Castlevania Appreciation Thread

[Gunstar Green]

Either way, I personally don't think that generation of gaming has aged that badly at all, other then looking a little rough sometimes. I love playing games on my N64, PS1 and Saturn.

It's not just looking rough, a great majority of games from the era play rough. We hadn't quite figured out 3D movement and camera angles yet. There are some standouts, but even the best feel a little clunky by today's standards.

That's how its always been for me anyway. I think it's one of the most interesting generations from a historical standpoint due to the growing pains it had to endure.

[J T]

I don't know if it's been posted in this thread or not, but fans of Castlevania should really check out the doujin title Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony by Frontier Aja. It includes the Reimu Hakurei character from the Touhou Project, but in a Castlevania style setting that is similar to Symphonies of the Night.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4cHKkNIcVk

[Ziggy]

Is that an indie game?

[TEKTORO]

It looks fantastic, me wanna play.

[Xeogred]

Either way, I personally don't think that generation of gaming has aged that badly at all, other then looking a little rough sometimes. I love playing games on my N64, PS1 and Saturn.

It's not just looking rough, a great majority of games from the era play rough. We hadn't quite figured out 3D movement and camera angles yet. There are some standouts, but even the best feel a little clunky by today's standards.

That's how its always been for me anyway. I think it's one of the most interesting generations from a historical standpoint due to the growing pains it had to endure.

Yeah I'm mostly with Gunstar here. I'd rarely ever be one to complain about such things being a big fan of classic gaming, but I guess in this case modern day technical improvements have spoiled me. Better framerates, dual joysticks, better draw distance, and so on. I think it's moreso this stuff that makes it harder for me to go back, rather than the graphics themselves and the visuals. It's the sluggish and slow framerates and such, Goldeneye being a prime example. I absolutely loved Perfect Dark HD, but don't know if I could play the original versions of these two again.

I'm sure I could easily adjust if I really sat down and played this stuff again. I always think controls complaints are some of the worst, which is what I'm kind of doing here haha. But yeah, I can honestly admit I haven't had or really even wanted to get my N64 out going on for probably 10 some years at this point.

No denying I think that era was probably the greatest leap in gaming though. From there it's mostly been graphical improvements, AI, physics, etc, but going from 8/16bit to 3D, devs had to completely redefine just about everything back then.

[Xeogred]

Beat Castlevania!

... With Wii U save states.

It was amazing though. Just somehow missed that one as a kid, it probably would have been a recurring rental if I knew about it back then though. Awesome music, great controls, bosses, graphics, everything.

The difficulty definitely skyrockets shortly in though. I'd say this stage was the turning point haha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giluUMMiUAk
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Castlevania/Stages_10_-_12

Started up Simon's Quest and I'm actually digging it so far, though I may use a walkthrough on the side... I've heard about a lot of its insanely weird and cryptic moments, so I'd rather just kind of run through it kind of knowing what to do here and there.

I'm sad that Bloodlines is not on the Wii VC, I thought it was for some reason.

[noiseredux]

Started up Simon's Quest and I'm actually digging it so far, though I may use a walkthrough on the side... I've heard about a lot of its insanely weird and cryptic moments, so I'd rather just kind of run through it kind of knowing what to do here and there.

not just cryptic - some NPC's flat out lie to you.

[Ziggy]

The difficulty definitely skyrockets shortly in though. I'd say this stage was the turning point haha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giluUMMiUAk
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Castlevania/Stages_10_-_12

The first time I owned Castlevania (I didn't have my own NES back when it was relevant) I remember getting to that level and having a hard time. I remembering getting up to the boss and losing time after time. I said to myself, "Well, that's it. That's as far as I'll ever get in this game. I'll never beat it." I didn't play it again until years later. Now I can beat it effortlessly, and it's one of my all-time favorite video games.

Started up Simon's Quest and I'm actually digging it so far, though I may use a walkthrough on the side... I've heard about a lot of its insanely weird and cryptic moments, so I'd rather just kind of run through it kind of knowing what to do here and there.

I beat Simon's Quest once. I used a walkthrough just so I could play through the game. I don't find the not knowing what you're supposed to be doing much fun. Though, I really like that game. I like the music, and I like what they were trying to do with it.

If you want to enjoy Simon's Quest, you should check this out: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1032/

I posted about this hack in this thread when I first became aware of it. The main attractions, IMO, are a functional in-game map (so you actually know where the hell you are), a non-confusing re-translation (so people say useful things, and false info is no more), and SRAM save functionality. It fixes the worst points of the game: People saying things that don't help, not knowing where the hell you're suppose to, not knowing where the hell anything is, not knowing what you're suppose to be doing, and having to enter (although not the worst ever) annoying passwords.

I've yet to play through it, but this is definitely on my list (I've been wanting to re-experience Simon's Quest). Best part is it works on flash carts, unlike the last CV2 SRAM hack I tried, although I might end up playing it on an emulator since I finally got around to hacking my Wii.

Note to anyone that wants to check this patch out: I recommend following the link in the description instead of downloading the patch from RHDN. You'll get the most recent version, and you can completely customize the patch you download - adding in or leaving out any feature you want.

[noiseredux]

I have Castlevania 1-3 on pc so save states are built in. But yeah, walkthrough is necessary for 2.

[Xeogred]

"Equip Red Crystal and kneel for a few seconds to warp to castle 4"

Yeah... it's things like that. I think I remember AVGN or something making a mockery of that part.