is named Haku) and sticks around with a group of varied characters while learning about who he is and where he is. It is a bit different from the original in that Haku doesn’t lead his group into bringing the country together, but instead they secretly work for Oshtor (a very important leader character) and do a bunch of undercover work for him. Unfortunately that doesn’t sound very interesting from how I’m explaining it, how it slowly builds up without much filler made it very a engrossing read. Even when it just seems like random character interactions, a lot of them do have some sort of plot importance and the ones that didn’t tended to build upon the characters and were often a good laugh.
Now I don’t really like talking about spoilers, but there is one plot point I do want to talk about so I’ll talk a little in the spoiler tag. It’s one of the reasons why I’m especially excited for the next game (Mask of Truth), which is coming out in a few months as it’s a direct follow-up to Mask of Deception. Without spoiling it, the ending is so good!
Super end game spoilers:
Plot aside, throughout the game there will be tactics segments to break up the story. In the original game these sections very simplistic, but here they’ve been improved quite a bit. Characters will have different attacks they can use, the game can tell you how many turns it will take a character to get to a certain spot (useful when I wasn’t sure if a character could get up to a certain square or not), and best of all you can go back to past turns and fix a bad decision! It was so nice to be able to fix my mistakes, as Mask of Deception can get a lot more difficult than the original game did. I still played on the lowest possible difficulty, but this time there was only Normal and Hard anyway, so I’m not surprised that I faced some difficulty. They were still fun though, despite some of the difficult sections. Like the original game, you aren’t going to want to play the game just for these sections (it’s still a visual novel first, strategy RPG second) but I think they did their job well.
Other minor points!
- Music is really good this time around! There are definitely some tunes that I have stuck in my head and it’s a much-needed improvement from the original
- The auto-advance thing for the text is really fast and another much needed improvement
- The art is super nice!
- There is an anime based on the game (called Utawarerumono: The False Faces) but I have no clue how similar they are to each other. It seems like it covers a lot of the main plot points, but I’m sure a lot would be cut from it as it’s a 25 episode anime adaptation of a 30ish hour visual novel haha.
So overall, I though that this was a great visual novel! It’s definitely up there on my potential GOTY and I can’t wait to play Mask of Truth. If you want to try out Mask of Deception, don’t worry too much about reading the original visual novel or watching the original’s anime adaptation. It’s worth it if you can, as you do see a lot of returning characters and you get to figure out certain things before the characters do (and the original VN is good anyway), but you wouldn’t be missing out on too much I think.
Gardens Inc: From Rakes to Riches
I don’t really remember why I decided to pick this up and play it, but it turned out to be an alright game. It’s not amazing as it’s a pretty basic casual time-management sort of game where you need to direct workers to gather resources and complete certain objectives under a time limit, but at least it isn’t dead easy. At the very beginning, yeah it’s a little bit too easy, but near it does get harder and harder as the game goes on. I didn’t fail on a single mission, but I did get close to failing a few times. It also has a few interesting ideas, like some levels where you need to exchange time for resources and later resources for time again. This makes those levels a little tense as you don’t want to use up too much time or you’ll fail, but you also need those resources to beat the level. The little things it does still don’t make it amazing, but it was an alright time.
Mystic Inn
After playing Gardens Inc, I was thinking about just casual games in general. I had kind of forgotten about it until that point, but when I was growing up I used to play a lot of PC demos off of Big Fish Games. A lot of games on there are pretty simple, but when you don’t have any money for video games, you take what you can get I guess. One of the better games I remember trying out was Mystic Inn. I hadn’t beaten it before (because I never bought it until now), but it was cheap so I thought why not?
Mystic Inn is a game very similar game to Diner Dash. You need to manage customers by making sure you seat them, take their orders, and deliver their potions to them quickly. Take too long and they’ll get mad and leave, which means you lose out on their magic (which is the money equivalent in this game). If too many customers leave, you won’t be able to get enough magic to pass the level. The big difference between this and Diner Dash other than the magic theme, is that you also have to queue up their order as well. You just need to click the different potion buttons to place an order for that potion, but it can make it a bit hectic if you’re not paying attention. Like if I need to order 4 red potions but accidently only order 3, then I’ll accidently wait around for longer than I really should be waiting for, which could potentially make some customers mad if I’m not careful.
One of the nice things about Mystic Inn is that the difficulty ramps up pretty nicely. I didn’t feel like I was stuck in super easy stages for too long. A lot of the levels did require some intense focus for me to complete as well. The only problem with the difficulty is that after a certain level where you earn a teleporting ability, the game suddenly becomes super easy. One of the main reasons why the game was so tricky at times was that the main character moves quite slowly, so you had to know which tables you needed to attend to first and which could wait. After getting the teleport ability, which lets you go to any spot instantly, suddenly moving was a non-issue.
Overall, this wasn’t too bad for a game I randomly decided to revisit. The difficulty could have been balanced a little better, but for a few bucks it was no big issue for me. It could have been easily a terrible game and so I’m happy it didn’t turn out that way ha.
7/16: Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (Vita)
7/16: Gardens Inc: From Rakes to Riches (Steam)
7/20: Mystic Inn (BigFish Games)
Total: 16 games
Gah, I really quickly wrote these so they might be a little bad
Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception
It always makes me happy when I see that a good looking visual novel is getting an English release. It’s even more exciting when said visual novel is very well known or from a very well-known series. That’s why when I saw that Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception was being localized, I knew that I HAD to play it as soon as I could. Was it worth the excitement? To put it simply, YES! Very much so!
Unfortunately, I can’t really talk about too much of the plot without going too spoliery, since it’s very slow to reveal a lot of major plot points. I can say that it starts out very similarly to the original Utawarerumono. Guy with amnesia is found (who is named Haku) and sticks around with a group of varied characters while learning about who he is and where he is. It is a bit different from the original in that Haku doesn’t lead his group into bringing the country together, but instead they secretly work for Oshtor (a very important leader character) and do a bunch of undercover work for him. Unfortunately that doesn’t sound very interesting from how I’m explaining it, how it slowly builds up without much filler made it very a engrossing read. Even when it just seems like random character interactions, a lot of them do have some sort of plot importance and the ones that didn’t tended to build upon the characters and were often a good laugh.
Now I don’t really like talking about spoilers, but there is one plot point I do want to talk about so I’ll talk a little in the spoiler tag. It’s one of the reasons why I’m especially excited for the next game (Mask of Truth), which is coming out in a few months as it’s a direct follow-up to Mask of Deception. Without spoiling it, the ending is so good!
Super end game spoilers:
Other minor points!
- Music is really good this time around! There are definitely some tunes that I have stuck in my head and it’s a much-needed improvement from the original
- The auto-advance thing for the text is really fast and another much needed improvement
- The art is super nice!
- There is an anime based on the game (called Utawarerumono: The False Faces) but I have no clue how similar they are to each other. It seems like it covers a lot of the main plot points, but I’m sure a lot would be cut from it as it’s a 25 episode anime adaptation of a 30ish hour visual novel haha.
So overall, I though that this was a great visual novel! It’s definitely up there on my potential GOTY and I can’t wait to play Mask of Truth. If you want to try out Mask of Deception, don’t worry too much about reading the original visual novel or watching the original’s anime adaptation. It’s worth it if you can, as you do see a lot of returning characters and you get to figure out certain things before the characters do (and the original VN is good anyway), but you wouldn’t be missing out on too much I think.
Gardens Inc: From Rakes to Riches
I don’t really remember why I decided to pick this up and play it, but it turned out to be an alright game. It’s not amazing as it’s a pretty basic casual time-management sort of game where you need to direct workers to gather resources and complete certain objectives under a time limit, but at least it isn’t dead easy. At the very beginning, yeah it’s a little bit too easy, but near it does get harder and harder as the game goes on. I didn’t fail on a single mission, but I did get close to failing a few times. It also has a few interesting ideas, like some levels where you need to exchange time for resources and later resources for time again. This makes those levels a little tense as you don’t want to use up too much time or you’ll fail, but you also need those resources to beat the level. The little things it does still don’t make it amazing, but it was an alright time.
Mystic Inn
After playing Gardens Inc, I was thinking about just casual games in general. I had kind of forgotten about it until that point, but when I was growing up I used to play a lot of PC demos off of Big Fish Games. A lot of games on there are pretty simple, but when you don’t have any money for video games, you take what you can get I guess. One of the better games I remember trying out was Mystic Inn. I hadn’t beaten it before (because I never bought it until now), but it was cheap so I thought why not?
Mystic Inn is a game very similar game to Diner Dash. You need to manage customers by making sure you seat them, take their orders, and deliver their potions to them quickly. Take too long and they’ll get mad and leave, which means you lose out on their magic (which is the money equivalent in this game). If too many customers leave, you won’t be able to get enough magic to pass the level. The big difference between this and Diner Dash other than the magic theme, is that you also have to queue up their order as well. You just need to click the different potion buttons to place an order for that potion, but it can make it a bit hectic if you’re not paying attention. Like if I need to order 4 red potions but accidently only order 3, then I’ll accidently wait around for longer than I really should be waiting for, which could potentially make some customers mad if I’m not careful.
One of the nice things about Mystic Inn is that the difficulty ramps up pretty nicely. I didn’t feel like I was stuck in super easy stages for too long. A lot of the levels did require some intense focus for me to complete as well. The only problem with the difficulty is that after a certain level where you earn a teleporting ability, the game suddenly becomes super easy. One of the main reasons why the game was so tricky at times was that the main character moves quite slowly, so you had to know which tables you needed to attend to first and which could wait. After getting the teleport ability, which lets you go to any spot instantly, suddenly moving was a non-issue.
Overall, this wasn’t too bad for a game I randomly decided to revisit. The difficulty could have been balanced a little better, but for a few bucks it was no big issue for me. It could have been easily a terrible game and so I’m happy it didn’t turn out that way ha.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2017
Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 73
* denotes a replay
January (10 Games Beaten)
February (12 Games Beaten)
March (6 Games Beaten)
April (9 Games Beaten)
May (14 Games Beaten)
June (10 Games Beaten)
July (12 Game Beaten)
73. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - NES - July 29
Often with new IPs, developers will try to change up the formula with the second game in a series given there isn't yet an established "norm" for the franchise yet. We saw that with The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros (at least in the West), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and in terms of game mechanics, Mass Effect and The Witcher. This is also the case with Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. With the sequel to the fantastic Castlevania, Konami decided to take the Zelda II approach and replace the first game's iconic action-adventure style with a more RPG-esque format. Gamers around my age who spent time on the internet about 10 years ago, I'm sure, are familiar with the Angry Video Game Nerd review of Castlevania II, but is it really as bad as James Rolfe made it out to be? No...but the game isn't great.
Castlevania II takes place seven years after the events of the first game. Although Simon Belmont defeated Dracula, as he died, Dracula placed a curse on Simon that would send him to an early grave unless he revived the vampire. Simon's quest is to collect the five parts of Dracula's body that have been hidden throughout Transylvania and burn them, destroying the vampire's power and lifting the curse from him. The story, I think, is actually pretty cool, and I'm (almost) always a fan of direct sequels rather than chronologically far removed or unrelated sequels, so it's got that going for it, as well.
What kills the game for me are some of the choice of mechanics. The game features a day-to-night cycle, something that I generally think is pretty cool, but the way they do the transition from day to night gets irksome. Daytime lasts from 6 am until 6 pm (18:00), and night, obviously, lasts from 6 pm until 6 am. Every second of real time is four minutes of in-game time, so a full 24 hour day takes six real world minutes. During the day, townfolk are out and about in the towns, but at night, monsters appear in towns, the monsters out in the world are twice as strong, and you can't enter any town buildings. The annoying part of this day and night cycle is that every time it turns to night, you're greeted with an unskippable six or seven second message that says "What a horrible night to have a curse," and every time it turns to day, you're greeted with an equally long and unskippable message that says "The morning sun have vanquished the horrible night."
In addition to the various towns and field parts of the world, the game has six dungeons - five mansions, each containing one of Dracula's body parts, as well as the ruins of Dracula's castle. These dungeons are, for the most part, fairly well designed, although there are some false blocks that you can fall through if you don't know they're there, wasting a lot of time, that I found to be extremely annoying although not insurmountable. When you die, you respawn pretty much where you were when you died, and when you lose all of your lives, you get game over, but it gives you a password that lets you pick up where you left off. Honestly, the game's biggest problem is that it's just too damn obscure at times, and it's easy to get lost as all of the towns look extremely similar. Some of the game's hints are pretty straight forward and easy to understand, but some of them could use a little clarification. "Give this one thing to this one dude in the graveyard." Okay, well, there are like three graveyards in the game spanning both far ends of the map. It's not easily made entirely clear which town you're in. Even in real life, towns usually have several signs with the town's name on it, and that's especially true in most video games. I might be nitpicking here, but it bugged me.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest isn't a terrible game, but it's not a particularly good game either. It's kind of just...average....and that's a shame because it really had a lot of potential. There's no one glaring flaw in the game but rather a "death by a thousand cuts" sort of weakness; there are a lot of small issues I have with it. Most of the game is a generally enjoyable experience, but there are definitely a number of areas that I felt could have been improved, namely the day/night transitions, some platforming sections, and the NPC's direction hints in the towns. If you're a huge Castlevania fan, then I'd say to give it a play, but if you're not a die-hard fan, I'd say skip this one. It's definitely the weak link in the early Castlevania games.
* denotes a replay
January (10 Games Beaten)
Often with new IPs, developers will try to change up the formula with the second game in a series given there isn't yet an established "norm" for the franchise yet. We saw that with The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros (at least in the West), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and in terms of game mechanics, Mass Effect and The Witcher. This is also the case with Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. With the sequel to the fantastic Castlevania, Konami decided to take the Zelda II approach and replace the first game's iconic action-adventure style with a more RPG-esque format. Gamers around my age who spent time on the internet about 10 years ago, I'm sure, are familiar with the Angry Video Game Nerd review of Castlevania II, but is it really as bad as James Rolfe made it out to be? No...but the game isn't great.
Castlevania II takes place seven years after the events of the first game. Although Simon Belmont defeated Dracula, as he died, Dracula placed a curse on Simon that would send him to an early grave unless he revived the vampire. Simon's quest is to collect the five parts of Dracula's body that have been hidden throughout Transylvania and burn them, destroying the vampire's power and lifting the curse from him. The story, I think, is actually pretty cool, and I'm (almost) always a fan of direct sequels rather than chronologically far removed or unrelated sequels, so it's got that going for it, as well.
What kills the game for me are some of the choice of mechanics. The game features a day-to-night cycle, something that I generally think is pretty cool, but the way they do the transition from day to night gets irksome. Daytime lasts from 6 am until 6 pm (18:00), and night, obviously, lasts from 6 pm until 6 am. Every second of real time is four minutes of in-game time, so a full 24 hour day takes six real world minutes. During the day, townfolk are out and about in the towns, but at night, monsters appear in towns, the monsters out in the world are twice as strong, and you can't enter any town buildings. The annoying part of this day and night cycle is that every time it turns to night, you're greeted with an unskippable six or seven second message that says "What a horrible night to have a curse," and every time it turns to day, you're greeted with an equally long and unskippable message that says "The morning sun have vanquished the horrible night."
In addition to the various towns and field parts of the world, the game has six dungeons - five mansions, each containing one of Dracula's body parts, as well as the ruins of Dracula's castle. These dungeons are, for the most part, fairly well designed, although there are some false blocks that you can fall through if you don't know they're there, wasting a lot of time, that I found to be extremely annoying although not insurmountable. When you die, you respawn pretty much where you were when you died, and when you lose all of your lives, you get game over, but it gives you a password that lets you pick up where you left off. Honestly, the game's biggest problem is that it's just too damn obscure at times, and it's easy to get lost as all of the towns look extremely similar. Some of the game's hints are pretty straight forward and easy to understand, but some of them could use a little clarification. "Give this one thing to this one dude in the graveyard." Okay, well, there are like three graveyards in the game spanning both far ends of the map. It's not easily made entirely clear which town you're in. Even in real life, towns usually have several signs with the town's name on it, and that's especially true in most video games. I might be nitpicking here, but it bugged me.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest isn't a terrible game, but it's not a particularly good game either. It's kind of just...average....and that's a shame because it really had a lot of potential. There's no one glaring flaw in the game but rather a "death by a thousand cuts" sort of weakness; there are a lot of small issues I have with it. Most of the game is a generally enjoyable experience, but there are definitely a number of areas that I felt could have been improved, namely the day/night transitions, some platforming sections, and the NPC's direction hints in the towns. If you're a huge Castlevania fan, then I'd say to give it a play, but if you're not a die-hard fan, I'd say skip this one. It's definitely the weak link in the early Castlevania games.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
Re: Games Beaten 2017
Dude, that soundtrack, though.
Re: Games Beaten 2017
Just finished Wonder Boy The Dragon's Trap on PS4.
I have the original on SMS. I love the series. Had to have this game on disc. Just would not feel right otherwise. The art is a def a huge upgrade over the 8 bit game. I love the switching between retro and new. I love I could use my old password to continue my save from SMS. Still I wish they updated some things. Some things have improved in game design in 30 years. Navigating the world is a bit obtuse at times.Yes this is a Metroid style game but even Metroid was a bit more clear. That's something they could have improved.
Some of the ways to progress are seriously old school. Remember the burning bush in Zelda? (EDIT CV2 is a great example of stuff like this)Well stuff like that but even more obtuse. I mean for old farts like me and others here. Not much an issue esp with google even if you are stuck. Still I think stuff like that scares newer gamers. I don't mean get rid of it but hint towards it a bit. Anyhoo a great game with a fine upgrade in visuals and music. A bit short but that's to be expected. It plays exactly the same.
Now if Monster Boy & The Cursed Kingdom would just come out.
I have the original on SMS. I love the series. Had to have this game on disc. Just would not feel right otherwise. The art is a def a huge upgrade over the 8 bit game. I love the switching between retro and new. I love I could use my old password to continue my save from SMS. Still I wish they updated some things. Some things have improved in game design in 30 years. Navigating the world is a bit obtuse at times.Yes this is a Metroid style game but even Metroid was a bit more clear. That's something they could have improved.
Some of the ways to progress are seriously old school. Remember the burning bush in Zelda? (EDIT CV2 is a great example of stuff like this)Well stuff like that but even more obtuse. I mean for old farts like me and others here. Not much an issue esp with google even if you are stuck. Still I think stuff like that scares newer gamers. I don't mean get rid of it but hint towards it a bit. Anyhoo a great game with a fine upgrade in visuals and music. A bit short but that's to be expected. It plays exactly the same.
Now if Monster Boy & The Cursed Kingdom would just come out.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2017
Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 74
* denotes a replay
January (10 Games Beaten)
February (12 Games Beaten)
March (6 Games Beaten)
April (9 Games Beaten)
May (14 Games Beaten)
June (10 Games Beaten)
July (13 Game Beaten)
74. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - NES - July 29
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is a great example of a company looking at what worked and what didn't work in the past and using that information to make a better product. Castlevania III went back to the action-adventure format of the first game and fixed almost all of my complaints with the original title. Not only that but it adds branching paths and multiple optional playable character, giving the game some significant replay value.
This return to first game's format makes it an infinitely more enjoyable experience for me than Simon's Quest. A couple times throughout the game, you'll have a choice to make with regards to your path. There's one "straight" path to Dracula, but taking some of the side paths can get you other playable character. In addition to the game's protagonist, Trever Belmont, there are three other playable characters - Sylpha Belnades, a priestess on a secret mission to infiltrate Dracula's castle; Grant Danasty, a rebel from Wallachia who tried to raise an army to overthrow Count Dracula; and Alucard, Dracula's son who changed his name to Alucard (Dracula backwards) to show that he opposed his father's evil and tyrannical way of life. Each of these character have a unique style of play that give the game a different feel.
Castlevania III is a prequel to the original game, taking place roughly 200 years before the events of the first game. In the 15th Century, Dracula's demon armies have begun ravaging Europe, and the Church has no choice but to turn to Trevor Belmont, the head of the Belmont Clan and wielder of the Vampire Killer whip at that time, for help. The Belmonts had previously been banished from Wallachia as the people feared their super-human strength, but "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," as they say, and Dracula was a much bigger threat to the people of Wallachia than the Belmonts.
While graphically very similar to the first Castlevania game, Castlevania III brilliantly outshines its predecessors in every other regard. The music is top-notch, keeping the action going and mood consistent the entire time. My two big complaints with the first game - the slowdown and apparent ability of enemies to past through supposedly solid walls - have both been addressed to one extent or another. There's still some slowdown, and it's still irksome, but it isn't NEARLY as bad as that of the first game, and that significant improvement makes a huge difference. As for my gripes with the enemies, that's been fixed, too. The Medusa heads still bob up and down through the floor, but their movements make it clear that it's intended for them to do that; the other enemies that seemed to pass through walls and floors unintentionally never did so, at least not during my playthrough.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse feels very much like the ambitions of the first game fully realized. It's clear that Konami's team was much more comfortable with the NES hardware by this point as the performance is significantly improved over the first game. Minimal slowdown, fewer enemy glitches, and overall better level design make this a superior game in every way. Multiple playable characters and branching paths give the game a high amount of replay value, and the near-perfect soundtrack is the just the icing on the cake. This is definitely a magnum opus of 8-bit gaming, and it's no surprise that Netflix chose this game as the basis for its Castlevania series.
* denotes a replay
January (10 Games Beaten)
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is a great example of a company looking at what worked and what didn't work in the past and using that information to make a better product. Castlevania III went back to the action-adventure format of the first game and fixed almost all of my complaints with the original title. Not only that but it adds branching paths and multiple optional playable character, giving the game some significant replay value.
This return to first game's format makes it an infinitely more enjoyable experience for me than Simon's Quest. A couple times throughout the game, you'll have a choice to make with regards to your path. There's one "straight" path to Dracula, but taking some of the side paths can get you other playable character. In addition to the game's protagonist, Trever Belmont, there are three other playable characters - Sylpha Belnades, a priestess on a secret mission to infiltrate Dracula's castle; Grant Danasty, a rebel from Wallachia who tried to raise an army to overthrow Count Dracula; and Alucard, Dracula's son who changed his name to Alucard (Dracula backwards) to show that he opposed his father's evil and tyrannical way of life. Each of these character have a unique style of play that give the game a different feel.
Castlevania III is a prequel to the original game, taking place roughly 200 years before the events of the first game. In the 15th Century, Dracula's demon armies have begun ravaging Europe, and the Church has no choice but to turn to Trevor Belmont, the head of the Belmont Clan and wielder of the Vampire Killer whip at that time, for help. The Belmonts had previously been banished from Wallachia as the people feared their super-human strength, but "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," as they say, and Dracula was a much bigger threat to the people of Wallachia than the Belmonts.
While graphically very similar to the first Castlevania game, Castlevania III brilliantly outshines its predecessors in every other regard. The music is top-notch, keeping the action going and mood consistent the entire time. My two big complaints with the first game - the slowdown and apparent ability of enemies to past through supposedly solid walls - have both been addressed to one extent or another. There's still some slowdown, and it's still irksome, but it isn't NEARLY as bad as that of the first game, and that significant improvement makes a huge difference. As for my gripes with the enemies, that's been fixed, too. The Medusa heads still bob up and down through the floor, but their movements make it clear that it's intended for them to do that; the other enemies that seemed to pass through walls and floors unintentionally never did so, at least not during my playthrough.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse feels very much like the ambitions of the first game fully realized. It's clear that Konami's team was much more comfortable with the NES hardware by this point as the performance is significantly improved over the first game. Minimal slowdown, fewer enemy glitches, and overall better level design make this a superior game in every way. Multiple playable characters and branching paths give the game a high amount of replay value, and the near-perfect soundtrack is the just the icing on the cake. This is definitely a magnum opus of 8-bit gaming, and it's no surprise that Netflix chose this game as the basis for its Castlevania series.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
Re: Games Beaten 2017
Games Beaten 2017
Inside - PS4
Street Fighter V - PS4
TIMEframe - PC
Rituals - PC
Mother Russia Bleeds - PC
Horizon: Zero Dawn - PS4
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
Here They Lie - PSVR
Dexed - PSVR
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - PSVR
Last Voyage - iOS
Ghost Blade HD - PS4
What Happened to Edith Finch - PS4
Fast RMX - Switch
Puyo Puyo Tetris - Switch
Garou: Mark of the Wolf - Vita
Star Wars: Republic Commando - PC
Battlefield 1 - PS4
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Switch
Shock Troopers - PC (Arcade)
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad - PC (Arcade)
Gravity Bone -PC
A Thousand Flights of Loving - PC
Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels - PC/X1
Eve: Valkyrie- PSVR
Farpoint - PSVR
Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell - PC
Ghost Squad - Wii
Monument Valley 2 - iOS
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - PS4
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - 360
Tekken Advance - GBA
100ft Robot Golf - - PSVR
Final Fantasy XV: A King's Tale - X1 *new*
Star Wars Racer Revenge - PS2 *new*
Total: 35
Previously: 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Still spending some time with shorter games here and there as I play through some longer ones and ones that can't be finished (PU Battlegrounds, Detiny 2 beta, etc.). These two were nice diversions.
I am immersing myself in pre-release FFXV media as my build up to playing the actual game, and so running through A King's Tale was part of that. It isn't a particularly great beat em up, but it is passable entertainment nonetheless.
I played the hell out of the original Star Wars Episode 1: Pod Racer when it came out (the PC version was amazing), and this sequel was something I'd never tried. It isn't as good as the first, in my view, but it still has a lot of the same basic components that made that one great.
Inside - PS4
Street Fighter V - PS4
TIMEframe - PC
Rituals - PC
Mother Russia Bleeds - PC
Horizon: Zero Dawn - PS4
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
Here They Lie - PSVR
Dexed - PSVR
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - PSVR
Last Voyage - iOS
Ghost Blade HD - PS4
What Happened to Edith Finch - PS4
Fast RMX - Switch
Puyo Puyo Tetris - Switch
Garou: Mark of the Wolf - Vita
Star Wars: Republic Commando - PC
Battlefield 1 - PS4
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Switch
Shock Troopers - PC (Arcade)
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad - PC (Arcade)
Gravity Bone -PC
A Thousand Flights of Loving - PC
Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels - PC/X1
Eve: Valkyrie- PSVR
Farpoint - PSVR
Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell - PC
Ghost Squad - Wii
Monument Valley 2 - iOS
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - PS4
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - 360
Tekken Advance - GBA
100ft Robot Golf - - PSVR
Final Fantasy XV: A King's Tale - X1 *new*
Star Wars Racer Revenge - PS2 *new*
Total: 35
Previously: 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Still spending some time with shorter games here and there as I play through some longer ones and ones that can't be finished (PU Battlegrounds, Detiny 2 beta, etc.). These two were nice diversions.
I am immersing myself in pre-release FFXV media as my build up to playing the actual game, and so running through A King's Tale was part of that. It isn't a particularly great beat em up, but it is passable entertainment nonetheless.
I played the hell out of the original Star Wars Episode 1: Pod Racer when it came out (the PC version was amazing), and this sequel was something I'd never tried. It isn't as good as the first, in my view, but it still has a lot of the same basic components that made that one great.